Earlier today I received this condescending sheet from work, all employees got their own copy. It's about requiring us to pay for new company uniforms in order to continue being added into the system, or we risk losing our jobs:
This is a big problem because this is a surprise charge they didn't warn about. Making matters worse, these sheets were actually sent out yesterday but I was off yesterday and didn't see this until today, so I'm a day behind.
Basically, I have to pay $100 for the new company uniforms in order to keep my job, and despite the slick wording there is no “other” as I discovered trying to negotiate, there is indeed no exceptions, and they will give you the boot. I don't get paid until Friday so this sudden $100 expense due this Monday, is something that I don't have, and I can't get credit because of unpaid hospital bills from last year which dinged by score. With no family out here and limited businesses in this semi-rural community, there isn't another job I can go to either.
I only recently got this job last year. It pays just enough to survive but not much more and the few other job openings that I can apply for all pay less, so I can't afford to switch OR lose my job, especially in an area with so few resources compared to more urban locations.
I looked into this and apparently they are allowed to just change the dress code out the blue, but I'm not sure what to do since I only have two days to get the uniform. That's not enough time to try to challenge this some other way because I need pretty much every hour to stay floating, I can't afford any days without pay.
All staff that have not yet brought the uniforms are not on the schedule for any day after Monday, so they are serious about the requirement but they aren't considering that they are doing this abruptly in the middle of a pay period, knowing they aren't paying us well at all.
I'm completely stuck and have no idea how to get out of this mess! It's been stressing me out all day because I keep panicking about all the bad things that will happen if I lose my job.