Basically I am living in an underdeveloped country and I'm working remotely for this company that operates in the U.S. the office is located in Texas and I am labeled as “independant contractor” under the company if this helps bring context.
I want to quit my job, but in the contract (which I signed under a different work environment, responsabilities and expectations, much nicer ones I have to add) there is a clause that states if I quit without a 30 day notice I have to pay the company a month's worth of wages to “compensate for hiring and training costs” (although I would say the training I got was not even worth $200usd), that one is reasonable, however there is a secon clause that states that if I quit before a year of employment has passed I have to pay *another* month's worth of wages and all bonuses I have received.
I can't handle any more days, the place is horrible and it has taken a huge toll on my mental health these past few months and I want out, but this contract is holding me hostage; if I quit tomorrow let's say, I have to pay them back about $1500 (my wage is about 640 a month before tax, that's a lot, and I mean a lot where I live). Is this something common or is it an anti turnover tactic? I've seen the place hire 8 different persons since I started back in october 2023 and they all never show up again in less than 2 weeks. I took the job because I was really reall desperate, please I just want to know if this is something common companies do
Edit: I work at a call center, the first two months was about calling people going to this specific clinic and try to convince them to do this test that helps screen for colon cancer, easy work, and from my team I was the one who convinced the most people to do it, after that, I was moved to schedule radiology exams, it got bad pretty much now I work under an insuferable manager, I can't reach the productivity expectations because what I do now is entirely out of control (if the office answers the phone, how long the hold times are, if they have even processed the order, if they don't do what the patient needs I have to look at a different office and repeat the previous 3, and then have to do it all over again because the patient said they don't like the appointment's time and date and want me to look somewhere else) and most of the time I have to wait up to 15 or even 20 minutes for a patient to show up on my queue.
Yes, I tried asking for advice, management tells me “what do you need advice for? it's easy”, honestly being almost 6 months straight stressing constantly if I'm going to make them happy with my performance and not getting any actually useful feedback, on top of being yelled at and being treated like an idiot that can't get work done does not help. The only reason I think they haven't fired me yet is because I'm the only one in scheduling who speaks spanish, and it must be too much of a hastle to hire someone else who does I guess