I work(ed) at a gambling company. So already didn’t choose a nice place to be employed, but at the start it looked like good money for easy work. Was promised weekend pay, public holiday pay and overnight pay, AU$65k a year, so pretty decent. Phone betting operator, so just placing live bets for people, all customer service/IT issues could be transferred to somebody else.
Found out a month into my employment that weekend pay was only for the casual workers, and public holiday pay was only for Christmas Day itself, the other public holidays were only paid out for casual employees. Thought it should still be fine, was notified by my TL that I should only work one weekend out of 6, and public holidays only if nobody else was available.
Again, that was a lie, he apparently meant I would only get one weekend out of six OFF of work, and by that, usually only a Sunday off. And public holidays, full time staff were rostered over casual staff, to avoid the extra rates having to be paid out. And also found out that casual staff were essentially being bullied into becoming permanent, by cutting their shifts down to nothing and waving full-time contracts in their faces.
Knew then I had to get another job, that it was going downhill. Managed to use old contacts and get a job in government IT, which I had previously worked in just in a lower paying position. Gave my four weeks notice with full intention of working the full four weeks, and then getting a massive payout of leave I hadn’t used prior to starting my new job.
Gave that idea up today. Needed to work from home as I didn’t have access to a car as my partner needed it. Let them know two hours in advance that I couldn’t find a ride. Got no response, so thought it would be okay. Clocked in when I was supposed to start, immediately got a call from supervisors asking why I was at home. I told them I had emailed my TL regarding the issue and hadn’t received a response so assumed it would be okay for one day. They advised that it was a compulsory day in the office, I responded saying I didn’t have a choice in working from home, I had no way into the office, and I wasn’t taking my work laptop on a bus, considering the area I live in Aus is pretty dodgy.
Supervisors responded saying if I wasn’t working in the office, then I wasn’t working at all. They were very rude about the matter, baby talking through reasons why it was compulsory to be in the office for today (aka, there was no legitimate reason, there never is).
I told them I wouldn’t be working today, if they weren’t going to be considerate or understanding enough to let me work from home this one time, for reasons I couldn’t control, and that I wasn’t going the extra effort/using my own money to catch an Uber there.
I then also emailed my TL again, advising him my last day would not be the 8th of April as previously organised, it would be effective immediate.
Response from the TL was that he didn’t realise I had resigned earlier in the month, in an email that he had actually responded to.
Sorry if this is ranty/makes no sense. It’s been an hour and I’m still incredibly angry at how I was treated over something I couldn’t control, and how my own manager didn’t remember I had resigned.
TL;DR: Australian workers, don’t work for any gambling companies, whether that be as a phone betting operator or customer service. You will be treated like dirt by customers and management.