A story they told me today:
One employee was meant to be clocking off early to take their kid to a job trial or something. Another employee came back from break in pain and needing to see a doctor because she was literally defecating blood but got yelled at because the appointment time was about half an hour before work ended. She left anyway because, y'know, screw management, she's going to the doctor. She then got yelled at by a the coworker who was meant to be leaving early as she could no longer leave. They both would have been fine to knock off early because they had another employee still there to answer the phones… except that is the Favourite Employee who cracks the shits when she has to work on her own even though literally every other employee gets made to suck it up and deal with working by themselves. This employee gets to rock up whenever they want, gets accepted for days off every time they asks, gets to work from home when they want. Everyone else is forced to stay at work even when a family emergency comes up like someone being rushed to hospital. But if this employee wants leave early to take her kids to an event then that's cool.
The Favourite also literally keeps a journal of every little thing that other staff members do wrong or that she finds annoying so she can take it to management and get them fired because she doesn't like them. The lady that rushed to the doctor is most likely next on the hit list, and she already has been looking at other jobs but doesn't want to leave the current employers short staffed. No idea why she has any kind of loyalty to them when they treat her like crap and literally bully her and make fun of her weight.
So it's not just favouritism but also just a complete disregard to the health and welfare of the other employees. My family member's doctor got pissed off and wrote a letter to say that they can work from home and that the workplace needs to make accomodations for their medical condition (auto immune disease, so pretty bad). So the bosses reluctantly let them work from home (for now) but still try to cut corners wherever they can. The funny thing is that my family member is the best employee they have and is heavily relied upon, often forced to take on everyone else's work and hours of overtime without any compensation, so if they got rid of them then they'd be screwed.
I just wish that these workers had some kind of protections. We have Fair Work in Australia but this business is good at firing people for petty reasons yet making it look legit. They are incredibly spiteful and highly unethical. The thing that is the most worrying is that the more the employees have their confidence squashed and just accept their working conditions, the easier it is for the management to keep doing it, as well as making them turn on each other. If one person refuses to take on extra work without pay, then another employee will be forced to do it and that employee in turn will be resentful. No wonder the turnover rate is so high and they spend half the time needing to train new staff.
My family member tells me these stories all the time and I just get so mad and frustrated because of how complacent everyone seems to be about the behaviours. Although I do understand why they are all worried about speaking out because they don't want to get fired, especially with how uncertain times have been. I just generally feel especially guilty about whether my own inaction can harm someone else so I just forget that not everyone thinks like that. Sometimes I think about wanting to just stand out the front of the building and warn anyone walking in for a interview to just run, but y'know, that's pretty impractical.
In workplaces like this, how do you actually show workers (especially your coworkers) that they have rights and can stick up for each other? How do you actually inspire them to say no and not be intimidated or frightened of consequences? Is there actually anything that can be done in these instances when the toxicity is such an ingrained part of the work environment? These places sounds so common and I don't know what can be done.