Let me start by saying my boss is generally a nice person, and my paycheck is an upgrade from what I had before. That said, this man is acting extremely carelessly to save a couple hundred dollars
I work for a VERY small continuing education company as a new hire. My job is simple: I make digital content for the coursework. I was hired as a salaried employee making a set amount because my availability varies week to week as an engineering student in a lot of project heavy classes. My first assignment required talking to a lot of the employees of the company and that took days and weeks to coordinate. My boss went on some drug fueled bender he called “a cold”, fired one of the other employees, and told me he was pulling my paycheck because I'm taking too long, knowing I had exams the week prior. His reasoning was when I sent him materials he couldn't respond for 3 days, and that's 3 days he's paying me to do nothing. Sounds like a him problem, right? (Edit: forgot to mention he changed his mind mid-call)
Well, I got on my next assignment, started working on it, and my laptop updated to Windows 11. My progress was like 75% gone. I informed my boss who said this was fine, just turn it in when I can. Well I had projects due so I told him I was going to turn it in that weekend because I can't work before then. He said sure.
I get a call 2 days ago from him, he loved my progress, and his complaints were things I was actively working through on an improvement. Well, he said because my laptop decided to dump my work, he was taking that entire time I spent catching up, roughly a week, out of my pay. He didn't pay me for an entire week. Why? Because “I told you 2 weeks, and in the real world that's costing me money.” So because of something out of my control, he's taking my paycheck. He then said from now on, he'll tell me a date, and any overage I work I won't be getting paid for at all. If he expects to much of me, that's not his problem. I'm no longer getting paid for my work, but some arbitrary amount He is willing to pay me. He also said I'll have a set schedule because “you just need to sit in front of the computer.” I'll now be forced into working 25-30 hours, 10-15 more than my availability, when my availability changes week to week, and the whole time I'll be on call with him, because apperantly I'm just not working or something.
So yeah, I'm not getting paid, and he's forcing me to commit too many hours, on a set schedule when I can't do it. But at least he said he liked my work?