Obligatory happened a few months ago
It was a warehouse job. I was a flex employee which meant I could pick up as many hours as I wanted but minimum was 8 a week. Supposedly they paid incentives which is how they real you in. “You could make up to $xx”. My friend and I were almost certain it wasimpossible to achieve. The trainers would tell you otherwise and would constantly brag about how easy it was. Your % at the end of the day reflected how fast they wanted you to work. 100% meant achieving quota, 50% meant there was a lot of room to improve. The incentives all revolved around you hitting 100%+ for multiple weeks straight. I learned the average was around 60% which meant you had to work almost double what the average person did to even hit the first incentive. I guess that's what kept people around that were already there for years.
I was told horror stories about management and HR and how uncoordinated everyone was. I was told people would request for PTO and would he denied 2-3 months after waiting. When people were written up, they would take months to even acknowledge. I remember some co workers talking during break about getting written up for something they did months ago. They thought nothing would come of it then suddenly there's management pulling you into the office saying “remember that thing we talked about 2 months ago? Well here's an official write up”. Because of that mess, people would suddenly get fired when they weren't anticipating. A lot of these people had families. Kids to feed. Luckily i didn't. The worst part? I heard they let go of employees that would put in their 2 weeks. Can you imagine being courteous enough to let your employer know you're leaving in 2 weeks so they can find a replacement and they say “thanks for putting in your 2 minute notice. Byeee” Unbelievable.
I should have seen the red flags. When I tried to interview, no one answered their phones for days. I had to physically show up to even talk to anyone about an interview. It just shows how uncoordinated HR really was.
Here's where it gets good. A few months before I started working there, people started to get their hours cut. I'm not sure if they just started hiring a lot more people or if the amount of work that they had just decreased. It was a type of warehouse where you go home when you finish for the day. To my surprise, most of the “vets” (peope that were there for a year or more) actually loved working 60 hours+ since that meant overtime. Since they were already making incentives, they were making really good money. So when the hours get cut, they were mad. I didn't particularly care since my shifts were always 10 hours or less but apparently that's a short day for the vets.
I decided to move out of the state and that meant leaving that warehouse job. I couldn't put in my 2 weeks since I knew I would get fired immediately so I just kept kept going to work until my last day and then I moved. 2 weeks later I looked at my work schedule. I mostly just wanted to check if I could access my work schedule because that meant that they have not fired me yet. They hadn't. The best part? I could still pick up shifts. There are a limited number of shifts available for pick up. So, when I pick up a shift, that means that other employees can't pick up the same shift. If I pick up a shift and don't show up, the people already there will have to work longer since it's a 'work until you're done' kind of gig. Since I remembered the vets wanted more hours, I picked up as many shifts as I possibly could. They put their schedules out for 2 weeks in advance. I convinced a friend to do the same. I assume it benefited the workers and made management furious but they were uncoordinated. Management doesn't speak to HR and HR doesn't speak to management as much as they should. TO THIS DAY I can still pick up shifts if I wanted to. Sometimes I go in and pick up a few just for the hell of it.
TL;DR Management and HR were uncoordinated. Caused a lot of employees to lose hours. I exploited their lack of coordination for the benefit of the employees.