So I have a doozy of a story here for you all..
I'm on the East Coast of Canada in Nova Scotia.
I recently had a job as a shift supervisor cleaning a private school in Halifax which was fairly decent and had a crew of 6 other people. It was ok, money wasn't terrible for the work that it is and I got along with everyone ok. The only problem was that the actual company I worked for sucked, couldn't find people to fill in for shifts when we were down a person and I had a hard time getting any sort of support from them at all. That being said I had a decent relationship with the crew and everyone that worked for this school.
Now I know the school was becoming unhappy with the company for people missing work due to Covid or just being sick but the work was always getting done because I was the one doing extra when needed to make sure the school was happy with at least our crew. I met with the administration every day to see about complaints and what needed to be taken care of and there were never any major issues. They would always tell me everything is great with a big smile on their faces.
These past 2 weeks, the kids have been out for March break (these kids get 2 weeks instead of 1) and we've just been doing detail cleaning and catching up on anything we don't have time for on a regular night. Last week was fine and we all look forward to this time of year as it's waaaay less stressful than normal. However this week started with a bomb being dropped on our heads….
On Monday first thing my boss from the company shows up and says he wants to see everyone for a meeting. We all sat down and I made a joke asking if he's the harbinger of good news or bad. Without breaking a stride he reached into his coat pocket, handed everyone an envelope with a letter inside and told us all that we lost the contract with the school and that our last day of work is Wednesday. I flipped the fuck out and asked him how long he had known and he said about a month.
I called the owner of the company up and asked him if they had known this for so long, why didn't they let us know? His response was simply because they are paying us severance (2 weeks for everyone over 2 years, 1 week for everyone over a year and the two people that had JUST BEEN HIRED were shit out of luck) that he legally didn't have to. There was no sense of arguing with that soulless fucker so I just told him that's all I needed to know.
The next day I had to chase down the head of maintenance for the school so I could get it out of him what company was coming in and get their contact info. I got a hold of them and they said they were interested in us all applying to keep our jobs and they set up times for us all to head out to their office for interviews.
Fast forward to today…. I took 2 others with me in my car out to this isolated small office in an industrial park because they had no idea how to get out there and back, plus all our interview times were close together. A few others had theirs earlier in the day and I'm sure they had no problem navigating the transit system out there.
When it was my time for my interview, the girl told me I would not be getting my supervisor position back, at least not right away. I asked her how long they had been interviewing people and her response was a couple of weeks and “there's lots of interest in the position!” I would be making the base rate of 15.50 an hour down from 18. They are cutting our crew down to 6 people total from 7, changing the hours, and the kicker here is that we all are required to have a GPS capable phone with an app installed called “Swept” which is supposed to be a method of communication with management, a means to sign in and out of work and keeps track of where we are at all times. When I asked her if they provide a work phone she just simply said no.
I finished the interview, drove the other 2 back home and now I'm stewing on my couch absolutely mortified about what to do. I really don't like where this is headed but I need to afford rent. There's a housing crisis in the city I live in and I can't just pick up and move away. However, every fiber of my being is screaming not to take this job if it's even offered back to me. The fact they require a GPS tracking app (and possible data mining) on my personal phone raises some huge red flags for me. And now I'm feeling very hurt, betrayed on almost every level and terrified for the future.
What do you guys think? Am I being ridiculous? Am I justified in my fear? I already know cleaners are exploited as part of the job but this seems to take it to a new level.
TLDR; My crew and I got screwed out of our cleaning jobs, had to interview for our jobs back and as a requirement have to install a GPS tracking phone app on our personal phones.