Long rant post. TL;DR at the end.
I started in a warehouse last November as a team leader, there was no team to lead but it's a small company that claimed to be growing, so I said whatever.
In December me and the other two people with the same title worked 50+ hr weeks back to back to back. I said whatever, it's the holidays and we handle a hot commodity for holidays.
Two days before Christmas, they fire the dispatch manager because he wasn't “pulling his weight” (he wasn't willing to do insane hours on salary).
January, things calm down a bit and we aren't doing as much overtime. February, they 'promote' one of the other team leads, they hire a customer service manager above the lady that was there since the company started, then fire the original customer service lady a month later, because she didn't have the right 'attitude/vibe'. March, they 'promote' me with salary and fire the other team lead because she got upset about not also being promoted.
March, two other ppl quit and go grab better jobs.
We finally start get more temp staff to help with the devolving chaos.
Promotion turns out to be a net loss because I'm still doing 50hr weeks and getting less pay than the hourly staff after overtime.
Hours start getting worse and worse and the other team lead turned supervisor asks about more staff and gets told we don't need more staff
“If anything, we need less staff, we just need better processes.”
End of April, the other supervisor asks what's happening with his 3 month review and the increase they promised, so they twist his words saying he can't expect a raise every three months (they were the ones who offered the three -month review raise), the supervisor gets upset and has a shouting match with the GM who fires him on the spot because “he's a great worker but has the wrong attitude”
That same day, they call us into an impromptu meeting to inform me and the warehouse manager that we have to cover the afternoon shift, leading to both of us working 16hrs that day.
Every week since then, in mid May, I've worked in excess of 44hrs, on multiple occasions, I've worked 12hr or longer days. I'll go in at noon and leave at 2am.
I can't afford car insurance because the city I live in has one of the highest rates in North America and I'm already paying $500 a month for insurance so my wife can take my kid to and from daycare and go to school herself. And of course, I can't get a bus at 2am so I either take an uber, ride my bike for 3hrs to get home or stay at work until 5am.
Then the company owner makes a racist comment to one of the (black) dispatchers which causes him to stay home until they fire him as well.
Anyways, they gave me a raise to match what the other supervisor was getting before they fired him. (Yeah, I was making less than him because he was covering the evening shift which is heavier)
I saw the first paycheck from the raise this pay period because they pay with a two week delay.
I'm still doing 50+ hr weeks and doing many non-supervisory tasks as a regular part of my daily routine. So I email the GM explaining that the law says I should be paid overtime if my tasks are regularly non-supervisory. He opts not to respond via email, but instead calls me into his office and attacks me saying
“I don't know where this is coming from, I thought we did a positive thing with the promotion. I'm going to be blunt, I don't agree with this email. You're in charge of the shift so all your tasks are supervisory. I've done all these tasks myself as a team lead, supervisor, manager. I'm not going to give you 40hrs of back pay overtime. I can put you back to hourly and can stop being a supervisor and you can do 8hrs and then just leave. I thought you understood what we were trying to do here. We're trying to build something where we can all make much more money than this.”
But see, I'm drowning now, I'm broke now, I'm spending $90 a week trying to get home so I can sleep NOW, I'm burnt out now. The owner of the company is a POS who listens to no one now, I fear I'll be homeless now. Smh.
The worst thing is that even with the raise, I'm broke af and I can't find another job that'll pay the same.
I'm so damn tired. Why do we have to work to survive? If this is civilisation, I'd rather be a caveman.
TL;DR:
I am a 'warehouse supervisor' given a the title so that they could stop paying me overtime. I'm overworked, understaffed and annoyed at but I can't leave because I can't find another job that'll pay me 'this much' and I NEED the money.