I work for a small company with my partner. My partner quickly raised his rank to the 3rd highest position in the company, but only makes 70cents more than I do. With his position, i get to know all the drama. I do apologize for the weird organization, just trying to put my thoughts into words.
I've always been firm in my work boundaries. My days off are my days off. I set my schedule, and which site I work at. My partner doesn't have that luxury. They routinely call him in on days off, to the point of they tried to get him to leave our out of state vacation early so he could work. Anniversaries, birthdays, hell, they almost stopped him from seeing his dying grandfather. They take blatant advantage of his leadership role and threaten demotion constantly. Since I've seen how poorly they treat him, I've refused promotions, even after multiple recommendations from site managers and personnel who I've worked with.
The owner and 2nd in command are best buds. Each rank is supposed to be a 10cent raise, but yet #2 makes double what my partner makes per hour. This is due to him needing to afford medication for diabetes, since the company doesn't offer healthcare. This was originally to make sure he could do his job and not end up in a diabetic coma, which I've been told happened before. Except he doesn't. This past week, he sent out 3 schedule updates because he couldn't fix his own errors. He never shows up on time, and I'm not talking 10 minutes late. He'll show up at noon for a 7am shift and leave at 5, when he's supposed to leave at 7pm. He's in charge of the schedule, so how he cant work the hours he's gives to himself, I've no clue. He also recently got a 10k bonus, the only one in the company to do so, and gets equity in the company to the tune of 300k a year.
Now, to their violations. The owner purchases private vehicles for himself and his wife under the business name to avoid taxes. He did the same for his multimillion dollar house that he's having built. He knowingly violates labor law by illegally classifying workers as salary, despite receiving hourly pay. He does it to avoid paying overtime and holiday pay. He's also harassing a female employee to get her to sleep with him in promise of promotion, despite having a wife and her having a boyfriend. There was a stretch of time where my partner and others on that site worked over 18 hours in one day, the longest being 20 hours. You cannot exceed 16 hours. He fired someone for talking about potentially finding a new job and threated the company with a fine for “poaching” his employee (they pay much better, with shorter hours, and have benefits). He's told people to lie on paperwork, and shit talked an employee who had to take his son to the hospital for a high fever and multiple seizures.
What he doesn't know is that at least 6 people are actively searching for new jobs, some willing to take paycuts to leave. This in itself would cost at least one multimillion dollar contract. Multiple people have filed with department of labor over the labor law violations. The one person is looking to sue for sexual harrassment. My partner, who essentially holds the company together because he's actually decent to people and has earned their loyalty, and I are going to be moving out of state soon. The owner is looking at losing his business, his cars and house, and his family, and doesn't even know it. And I can't wait to watch the fallout.