Sorry, it's a little long.
I work retail at a gas station in a relatively small town in SC, USA and have been there for almost seven months.
When I was first hired, everything seemed fine. They were transitioning from one store manager to another and it seemed to be going smoothly. The store was relatively clean 99% of the time and everyone did their part.
Then my GM (general manager) got Covid (after the guidelines were redone) and everything went downhill. My DM (district manager) would not give her time off and forced her to come in almost every day while sick. After that, she still had to work 90+ hours a week for almost three months straight. She was overworked and underpaid and burnt out.
Because of my GM's circumstances, I tried to be understanding and help out where I could be of use. I took over a couple manager tasks that needed done. I work overnights so I would print end of day summary reports that had to be done at 4am. I would also get her little things every now and again to cheer her up.
Well, that quickly spiraled to where I am now. My hours were cut (from 39 to 20) and I was unofficially transferred to a different store after talking to one of my coworkers about unions after Amazon unionized in NY. Nothing serious, just casually talking and question answering.
My new store is a MESS and has so many illegal things going on. First off, they have a CO2 machine that leaks within the store at least once every two weeks. Levels up to 580ppm in a very small building. For reference, 500ppm is the equivalent amount of CO2 that emits from a car locked in a garage for two minutes. At 400ppm, OSHA recommends for the building to be evacuated.
I was told to leave it alone and just reset the alarm and it'll be fine. I was also told I was not allowed to call the fire department because it would cost the store money. My safety and my coworkers' safety were not a priority.
Second, their AC unit is broken and has been broken for over a week. This is not an isolated incident. I'm in the south. It gets over 95F every day and that's outside. Inside, it's like a sauna. Every one complains about headaches and dizziness from the overheating.
Third, they have mold everywhere, along with electrical equipment next to a sink that sprays water every time we use it to fill up the mop bucket water. We dont have another option to get the water for the mop so we have to use it. There is no safe guard and it could start an electrical fire at any point.
My DM does not want to fix it and is dragging his feet to get any of the issues fixed. The most he has done is sent a tech to put a bandaid on it and hoped for the best.
So I reported them to OSHA. I did it last night and as of this morning, I'm getting written up for an undisclosed reason (I'm not signing shit).
And now I'm PISSED. Not only do I keep getting punished for stupid shit, they're putting everyone's lives at risk and trying to cover it up. And for what? So they dont look incompetent and dont get fined? Imo, not a good reason.
Since they've decided to retaliate, I'm going to as well. My next stop after OSHA is the health department and the business bureau. I have pictures and videos (timestamped) of everything and I'm DONE being nice and waiting for them to do the right thing. I like my GM and I dont want to put her job in jeopardy, but my coworkers' lives are more important and I'm not pulling punches anymore. If they want a fight, then they've got it.