Cheap Corporate Bastards

The beatings will continue until morale improves.

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Well I’m almost through my first week back with today being my Friday. It’s been a pretty weird week. We had a drunk wander in which I’d rather not go into full detail about, had to try and cheer some co-workers up who have been down lately since things haven’t gotten any better, they’re getting worse as usual. I found out one of the people I work with, whom I’ve known since I was a kid through my mom working there that she refuses to work with one of the other girls because of Vietnam flashbacks. Which is weird since she’s not a vet, nor are her husband or kids, nor have they ever been to Vietnam… Oh, and the girl isn’t even from Vietnam, she’s Filipino. Cute way of saying you’re a racist I guess…

Looking forward to my weekend away from that drama. I already have a mental to do list thought out. Just need some good weather to accomplish it. 😛

I can tell I haven’t been here for a few.

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Logged into my blog today and found like, 8 different things to update. Some plugins, a lot of themes I should probably uninstall, and the new WordPress! Up on 4.0 right now.

I’ll probably look into updating the forum either later tonight or tomorrow. Feel like resting my brain a bit today, the last 7 days at work have been pretty nuts. I survived Labor Day and made closer to what I should be making daily. Then I hear of some new rules they’re trying to enforce.

One of them involves not sitting on benches. They’re for the customers only. Which would make sense if not for one minor issue… Our time clock where we punch in and out of is next to one of the benches, where people will usually wait when they’re coming back from lunch. We’ve started retaliating by sitting on the floor next to the bench. Which btw looks really silly when the bench is empty. I had some customers stare at me when I did it the other day. And I guess at one point there were five people sitting on the floor. One of the suggestions is to stand over by the fine jewelery area and window shop all the pretty things… I got yelled at yesterday for sitting on the floor because according to the person in charge at the time you’re not even supposed to be sitting on the floor around it. The email I got says otherwise… I’ll be doing it again. Full asshole mode is enabled right now and I can’t find the off switch.

Another rule that I might get in trouble for involves sitting in our cafe area. You can only sit there if you buy something from the deli area (which I usually buy a drink to go with my lunch (since the tea I bring doesn’t last me throughout the day. 😛 ) and even if you do buy something you have to move to another table if a customer says they want your spot. I can kind of understand if you’re sitting there for your quick break, but for lunch when you’re on your own time? Fuck them all to hell.

At this rate it won’t be long before they enforce limits on using the employee bathroom…

They were at my mercy.

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Yesterday morning before retiring to my bed to slumber I had some interesting phone calls that were left on the answering machine. Apparently I was supposed to start my cashier training yesterday, on my day off… First the trainer called wondering why I wasn’t at work, then my boss who wrote my schedule called telling me I was late (what a laugh), and then about 30 minutes later she called again telling me there was some sort of “scheduling conflict” and that I “was right for not coming in” and “if I could, come in ASAP for training” which I then proceeded to raise my middle finger up to the ceiling, make a pot of tea, and promptly went to sleep. They want me to come in and clean up their mistake? Fuck them.

When I did wake up in the afternoon though I called about a half hour after the training ended for the day (because timing is everything) and they told me that I have my regular schedule back and will have to be rescheduled for the training which can take some time. I’ll have to thank my boss for the most epic fuckup ever witnessed. This buys me some time to write more applications to other places. I even managed to get a hair appointment in finally. Today was just a really, really good day.

The Overlord is on the warpath again.

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I was approached yesterday afternoon by my boss. According to her I will be trained to be a backup cashier, which I have written in the past about declining… constantly. My opinion hasn’t changed on the matter, in fact it’s been getting worse. They’ve been cutting people back even further to the point that the entire store is a skeleton crew. So somehow everyone becoming cashier trained will fix this…?

I already told her that I would be putting in my notice, but having gotten home tonight to think things through I decided that was a little bit much. I’ll talk with her tomorrow, give her some choices. If I get trained I’ll stop working with them and become a pure cashier. At least long enough until another job comes along. I’ll be picking up some job applications tomorrow before work.

Considering I’ve worked there for 7 years and am only making ten cents above minimum wage… what have I got to lose?

A McDonalds Employee making $21 an hour?

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Well, at least in Denmark. Also the teenagers over there start out at $15 an hour.

I work for McDonald’s and I make $21 an hour.

No, that isn’t a typo. It’s really my salary.

You see, I work for McDonald’s in Denmark, where an agreement between our union and the company guarantees that workers older than 18 are paid at least $21 an hour. Employees younger than 18 make at least $15 — meaning teenagers working at McDonald’s in Denmark make more than two times what many adults in America earn working at the Golden Arches.

So they’re being paid a living wage AND McDonalds is still in business? Color me fucking shocked! The local McDonalds here is practically a retirement home. There are literally more elderly folks working there than teenagers. I wonder how many of them read that article…

I’ll be sure to tell people about it though. Hell, I had one customer today tell me about a friend of his from a different store in another town and how they have special benefits and such. He instantly assumed that I would have the same and seemed shocked when I told him that was a union store. He said “You shouldn’t have to rely on a union to get better pay and benefits”. I just don’t understand… People seem to make the constant mistake of thinking a company will look out for it’s employees. Now, there are some companies that DO in fact take care of their employees. However, those are few and far between.

People can say what they want about a union. I’d love to have a fixed set of hours that don’t change or don’t drop. Seems like less of a pain compared to understaffing, cutting back, then calling people in at the last minute to try and cover a job because they were too busy understaffing and cutting back. Well… if you’re not a big CEO type. I’m sure I heard their teeth chattering when I mentioned teenagers in Denmark making more money than most Americans. 😛

In disbelief.

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I’ve been in serious thought for the last 24 hours. I learned last night that I’m required to go to my boss whenever I want a raise. This isn’t something that was documented anywhere, in fact I figured that it would kick in eventually. My mother works at the same place and she never had to request a raise. It just happened. The only time I’ve ever gotten a raise was whenever minimum wage went up. I’ve been pulled aside when my wages were dropped. But not raised…

They have no problem cutting hours, understaffing people, having them do the jobs of multiple people, cutting wages, forcing them to do shit that they don’t want to do. But they can’t even so much as give people a raise when it’s due.

I’ve been contemplating my next move. I’m either going to warn them that I’m looking for another job again, put in my two weeks notice and tell them to piss off, or be deathly quiet about it until I can get a confirmed hire.

Five years of me busting my ass for them and coming in at all hours to cover for people, five years of doing shit that I didn’t even want to do just so they can make ends meet, and in the end there’s nothing to show for it. On the bright side this might motivate me for taking a few college classes. Maybe get into the store that’s closer to home.