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Antiwork

I’m a manager at a small company. This is what I’m doing

I’m the GM for a small company that recently opened a new location in my country. I’ve known the owner for 8 years and jumped on board when he wanted to invest here. Listen to your employees. A while back we noticed someone was being really slow and inattentive at their job. We didn’t reprimand or write her up, I spoke to her that we noticed she’s no her usual self. She told me, in tears, that her boyfriend gave her an STD and was super scared. I directed her to an STD specialist clinic, reassured her that it sounded treatable and she’d be fine (she was). I also made sure she had enough time to get to her appointments, tests, pick up medication, etc. If someone’s down, don’t double down. One of my employees is currently in the hospital. Labor law says I have to pay him 50% of…


I’m the GM for a small company that recently opened a new location in my country. I’ve known the owner for 8 years and jumped on board when he wanted to invest here.

  • Listen to your employees. A while back we noticed someone was being really slow and inattentive at their job. We didn’t reprimand or write her up, I spoke to her that we noticed she’s no her usual self. She told me, in tears, that her boyfriend gave her an STD and was super scared. I directed her to an STD specialist clinic, reassured her that it sounded treatable and she’d be fine (she was). I also made sure she had enough time to get to her appointments, tests, pick up medication, etc.

  • If someone’s down, don’t double down. One of my employees is currently in the hospital. Labor law says I have to pay him 50% of his wages for the first 3 days, and then nothing after. The state pays out 60% for the rest of his sick period. I’m paying him 100% of his wages. It’s a drop in the bucket for the company, but means the world to him.
    The 60% that the state will pay him is going straight to him, I told the guy to call it the “sucks being sick” bonus.

  • Eliminate any trace of trouble. I had a bully in the group who was hounding one of my employees.
    Had a big issue on a Friday morning, sent him home for the rest of the day. Interviewed others to get facts straight, promptly fired on Monday knowing what I found out.

  • One of them is HIV positive. He needs a lot of tests and appointments for his care. I don’t dock his pay for not being in the office while getting that taken care of. I also don’t ask for a voucher or anything from the clinic justifying his time off. I trust everyone to be rational with their time.

  • Two employees are WFH. I need to constantly remind them to log off on time. When they text or email after hours my reply is “log off, we’ll get to this in the morning”.

  • No questions asked about vacations. I don’t need to know what you’re doing. Just that you’ll be off.

  • And finally: TAKE days off. One of my employees has 9 accumulated days. I’m asking him to take off somewhere and get that balance down.

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