So before I started this job, I had a very enjoyable gas station jobpay was decent, clientell were great (only had 3 notably bad customers in the 2 1/2 years I worked there) loved my coworkers, and my boss was a Saint. Scheduled herself for 60 hours one week so I could take the week off and go to a convention. At the time, my fiance worked for a newspaper, distributing freshly printed papers to our carriers.
Well, I had ended up stuck on nightshift at my gas station job, and hardly ever saw my coworkers anymore. Well, a position opened up at the newspaper working with my fiance, so I put in my 2 week notice and moved to the newspaper to spend my working days with the person I loved.
Now, up until this newspaper job, I was very unaware of corperate practices and greed, but working there I saw it first hand and learned more in that year about why this subreddit exists than I had my entire life. Let's go through the big points, shall we?
3 months after I started, the last district manager quit because he was refused having his anniversary off. There had been 3 the year before I started, and 5 another year before that.
As soon as he left, everyone was offered his position. Starting with the guy who'd been there before my fiance, then my fiance, then me. I'd been here for 3 months and was offered. District manager because the boss didn't want to do it.
All of the district managers work got split among the workforce. Office day workers took on the paperwork, us warehouse grunts became responsible for running paper routes if the carrier was sick
We had a company vehicle but were expected to use our personal cars, and we're reimbursed at half the milage rate reccomended by the IRS. It was like $0.32 vs $0.65 by the time I left, it had only gone up to $0.38
We were made to build a room in the warehouse, framing, drywall, everything. (I literally do this as a side job at double the rate I was being paid, keep this in mind.)
Our third warehouse worker left, leaving just me and my fiance, and was never replaced.
My fiancé was fired for refusing to use their personal car to run routes when gas prices skyrocketed due to ukraine.
Now, I should have left then, but after it was just me, I got bumped up from 30 hrs a week to full-time with benefits, so I was doing 8 hour days in a job that required 2 hrs of work, and the rest of my day was spent reading SCPs or flipping through reddit. Yall inspired me.
I kept up the facade of a good little worker drone for 2 months. Quietly spread chaos amongst the carriers. Most of the groundwork had already been laid for me, I learned the DM had filled the warehouse with personal friends he hoped would follow him out the door. There was already a massive divide between the carriers and the office, but I stayed out of it for the sake of my coworkers.
But when it was just me? I didn't care anymore. I allied with the carriers and made that divide even worse. Nothing blantant, or mean, I'd just join in the complaining about my manager. Before me, the carriers didn't trust one another. My manager had tried to pull exactly what I was doing to keep his workers and contractors fighting amongst themselves rather than with him. Fortunately, im a lot better with people than he was.
Once I was done with that, I moved on to step 2. I was in a unique situation. This job had blown the transmission on my car, and I was driving my (now fired) fiances car to work. I informed my boss of this and that I couldn't run routes because it wasn't my car. So I got to start using the company vehicle.
For the next few months, I was badgers about “figuring something else out and getting a car of my own” to which I'd reply, “sure. Give me the 4 grand I need to fix the transmission this job broke, and we're gucci!” And the conversation would end there. The best part is, the transmission was replaced the year prior and was still under warranty so I got it replaced for free.
Then, my fiance started a new job, and I Informed my boss that I was going to have to drop full time and could no longer run routes because I needed to be home by 6 so my fiance could get to work. This was the beginning of the final step. I had slowly proven to my boss that he wasn't in control of me or my position because I realized something very important.
All my manager really wanted, was to not have to run routes or work the nightshift.but now, i was the ONLY nightshift worker who could run routes. And then, I was the only night shift worker. After that, whenever a route went down for a night, he'd sell the contract to another carrier for the night.
And then he asked me to set up all the new computers in the office. my response was simple. “I do computer consulting and repair as A side job. My rate is 20 an hour, but im willing to do it for 18” and I was fully willing to negotiate down to 16. (I was making 12 an hour at the time) and I got back one word. “Nevermind”
That led to a talk about how my job was just supposed to be whatever they needed me forand i had another job lined up at this point so i tried negotiating. I explained the job, and the pay, but that I liked this job and was willing to stay, but could not do full time anymore, and if my job included as much responsibility as it claimed, I should be paid more. i asked for 15 an hour and was denied because it wasn't in the budget.
Finished up that day, went home, wrote my resignation letter, and went back that night. finished the night and right before i clocked out i dropped my keys on my desk and sent the e-mail to my boss and hr. Walked out the door and never turned back.
But the story doesn't end there, no, for if you remember, I made friends with all the carriersi found out that my boss was stuck doing my job for almost 2 months. He had a wife and fresh born twins at the time. And I thought, thats just Karma for you. Fire my fiance and ruin my wedding fund? You don't get to see your kids anymore. fuck with my family, i fuck with yours.
Could not fill the position at all (wonder why?) And he got so desperate that he hired one of our carriers for the position. But not just any carrier, the carrier that was caught on video stealing papers and selling them outside of his contract. And they kept him on as a carrier after that, only to put him in the main warehouse.
At the beginning of the year, the paper canceled all home delivery contracts and now send papers through the mail. They still had contracts for carriers to stores, but by dropping home delivery they left 2/3 of the carriers jobless. Most of which were elderly people that couldn't do much else, one of which had recently lost her car and home in a fire.
And now, dear reader, we come to the close of this story. The paper has 1 carrier left now, and unfortunately (unsurprisingly) its not one of my friends. Why do they only have 1 carrier last I heard? Because everyone, carriers and office employees alike were given their walking papers.
Don't ever work for a newspaper. Especially if it's been bought by a certain enterprise, because all they do is kill and liquidate.
Bonus: 1 month after I quit my ex-boss texted me and asked how things were. So I got to brag about working with my dad building houses, and was on my own schedule, and made more than he did.