TL;DR: You cannot pay low wages AND set high expectations. That’s now how any of this works.
I’m so very much over frustrating employers that can’t be bothered to even look at an employee that’s performing to standards and beyond. It’s time to end responding to the diligent workers that go above and beyond with a “meh.”
It’s infuriating, because these same employers will jump down their employee’s throats just for performing at 100% instead of 110%. Sure, you do all your assigned tasks, you even pick up other tasks when yours are finished, and even go as far as picking up extra shifts, but since you forgot to ask that one customer if they had a rewards card, you’re going to be pulled aside for a stern lecture, issued a warning, and your performance will be closely watched indefinitely just to make sure you learned your lesson.
That’s just one example from my own personal experiences, but I can’t help but notice that this is a VERY common practice for minimum-wage employers: Perform at 200%, you’re met with silence, but if you dare slip up, suddenly your performance is severely lacking, you’re harshly reprimanded, and even expected to hustle and kiss ass to make up for a minor infraction.
These are expectations that should apply to a surgeon or rocket scientist or law enforcement. Jobs where mistakes actually MATTER if they are made. If a floor associate forgets to sweep the store floor, that floor can be swept by someone else at a later time. If the wait staff brings out the wrong order, they can have the order remade. If a cashier forgets to ask a customer about a rewards card, there isn’t even any real loss in that.
But if a surgeon cuts the wrong way, or a rocket scientist’s calculations are off, or an officer gets quite literally trigger-happy, such can amount to at least one life lost.
The real kick in the teeth here is that these other careers I mentioned almost always DO get recognized for their performance. Oh, the sick, twisted, sadistic system we live in. How I yearn for the day it all comes crashing down.
Realistically, I’m not even asking for much, here. I just want the high expectations for low-paying jobs to stop. I want to put an end to an unnecessarily cutthroat work environment at dead-end jobs that can’t even pay someone enough to support themselves. If you’re not going to pay your employees a very comfortable wage to live on, then you have no right to place high demands and tight restrictions on your staff.