Doesn't make sense to me how common this is from my quick research. But usually when it happens, the employer doesn't know the hired person is poor, in my case they DID and still expect me to buy clothing required to start the job.
I'm just coming out of bankruptcy, at a friends place who's barely hanging-on, and is also one surprise bill away from doom, and I spent months looking for a job, finally get a call, pass the interview, pass the swab for the drug test, and nothing is brought up until I come in to do the computer training.
Now all of a sudden my boss wants me to have on a full button down black shirt with a tie and khakis, which even at my local thrift store, the cheapest option I have, costs $55 (if I get two pairs of pants).
When I got hired they knew a decent amount of my situation, and they said they NEEDED workers to start quickly. Yet they need workers but won't help me, when I tried to offer ways to get these clothes required of them, since I don't currently have the money to get these clothes, they stopped me before I could even say anything, and I was being polite. The manager cut me off and said “if you don't have the clothing required, don't bother to show up tomorrow because you will be fired and turned back home.” He was that aggressive about it, won't even let me suggest an advance on the check or anything else.
But they KNOW I don't have the money, I don't get the mindset. How am I supposed to get the money to buy those clothes before coming back to work? I'm out of bankruptcy I don't have the ability to get credit, family's been dead I'm 42 years old in a few months. The friend I'm living with is short on his own groceries, I mean this is absurd. Are employers that far disconnected that they are hurting THEMSELVES unconsciously?
I definitely need to help out, because if he falls behind on rent again like last month that's a wrap for the apartment, and it's been months since I've been job searching, so I NEED this job I was hired for, and the employers claim they NEED staff, and yet they STILL do this? What am I supposed to do?