Paying For Parking Just To Go To Work, "Unlimited" PTO, And 25 More Work Scams That We Need To Stop Normalizing
Recently, u/slipsbups asked people on Reddit to share the work scams that are so normalized we don't even realize they're scams. And in the comments, people brought up so many questionable practices that we've all somehow come to expect and accept (especially if you're working in America). Here's what they had to say:
1."Discouraging talking about how much money you make. It's literally only a tactic to keep workers from comparing notes and establishing financial fairness. Punishing you for talking about your salary is illegal [in the US] by the way, as is discouraging you from it."
2."Probably cellphones. Most jobs require a smartphone in some way, but you have to pay for it."
"People who download work apps on their personal devices and/or use their personal cellphone for company business without being reimbursed. You are subsidizing company costs, and they've convinced you that it's no big deal."
3."'Be here 15 minutes before your shift starts.' Yeah bro. Normally, I would because I like to ease in, make a coffee, etc. But if you require it and don’t pay, I’m rolling in at 9 on the dot."
4."Go above and beyond and we will reward you with...even more work."
5."For the Americans in the crowd: Let's talk about tying proper healthcare to our jobs, shall we? It's become so normalized that we sometimes forget how wild it is that a huge chunk of our healthcare security is linked to where we work. If you or one of your loved ones requires ongoing medical coverage, you literally CANNOT quit your job."
"If you're thinking about switching careers or just need a change of pace, there's this looming threat. You can't just leave, 'cause if something unfortunate happens, you're screwed. We are all hostages of our employers."
"And in the case of people with disabilities and chronic illnesses — we’re more apt to get fired for not meeting performance standards or 'unreliability' because we can’t predict when flareups will take place."
6."Unpaid lunches resulting in a 9-hour work day. Absolute fucking horseshit."
"Plus, the commute!
My work day is 10 hours long on days when I'm in the office instead of eight hours when I work at home (because I can actually use my lunch breaks and have no commute time)."
7. "Being gainfully employed without being able to even make basic ends meet."
Someone said that if you can’t pay your employees a livable wage so that they can live well in the same city the job is located in ….it actually means as a business you can’t afford to operate there. I never thought about it like that before.
— ❤️🔥 (@TheBlackLayers) April 28, 2023
8."'Team lead.' It really means you're going to get management responsibilities without management pay."
9."'Do it for the team, others are counting on you' to try and get free labor."
10."Attendance policies, like telling an employee who they can and can’t take time off to grieve for."
"Or even how garbage grief time is. If my partner passes, I get three days of bereavement."
11. "Mixing together sick and vacation PTO."
Microdosing PTO by dissociating during the workday
— sam (jester era) ✨ (@itsgremlinhours) October 3, 2022
"Then after you pull it, you get dinged for using PTO without 48 hours notice. But it's also my sick leave, and I don't know 48 hours in advance that I'm going to have a migraine."
12."When they start processing payroll days out from your check but won't actually show you the amount until it's paid. Show us the amounts in advance and we can tell you if it's wrong before it's too late! I can't tell you how many employers have an app that says the hours I should be paid but still screw up and get me late fees on my bills!"
13."After work activities being 'not mandatory but advised' or affecting your standing at work. I used to have a two-hour commute, and at least once a month, my bosses would have the whole team go out for a few hours (after an eight-hour shift starting at the crack of dawn where every minute of our day was accounted for). I just wanted to clock in and then go home because I was just mentally exhausted by the end of the day, but would always get the stink eye when I would politely decline the three-hour detour for 'team building' with a team we couldn’t even socialize with since we were on the phone eight hours a day."
14."Having to find someone to cover for you when you call out sick. That's the manager's job, not yours."
15."Having to pay for parking just to go to work. This blew my mind as a New Yorker when I met people from other parts of the US. They’re forcing you to be at their premises, yet you have to pay for a separate parking facility, or worse yet, one of those corporate park deals where the employers there can easily cover employee parking, but they don’t."
16."Promising growth and development (dangling the carrot) but not following through."
17. "The expectation that you have to give two weeks notice to quit, but you can get fired overnight with zero warning because a graph made the chairman of the board’s portfolio sad."
i gave my two weeks notice and my boss goes "i can't believe you're springing this on me with no warning!" and it's like, actually, i'm springing this on you with two weeks warning
— Robert Schultz (@_RobertSchultz) August 7, 2021
18."That it’s 2023, but employers and policymakers still cling to the 40-hour work week model for knowledge work. It was designed for assembly lines long before we had powerful computers that fit in our pockets."
19."The part where I make 100 bucks for my employer and he gives me 10 for my efforts."
20."Being on salary. Salary is SUCH a scam that only benefits a company in that they can get free labor and not pay overtime. There is ZERO benefit to the employee. Why this even exists is something I find baffling."
21. "Unpaid internships. How and why have we okayed this??"
"unpaid internships are good because my unpaid internship helped me get experience that I needed" okay and that same internship could have just paid you for your labor while also giving you experience. just like how jobs and compensation works.
— jasminericegirl (@jasminericegirl) March 2, 2021
22."Being unable to leave early once you fulfill your daily/weekly quota. Must stay so they can exploit more of your energy."
23."Companies offering 3% raises while inflation is 8%."
24."I don’t know if it’s normalized, but it seems to be growing: 'unlimited' PTO."
"That’s because it’s proven that when companies go to that model, their workers use less PTO. And, in states like California where they got to pay out PTO upon the worker quitting or getting fired or laid off, they don’t have to because it’s unlimited and not earned like before."
25."Time theft by computer. You clock in at 7:58 a.m. and it rounds you to 8 a.m. Over a year, that time adds up. The clock-in computer systems doing it to millions of workers over a year steals billions of dollars."
26."Driving to the office so I can stare at my computer, when I can easily sit at home and stare at my computer."
27. And finally, "That pensions and retirement are gone, and we have to gamble money in the stock market to retire."
when i was a kid i thought a 401k just meant that you had 401 thousand dollars. now that i'm older i know it doesn't mean that. i dont know what it DOES mean but i know it doesnt mean that.
— zach silberberg supports SAG-AFTRA (@zachsilberberg) May 2, 2023
"That’s assuming that the meager scraps provided to you is enough to have money leftover to be able to gamble with."
