I once worked as a bookkeeper for a realty/property management firm. I was hired to start at $15/hr then would get $20/hr after first 2 weeks of proving myself. When I started, I had trouble finding someone to onboard me. Manager would assign someone to show me how to do something, but then they would be busy with their own work and not really spend much time training me. I was hired to do bookkeeping. But they had me doing something different every day. One day I was preparing letters of rent increase for the property management company. Apparently this office we worked at, and I was bookkeeping for, was a combination of several different companies run by the same people. It wasn't even clear to me which company I was working for, there were several involved in this office. Somehow an ex-politician from nearby was also involved, maybe he owned one of the companies I forget now. I remember they said his daughter gets a free apartment at one of their buildings they manage. And I remember that during bookkeeping, I saw a coworker put that item into an unusual account. I asked him why it wasn't put into a liability account, and he told me 'we don't ask questions here.'
The manager kept bopping me around to different people to onboard me, because everyone was too busy, and I was saying that I needed someone to onboard me. I don't know why they had an open position if they clearly did not prepare for it nor have a process to onboard a new person in place.
She was also very cruel to the workers – the place was constantly filled with tension. She was always yelling at people. I started asking workers how they put up with it. Some felt they couldn't leave – they didn't believe they could get a job elsewhere, they thought it would be too difficult. Some just “ignored” it. I asked them if they had stress related health issues – usually when you “ignore” abuse, it ends up manifesting in physical ways. They did – high blood pressure, heart problems, etc. At one point, because I was speaking up about it, one of them even said that maybe I would save them. So sad.
They also had me doing payroll for another company. When it was time for payroll I realized that my pay was still the same so I brought it up to her. She said something dismissive, like yea oh sure, and I returned to work. Next thing I know, she comes up to me and starts yelling at me that I'm doing my work wrong. Then tells me to come speak to her in the kitchen. Then she spends 2 hrs lecturing me that I should be so lucky as to even have the opportunity to learn how to do a job here, and telling me stories of other people who came and begged her to learn how to do this job for free because the training was so valuable. I didn't know what to make of it at that time, my head was spinning and she was being so manipulative. I tried to go back to work and just do my job. The next day she again came to yell at me, and then told me that she will not be giving me the higher pay we agreed on, and I need to tell her if I agree with that. I told her I need to go home and think about it. She left, and then sent someone else to come and tell me that I'm fired and need to leave and go home now.
When I came to pick up my final check, it was all for the lower rate of pay. She, right in front of everyone including the in-house attorney for the company, started yelling at me that I'm not an accountant. Multiple times.
I tried to take her to court for the pay difference, but I didn't have the pay in writing although it was a verbal contract (I was young). I realized they use that court and that judge all the time, they were friendly with each other. I thought we would get a mediator but we didn't, we had to go up in front of the judge. I brought a recording with me where she was talking about the pay rate, but the judge at first didn't even want to let me play it, and then when I did try to play it she cut me off and didn't let it get to the part where she mentions the pay rate. She was impatient. My ex boss had the attorney say in the courtroom that I'm not a real accountant (I have a business degree in accounting) and they tried to “present” “evidence”. They were so cruel I started crying and even the judge told them to stop. Then the judge issued a verdict that they are not required to pay me anything more than the minimum wage, and I lost.
I still wonder about those people to this day, I hope they were freed from that hell. I would've loved to win against her and save them, but I was the youngest of them all and definitely didn't have money to hire an attorney or go up against some nepotistic politically ingrained company.