My terrible retail job*(I know, I know, all retail jobs are terrible)* has been screwing with my pay two weeks in a row for a paycheck that's “supposed” to come every week. Due to vague poorly explained “processing” issues, my pay has been delayed TWICE, but by them doing this I'm put in a hole.
I can't quit because I need this job, I'm barely off the street now (which I only recently got out of, luckily only temporarily) and I can't get to work because I now have exhausted nearly all my resources, it's $50 in gas to get to the job and other places I need to and back, no public transport is available, but spending that for gas would cut into my available food budget, and I can't NOT EAT for another week until this coming Friday, not to mention other expenses. There's few jobs out here (semi-rural town), nearly no one else is hiring, and no food pantries, so quitting is not an option, at least not yet.
I'm not the only one complaining, some other workers and I have tried to escalate the process, but nothing happened other than leadership passing blame and false promises of “soon”. It's only now that they say they have whatever the “issue” was finally fixed. Other methods are being used but they are slow and could take over a month for results.
You would think that a reasonable company may know some of their employees might be screwed because of this, and may also realize that some might not be able to arrive for all scheduled shifts after receiving ZERO income 2 weeks in a row, but my job is not reasonable.
Their HR policy was explained to me in the most stern and condescending manner, since I haven't been there 90 days yet, missing ONE scheduled day is an automatic termination. So Automatic, it's built into the clockin system so your name is automatically removed from the schedule and marked “terminated NCNS” NCNS=No Call No Show.
Being in a small town that's around rural areas, there aren't many options out of this. I basically am being told that after not being paid for two weeks, that I MUST still go to work each day I am scheduled THIS week or lose my job. But, it's because I was not paid the last two-weeks that I currently do not have the gas money to get to the job back and forth until Friday when we finally get paid. I have nothing left to use after the first two weeks delay.
I really don't get it, the people running these companies are getting worse and worse, now I'm facing the possibility of ending up back on the streets again. Why can't shit just work like it's supposed to?