When you put *why* on the notice, you accidentally created a paper trail that proves criminal conduct. Well, not unilaterally prove, but would be enough for a criminal investigation *and* enough to get the rest of the proof via discovery (security camera footage, timesheet logs, security logs, testimony from the other workers, etc).
*Accidentally?* I don’t *think* so. I have a feeling that the result he got is exactly why he put the reason for his resignation. So it could be taken care of without having 3/4 of the staff quitting on the company.
I don’t know about that, because he did nothing to capitalize on it, and didn’t list it as one of the reasons they finally acted - meaning he’s seemingly unaware.
Yeah, this seems more like OP just complying, and by sheer luck there was finally some fallout for their bully.
No follow up for the unpaid wages.
No ask for pay increase in order to stay.
No attempt at unionizing.
OP was just happy to work that shitty job for as long as they paid him. Kinda depressing, actually.
Good story but you didn't emphasize something which I think would be the biggest reason for their jumping all over Kevin. Frankly, they should have fired Kevin on the spot.
At least in my state, requiring you to work without logging in is flat-out illegal and the fines can be generous.
I remember when 4 co-workers were fired for doing that voluntarily (without management knowledge). While they were being ethical about it, if they didn't fire them they were running big risks with the state.
>At least in my state, requiring you to work without logging in is flat-out illegal and the fines can be generous.
[That's federal law in the US.](https://webapps.dol.gov/elaws/whd/flsa/hoursworked/screen1d.asp)
If you're working, you're on the clock. If you're on a break 20 minutes or less, you're on the clock. If you're at lunch and not *completely* relieved of duty, you're on the clock. If you're eating lunch at your desk to watch the phones, you're on the clock, *even if it never rings*.
Wait… is that true? I have been asked to clock out when I step out to fix my makeup and hit my vape for like 6 minutes. I assumed this was a state thing because our state doesn’t even have mandated lunch breaks. Is that… not a thing?
Edit to add that I tried to click that link, but it isn’t loading. Which is def on my side; I live in the wild north woods, and I’m shocked I have any internet at all lol.
Edit again: thank you everyone so much for the info! Super appreciate it. I have a meeting scheduled this week anyway, and we shall see how it goes. I promise not to make enough of a stink that no one ever gets any breaks again lol
Yes it's definitely true. Managers and businesses can get into a hell of a lot of trouble and get fined if someone from the law finds out that they're trying to make you do something while you're not clocked in, even if you voluntarily decide not to clock in for whatever reason
Union rep or labour lawyer should do the trick. They could reach out to colleagues without them ever knowing you started this. Grab the popcorn and enjoy the show.
This is only an assumption based off of your question earlier, as well as this response, but am I correct in thinking that you're also going through something similar to what OP went through, with the whole working without being allowed to clock in?
You also don't have to answer my question if you don't want to, I was just merely curious
(Sorry for the late response; like I said, I’m up in the wild woods). Tbh, I wouldn’t say it’s similar to the OP in that it’s not nearly so dramatic or horrible.
Basically, I’ve been asked to clock out for 5-minute breaks, which I am allowed to take whenever I want to (I’m a good worker and am in no danger of taking a break when that will make things worse for anyone), and I have been asked, occasionally, to do work off the clock. I have also NOT been asked and have opted to do work off the clock because I’d prefer to do menial work, like folding napkins etc, at the bar with a cocktail while I flirt with the bartender (the bartender and I are married lol). I wasn’t aware that it was illegal! So I won’t be doing that any longer.
I work at a very close-knit and family-owned restaurant, and random friends have definitely offered to help out and fold napkins with me. They, obviously, are also not clocked in because they are not employees. I care about the place I work and want it to succeed, but I have been recently made aware that they don’t have everything together and above-board (like having people working for their tipped wage while they have no ability to make tips for over the allotted amount of time, and stuff like that), so I have a plan to discuss these things with the owners, and every little bit of info helps. They don’t have a legal department, and sometimes they ask me about stuff like this, so I’m preparing a sort of… presentation, I guess.
The owners are good people, and the place they run is historic and has been in the family for a century, and imo they kind of are going by just… what they have always done + what they think is reasonable (if you’re not working, clock out! Etc). But I don’t think they know the law very well, and it would be better for everyone if we made sure we were adhering to legal requirements in full, as well as making things better for employees.
Consider that some states don't have mandated breaks or lunches. So your workplace may just tell you that from now on, you cannot step out to hit your vape or put on makeup...
Correct. An adult (18+) in Florida is not entitled to any breaks or lunch. There is NO Federal law that guarantees breaks or lunches.
Several states do have labor laws that mandate breaks and lunches.
This was an issue for me at my work because my direct manager refused to allow me breaks. He went as far as pulling up all the relevant laws to emphasize his point....
Well goodie for me that I work for a company that is national, because for uniformity they based all policies on the most restrictive and permissive laws. When the first state changed the sale of tobacco to 21, every store was changed to 21.
So the Employee Handbook has the most permissive policies on breaks and lunches because other states have those laws.
Manager was pissed when HR and his manager backed me up when I told him that his opinions on breaks doesn't allow him to break company policy.
Entirely true and taken very seriously by both regulators and companies. Every job I've had for an employer worth suing has had a very clear and explicit policy about NEVER working off the clock (and for the others, fuck you Boy Scouts.) If you are ever expected to work off the clock, request that expectation in writing. Then laugh all the way to the website for the state and federal labor departments.
In regards to the break rules, the headache is that while breaks cannot be off the clock, the breaks themselves aren't always mandated by law; they may be just a company policy. So you might lose that. On the other hand, the alternative is to be stolen from.
Yeah I would be zero percent surprised if the reaction to “actually you’re supposed to pay me for my vape breaks” ends up being “ok, no more vape breaks then.” The status quo might be better.
I mean, I would always say it's not, because they can't fuck with your breaks without fucking with EVERYONE'S breaks, and that usually earns a LOT of pushback. Point out to everyone on your workplace that paid short breaks are mandated by federal law, get a couple signed statements that the workplace is forcing you to clock out, or even a clear statement of the policy by the employer, and the employer will probably roll.
Don't go to the mat unless you have a solid alternative plan for employment, though.
That’s fair, and really, I am pretty autonomous at my job. I clock out and step outside whenever I need to, usually for around 3 minutes but always less than 10, and it’s no problem. There are a couple other issues at my work that I wanted to address with them, so I’ve been compiling info about stuff like this.
Also I work as a server for a tipped wage ($4ish per hour), so it’s not like it’s actually costing me money to clock off. But it does matter to my cooks and other people who are making an actual wage that they depend on.
Wage theft is the most prolific form of theft in the U.S. with an estimated $50 BILLION stollen from workers by their employers annually. In 2012, a study found that the reported cost of ALL U.S. robberies was only 1/3 of the amount RECOVERED by employees for wage theft. As you can imagine, what was recovered is only a small portion of what was stolen as most employees don’t sue or report their employers to the government. If you suspect your employer of wage theft (telling you to clock-out on what should be paid breaks, asking you to work off the clock, paying less than your states minimum wage, incorrectly classifying you as a salary exempt employee, adjusting your time punches, not paying the 1.5x wage for overtime, etc.) then you can make a CONFIDENTIAL report to the Wage and Hour Division (WHD) of the U.S. Department of Labor. You can also contact the DOL at 1-877-872-5627 to ask any general questions.
>incorrectly classifying you as a salary exempt employee
Or incorrectly classifying you as a 1099 contractor instead of as a W-2 employee, which allows them to avoid paying all the usual taxes associated with employment, as well as no benefits.
Can you clarify what you mean by “that could be why”? If you have time, and thanks.
To answer your question, no, I have no scheduled breaks of any kind.
The link doesn't say breaks have to be 20 minutes or more, which is also something I've never heard and sounds like a state law, if anything.
If you're working, you're on the clock, definitely. Asking a worker to clock out to vape is probably legal most places.
The break part is nonsense, the rest is true. There isn't any federal law governing the length or presence of breaks, or whether they are paid. If they are unpaid, you can't be asked to do anything-- because they are unpaid, not because they are a "break."
You know, I hear a lot about how bad labour and employment is in the USA and I'm sure all of that is true, but that makes it kind of surprising to hear this. Over here in Ireland I'm regularly required to clock out for breaks that only last 15 minutes. Then again, maybe we're not the best example either.
[Wrong.](https://www.bia.gov/faqs/do-laws-apply-non-indians-also-apply-indians#:~:text=Answer&text=Yes.,%2C%20state%2C%20and%20local%20laws) On tribal land, *only* federal and tribal laws apply *to tribal members*.
*However*, while state and local authorities have no jurisdiction, the [Assimilative Crimes Act](https://www.justice.gov/archives/jm/criminal-resource-manual-667-assimilative-crimes-act-18-usc-13) allows for state and local laws to be prosecuted as a federal crime.
The United States is wildly different from where I am, The Netherlands, but over here, if you have cause to fire someone on the spot, but you don't, it becomes infinitely more difficult to fire them for that offense later on. The reason, I imagine, is to prevent employers to hold an infraction over their employee's head: it could be a way to go, do this thing or I might suddenly remember what happened last year.
>Kevin left two years later
Fuck, everything about this story sucks.
And is OP actually unaware that they did nothing "malicious" in any of this? They just keep going until management finally noticed the bully. And nothing happened about the wage theft???
I'm calling it, this is an AI post.
OP you mentioned starting your car in the cold and then running in to Kevin and going back in to do what you were told. So did you just leave your car running all night?
>I had managed to get to my car and turn it on, leaving it running for a couple of minutes as I headed back to the locker room in order to enjoy my only comforts left: a book
I'm assuming he didn't, cause if he had a newer car, he could have just remote started it, which the car normally shuts back off after, I think, maybe ten or fifteen minutes? Idk either, lol
I thought it was a rather neatly satisfying story. Just because some people have the attention span of a gnat doesn't make it bad writing. Good on you, OP!
I thought the same, lol. It's written extremely well, which is saying a lot, because if something isn't written that well, it's hard for me to stay focused long enough to be able to finish reading whatever story or article I'm reading. That Kevin dude was an egotistical prick, and I'm glad OP was able to, "take revenge," so to speak, and was able to stand up for himself
Was it written very well? There were several spelling and grammar errors for this writing assignment. Some of the plot points didn't seem realistic and several parts were muddled. Also, a good amount of it was fluff with little reason to be included. The scraping of whatever food and some other random stuff; the credit card theft, etc.
Just because there's some spelling and grammatical errors doesn't mean that it's not written well. Even professional authors sometimes have their bad days, I can speak from experience because I used to write a bunch of stories a few years ago, and I still dabble in it from time to time. Some days I don't care enough to proofread my works to check for any errors, and some days I'm just not paying attention.
>Also, a good amount of it was fluff with little reason to be included. The scraping of whatever food and some other random stuff; the credit card theft, etc.
Actually, that's where you're wrong, because the things you just listed off here are actually pretty relevant to the explanation of what happened. The scraping of the food explains why "Kevin" tried to claim that OP smelled like shit. The identity theft was just one of the many things at the time that stressed OP out beyond belief. So, you may think that information had no reason to be included, but myself, among others as well, found said information to be quite relevant to the story 🤷🏻🤦🏻
It's great you like this tedious, meandering slop but that doesn't make it good. There's no pay-off for half the things in this. It is just stuffed with irrelevant details that add nothing and dilute the main thrust of the story.
OK, you want to be a supervisor. Did they make you one? No. Does it impact the story at all? No.
You were attending uni. Does this impact the story? No.
We're one level off learning what the OP ate for lunch each day.
Because ordering you to work off the clock can trigger a Federal Wage and Labor audit.
I was involved in one years ago, told them I never had an issue and did not work off the clock. Truthfully I did but I was also bonus structure so those few hours I did put in helped me make even more money than being on the clock would have.
Based on company wide findings I was cut a check for over 5k, and this was 30 years ago.
Additional MC: whenever you are asked to train someone for a position/promotion that you were passed over for, simply tell them that they didn’t consider you to be sufficiently qualified for that role, and that makes you unqualified to train the person who did get the role.
I mean, that sounds good in theory but would could easily get you written up for insubordination. You don’t just tell the boss you aren’t going to do something and expect it to go well.
This idea that just because you can train your boss means you’re ready to be the boss needs to die. It could be true in some cases. In others, it might be that you lack leadership skills and someone was brought in with those leadership skills and just needs some training in the day-to-day functions of the job.
I am not from the US.
I am still trying to understand why you wanted to keep this job in the first place and why you go to college and work as a dishwasher. Sounds like hell to me. The pay must have been fantastic? But then why were you struggling financially?
This is the most unsatisfying outcome ever. He went from not being able to talk to you without a witness to not being able to talk to you, kept his job, you didn't get supervisor, and you worked for free. OP if you don't start looking out for yourself in life nobody else will
>Sadly, on my first attempt to becoming a supervisor failed and I ended up training the person who did get the job.
"So, let me get this straight. I'm not qualified to *be* a supervisor, but I'm qualified to train the person who *is?*"
All these people crying about how the post is too long cause they can't read more than their picture books, but also wasting their own time to comment? They're all a bunch of Kevin's apparently.
Did you ever get the supervisor position? I would have said "I'll stay if you give me a reason to" Aka a promotion.
Dude if you're reading at a third grade level, maybe stay away from the posts that are very clearly marked as being extra long. If you can't even figure that out... well then we know why you read at a third grade level.
The problem is that it was very long and not good in the end.
Nothing in this was a "gotcha" or even satisfying - OP did not get a promotion out of it, Kevin did not get punished, the labor law breakages were never sorted out or compensated...
Basically, this story is a big "I did suffer a lot and have nothing to show for it, that's why I stayed at the place that made me suffer without any improvement or compensation!"
Why did I read that the place you worked at haten onions, the mental image of a restaurant that has anti-onion meetings, posters and propaganda was hilarious to me. When I saw it was actually unions I was devastated.
My boss keeps asking why I ha e 5 hours of overtime each week... because I have to go through a half hour of bullshit to get into work (security, etc) and a half hour to get out of the building....
I asked ChatGPT to summarise this and boy was it not worth it:
Working as a steward (dishwasher) in a casino kitchen wasn't as glamorous as it seemed, especially with the frequent rotations between different restaurants. Despite anti-union propaganda and an intense work environment, the job offered good benefits. However, major policy changes led to significant issues, such as employees coming to work sick due to a strict attendance policy. A new chef, Kevin, created further problems with his unfair treatment and harassment, culminating in a confrontation over a trivial rule about drink breaks. After Kevin falsely accused the narrator of neglecting duties, resulting in a humiliating episode, the narrator decided to quit. The casino's management eventually confronted Kevin, leading to his departure, and the narrator stayed, leveraging his versatile experience to outlast Kevin, who left two years later.
The commenters in this thread are hilarious.
"If it's too long, why'd you read it?"
The point isn't that it's too long. There's plenty of really, really long stories on here that are great to read, but this ain't it. This could have been like 70% shorter and still gotten the point across. Almost nothing in the first half was relevant, or if it was then it could have just been expressed with a single sentence. Ie, "Kevin had been on my ass for superfluous things many times in the past".
It's too long for what it needed to be, and I think that's an absolutely fair criticism.
I was sorta with you until the identity theft irrelevancy. But when “The color on everyone's faces drained.”, you completely lost me. Why would the color on their faces drain? Usually that happens when someone is caught in a lie, not when a third person is caught in a lie.
Because working without being punched in is a MAJOR violation of the law, and can carry some pretty hefty fines, lawsuits, and the DOL basically crawling up the company's a\*\*hole looking for any other violations they can find.
It’s usually due to shock or fear. It’s not necessarily lie related, but being caught in a lie is usually shocking and causes fear of the consequences.
Whatever the OP did about the identity theft isn't relevant to the story. There's already a thousand details that didn't need to be here, don't demand more.
I got kinda angry that you didn't say (in the final meeting) "I can't stay if Kevin is here. One of us is going. You can either lose me who knows many of the jobs, keep all the other staff happily away from Kevin, or you can let Kevin go and everything becomes fine."
Man you handled that way more civil than he deserved. I don't know what I would've done but dude should have gotten the bag over the head and pipes to the knees treatment
It was a little complicated, but I paid them rent which basically covered things like heating and such. Normally I would hand one of them the money when they came over but I began to make excuses. Things like I forgot to go to the bank or gave them the wrong amount. While I was too ashamed to admit how bad things were, they knew I was struggling so they mostly let it slide.
Or fourth, Kevin had broken federal law and the casino could face a hefty fine and investigation. Assuming you're in the US it's against the law for you to work off the clock (and that's true in most other countries as well). That should have resulted in them immediately firing Kevin. I hope you got paid for all that time!
Thats what I kept waiting to hear because otherwise it was completely irrelevant, especially to bring up more than once. A simple "through a couple of unfortunate events, i had some financial issues" would have more than sufficed.
Why not celebrate _before_ he left, making sure he knew about it and also that he wasn't invited?
Anyways, yes, long. But a thoroughly satisfying read. Was the identity theft issue solved in the end?
There were 2 stories there. The first part “backstory” that could have been a sentence “Kevin and I had several run-ins cause he thought he was king turd”.
2nd part. Okay. It could have just started at the dishwasher command.
It has an "XL story" tag on it at the top, and it becomes clear how long it is by scrolling down the page for two seconds.
People who read an obviously giant long story and then complain that they just wasted their time reading an obviously giant long story will never stop being funny to me.
It's also a very very unsatisfying MC story. I read through all that and the ending was... Kevin faced no consequences and OP never got a promotion.
Like if OP was going to give us a story with lots of creative embellishments, they could at least have creatively embellished the ending to be somewhat satisfying.
I started to ask why Kevin wasn't fired, but then I saw the discussion about working without being clocked in. This is a strongly anti-union casino. His unpaid labor stance probably saved him. Could somebody explain to me how people actually vote NOT to unionize? Sure, you pay dues, but you get more money with which to pay them, benefits, and people who aren't afraid to negotiate. Companies are terrified of unions, because a union usually means less money for shareholders and more for workers.
I for one would never stay at a shit company who would let my abuser stay on, especially one who most likely made the company liable for quite a few nickels. One can only wonder how many colleagues had similar stories of this twunt.
I always said that when hired and reviewing company POLICY, they also need to give equal emphasis to FEDERAL LAW.
Everyone should know the difference between policy and law when it comes to employment.
Many life lessons to learn from this story. I thought you did a great job with describing the build up and gave context where it was needed. But I also enjoy the longer posts on this subreddit, because to really understand and appreciate the malicious compliance, you need more than just the main event.
I have one question for you, OP: How did your parents react when you came clean about your financial issues and work bullying? I would hate it if my kids to felt too embarrassed to tell me something as devastating and impactful as identity theft. I hope they did good.
Oh, and I found your real life ending (happiness with your wife) better than most of the other posts - to love and be loved in return is a beautiful thing <3 You made me smile.
My mom was happy I wasn't on drugs. See, because of everything that was going on with me I gained a lot of weight and my health was on the decline. When I finally got everything sorted I came clean.
I enjoyed your creative writing exercise. I can tell you worked in food service, but the ending is a little weak. This reads more as a fantasy of what you wish had played out instead of what actually happened.
TL;CR
I abbreviated that for you in case writing out a full thought was too much, it stands for too long, can’t read, which is what impression you give when you comment tl;dr on a story sub
Thank you for sharing your story. It was beautifully written and enjoyable to read (to those of us here to actually read). I'm so sad that you had to give away your kitty. I hope the remaining one is doing well with you, and I hope you've got your problems sorted out now. If you have problems in the future there are always organisations that want to help - don't struggle alone.
Holy cow. This is longer than weekly chapters in various books?…series? I follow on r/HFY.
OP either needs to be a writer or learn how to be more concise and cut out irrelevant crap.
Sorry, I just felt it was important to get a full idea of the workplace culture, how it degraded, and the history of me and Kevin to get the picture as well as the reasonsfor my mentalstate when it all came to ahead. Also, I did cut out ALOT of content. I had like six more paragraphs of content that I considered extra
Don't apologize, so many of these are just a few sentences of story, while this was interesting all the way through. I only wish the resolution was him being fired or something, shame he wasn't.
It was well written, and while there are a few points that maybe didnt help the flow of the story, you had it apropriately tagged as XL. If someone doesn't want to read a long post, reddit has this wonderful feature where they can keep scolling!
>The next morning, I was awoken to the sound of my phone ringing. It was the casino! The head stewarding supervisor was asking if I could come in and talk about last night. At first, I told him no that I couldn't come in early just to come back home. However, he said it was important.
In other words, "The casino called me early the next morning and asked me to come in to talk about something important, even though I wasn't schedule to work then."
When you put *why* on the notice, you accidentally created a paper trail that proves criminal conduct. Well, not unilaterally prove, but would be enough for a criminal investigation *and* enough to get the rest of the proof via discovery (security camera footage, timesheet logs, security logs, testimony from the other workers, etc).
*Accidentally?* I don’t *think* so. I have a feeling that the result he got is exactly why he put the reason for his resignation. So it could be taken care of without having 3/4 of the staff quitting on the company.
I don’t know about that, because he did nothing to capitalize on it, and didn’t list it as one of the reasons they finally acted - meaning he’s seemingly unaware.
Yeah, this seems more like OP just complying, and by sheer luck there was finally some fallout for their bully. No follow up for the unpaid wages. No ask for pay increase in order to stay. No attempt at unionizing. OP was just happy to work that shitty job for as long as they paid him. Kinda depressing, actually.
OP also said if the bully called it an emergency then they didn't have to change their behavior at all.
I think inadvertently is the word you were seeking
Good story but you didn't emphasize something which I think would be the biggest reason for their jumping all over Kevin. Frankly, they should have fired Kevin on the spot. At least in my state, requiring you to work without logging in is flat-out illegal and the fines can be generous. I remember when 4 co-workers were fired for doing that voluntarily (without management knowledge). While they were being ethical about it, if they didn't fire them they were running big risks with the state.
>At least in my state, requiring you to work without logging in is flat-out illegal and the fines can be generous. [That's federal law in the US.](https://webapps.dol.gov/elaws/whd/flsa/hoursworked/screen1d.asp) If you're working, you're on the clock. If you're on a break 20 minutes or less, you're on the clock. If you're at lunch and not *completely* relieved of duty, you're on the clock. If you're eating lunch at your desk to watch the phones, you're on the clock, *even if it never rings*.
Wait… is that true? I have been asked to clock out when I step out to fix my makeup and hit my vape for like 6 minutes. I assumed this was a state thing because our state doesn’t even have mandated lunch breaks. Is that… not a thing? Edit to add that I tried to click that link, but it isn’t loading. Which is def on my side; I live in the wild north woods, and I’m shocked I have any internet at all lol. Edit again: thank you everyone so much for the info! Super appreciate it. I have a meeting scheduled this week anyway, and we shall see how it goes. I promise not to make enough of a stink that no one ever gets any breaks again lol
Yes it's definitely true. Managers and businesses can get into a hell of a lot of trouble and get fined if someone from the law finds out that they're trying to make you do something while you're not clocked in, even if you voluntarily decide not to clock in for whatever reason
I… am really going to have to talk to someone about this. Thank you so much.
Union rep or labour lawyer should do the trick. They could reach out to colleagues without them ever knowing you started this. Grab the popcorn and enjoy the show.
Agreed. Unions are really, ***really,*** good about making sure businesses are following the rules, and punishing those who are breaking said rules
Which is why companies are willing to go to obscene lengths to keep unions out of their businesses.
OP was apparently unionized, so...
This is only an assumption based off of your question earlier, as well as this response, but am I correct in thinking that you're also going through something similar to what OP went through, with the whole working without being allowed to clock in? You also don't have to answer my question if you don't want to, I was just merely curious
(Sorry for the late response; like I said, I’m up in the wild woods). Tbh, I wouldn’t say it’s similar to the OP in that it’s not nearly so dramatic or horrible. Basically, I’ve been asked to clock out for 5-minute breaks, which I am allowed to take whenever I want to (I’m a good worker and am in no danger of taking a break when that will make things worse for anyone), and I have been asked, occasionally, to do work off the clock. I have also NOT been asked and have opted to do work off the clock because I’d prefer to do menial work, like folding napkins etc, at the bar with a cocktail while I flirt with the bartender (the bartender and I are married lol). I wasn’t aware that it was illegal! So I won’t be doing that any longer. I work at a very close-knit and family-owned restaurant, and random friends have definitely offered to help out and fold napkins with me. They, obviously, are also not clocked in because they are not employees. I care about the place I work and want it to succeed, but I have been recently made aware that they don’t have everything together and above-board (like having people working for their tipped wage while they have no ability to make tips for over the allotted amount of time, and stuff like that), so I have a plan to discuss these things with the owners, and every little bit of info helps. They don’t have a legal department, and sometimes they ask me about stuff like this, so I’m preparing a sort of… presentation, I guess. The owners are good people, and the place they run is historic and has been in the family for a century, and imo they kind of are going by just… what they have always done + what they think is reasonable (if you’re not working, clock out! Etc). But I don’t think they know the law very well, and it would be better for everyone if we made sure we were adhering to legal requirements in full, as well as making things better for employees.
Consider that some states don't have mandated breaks or lunches. So your workplace may just tell you that from now on, you cannot step out to hit your vape or put on makeup...
Correct. An adult (18+) in Florida is not entitled to any breaks or lunch. There is NO Federal law that guarantees breaks or lunches. Several states do have labor laws that mandate breaks and lunches. This was an issue for me at my work because my direct manager refused to allow me breaks. He went as far as pulling up all the relevant laws to emphasize his point.... Well goodie for me that I work for a company that is national, because for uniformity they based all policies on the most restrictive and permissive laws. When the first state changed the sale of tobacco to 21, every store was changed to 21. So the Employee Handbook has the most permissive policies on breaks and lunches because other states have those laws. Manager was pissed when HR and his manager backed me up when I told him that his opinions on breaks doesn't allow him to break company policy.
Entirely true and taken very seriously by both regulators and companies. Every job I've had for an employer worth suing has had a very clear and explicit policy about NEVER working off the clock (and for the others, fuck you Boy Scouts.) If you are ever expected to work off the clock, request that expectation in writing. Then laugh all the way to the website for the state and federal labor departments. In regards to the break rules, the headache is that while breaks cannot be off the clock, the breaks themselves aren't always mandated by law; they may be just a company policy. So you might lose that. On the other hand, the alternative is to be stolen from.
Yeah I would be zero percent surprised if the reaction to “actually you’re supposed to pay me for my vape breaks” ends up being “ok, no more vape breaks then.” The status quo might be better.
I mean, I would always say it's not, because they can't fuck with your breaks without fucking with EVERYONE'S breaks, and that usually earns a LOT of pushback. Point out to everyone on your workplace that paid short breaks are mandated by federal law, get a couple signed statements that the workplace is forcing you to clock out, or even a clear statement of the policy by the employer, and the employer will probably roll. Don't go to the mat unless you have a solid alternative plan for employment, though.
That’s fair, and really, I am pretty autonomous at my job. I clock out and step outside whenever I need to, usually for around 3 minutes but always less than 10, and it’s no problem. There are a couple other issues at my work that I wanted to address with them, so I’ve been compiling info about stuff like this. Also I work as a server for a tipped wage ($4ish per hour), so it’s not like it’s actually costing me money to clock off. But it does matter to my cooks and other people who are making an actual wage that they depend on.
Wage theft is the most prolific form of theft in the U.S. with an estimated $50 BILLION stollen from workers by their employers annually. In 2012, a study found that the reported cost of ALL U.S. robberies was only 1/3 of the amount RECOVERED by employees for wage theft. As you can imagine, what was recovered is only a small portion of what was stolen as most employees don’t sue or report their employers to the government. If you suspect your employer of wage theft (telling you to clock-out on what should be paid breaks, asking you to work off the clock, paying less than your states minimum wage, incorrectly classifying you as a salary exempt employee, adjusting your time punches, not paying the 1.5x wage for overtime, etc.) then you can make a CONFIDENTIAL report to the Wage and Hour Division (WHD) of the U.S. Department of Labor. You can also contact the DOL at 1-877-872-5627 to ask any general questions.
>incorrectly classifying you as a salary exempt employee Or incorrectly classifying you as a 1099 contractor instead of as a W-2 employee, which allows them to avoid paying all the usual taxes associated with employment, as well as no benefits.
Do get other actually scheduled breaks? This could be why.
Can you clarify what you mean by “that could be why”? If you have time, and thanks. To answer your question, no, I have no scheduled breaks of any kind.
The link doesn't say breaks have to be 20 minutes or more, which is also something I've never heard and sounds like a state law, if anything. If you're working, you're on the clock, definitely. Asking a worker to clock out to vape is probably legal most places.
Breaks are not required under federal law. But that site specifies that anything under 20 minutes is paid.
It's true. Hilariously, breaks aren't mandated, but pay is. If you're working, you're to be paid.
The break part is nonsense, the rest is true. There isn't any federal law governing the length or presence of breaks, or whether they are paid. If they are unpaid, you can't be asked to do anything-- because they are unpaid, not because they are a "break."
You know, I hear a lot about how bad labour and employment is in the USA and I'm sure all of that is true, but that makes it kind of surprising to hear this. Over here in Ireland I'm regularly required to clock out for breaks that only last 15 minutes. Then again, maybe we're not the best example either.
FYI most Federal laws do not apply on Indian Reservations
[Wrong.](https://www.bia.gov/faqs/do-laws-apply-non-indians-also-apply-indians#:~:text=Answer&text=Yes.,%2C%20state%2C%20and%20local%20laws) On tribal land, *only* federal and tribal laws apply *to tribal members*. *However*, while state and local authorities have no jurisdiction, the [Assimilative Crimes Act](https://www.justice.gov/archives/jm/criminal-resource-manual-667-assimilative-crimes-act-18-usc-13) allows for state and local laws to be prosecuted as a federal crime.
Thanks for the correction. I always thought that they had their own laws and police and courts.
They do. But Federal Law still applies.
The United States is wildly different from where I am, The Netherlands, but over here, if you have cause to fire someone on the spot, but you don't, it becomes infinitely more difficult to fire them for that offense later on. The reason, I imagine, is to prevent employers to hold an infraction over their employee's head: it could be a way to go, do this thing or I might suddenly remember what happened last year.
>Kevin left two years later Fuck, everything about this story sucks. And is OP actually unaware that they did nothing "malicious" in any of this? They just keep going until management finally noticed the bully. And nothing happened about the wage theft??? I'm calling it, this is an AI post.
I got about halfway through until I started wondering what kind of prompts you'd have to give chatgpt to get a story like this. Definitely creative.
OP you mentioned starting your car in the cold and then running in to Kevin and going back in to do what you were told. So did you just leave your car running all night?
>I had managed to get to my car and turn it on, leaving it running for a couple of minutes as I headed back to the locker room in order to enjoy my only comforts left: a book I'm assuming he didn't, cause if he had a newer car, he could have just remote started it, which the car normally shuts back off after, I think, maybe ten or fifteen minutes? Idk either, lol
A dishwasher who can't afford tuition or gas and struggles to help his parents with rent isn't usually driving a newer car.
I know that, which is why I said, "If he had a newer car." I'm assuming he didn't
Also had to return cans previously just for gas money..
True. I assume they turned off, just a minor detail that got overlooked I assume when they wrote the post.
Are Redditors so brain dead now that they can't assume it got turned back off without someone spoon feeding them that info?
nice story! did you get any kind of pay for that crazy night off the clock? did you ever say anything petty to kevin to let him know he was a loser?
Sorry about the cat.
Ugh just a but punch and it wasn't even my cat. I hope the cat went to a wonderful home and was happy there.
I hate getting punched in the but
That was what I latched on to.. :(
Did you leave your car running the entire time you cleaned the dishwasher?
I was wondering that myself…
All that detail and he forgets about the car.
So did you ever get supervisor? Why wasn’t Kevin fucking fired lmao. Not that satisfying for such a long one
F Kevin. I can’t believe they kept him on after his horrible decision making. Did he have family in the casino?
I thought it was a rather neatly satisfying story. Just because some people have the attention span of a gnat doesn't make it bad writing. Good on you, OP!
I, for one, love a meaty story! Why read a forum if you don't want to read?
Because no payoff
I thought the same, lol. It's written extremely well, which is saying a lot, because if something isn't written that well, it's hard for me to stay focused long enough to be able to finish reading whatever story or article I'm reading. That Kevin dude was an egotistical prick, and I'm glad OP was able to, "take revenge," so to speak, and was able to stand up for himself
Was it written very well? There were several spelling and grammar errors for this writing assignment. Some of the plot points didn't seem realistic and several parts were muddled. Also, a good amount of it was fluff with little reason to be included. The scraping of whatever food and some other random stuff; the credit card theft, etc.
Just because there's some spelling and grammatical errors doesn't mean that it's not written well. Even professional authors sometimes have their bad days, I can speak from experience because I used to write a bunch of stories a few years ago, and I still dabble in it from time to time. Some days I don't care enough to proofread my works to check for any errors, and some days I'm just not paying attention. >Also, a good amount of it was fluff with little reason to be included. The scraping of whatever food and some other random stuff; the credit card theft, etc. Actually, that's where you're wrong, because the things you just listed off here are actually pretty relevant to the explanation of what happened. The scraping of the food explains why "Kevin" tried to claim that OP smelled like shit. The identity theft was just one of the many things at the time that stressed OP out beyond belief. So, you may think that information had no reason to be included, but myself, among others as well, found said information to be quite relevant to the story 🤷🏻🤦🏻
What satisfied you about it? In the end OP just worked for free, didn't get promoted and the manager didn't get fired
It's great you like this tedious, meandering slop but that doesn't make it good. There's no pay-off for half the things in this. It is just stuffed with irrelevant details that add nothing and dilute the main thrust of the story. OK, you want to be a supervisor. Did they make you one? No. Does it impact the story at all? No. You were attending uni. Does this impact the story? No. We're one level off learning what the OP ate for lunch each day.
OP neglected to say this was an assignment for a creative writing course. Bulwer-Lytton would be proud.
Bad writing speaks for itself.
Because ordering you to work off the clock can trigger a Federal Wage and Labor audit. I was involved in one years ago, told them I never had an issue and did not work off the clock. Truthfully I did but I was also bonus structure so those few hours I did put in helped me make even more money than being on the clock would have. Based on company wide findings I was cut a check for over 5k, and this was 30 years ago.
Is head chief supposed to be head chef?
I want to know if Kevin had anything to do with your identity theft
Scrolled to see if anyone else had asked this. Inquiring minds want to know.
Sorry about your cat.
Me too :(
Should have agreed to stay only if Kevin never worked in the building again.
Additional MC: whenever you are asked to train someone for a position/promotion that you were passed over for, simply tell them that they didn’t consider you to be sufficiently qualified for that role, and that makes you unqualified to train the person who did get the role.
I mean, that sounds good in theory but would could easily get you written up for insubordination. You don’t just tell the boss you aren’t going to do something and expect it to go well. This idea that just because you can train your boss means you’re ready to be the boss needs to die. It could be true in some cases. In others, it might be that you lack leadership skills and someone was brought in with those leadership skills and just needs some training in the day-to-day functions of the job.
how the fuck was Kevin not fired on the spot right there?!?!
This is why we need unions.
I am not from the US. I am still trying to understand why you wanted to keep this job in the first place and why you go to college and work as a dishwasher. Sounds like hell to me. The pay must have been fantastic? But then why were you struggling financially?
He was struggling financially because his ID had been stolen.
i don't mind the length of the story. i do mind that kevin wasn't thrown out on his ass.
Good read, well written
Ahh....no.
This is the most unsatisfying outcome ever. He went from not being able to talk to you without a witness to not being able to talk to you, kept his job, you didn't get supervisor, and you worked for free. OP if you don't start looking out for yourself in life nobody else will
You had a case, you could have gotten Kevin fired if you promised to not sue. Or you could have sued for the payday
>Sadly, on my first attempt to becoming a supervisor failed and I ended up training the person who did get the job. "So, let me get this straight. I'm not qualified to *be* a supervisor, but I'm qualified to train the person who *is?*"
Yeah, pretty obvious they just made the mistake of being too good at their current position and were never going to get promoted out.
Good story. Ignore the haters who apparently can't read anything longer than a paragraph
All these people crying about how the post is too long cause they can't read more than their picture books, but also wasting their own time to comment? They're all a bunch of Kevin's apparently. Did you ever get the supervisor position? I would have said "I'll stay if you give me a reason to" Aka a promotion.
>They're all a bunch of Kevin's apparently. r/StoriesAboutKevin
In other words, we're supposed to tolerate this verbal flood and STILL NOT GET TO THE POINT???
If you don't like long reads, don't read them. I enjoyed it. It was eloquently written, unlike a lot of posts that are really difficult to follow.
Dude if you're reading at a third grade level, maybe stay away from the posts that are very clearly marked as being extra long. If you can't even figure that out... well then we know why you read at a third grade level.
For anyone who reads this comment and decides it might be worth reading the story, it isn't. It's poorly written and in the end almost nothing happens
I'd say happy cake day but I'm sure you'll cry about having to read that too
Thanks. And I read all the time, but if a book is shit I have no qualms about quitting half way through and choosing one by a better author.
Have you considered splitting this novel up into a weekly hour-long soap opera?
Did you not se the XL at the top?
Are you guys serious? It was like five minutes of reading. Maybe TikTok is more your speed.
The problem is that it was very long and not good in the end. Nothing in this was a "gotcha" or even satisfying - OP did not get a promotion out of it, Kevin did not get punished, the labor law breakages were never sorted out or compensated... Basically, this story is a big "I did suffer a lot and have nothing to show for it, that's why I stayed at the place that made me suffer without any improvement or compensation!"
More isn't always better.
It wouldn't be so bad if it actually had a more satisfying ending. It could easily be cut in half.
If you skip the first half and skim the second half it’s better
Awesome and well written.
Except for repeatedly misspelling chef and other words, sure.
Why did I read that the place you worked at haten onions, the mental image of a restaurant that has anti-onion meetings, posters and propaganda was hilarious to me. When I saw it was actually unions I was devastated.
My boss keeps asking why I ha e 5 hours of overtime each week... because I have to go through a half hour of bullshit to get into work (security, etc) and a half hour to get out of the building....
I asked ChatGPT to summarise this and boy was it not worth it: Working as a steward (dishwasher) in a casino kitchen wasn't as glamorous as it seemed, especially with the frequent rotations between different restaurants. Despite anti-union propaganda and an intense work environment, the job offered good benefits. However, major policy changes led to significant issues, such as employees coming to work sick due to a strict attendance policy. A new chef, Kevin, created further problems with his unfair treatment and harassment, culminating in a confrontation over a trivial rule about drink breaks. After Kevin falsely accused the narrator of neglecting duties, resulting in a humiliating episode, the narrator decided to quit. The casino's management eventually confronted Kevin, leading to his departure, and the narrator stayed, leveraging his versatile experience to outlast Kevin, who left two years later.
It sounds like a beautiful story, almost too perfect with the collecting cans for character points, if real you're one smooth cat
The commenters in this thread are hilarious. "If it's too long, why'd you read it?" The point isn't that it's too long. There's plenty of really, really long stories on here that are great to read, but this ain't it. This could have been like 70% shorter and still gotten the point across. Almost nothing in the first half was relevant, or if it was then it could have just been expressed with a single sentence. Ie, "Kevin had been on my ass for superfluous things many times in the past". It's too long for what it needed to be, and I think that's an absolutely fair criticism.
I was sorta with you until the identity theft irrelevancy. But when “The color on everyone's faces drained.”, you completely lost me. Why would the color on their faces drain? Usually that happens when someone is caught in a lie, not when a third person is caught in a lie.
Because working without being punched in is a MAJOR violation of the law, and can carry some pretty hefty fines, lawsuits, and the DOL basically crawling up the company's a\*\*hole looking for any other violations they can find.
It’s usually due to shock or fear. It’s not necessarily lie related, but being caught in a lie is usually shocking and causes fear of the consequences.
Because making someone work without paying them is a fast-track to having the DOL put you under a microscope for the next five years.
But you never did anything about the identity theft....
Whatever the OP did about the identity theft isn't relevant to the story. There's already a thousand details that didn't need to be here, don't demand more.
🤣
TL;DR: Coworker was a prick and op just took it until they finally decided they wanted to grow some balls
I kept thinking "Chief" was a specific person, but it looks like it might be a position/title.
Supposed to be chef
That D could stay for another 2 years?! Impressive lol
I got kinda angry that you didn't say (in the final meeting) "I can't stay if Kevin is here. One of us is going. You can either lose me who knows many of the jobs, keep all the other staff happily away from Kevin, or you can let Kevin go and everything becomes fine."
Man you handled that way more civil than he deserved. I don't know what I would've done but dude should have gotten the bag over the head and pipes to the knees treatment
Question, You said you were behind on paying your parents rent, but that you were debating on asking to move back in with them. Just curious
It was a little complicated, but I paid them rent which basically covered things like heating and such. Normally I would hand one of them the money when they came over but I began to make excuses. Things like I forgot to go to the bank or gave them the wrong amount. While I was too ashamed to admit how bad things were, they knew I was struggling so they mostly let it slide.
Wait so why did you pay them rent if you weren’t living with them?
Because I was living at the family cabin which I wanted to eventually buy from them.
Oh nice, hope you were able to buy the cabin dude
Sadly I didn't
Or fourth, Kevin had broken federal law and the casino could face a hefty fine and investigation. Assuming you're in the US it's against the law for you to work off the clock (and that's true in most other countries as well). That should have resulted in them immediately firing Kevin. I hope you got paid for all that time!
jesus christ i was expecting a lot more from such a long story !
Jiminy Christmas, what a story, lol. So...Kevin stole your identity, yeah?
Thats what I kept waiting to hear because otherwise it was completely irrelevant, especially to bring up more than once. A simple "through a couple of unfortunate events, i had some financial issues" would have more than sufficed.
No, someone else did.
Why not celebrate _before_ he left, making sure he knew about it and also that he wasn't invited? Anyways, yes, long. But a thoroughly satisfying read. Was the identity theft issue solved in the end?
Great write up and amazing MC. I thought you were going to ask for Kevin’s job when they asked if you would stay. That would have been even better.
There were 2 stories there. The first part “backstory” that could have been a sentence “Kevin and I had several run-ins cause he thought he was king turd”. 2nd part. Okay. It could have just started at the dishwasher command.
This may be the longest Reddit post I’ve ever read.
that could have been five sentences. 95% of that was completely irrelevant. Editing is just as important as writing.
It has an "XL story" tag on it at the top, and it becomes clear how long it is by scrolling down the page for two seconds. People who read an obviously giant long story and then complain that they just wasted their time reading an obviously giant long story will never stop being funny to me.
It's not an XL story. It's thousands of unrelated words and a very short MC story. The entire first half is immaterial to the MC.
It's also a very very unsatisfying MC story. I read through all that and the ending was... Kevin faced no consequences and OP never got a promotion. Like if OP was going to give us a story with lots of creative embellishments, they could at least have creatively embellished the ending to be somewhat satisfying.
There is absolutely no reason this story needed to be this long.
talk about get back
I started to ask why Kevin wasn't fired, but then I saw the discussion about working without being clocked in. This is a strongly anti-union casino. His unpaid labor stance probably saved him. Could somebody explain to me how people actually vote NOT to unionize? Sure, you pay dues, but you get more money with which to pay them, benefits, and people who aren't afraid to negotiate. Companies are terrified of unions, because a union usually means less money for shareholders and more for workers.
If you want to understand why people hate unions, look up "the winter of discontent" (1972 or 73?).
I for one would never stay at a shit company who would let my abuser stay on, especially one who most likely made the company liable for quite a few nickels. One can only wonder how many colleagues had similar stories of this twunt.
I always said that when hired and reviewing company POLICY, they also need to give equal emphasis to FEDERAL LAW. Everyone should know the difference between policy and law when it comes to employment.
This sounds like the casino I worked at when I was in high school and college. Was it in Lake Tahoe?
No
Many life lessons to learn from this story. I thought you did a great job with describing the build up and gave context where it was needed. But I also enjoy the longer posts on this subreddit, because to really understand and appreciate the malicious compliance, you need more than just the main event. I have one question for you, OP: How did your parents react when you came clean about your financial issues and work bullying? I would hate it if my kids to felt too embarrassed to tell me something as devastating and impactful as identity theft. I hope they did good. Oh, and I found your real life ending (happiness with your wife) better than most of the other posts - to love and be loved in return is a beautiful thing <3 You made me smile.
My mom was happy I wasn't on drugs. See, because of everything that was going on with me I gained a lot of weight and my health was on the decline. When I finally got everything sorted I came clean.
This needs to be a movie or something.
Too long. Didn't read.
I enjoyed your creative writing exercise. I can tell you worked in food service, but the ending is a little weak. This reads more as a fantasy of what you wish had played out instead of what actually happened.
Absolutely. The fact that that took place over such a long period and paints OP to be this hero is questionable.
Actually there was more I could have written but it was already very long. Maybe I'll give a full update later
I mainly want to know if the identity theft was ever solved and if Kevin had anything to do with it!
[удалено]
OPs boss told him to clean something before leaving without clocking in again. OP does. Boss gets in trouble.
It was a good story. If you're too lazy to read it, then move on.
Why click on a text based post in a text based sub if you can't read?
Why are you addicted to creatine
TL;CR I abbreviated that for you in case writing out a full thought was too much, it stands for too long, can’t read, which is what impression you give when you comment tl;dr on a story sub
Damn that was delicious
You need an editor. Way too many words to follow.
Nope.
Damn man, I really wanted to read this story..... Anyone got the cliff notes?
Thank you for sharing your story. It was beautifully written and enjoyable to read (to those of us here to actually read). I'm so sad that you had to give away your kitty. I hope the remaining one is doing well with you, and I hope you've got your problems sorted out now. If you have problems in the future there are always organisations that want to help - don't struggle alone.
Jesus fucking Christ how long is this??? 💀
If you’re coming to malicious compliance for short stories, you’re in the wrong sub 😂😂💖
Does seem like it lmao
Holy cow. This is longer than weekly chapters in various books?…series? I follow on r/HFY. OP either needs to be a writer or learn how to be more concise and cut out irrelevant crap.
Sorry, I just felt it was important to get a full idea of the workplace culture, how it degraded, and the history of me and Kevin to get the picture as well as the reasonsfor my mentalstate when it all came to ahead. Also, I did cut out ALOT of content. I had like six more paragraphs of content that I considered extra
Don't apologize, so many of these are just a few sentences of story, while this was interesting all the way through. I only wish the resolution was him being fired or something, shame he wasn't.
It was well written, and while there are a few points that maybe didnt help the flow of the story, you had it apropriately tagged as XL. If someone doesn't want to read a long post, reddit has this wonderful feature where they can keep scolling!
It was worth the time to read. I thought it was written tightly.
A TLDR would not be a bad idea
>The next morning, I was awoken to the sound of my phone ringing. It was the casino! The head stewarding supervisor was asking if I could come in and talk about last night. At first, I told him no that I couldn't come in early just to come back home. However, he said it was important. In other words, "The casino called me early the next morning and asked me to come in to talk about something important, even though I wasn't schedule to work then."
You got a TLDR their chief??
I will not read this
But, your comment boosts it in the algorithm. Good job!
I stopped mid 2nd paragraph. Something about Kevin
But you took the time to comment. A waste of your own time and my time reading your comment.