I've been working almost 5 years for a growing mom and pop building supply store in the rural south-eastern US. I started at the bottom in the yard at 8$ per hour. I was coming from a job making 17$ hour in construction for a really shitty boss and needed a job so I took what I could get. Over the 4.5 years I've fought tooth and nail for basic workers rights. They didn't have health insurance when I started, I forced them to by getting a job offer and using it as leverage around year 2. I've clawed my way to 18/hr plus a generous commission structure but if the owner had it his way I'd still be making 12/hr with no benefits despite me bringing in 1.5M in sales out of our 8M per year.
I've worked a minimum of 45hr weeks the entire time, usually clearing 55+ hour weeks due to them “needing” me to work 1-2 weekends a month. I do love the people I work with and my manager is a good person and really does fight for us against the owner. If it weren't for him I'd have taken that job offer years ago. Our location is the biggest of (3) and has gone from 5M per year to 8M per year in sales since I came onboard to the sales team. Last month (march) we did our first ever million dollar month. Despite this every time I ask for a raise using data to back up my value to the company and the fact that if I were to leave they'd literally be f#$@ed (I handle WAY too many responsibilities to the point that when I take off work I usually get calls for things they can't do), they always counter and bring me down. They didn't even have commission at first! I had to explain to them how that benefits both sales AND management.
I respect the owner and the fact that he took his dad's small town building supply store and built it up to three locations. That said he's a frugal to the point of being petty though. He's also the type of owner that micromanages EVERYTHING even when he's wrong. He's out of touch with most of his employees and acts like they should be working 6-7 days a week like him.
Since Covid has struck everyone here has been worked to the bone and burnout is rampant. We've never had a good turnover rate but since Covid keeping employees has been a nightmare despite the obvious solution of offering better wages and hours. I've worked multiple 80 hour weeks this last year and despite material prices skyrocketing and availability being insane I've still set records and shown growth. It's gotten to the point that my manager (typically a cool and collected guy) has started showing his burnout and frustration. This week he exploded on the owner after the owner dropped by and started chastising him for the state of the store. The owner actually apologized and stepped back which is a very rare occurrence. However his solution was that he needs to come to our store more (he's been basically absent the last two years while getting his 3rd location up and running) and “whip things into shape”. Since then he's been a terror jumping employees he sees “slacking” and micromanaging like crazy. Just this morning (on my 7th day straight out of 14) he had me jump in his brand new escalade to ride around the yard and point out everything he thought was wrong and lecture me about how I need to keep everyone busy and accountable. During this ride he actually said, “I'm too old and too rich for this $&#@. I don't say that to brag either.” Meanwhile I'm making him 300k+ in profit a year yet I'm barely maxing my Roth each year and drive a 2003 Toyota Highlander.
Anyways I just wanted to vent, this sub and personalfinance has taught me a lot. I've learned to stand up form myself and my coworkers and plan to continue to force them to adopt better standards. Hope y'all are having a good weekend while I'm here getting lectured all day.