Hi all, long time listener and first time caller. Thanks to all of you for providing so much worthwhile information through this sub.
This is sort of a long-winded vent, but also looking for context on some things going on with my current employer (company of about 50 employees – I've been there just over 3 years). I mostly want to know what, if any, of these issues are actionable and what those actions could be. For context for state labor laws and all that, it is based in California.
I am in a full-time, hourly, junior-type role that requires a lot of client interaction and somewhat unpredictable hours. Our billing and pay is work order based. Since our return to in-person work post-pandemic (approx May '21), there has been an increasing amount of dissension amongst the junior-level employees and clientele service department due to ignorance of management, lack of an HR department, and lack of clarity in policies. A few examples:
- Non-existence of any sort of policy manual outlining things like how PTO is used, how to clock overtime, fill out work orders, etc. All of it is based on trickle-down training.
- On-Call weekends and holidays that are assigned at random and considered mandatory, with no standby pay provided.
- A history of discriminatory language and, in a few rare and extreme cases, physically abusive recourse towards junior employees. While I haven't seen anything physical since I started, it has happened within the last five years. I have been a direct recipient of the aforementioned discrimination. There is also at least one known instance of an owner making repeated sexual advances on a junior employee, that ended with said employee receiving a lump sum payment from a PPP loan to leave her job.
- “Open door” policies and forums for anonymous employee submissions to superiors – both things that go fully unchecked and unmonitored. Requests for meetings are often ignored and, as far as I can tell, anonymous submissions have been left unread since the implementation of the program.
- Payroll that is regularly run late by up to 5 days, with amounts being incorrect (always in favor of the employer) or checks being direct deposited into the accounts of incorrect employees.
- PTO time being miscounted or garnished due to incorrect PTO entry by management (for example, I took unpaid time off to attend jury duty since my company does not offer jury duty pay. It was accidentally entered as paid time off by management, and I was told to either pay the company back for those days or relinquish the PTO).
The real nail in the coffin for many lower-level employees was an accusation of “time theft” following our busiest season. During a three month stretch of the year, the normal 8-9 hour a day employees are usually clocking 11+ hours. This results in a lot of overtime and happens every year, but it is always understood that it's to account for our uptick in work. This year, management called in multiple departments to question the billing of additional overtime and threaten the staff with a blanket accusation of “dishonest and immoral” time clocking and the consequence of termination. They even went so far as to blame this time-tracking for a downturn in company profits, and have since gone after employees multiple times for clocking overtime without diligently checking schedules and work orders to account for when and where we are working.
As all of this has unfolded, I had taken it upon myself to research our state labor laws and check my company's eligibility for one of many unions in my industry. The largest things I saw were, above other things, guaranteed standby pay and a doubling of an entry-level employee's starting pay in a position like mine. Within a day or two of sharing the information with a handful of my coworkers, I was informally approached by a superior with a soft slap on the wrist for doing so (which I know is a gigantic no-no).
All this in mind, I love the work that I do and my peers. I would love to quit, but this company has a strong reputation in this industry and it benefits me greatly to stay for as long as I can. While I know I have the power to do the research on my own, I am still relatively young and new to the work force. Any guidance here on what to focus on, document, and how to work to adjust this workplace would be appreciated.