So there I was, excited to start a new job at UPS as a front desk attendant at one of their branch locations. I anticipated some sort of stereotypical first day action; sit down, listen/watch a few company videos, sort of an orientation.
There was no orientation or anything. He brought me to the back, made me put on a shirt, and started training me. By the middle of the work day I was already using the computers with little supervision (I hope I didn’t make any serious mistakes). It was very busy, in fact one other employee told me “this is the worst day you could have been trained.”
… Thanks for letting me know, I guess…
Now with that laid out, my mentality going into this new UPS job was to bust ass and work hard to prove myself, and I did. I was sore from lifting pallets and loads of cardboard, the manager gave me nothing but compliments and when we hit 4:00pm, he said we were done for the day.
I thought that was weird, considering how he did nothing for payroll or anything. He didn’t even take my ID, I didn’t sign a single document.
That’s when he decides to tell me that the first week I work is unpaid, and the wage isn’t $16 an hour and full time like it said on Indeed, instead it was minimum wage ($14.30 or something like that), maybe 28 hours a week.
I was going to suck it up, work for free for a week, but the truth is it made me sick. I believe very strongly no one should ever work for free, and not only was this the case, it was going to be kept secret from me. I had to ask if I was being paid for my work or not.
So I’m here just to tell anyone who took the time to read this, stand up for yourself and your beliefs. Don’t allow yourself to be treated the way I did.
Thank you to all those who took the time to read this.