Background: my employer has f__ked over all of its Part-Time employees: none of us get paid above $12/hr., but we do A LOT of the behind-the-scenes work. We are a fast-growing company and make millions of dollars, so there's no shortage of money here. Every performance review, we always lose good employees because this company refuses to pay PT workers the wages of a real job. The higher-ups don't want to pay us more because they are narcissists and are more concerned with impressing and acquiring new clients. We prove ourselves over and over again, but no real wage increases –just a few cents.
They recently started this company-wide project (AFTER PERFORMANCE REVIEWS) to milk everyone for ideas to improve our company's core product, cause management is out of ideas. I refused to participate because why would I give them an idea worth thousands, I would only get a “prize” but no increase in pay (not saying that I actually have ideas worth that much, but if I actually put effort into this, I know that I wouldn't be fairly compensated). The whole thing was kind of a joke, but there were people who did seriously contribute.
My team won, though I and most of us did not participate in the idea-share. Because my team won, they want to give all of us commemorative T-shirts and a $50 gift voucher, but I just don't feel comfortable accepting it. I'm glad that everyone gets to celebrate together, but I just don't want to participate in the gift-giving, either. But management is pushing it, though they have not yet reached out to anyone individually for not signing up to get the gifts. Idk what to do.
It feels like they're using the same strategy as the study where it was found that employees are more productive and have higher morale after receiving gifts, rather than wage increases. It doesn't work on me, though. I know I'm extremely underpaid for what I do. Because of PTSD and other circumstances, I cannot change workplaces. I just wish there was a way to make my employer treat us like its Full-Time employees…… I guess this is kind of a rant and a reach out for advice.