Author: Olivia

Social worker here, and in my field it’s expected to get paid like shit. Everyone goes into school knowing it. A few months back I received an offer to work for an IT department at an entry level position for $20/hr. I almost accepted it, but instead took the offer letter to my supervisor and asked her to give me a reason to stay at my current job: “It’s disheartening working in a field where I could jump ship and make more at an entry level position than the one that requires a college degree and professional license.” She took the letter to HR and we were able to negotiate a pay raise not just for me, but the whole department, and a comprehensive company-wide annual raise policy based on inflation. Often times in the mental health world we accept the shit pay because it’s non-profit. Fuck that excuse. If…

Amazon's biggest fine was $800 million yet it makes $600 million every day. If the point of fines are to punish, megacorporations like Amazon aren't even getting a slap on the wrist due to their size. At some point, continuing to do whatever got them fined becomes more profitable than saving money through compliance. For this reason, fines should take into account size, so that corporations don't treat them as the cost of doing business. What do you guys think?

I work in tech. Specifically healthcare tech. I am an HOURLY employee who works full time from home. I still have to clock in and out for all of my breaks and shifts even tho I WFH. Every Friday my boss lets us go around 3pm and tells us to “go enjoy happy hour” unfortunately I cannot do that because I am hourly and would lose out on pay if I were to just clock out when everyone else is. I requested a raise 6 months ago which was denied, they suggested I take an education course so that I would have “more ammo” when requesting a raise again. Well I took a dual certification course and am now accredited with two top agencies in my field. So, 2 weeks ago I came to them with proof of my knowledge, skill set, accomplishments as well as expressed my frustration again…

I’m a union steward. Today I found myself representing a woman I had never met. I sat there and listened to the frustration in her voice as she told the director of HR as well as her two supervisors, how time and time again her supervisors had set her up to fail. The age old story, because of “staffing issues” management piles more and more responsibility on employees until they break. We sat there as these two supervisors defended their actions. The entire time jabbing at the integrity of this woman I represented. It was right around the time they questioned this woman’s work ethic that she calmly pulled a piece of paper (her letter of resignation) out of her folder, slid it across the table and said “I’m done” … she looked liberated. The supervisors STILL went on to harass this woman about her performance. But my member was…