I was reminded today about all of the issues I had working for small businesses and how much protection they have. Very small businesses aren’t under the ADA, likely because accommodations would be considered “undue hardship” to the business. They don’t have oversight or HR, so you have to watch your back more and when you try to report things you will get more retaliation. They can and will do anything they can to cut costs, meaning you will likely be doing your job title but also doing whatever odd jobs the business needs (lawn service, babysitting, etc) and often minimal if any benefits. Boundaries are much harder to set in a family business too. For context, after dealing with all that for three years (babysitting, physical labor that wasn’t in my job description, hours being moved around to avoid paying overtime or holiday pay etc) I put in writing that my boss was being verbally abusive to me in front of clients and wanted to discuss it with him. He came back with a list of “problems” that they had the receptionist give me because they were too chicken to give it to me themself. This list included “talking about pay rate”, “sighing too much”, “wants to leave early when it snows” and “eavesdrops” and “puts other workers at risk” and I was told I was being demoted and the next step was a drop in pay or being fired. He wanted to make a paper trail to get me off of his back…I didn’t have any recourse. I couldn’t explain the sighs with being high pain, and I couldn’t discuss any of this with an impartial party. I couldn’t even explain how some of what he described was legally protected (discussing pay) The next morning I came to my shift to drop off a a resignation letter and left. It took reflection to realize he had been trying to push me out with outbursts because I saw things that could get him in trouble professionally if I had reported it and he wanted to discredit me and get me to leave. Months later I was diagnosed with ptsd from this job and was so acclimated I hadn’t even realized how bad it was until I left.
TLDR: small businesses prey on workers