I joined my office a few months ago as a manager. I knew my boss is someone who could be difficult.He's got no life outside of work, so he basically expects everyone to be 1000% dedicated to work – translation to often doing 20hoirs a week unpaid overtime.
My boss is on holiday and I was left in command so I took the opportunity to sit down with the team remaining here just to offer a space for them to open up about any problems. I thought it would take a morning but I was so shocked with whati heard. I had a 4hou r conversation with one senior engineer who I've been working with on some complex projects.
Today I found out that he came here after being promised the possibility to do a phd. Instead, he's working on complex research projects and writing papers. Which is not out of the norm. However, what I didn't know is that my boss didn't allow him to work on his phd, and was actually unpaid. For an entire year. So much so that today he opened up that he lives with around 10 other roomates in a tiny apartment and forced to work delivering newspapers when he can. Of course he can't pay much rent,so he has an agreement with his landlord that he can keep a bed inside what is supposed to be a storage cupboard. Whe he did try to search for a paying job in the past, the boss found out and accused him of not being committed.
As soon as he told me this,he received a message from our boss asking what he was working on,and whether he had finished what he told him to. I couldn't believe this, especially considering that he is unpaid! I got angry, contacted a colleague in another university and got him an interview for a PAID job tomorrow.
I had the same experience with two other colleagues- both of whom regularly work till 21 at night, including weekends- today I found out that they are here's unpaid interns,taking shit from the boss. I spent another few hours with them, going through everything, allowing them to open up.
I'm not going to tell my boss I spoke to them – they asked me to. I'm going to do my best to find them paying, dignified jobs, after which I will make a formal complaint to human resources and hand in my own resignation.