Company Time

This is sort of an editorial about companies and the different ways employees can be treated.

If a company severely penalizes an employee for calling-in sick or being tardy even by a few minutes what the company cares about is the bottom line, the almighty dollar.  The well-being of the person is not really a consideration.    Any  health department might not want a sick person to work but the company might fire the person for not coming to work when he or she is sick.  Even when proper protocol is followed the penalty for missing work is the same.

A person might become sick by doing the work of two or three people but still is being paid far less that $15 an hour.  Some say $15 an hour is too much for a restaurant, industrial, or retail position.  In the minds of some a person holding a so-called non-professional position  should not be paid as much as a professional.   Okay, let's suppose someone in say a retail position is being asked to do the work of three people.  This is often the case so that the store can give customers lower prices.  If a person in authority realizes this and then cuts down the amount of work to a more reasonable amount then in theory this person should then be paid a third of what he or she was earning  or else he was not being paid enough when overworked.  So, imagine someone being paid  $5 an hour in a retail position with a workload she can handle.  That doesn't  sound like a living wage, does it?

There is a company that will not pay overtime to an employee.  If the employee works over 40 hours, then he or she must cut the overtime.  The overtime is cut at the employee's lunch or meal break.  The person cuts overtime by spending more time off-of-the-clock.  However, if the person cuts 11 minutes or more (up to two hours) at the beginning of a shift this is considered being tardy.  If the person is more than two hours late then the tardy turns into an absence.

I know of a major retailer who has employees work on Thanksgiving Day, a time a lot of people want to spend with family.  The employees do earn Holiday Pay.  The company also offers a bonus discount for two days for any employees who worked on Thanksgiving.  However, if the person is somehow unaware of this discount until after those two days the discount is lost.  Plus, the store offers as a reward as an invitation to spend more money there.  How generous!

What I don't understand is why an employee helping a customer at the end of her shift has to later cut that time.  Once in a retail position  I had to stop what I was doing to help a customer find a product.  She complained about the selection of toothpicks after I led her to them.  Then, I got back to what I was doing which involved getting a ladder.  Anyway, all of this took seven minutes past when my shift ended.  The next day or so I didn't account for snow slowing me down so I didn't give myself enough time to get to work.  I thought, well, I need to cut seven minutes overtime anyway.  I clocked in at 11 minutes after my scheduled time, which is earlier than it needed to be due to my changing departments but this is another matter too complicated to address here. It happened to be 8:00 in the morning.  Then, I was penalized for being tardy and got a half of a point on my record.  I can only get four points on my record in the first six months of working at this company.  No matter that I worked for this company in the past for 7 consecutive years before quitting or that I'm being paid less now than I was then.  Yes, I'm bitter.  

Author's Note

This is my way of venting. Ha, ha.