I've had a shit day so I wrote a novel, sorry.
I work for a famous, franchised moving company in the U.S.. Yes, that one.
He's always a dickhead who acts like everyone should essentially fill 5 different job positions while moving furniture in historically hot and rainy weather for $15-$17 an hour (most of us don't even get 40 hours/week by the way, nature of the beast) and his favorite thing to say after making some obnoxious you guys aren't doing enough for me speech in the morning before dispatch (we don't get paid until like, 30 minutes to an hour after we arrive by the way) is “it's just that simple” when he has no idea at all what it actually takes to waste your youth and health lifting couches up and down stairs all day while he eats a whopper in his corner office and nitpicks the things we all do for more money than I've ever received in my entire life. He basically excepts everyone to have superhuman memory, coordination, and foresight at all times.
Anyway, this morning, a team of two or three people forgot to fill out times on paperwork that doesn't make it very clear that you need to (when we do out of town moves, we get the usual local sheet with the out-of-town sheet, but it has a huge black X on it, making it super easy and obvious to ignore, especially if you are newer and don't know better). The paperwork is notoriously difficult to understand at first (it took me a week of doing it before I started to get it) and keeps a lot of new guys from pursuing being promoted to driver out of intimidation.
Add on that, again, we move heavy shit in the heat all day, getting filthy, exhausted, and completely spent by the end of especially a long day or drive (most of us don't even stop for lunch, I almost never do because I usually fast mid-day anyway), and WE ARE FUCKING HUMAN. We forget small shit sometimes.
What you need to know about out of town moves is that we get either commission or wage depending on which pays out better, but many newer guys (or people who are overworked, underpaid human beings with families and obligations) don't realize it's a good idea to write the worktimes down on the same sheet that has a big black X on it indicating it's not being used, or the tiny column on the execution sheet that I didn't even know was there its so easy to miss.
The boss's response to this? Announcing smugly that they'd only be making $50 each for their work that day.
I actually spoke up, saying something to the effect of “that's not fair, it's a really understandable mistake to make” in a tone that wasn't accusatory or angry, and his response was basically “(me), we've talked about this at the last couple of meetings, they should know by now”. (So we're not gonna give a one-on-one warning? You do realize some of us have attention deficits, are depressed, dissociating , tired…right? Its' just like a High School teacher's one size fits none teaching bullshit).
OK. So it's OK to exploit labor for wages you (or likely our franchise owner who has his own issues) get to pocket when most of us are struggling to even get by? Many of us (not me thankfully) felons who can't get work anywhere else who are basically forced to work for whatever hours we're given (which the higher ups are well aware of).
And you get to go home to your big house with your bells and whistles shiny pickup you never put anything heavier than groceries in, and just beat off to our collective struggle.
(Just to add a layer on interest, its worth noting out location is almost entirely black people (me partially included) and he's your stereotypical “coached little league, came from working at an office job as a higher up before this, never had to beg for money to eat” white guy that is 1000% out of touch with his own employees).
This disconnect isn't new, but this is a new low, and probably the most disgusting behavior I've ever seen from an employer.
And I'm actually liked. Other than some tardiness (I wake up wanting to die most of the time and have to use energy to just decide to live another day just to work a job I hate), they really like me and my work ethic, and have expressed they want me to stay numerous times.
I don't care. I'm not coming back next week.
On top of not getting enough consistent hours to be worth it (I'm like, almost $2000 in overall debt from just existing basically, they know this) this job is exhausting, the work environment is toxic as fuck (when groups of men and only men get together, you hear and see the exact sort of awful shit you'd imagine) and the job is draining and very dangerous (guys have been out for fractures and pulled backs for weeks with little to no pay or compensation, and I myself almost abandoned a truck one day after a heavy ass chair busted me right in the teeth as I feel from a truck attic).
I don't even think $17 an hour is near enough for what we do to begin with (WE ARE LITERALY THE PRODUCT! WHERE'S MY SHARE OF PROFITS?)
So here we are now. I'm gonna let my other boss (below the boss I talked about) know that I'm done. I'm gonna go wait tables at a Waffle House near my house so I can save on gas and actually get cash in hand daily to at least eat and pay smaller bills off while I wait for my wages, plus I've already done it before so I fully know what to except and how to do the job).
But I would like to make it clear why I'm leaving, AND do something about it for those who have no choice.
What should I do?
I thought about leaving a letter and sending copies to corporate offices, the local news, and the department of labor (with a formal complaint about things like this, being forced to either pay for a uniform jacked in winter or freeze as to not violate uniform policy, being underpaid for hours and having to track them to ensure you get paid properly, and the such).
I 1000% except some sort of retaliation for that though that will hurt me financially.
I thought about trying to recruit people to start a union, but I don't know how that works if I'm just leaving anyway.
I'm not sure, but I don't want to do nothing.
WSID?