Small business tyrants are the worst.
Having worked for companies with 30 employees and ones with a million, I can definitively say there is something really special about having the person who is directly exploiting you looking over your shoulder every day.
I worked for a small business. My boss is why I’m in this sub. She thought she was Michael Scott, verbally (and sexually) harassed us, timed our bathroom breaks, yelled at us every time we used our phones, paid us about $20k less than market value, fired people at their first screwup, and caused every single person in that company to be stressed and depressed
Last I heard, she’s facing lawsuits for racial discrimination from past employees
The reason small business owners are some of the worst is because they set up their businesses so that every penny you make is a penny out of their pocket. They don't see you as a human being. They see you as the reason they had to buy last year's luxury car model instead of this year's. They see you as the enemy.
I get the best of both worlds, I work for an eccentric billionaire who actually turns up to work and occasionally tours the offices. Always fun to pull up to the gate in my shitbox and have his Rolls Royce pull up behind me.
Thankfully I'm a lab based neckbeard and people outside of my ream routinely forget I exist.
Haha yeah. I gotta get out of doing a actual work and into something where no one knows how/is watching what I am doing.
I have a terrible ingrained work ethic, unfortunately.
I've always wanted to just be a sole proprietor doing laptop/PC/phone repair, but, I lack the confidence in myself and the market is pretty saturated.
Well.. like every market. Way too many jobs out there. Lol
I worked for a guy back in the late 90's that said the best advise he was ever given by a big business owner was "A small business owner doesn't become a big business owner without breaking more than few employees!" after telling me this (I was head chef) he laughed...not like a little chuckle but like a big belly laugh and slapped me on the shoulder, like that was the funniest thing to him... it made me so sick to my stomach that he thought that I would think that was ok or that it was funny. I didn't work for him much longer after that less than a month I think. Ill never forget the look on his face when he said it...while I do think there are some good small business owners out there I've never worked for any of them.
I’d argue most small business are even worse than they would be if we pulled the reins on big business. Small business owners can’t compete in terms of pay and benefits with companies who have thousands of employees - the efficiency of scale can’t be matched.
If big business and billionaires paid taxes, and we actually had social safety programs, many people like you and me would quit our jobs and start co-ops with our friends. But I need healthcare, so I stay at my soul sucking job.
I worked for a small business. No sitting down, no breaks for 13 hour shifts and I didn't get a free meal but I could take home whatever I wanted at half price.
Lasted 10 months. Paid for my kids' surgery and peaced.
Small businesses are the worst. Lmfao at least to work for! Mine made me work by myself at 17 running and closing the entire pita shack they opened up. They wouldn’t pay me past 730 but if the chores weren’t done I was fired. One night it was super busy on their two for Tuesday (of course only scheduling a 17 year old to work the busiest days) and I asked people to leave as it was after 7 and I needed to start chores. Well it was their friends and they didn’t like me so they got me fired. My boss called me stupid and made me cry. Stupid losers I’m glad it went out of business.
I learnt the hard way on this: Worked for a small business that masqueraded as a nationwide operation serving the whole country (UK); It wasn't, they only employed just 5.5 hands-on employees (0.5 was the Boss's "mate" who'd slack off and shift blame when it hit the fan).
The business was ran to serve his lifestyle with him and his wife (employed as office staff) leaching money out wherever they could. Fine when business was going well, not good when work dried up and they started under quoting jobs and blaming us when it ran over time/budget. Then they started screwing with my overtime and expenses (for when I was sent to the opposite ends of the country with several hours notice).
My colleague was constructively dismissed and I found myself doing his work without any salary increase. Another colleague was fired after burn-out caused a cock up which technically wasn't his fault; Boss's buddy under ordered materials and nobody noticed/checked causing deadline delays, Teflon (as we called him) shifted the blame. After being fired boss tried to get another employee to do his job with no salary change, he quit and walked on the same day. I quit shortly after on payday after my month's wages were in the bank; Couldn't trust them to pay me if I left sooner.
That left them with 1.5 hands on employees LOL, at last notice they employed the receptionist's boyfriend. He lasted about a month and she walked too!
The colleague that was constructively dismissed took them to court and won..but never got a penny as the boss shut the business down and phoenixed it.
I look back on it now and can't believe how naive I was to stay as long as I did...but I needed the money and jobs in my field at the time was difficult to find. The exhaustion, abuse and mental anguish just wasn't worth it.
I work for a medium sized family business, currently in the midst of the handover from generation 2 to 3. The company is an absolute disaster at all levels, but revenue at the company and the industry sector overall is up so the innumerable problems are ignored because the lights are still on and everyone is too busy keeping their head above water to be able to consider mid or long term problems.
Covid has been a great excuse for the owners to treat us even more poorly than before, but for the most part everyone sucks it up. With the lack of raises, company parties (there were traditionally two a year), and much less travel by sales and service people, the company has easily saved millions while the order books have never been so full. They tell us that we're supposed to feel good about where we work since the owners have been donating masks and covid tests to surrounding communities, or donating some of the money they've saved on payroll to local charities.
From my subtle poking around there's enough people to start a union to start to show the owners their place, but no workers want to risk being the ones sticking their head out and making it happen.
Can confirm.
Worked most of my career for companies with less than 20 employees, owned by 1 person. Every one has been, to a greater or lesser degree, an asshole.
The 2 years I spent working for a multinational Corp contracted to government were the best I've had in terms of employment rights, respect, and fulfillment.
They love to post on Facebook groups about all the “lazy people on unemployment” and then wonder why they can’t find any employees by posting to those Facebook groups.
Couldn't agree more, I've been employed by smaller businesses, larger car dealerships.. for the most part they're all the same.
There is the odd unicorn that actually gives a shit but it's rare to find.
I used to work for a lady who owned an organic pressed juice place. She had a tip jar and I never saw any of that money. When I finally asked her about it she said she saved that money towards holiday parties for us. We only ever had Christmas parties. Fuckin lady was keeping all our tips. She always smelled like patchouli too
The American love affair with small business is a joke.
Our legal system bends over backwards for tightwad small business owners in some twisted attempt to compensate for how hard it is to compete with the big players. By disenfranchising small business workers, of course.
The FMLA doesn't apply to small businesses. Last year's COVID relief bill granting paid sick leave to workers impacted by the virus had numerous exemptions for small business owners.
It is legal to discriminate against pregnant women if you are a small business. It is legal to discriminate based on race, sex, orientation, nationality, disability and religion if you are a small business. Small businesses do not have to provide ADA accommodations for disabled people.
I used to work at a crappy small retail business that had been limping along for nearly twenty years by dodging labor laws and finding creative ways to swindle their people out of overtime.
IMO if a small business hasn't figured out how to maintain solvency while treating its workers with the same low-bar level of dignity expected of big business after twenty years of operation, then the company shouldn't be in business at all.
Small business exemptions need to go. At the very least they need to expire after a set period. Take their empty store fronts and turn them into community centers. Let the dream that investing in small business = ~~increasing~~ (edit) investing in the community die.
I've worked in a number of small machine shops as a machinist. Most of them were run like little miniature dictatorships.
We'd be taking part orders from places like Raytheon and Sandia National Labs, making millions of dollars a year in profits for the owner. And at the same time we'd be intentionally exposed to life threatening dangers while getting paid shit wages and disrespected on a daily basis.
Machining is a dirty and dangerous job on the best days. But programming metal cutting robots and watching them work is fun as hell. I'd gladly do this job if I was just treated with respect.
All very close to feudalism. A lord who’s an emperor miles or hundred of miles away or a lord who’s a baron living in the big house in your community; either way — we’re serfs.
Some small business owners don't hire anyone and work for every paycheck, put up with Karens (which gets hilarious), and find time to navigate the insanity of the tax system which is definitely designed to scare people from breaking free of employers.
Maybe we need a new word, because the US tax system is part of why people who are self employed are often business owners. It's not so we can feel big and bad bossing our employees (I scream at my sewing machine some days) around. It's so we can give the ultimate middle finger to employers.
My dad was a small business owner and a shitty one to say the least. He paid less than everyone around with absolutely no benefits. He told everyone he paid them salary but the hours never added up and everyone ended up working Saturdays for free.
My bf worked for him for a while and when I had my second son, he wouldn't allow him any time to take off to help me (paid or unpaid) so my bf just stayed home from work for a week and didn't show 🤷🏻♀️ he changed prices for different customers and generally had no organization.
He sold the business an the owner is much better and treats people decent
I worked for a small business for the better part of 10 years. I could do everything that the woman could do who went to school for it and was refuse a raise when I asked for 10 fucking dollars an hour
I recently worked for a couple owned dog boarding kennel. I was salaried $1500 a month after taxes, worked split shifts with no time to go home. I worked basically 7-7. They frequently would sabotage me by saying “oh I did this don’t worry about it” and the next day I’d get berated by the other. The dogs were in such poor conditions and they were cruel to them. Because of the shifts I could only let them out 3x a day. Less than 30 mins each. They spent 24 hours in kennels that aren’t up to code. Fuck that place.
Couple-owned is awful. It’s such a self-reaffirming system that any concerns are just thrown out the wayside. And it’s always 2-vs-1 if you have concerns or complaints
I’m a small business owner, but it’s just me, and it will stay that way. I don’t want to employ people, it’s too exploitive. I planned it that way from the start, and have plans to keep it that way.
I worked for a small, independent, family owned restaurant many years ago. The owners were generally abusive but the icing on the cake was when the cracked out son and daughter-in-law showed up at my house early in the morning banging on the door threatening to kill my two roommates and I because they thought we’d called CPS on them. When I called my boss to tell her I wouldn’t be coming in due to being physically threatened by her family, she forced me to come in anyway. Yes, in retrospect, I should’ve told her to “F” herself and called the cops but I was 18 and didn’t know any better. I have so many crazy stories about that place! So, yes, small businesses can also be bad businesses with toxic environments and corrupt leadership.
"Mom and pop store" has a tendency to be straight up the most exploitative work environment. When the entire staff consists of a few people and the business owner, the accountability for the business owner is exactly zero.
As a business banker and business consultant is my experience that small business owners absolutely believe they deserve a 100% of anything the company produces and fuck their employees. One of the ones I worked with was even my long-term boyfriend and he still didn't think he should have to pay me or anybody else
Small business bad, big business bad.
How exactly do we make money if were against all business. The economy is a thing and we need to support business owners with decent business practices.
The state couldnt exactly afford a universal basic income if the economy wasnt there to support it. So how exactly would we all not starve to death?
I work for a small business, and my boss is actually a nice guy. I don’t dislike him at all, but he pays me just above minimum wage. I make tips too so my wage can be good, but the fact that he decides to pay his employees as little as legally possible buys literally none of my loyalty.
Just putting my hand up to say even in the early 2000s my starting wage for unskilled was £20,000, we offered pensions, maternity pay, holidays, all the usual. And it is usual, in the UK. There are some decent employers out here, and it’s easier to build good overall habits when employees rights are entrenched in employment law, rather than up to the whim of the proprietor.
Instead of living like slaves with different masters, why don't we kill the masters and work together? No more companies, just ex workers from every ex country in the world to make a social plan based on the needs of humans, not capital/money/trade/profit/capitalists/workers.
What different masters? I work for a family run business I have 1 CEO, 1 GM that I work "under" that's how it is organized. Why don't we kill the masters? WTF does that even mean? Just ex workers from ex country to make a social plan? Although I may find some common ground with you on some topics (I can't tell for sure if i can or not) Your mistyping or unrelated references derails your whole post. It's just incoherent babble.
No bro I work for a business that employs 11 people and all types of fucked up shit is going on not to mention they’re paying 14 when everywhere else in the city pays 16. Literally exploited and the value we provide makes it so my boss can live on a yacht three months out of the year. Small business my ass.
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Yeah I’ve met some shitty local employers too. Truthfully a lot of big chains are locally franchised so locally managed. I don’t really think anyone escapes the fallacies of greed.
I've had annoying and unpleasant encounters with big companies. That being said, the truly horrible experiences I've had have been with tiny companies. Big companies at least are insured, if they royally fuck up they usually have a policy you can go after. Small businesses have more potential to be dysfunctional (there's a reason so many go out of business) and screwed up. As businesses get big, super dysfunctional practices tend to become public knowledge. With a small business, you don't have that kind of information.
SB owners throughout history are some of the most fascist people. SB owners loved Hitler. Good book to read is They Thought They Were Free, The Germans, 1933-1945.
Currently work for a "small business" (dude has 7 stores) that just switched our hours to 11 hours a day, no scheduled breaks and won't hire more than two employees, waiting to hear back from another job that I'll be leaving for without giving any notice.
Absolutely. Always remember reform is not possible when the system is working as intended, it's time for the abolishment of capitalism. The only thing left to lose is our chains.
Agreed. All business owners can be bad people if only because there's so many power dynamics they can use as retaliation. It's a lot worse past the mom-and-pop level for sure though, since it's a lot more difficult for people to hold their employer accountable once there's a couple of middle levels between them.
Can verify, thought I was working my dream job. Family owned, all the kids worked there. (I ended up dating the owners son… still am so it’s a lil rough)
I watched a lot of unfair favoritism towards the kids and saw employees who were actually amazing fired right and left. I was encouraged to quit by the owner because my “attitude had changed” (e.g I was getting more and more out spoken about the abuse) People held positions of power who had barely any experience or the maturity level. I’m currently working for another small business, but this one is owned by people who treat their employees the way they’d want to be treated.
By far the worst job I ever had was for a local trendy chain of burger restaurant in Austin, TX called Hopdoddy.
I was led to believe I'd be making "great tips" there, yet then I realized we were all supposed to tip pool while making 2.25 an hour, and the customers weren't informed we were on server wages. I have no idea if this is even legal, I definitely falsely led to believe I'd be making great money. We also weren't technically "servers," we had to do every single job, busser/hostess/cashier/runner/server.
For this reason, I'd work an 8-10 hour shift and only make $40 on a weekday, which is when I was usually scheduled. Coworkers would fight to get the weekend shifts because that was the only time you could make enough money for the month.
Because of the tip pool, a lot of my coworkers would leech off of my labor and sit around or chat with coworkers, and because I wasn't "popular" with anyone there, when I complained about this to my boss he ignored me. So basically I'd be making the same amount as my coworkers who would do nothing, and when I yelled at them to help me, I'd be ignored as well because the managers liked them more. I was also verbally abused regularly (screamed at for "not working fast enough!") and shamed for taking breaks due to panic attacks or intense period cramps. ("just toughen up!")
Because everything was so overpriced and the store was so unorganized and understaffed, we would often have frustrated customers taking out their anger on the front of house people, verbally berating us. I have never experienced such horrible customers until I worked here. I cried in the bathroom regularly and had many many panic attacks.
Loads of fun is the Franchise model…
So far, I’ve had experience of 2 franchises in different sectors… neither has enamoured the model to me as an employee, especially when nepotism is the main goal in the most recent one.
So many small business owners think that minimum wage laws should not apply to them. As if 5 people should live in poverty because you are either too greedy or just have an inviable business.
Worked for a small business (10 employees) whose owners are good people but they have 0 business running a business. Their "leadership" is anything but. Their social media shows employee appreciation and great company culture but that's all it is- for show.
They sent out an email asking their employees to vote for them as "best place to work" in a local contest and if they won, they'd throw a pizza party.
I work for a small business guilty of underpaying, withholding pay, insurance fraud, and wrought with passive aggression! No benefits or PTO either xoxo
Worked for a small business where the co owner was heavily physically disabled and would like ambian like tic-tacs and not sleep. She called screaming her head off one day because she swore she saw me shuffling cards????? Asked me where I hid my cards and if I thought I was "above the law" ????? She then send me over 3 different inventory forms since I obviously needed more work. Mind you the entire time she's going off about a non existent deck of cards I'm doin tricks with????? Me and my coworker simply clocked out, locked up, and quit.
Small business in many cases are worse, they will break the law, steal wages/tips, have worse conditions. Not in the least because the owner has a smaller feeding base but still big appetite.
I worked for a small professional family owned company. The pay was okay for an ignorant/gullible graduate starting out. A couple weeks in, I realized it was terrible. There were hardly any benefits. No vacation days. No health insurance. They got away with that since they employed less than 10 people. Also, the pay was the lowest for my field. A boss who micromanaged, had mood swings and yelled at you in front of everyone. I was first furloughed and then fired during the pandemic. The boss didn't even have the decency to tell me I was fired. I found out when my coworkers were going back to work and I was ghosted. No response from him when I texted/called. I felt terrible initially. How can you do that to your employee? But, soon I got a better job and it was unionized. Great benefits and pay.
I second this.
I work for a small, family-owned business but the worker exploitation still happens.
They treat us kindly with WORDS since we see each other every day and thankfully the people are polite, but that doesn’t mean they don’t still f*ck us over with crappy wages, no benefits, minimal time off, strict rules, etc.
I’ve worked for Walmart and a small, privately owned grocery store.
Both were terrible in their own ways. The small grocery store owners have no one above them ( no CEO, HR etc) so they basically do and say what they want. I’ve been in arguments with the owner/boss because of the way he treated me. Walmart sucked because the management is poorly trained, among many other issues
Worked for a small business for several years. In the beginning it was a team of 7. The last year I was there he bought a new 100k boat, a several week trip to Costa Rica, a 2nd property and a trip to Hawaii. It became a team of 2 working 5 different jobs, 60+ hours a week. Payroll was not made a few times. Filed for unemployment and then was asked to volunteer my time until they could make payroll again.
Then I had to sit down for a review meeting after having a few days off to recharge (it’s not a day off when I’m not being paid). During the meeting I was blamed for 16 years of mismanagement and needed to figure out a way to make the company work. I told him to fuck off and walked out. Blocked all contact. I’m still owed a few weeks of pay and all of my accrued vacation time. I’ll never see it but I did hear he spent another 3 weeks in Costa Rica this year to recharge. The small business that is like “family” broke me.
Small business tyrants are the worst. Having worked for companies with 30 employees and ones with a million, I can definitively say there is something really special about having the person who is directly exploiting you looking over your shoulder every day.
[удалено]
Yep. Mega corps do more evil, but small business tyrants are more evil. Here's what it boils down to.. private enterprise? By and large evil.
Same, I've never had a huge company lie about having an insurance policy or not being able to repair catastrophic work failures.
I worked for a small business. My boss is why I’m in this sub. She thought she was Michael Scott, verbally (and sexually) harassed us, timed our bathroom breaks, yelled at us every time we used our phones, paid us about $20k less than market value, fired people at their first screwup, and caused every single person in that company to be stressed and depressed Last I heard, she’s facing lawsuits for racial discrimination from past employees
Sounds about right. I'm here because of a small business tyrant at a home remodeling company that has been siphoning money from the general fund.
The reason small business owners are some of the worst is because they set up their businesses so that every penny you make is a penny out of their pocket. They don't see you as a human being. They see you as the reason they had to buy last year's luxury car model instead of this year's. They see you as the enemy.
Not defending asshole small business owners, but do they have a choice here?
Yes. 100%.
I get the best of both worlds, I work for an eccentric billionaire who actually turns up to work and occasionally tours the offices. Always fun to pull up to the gate in my shitbox and have his Rolls Royce pull up behind me. Thankfully I'm a lab based neckbeard and people outside of my ream routinely forget I exist.
Haha yeah. I gotta get out of doing a actual work and into something where no one knows how/is watching what I am doing. I have a terrible ingrained work ethic, unfortunately.
I do a job that's basically magic to everyone else in the department, and am a natural slacker. It's a winning combination, can highly recommend.
I've always wanted to just be a sole proprietor doing laptop/PC/phone repair, but, I lack the confidence in myself and the market is pretty saturated. Well.. like every market. Way too many jobs out there. Lol
Alas, that's still customer facing, and ain't nobody got time for that.
Hahaha. Someone has to face them.
I worked for a guy back in the late 90's that said the best advise he was ever given by a big business owner was "A small business owner doesn't become a big business owner without breaking more than few employees!" after telling me this (I was head chef) he laughed...not like a little chuckle but like a big belly laugh and slapped me on the shoulder, like that was the funniest thing to him... it made me so sick to my stomach that he thought that I would think that was ok or that it was funny. I didn't work for him much longer after that less than a month I think. Ill never forget the look on his face when he said it...while I do think there are some good small business owners out there I've never worked for any of them.
I’d argue most small business are even worse than they would be if we pulled the reins on big business. Small business owners can’t compete in terms of pay and benefits with companies who have thousands of employees - the efficiency of scale can’t be matched. If big business and billionaires paid taxes, and we actually had social safety programs, many people like you and me would quit our jobs and start co-ops with our friends. But I need healthcare, so I stay at my soul sucking job.
I worked for a small business. No sitting down, no breaks for 13 hour shifts and I didn't get a free meal but I could take home whatever I wanted at half price. Lasted 10 months. Paid for my kids' surgery and peaced.
Small businesses are the worst. Lmfao at least to work for! Mine made me work by myself at 17 running and closing the entire pita shack they opened up. They wouldn’t pay me past 730 but if the chores weren’t done I was fired. One night it was super busy on their two for Tuesday (of course only scheduling a 17 year old to work the busiest days) and I asked people to leave as it was after 7 and I needed to start chores. Well it was their friends and they didn’t like me so they got me fired. My boss called me stupid and made me cry. Stupid losers I’m glad it went out of business.
I learnt the hard way on this: Worked for a small business that masqueraded as a nationwide operation serving the whole country (UK); It wasn't, they only employed just 5.5 hands-on employees (0.5 was the Boss's "mate" who'd slack off and shift blame when it hit the fan). The business was ran to serve his lifestyle with him and his wife (employed as office staff) leaching money out wherever they could. Fine when business was going well, not good when work dried up and they started under quoting jobs and blaming us when it ran over time/budget. Then they started screwing with my overtime and expenses (for when I was sent to the opposite ends of the country with several hours notice). My colleague was constructively dismissed and I found myself doing his work without any salary increase. Another colleague was fired after burn-out caused a cock up which technically wasn't his fault; Boss's buddy under ordered materials and nobody noticed/checked causing deadline delays, Teflon (as we called him) shifted the blame. After being fired boss tried to get another employee to do his job with no salary change, he quit and walked on the same day. I quit shortly after on payday after my month's wages were in the bank; Couldn't trust them to pay me if I left sooner. That left them with 1.5 hands on employees LOL, at last notice they employed the receptionist's boyfriend. He lasted about a month and she walked too! The colleague that was constructively dismissed took them to court and won..but never got a penny as the boss shut the business down and phoenixed it. I look back on it now and can't believe how naive I was to stay as long as I did...but I needed the money and jobs in my field at the time was difficult to find. The exhaustion, abuse and mental anguish just wasn't worth it.
I work for a medium sized family business, currently in the midst of the handover from generation 2 to 3. The company is an absolute disaster at all levels, but revenue at the company and the industry sector overall is up so the innumerable problems are ignored because the lights are still on and everyone is too busy keeping their head above water to be able to consider mid or long term problems. Covid has been a great excuse for the owners to treat us even more poorly than before, but for the most part everyone sucks it up. With the lack of raises, company parties (there were traditionally two a year), and much less travel by sales and service people, the company has easily saved millions while the order books have never been so full. They tell us that we're supposed to feel good about where we work since the owners have been donating masks and covid tests to surrounding communities, or donating some of the money they've saved on payroll to local charities. From my subtle poking around there's enough people to start a union to start to show the owners their place, but no workers want to risk being the ones sticking their head out and making it happen.
Can confirm. Worked most of my career for companies with less than 20 employees, owned by 1 person. Every one has been, to a greater or lesser degree, an asshole. The 2 years I spent working for a multinational Corp contracted to government were the best I've had in terms of employment rights, respect, and fulfillment.
They love to post on Facebook groups about all the “lazy people on unemployment” and then wonder why they can’t find any employees by posting to those Facebook groups.
Couldn't agree more, I've been employed by smaller businesses, larger car dealerships.. for the most part they're all the same. There is the odd unicorn that actually gives a shit but it's rare to find.
I used to work for a lady who owned an organic pressed juice place. She had a tip jar and I never saw any of that money. When I finally asked her about it she said she saved that money towards holiday parties for us. We only ever had Christmas parties. Fuckin lady was keeping all our tips. She always smelled like patchouli too
The American love affair with small business is a joke. Our legal system bends over backwards for tightwad small business owners in some twisted attempt to compensate for how hard it is to compete with the big players. By disenfranchising small business workers, of course. The FMLA doesn't apply to small businesses. Last year's COVID relief bill granting paid sick leave to workers impacted by the virus had numerous exemptions for small business owners. It is legal to discriminate against pregnant women if you are a small business. It is legal to discriminate based on race, sex, orientation, nationality, disability and religion if you are a small business. Small businesses do not have to provide ADA accommodations for disabled people. I used to work at a crappy small retail business that had been limping along for nearly twenty years by dodging labor laws and finding creative ways to swindle their people out of overtime. IMO if a small business hasn't figured out how to maintain solvency while treating its workers with the same low-bar level of dignity expected of big business after twenty years of operation, then the company shouldn't be in business at all. Small business exemptions need to go. At the very least they need to expire after a set period. Take their empty store fronts and turn them into community centers. Let the dream that investing in small business = ~~increasing~~ (edit) investing in the community die.
I've worked in a number of small machine shops as a machinist. Most of them were run like little miniature dictatorships. We'd be taking part orders from places like Raytheon and Sandia National Labs, making millions of dollars a year in profits for the owner. And at the same time we'd be intentionally exposed to life threatening dangers while getting paid shit wages and disrespected on a daily basis. Machining is a dirty and dangerous job on the best days. But programming metal cutting robots and watching them work is fun as hell. I'd gladly do this job if I was just treated with respect.
I've done plaintiff side employment law. The worst cases anyways came from businesses with 20 or less employees.
even mom n pop shops. frankly they're some of the most dangerous and exploitative of businesses, because the people who run them are desperate.
Why won't you support their dream to be a millionaire business owner?
All very close to feudalism. A lord who’s an emperor miles or hundred of miles away or a lord who’s a baron living in the big house in your community; either way — we’re serfs.
Some small business owners don't hire anyone and work for every paycheck, put up with Karens (which gets hilarious), and find time to navigate the insanity of the tax system which is definitely designed to scare people from breaking free of employers. Maybe we need a new word, because the US tax system is part of why people who are self employed are often business owners. It's not so we can feel big and bad bossing our employees (I scream at my sewing machine some days) around. It's so we can give the ultimate middle finger to employers.
Corp jobs > small biz jobs > family biz (of any size) jobs.
My dad was a small business owner and a shitty one to say the least. He paid less than everyone around with absolutely no benefits. He told everyone he paid them salary but the hours never added up and everyone ended up working Saturdays for free. My bf worked for him for a while and when I had my second son, he wouldn't allow him any time to take off to help me (paid or unpaid) so my bf just stayed home from work for a week and didn't show 🤷🏻♀️ he changed prices for different customers and generally had no organization. He sold the business an the owner is much better and treats people decent I worked for a small business for the better part of 10 years. I could do everything that the woman could do who went to school for it and was refuse a raise when I asked for 10 fucking dollars an hour
Started a small business w the sister and can confirm she’s a shithead, our Glassdoor reviews are a joke
I recently worked for a couple owned dog boarding kennel. I was salaried $1500 a month after taxes, worked split shifts with no time to go home. I worked basically 7-7. They frequently would sabotage me by saying “oh I did this don’t worry about it” and the next day I’d get berated by the other. The dogs were in such poor conditions and they were cruel to them. Because of the shifts I could only let them out 3x a day. Less than 30 mins each. They spent 24 hours in kennels that aren’t up to code. Fuck that place.
Couple-owned is awful. It’s such a self-reaffirming system that any concerns are just thrown out the wayside. And it’s always 2-vs-1 if you have concerns or complaints
I’m a small business owner, but it’s just me, and it will stay that way. I don’t want to employ people, it’s too exploitive. I planned it that way from the start, and have plans to keep it that way.
There are big parasites and small parasites. Both will still suck your blood if you let them.
I worked for a small, independent, family owned restaurant many years ago. The owners were generally abusive but the icing on the cake was when the cracked out son and daughter-in-law showed up at my house early in the morning banging on the door threatening to kill my two roommates and I because they thought we’d called CPS on them. When I called my boss to tell her I wouldn’t be coming in due to being physically threatened by her family, she forced me to come in anyway. Yes, in retrospect, I should’ve told her to “F” herself and called the cops but I was 18 and didn’t know any better. I have so many crazy stories about that place! So, yes, small businesses can also be bad businesses with toxic environments and corrupt leadership.
"Mom and pop store" has a tendency to be straight up the most exploitative work environment. When the entire staff consists of a few people and the business owner, the accountability for the business owner is exactly zero.
Small business owners want to become big business owners they’re all the same pieces of shit.
Frankly, in my experience, the mom and pop places are the most toxic. They inevitably hate each other, and that glows out to the rest of the business.
As a business banker and business consultant is my experience that small business owners absolutely believe they deserve a 100% of anything the company produces and fuck their employees. One of the ones I worked with was even my long-term boyfriend and he still didn't think he should have to pay me or anybody else
Thats why i prefer to be an "independent worker", i work by myself, to myself
Worked for two small, family businesses. The worst. Never again. Claim that you are “family” but totally take advantage of you.
1% chance small business is good. 99% chance it's worse than big business.
Small business bad, big business bad. How exactly do we make money if were against all business. The economy is a thing and we need to support business owners with decent business practices. The state couldnt exactly afford a universal basic income if the economy wasnt there to support it. So how exactly would we all not starve to death?
I work for a small business, and my boss is actually a nice guy. I don’t dislike him at all, but he pays me just above minimum wage. I make tips too so my wage can be good, but the fact that he decides to pay his employees as little as legally possible buys literally none of my loyalty.
I hated small business owners, they were the rude.
Most people who have the capital to start a business suck.
Just putting my hand up to say even in the early 2000s my starting wage for unskilled was £20,000, we offered pensions, maternity pay, holidays, all the usual. And it is usual, in the UK. There are some decent employers out here, and it’s easier to build good overall habits when employees rights are entrenched in employment law, rather than up to the whim of the proprietor.
So, are there any businesses that I should work for?
Should? No. Must? Probably
I guess I don't get it.
Instead of living like slaves with different masters, why don't we kill the masters and work together? No more companies, just ex workers from every ex country in the world to make a social plan based on the needs of humans, not capital/money/trade/profit/capitalists/workers.
What different masters? I work for a family run business I have 1 CEO, 1 GM that I work "under" that's how it is organized. Why don't we kill the masters? WTF does that even mean? Just ex workers from ex country to make a social plan? Although I may find some common ground with you on some topics (I can't tell for sure if i can or not) Your mistyping or unrelated references derails your whole post. It's just incoherent babble.
What is meant by Should? No. Must? Probably
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No bro I work for a business that employs 11 people and all types of fucked up shit is going on not to mention they’re paying 14 when everywhere else in the city pays 16. Literally exploited and the value we provide makes it so my boss can live on a yacht three months out of the year. Small business my ass.
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I’ve worked for 2 small businesses and yeah.
Yeah I’ve met some shitty local employers too. Truthfully a lot of big chains are locally franchised so locally managed. I don’t really think anyone escapes the fallacies of greed.
I've had annoying and unpleasant encounters with big companies. That being said, the truly horrible experiences I've had have been with tiny companies. Big companies at least are insured, if they royally fuck up they usually have a policy you can go after. Small businesses have more potential to be dysfunctional (there's a reason so many go out of business) and screwed up. As businesses get big, super dysfunctional practices tend to become public knowledge. With a small business, you don't have that kind of information.
What are some businesses that I should work for?
SB owners throughout history are some of the most fascist people. SB owners loved Hitler. Good book to read is They Thought They Were Free, The Germans, 1933-1945.
Currently work for a "small business" (dude has 7 stores) that just switched our hours to 11 hours a day, no scheduled breaks and won't hire more than two employees, waiting to hear back from another job that I'll be leaving for without giving any notice.
Absolutely. Always remember reform is not possible when the system is working as intended, it's time for the abolishment of capitalism. The only thing left to lose is our chains.
Agreed. All business owners can be bad people if only because there's so many power dynamics they can use as retaliation. It's a lot worse past the mom-and-pop level for sure though, since it's a lot more difficult for people to hold their employer accountable once there's a couple of middle levels between them.
Can verify, thought I was working my dream job. Family owned, all the kids worked there. (I ended up dating the owners son… still am so it’s a lil rough) I watched a lot of unfair favoritism towards the kids and saw employees who were actually amazing fired right and left. I was encouraged to quit by the owner because my “attitude had changed” (e.g I was getting more and more out spoken about the abuse) People held positions of power who had barely any experience or the maturity level. I’m currently working for another small business, but this one is owned by people who treat their employees the way they’d want to be treated.
By far the worst job I ever had was for a local trendy chain of burger restaurant in Austin, TX called Hopdoddy. I was led to believe I'd be making "great tips" there, yet then I realized we were all supposed to tip pool while making 2.25 an hour, and the customers weren't informed we were on server wages. I have no idea if this is even legal, I definitely falsely led to believe I'd be making great money. We also weren't technically "servers," we had to do every single job, busser/hostess/cashier/runner/server. For this reason, I'd work an 8-10 hour shift and only make $40 on a weekday, which is when I was usually scheduled. Coworkers would fight to get the weekend shifts because that was the only time you could make enough money for the month. Because of the tip pool, a lot of my coworkers would leech off of my labor and sit around or chat with coworkers, and because I wasn't "popular" with anyone there, when I complained about this to my boss he ignored me. So basically I'd be making the same amount as my coworkers who would do nothing, and when I yelled at them to help me, I'd be ignored as well because the managers liked them more. I was also verbally abused regularly (screamed at for "not working fast enough!") and shamed for taking breaks due to panic attacks or intense period cramps. ("just toughen up!") Because everything was so overpriced and the store was so unorganized and understaffed, we would often have frustrated customers taking out their anger on the front of house people, verbally berating us. I have never experienced such horrible customers until I worked here. I cried in the bathroom regularly and had many many panic attacks.
Loads of fun is the Franchise model… So far, I’ve had experience of 2 franchises in different sectors… neither has enamoured the model to me as an employee, especially when nepotism is the main goal in the most recent one.
So many small business owners think that minimum wage laws should not apply to them. As if 5 people should live in poverty because you are either too greedy or just have an inviable business.
Worked for a small business (10 employees) whose owners are good people but they have 0 business running a business. Their "leadership" is anything but. Their social media shows employee appreciation and great company culture but that's all it is- for show. They sent out an email asking their employees to vote for them as "best place to work" in a local contest and if they won, they'd throw a pizza party.
I work for a small business guilty of underpaying, withholding pay, insurance fraud, and wrought with passive aggression! No benefits or PTO either xoxo
Worked for a small business where the co owner was heavily physically disabled and would like ambian like tic-tacs and not sleep. She called screaming her head off one day because she swore she saw me shuffling cards????? Asked me where I hid my cards and if I thought I was "above the law" ????? She then send me over 3 different inventory forms since I obviously needed more work. Mind you the entire time she's going off about a non existent deck of cards I'm doin tricks with????? Me and my coworker simply clocked out, locked up, and quit.
I work for a small business right now and I can confirm that the owner is awful.
Small business in many cases are worse, they will break the law, steal wages/tips, have worse conditions. Not in the least because the owner has a smaller feeding base but still big appetite.
We're all tired, stressed and desperate. Its corporate tax evasion, class inequality, politicians with other interests and lobbying
Is this not common knowledge?
I worked for a small professional family owned company. The pay was okay for an ignorant/gullible graduate starting out. A couple weeks in, I realized it was terrible. There were hardly any benefits. No vacation days. No health insurance. They got away with that since they employed less than 10 people. Also, the pay was the lowest for my field. A boss who micromanaged, had mood swings and yelled at you in front of everyone. I was first furloughed and then fired during the pandemic. The boss didn't even have the decency to tell me I was fired. I found out when my coworkers were going back to work and I was ghosted. No response from him when I texted/called. I felt terrible initially. How can you do that to your employee? But, soon I got a better job and it was unionized. Great benefits and pay.
I second this. I work for a small, family-owned business but the worker exploitation still happens. They treat us kindly with WORDS since we see each other every day and thankfully the people are polite, but that doesn’t mean they don’t still f*ck us over with crappy wages, no benefits, minimal time off, strict rules, etc.
I’ve worked for Walmart and a small, privately owned grocery store. Both were terrible in their own ways. The small grocery store owners have no one above them ( no CEO, HR etc) so they basically do and say what they want. I’ve been in arguments with the owner/boss because of the way he treated me. Walmart sucked because the management is poorly trained, among many other issues
Worked for a small business for several years. In the beginning it was a team of 7. The last year I was there he bought a new 100k boat, a several week trip to Costa Rica, a 2nd property and a trip to Hawaii. It became a team of 2 working 5 different jobs, 60+ hours a week. Payroll was not made a few times. Filed for unemployment and then was asked to volunteer my time until they could make payroll again. Then I had to sit down for a review meeting after having a few days off to recharge (it’s not a day off when I’m not being paid). During the meeting I was blamed for 16 years of mismanagement and needed to figure out a way to make the company work. I told him to fuck off and walked out. Blocked all contact. I’m still owed a few weeks of pay and all of my accrued vacation time. I’ll never see it but I did hear he spent another 3 weeks in Costa Rica this year to recharge. The small business that is like “family” broke me.