I was on break in the break room and a manager asked what I was doing. I said on break, and he said “we don’t have time for breaks in this industry”. I was new, didn’t really know how to respond, and just went back to work.
Completely disregarding the labor law posters in the break room. I knew I was obviously entitled to one and after telling my trainer, I did eventually go back on break.
What’s funny is there was literally another employee sitting in the break room at the same time, who the manager ignored. Afterwards my coworker said how dumb the situation was, but in the moment he just kept eating his meal.
I honestly don’t remember if I was in the middle of eating too, and threw away my food. Probably. I was too afraid to speak up and the manager was clearly on some power trip picking on the new kid.
It was just a summer job but there were times it got so busy the only thing I had time to eat was crackers off the tables I was cleaning. And when the regional managers visited, they told me to scrape gum off the entrance floor with a knife. All for a whopping $9.50 per hour!