Current Events > Has your boss ever tried to guilt trip you into working?

(+) Yeah! (+)

For whatever reason

Isn't that their job?
Yes. I'm an adult and i have seniority, so i say "no" more now.

All the time. Worked for a place for years that basically required 10-20 hours of overtime per week. Supervisor was always trying to con me into staying late and volunteering. Generally, I refused.

Instead, I used my evenings to finish up grad school. Im now working a job I actually enjoy that never requires overtime, and pays more than I was getting w/60 hour workweeks.

Many bosses have.

One even tried to guilt trip me into coming back after I had left for less than I was on before. As you might expect, I didnt do it.

Lol, I sometimes feel that's their only job.

I once gave a two weeks notice, and they told me how they still needed me (tbf, it was a small office), so I stayed two more months.

one of my bosses was a family friend, so I was more agreeable.

Yes. But their problem is that they need me more than I need them. So, fuck them. lol

I always love the "we all need to make sacrifices for the good of the company" line

no, but i generally just work. and take all the OT i could get back when i worked ot. Unpaid? well, that's illegal in my province, so obviously not. but paid? absolutely.

TheSavageDragon posted...

I always love the "we all need to make sacrifices for the good of the company" line

Infuriating. Then give me 1/? Of the company profits and I'll perform like I have an actual stake.

TheSavageDragon posted...

I always love the "we all need to make sacrifices for the good of the company" line

Exactly, then you just return by saying:

"Great, so start the paperwork for my cut of the profits, since I'm such a valued part of the company that you feel comfortable asking me to make sacrifices for it."

When I first started my boss played a few mind games with me to get me to work harder. So I did to get him off my back. Got a fat ass bonus this year and a decent raise but now Im burnt out as fuck. Havent been very productive lately because of it.

Back when I was 17, I worked through this summer job program that partnered with local businesses. They put me at a small summer camp.

The owner tried to guilt trip me into working more hours than I was legally allowed to as a minor. Saying that if I cared about the kids then it wouldn't matter and all this other stuff. I reported her to the program

boomgetchopped3 posted...

When I first started my boss played a few mind games with me to get me to work harder. So I did to get him off my back. Got a fat ass bonus this year and a decent raise but now Im burnt out as fuck. Havent been very productive lately because of it.

Precisely why a 32 hour work week is a great idea.

NoxObscuras posted...

Back when I was 17, I worked through this summer job program that partnered with local businesses. They put me at a small summer camp.

The owner tried to guilt trip me into working more hours than I was legally allowed to as a minor. Saying that if I cared about the kids then it wouldn't matter and all this other stuff. I reported her to the program

I worked at a movie theater when I was 16 and was fired because I got a bunch of timeclock violations and the government was breathing down their necks. The kicker was I didn't make my own schedule nor did I schedule my own breaks. Somehow I was to blame for working too much and not taking breaks.

Thankfully the general manager of the theater moved to another theater a little bit before to manage their opening and offered me a supervisor job there after finding out what happened, knowing they were full of shit.

ClayGuida posted...

Infuriating. Then give me 1/? Of the company profits and I'll perform like I have an actual stake.

Torgo posted...

Exactly, then you just return by saying:

"Great, so start the paperwork for my cut of the profits, since I'm such a valued part of the company that you feel comfortable asking me to make sacrifices for it."

I've been hit with that line as a blue collar worker at several places and I just have a good laugh while they're standing there and just go on doing my job. I don't even dignify that nonsense with a response any more.

"Best" thing I ever heard was when I worked at a botanical store. This 19 year old coworker came up to me during break and told me she was quitting due to starting college again. Our boss had told her he'd be paying out all her overtime as discount certificates for the store. Not even gift certificates, but discounts. Considering we worked 12 hour days, 6 days a week, that was a lot of money he was trying to screw her out of. She was so confused and inexperienced at dealing with scumbags which lead her to take the offer until she told me about it and I told her to march into his office, demand actual payment and threaten to call the cops on him.

TheSavageDragon posted...

I've been hit with that line as a blue collar worker at several places and I just have a good laugh while they're standing there and just go on doing my job. I don't even dignify that nonsense with a response any more.

"Best" thing I ever heard was when I worked at a botanical store. This 19 year old coworker came up to me during break and told me she was quitting due to starting college again. Our boss had told her he'd be paying out all her overtime as discount certificates for the store. Not even gift certificates, but discounts. Considering we worked 12 hour days, 6 days a week, that was a lot of money he was trying to screw her out of. She was so confused and inexperienced at dealing with scumbags which lead her to take the offer until she told me about it and I told her to march into his office, demand actual payment and threaten to call the cops on him.

Wage theft is the scummiest of all non violent theft.

ClayGuida posted...

Wage theft is the scummiest of all non violent theft.

I think its worse than that. At least if somebody takes my possessions by force theyll have to, on some level, work for it.

I dont have a boss

Not my current boss. Some in the past tho.

TheSavageDragon posted...

I always love the "we all need to make sacrifices for the good of the company" line

My mom told a place she needed a day off for a doctor's appointment. One that of rescheduled would be 6 months before there was another opening

She got told the job came first. She had to tell them if she didn't take care of her health she wouldn't be around much longer to be of any use to them and that it wasn't a request she was simply informing them.

I've worked there too and heard the supervisor tell everyone if you aren't dying you need to come into work.

And yeah they tried to guilt me several times. And often I'd do it but I'd usually tell them go around and ask everyone else then circle back to me. And cause some people wanted or needed the overtime.

They knew not to call me at home though. I never would answer the phone and not because I was ignoring them but because a phone call isn't gonna wake me up.

ClayGuida posted...

Precisely why a 32 hour work week is a great idea.

I couldn't live off 32 hours a week.

Nope. At worst they (successfully) bribed me by saying that a coworker that I liked was working lol. In all fairness they had us work nearby and let us talk rather than being shitty with the usual Look for something else to do mentality.

All the time. Up until my most recent 2 jobs which were actual post graduate jobs I worked Security where my boss would tell me that all the time (and subsequently he got fired for shit like that, which I can go into more detail later, and I worked a bunch of retail jobs which those bosses can go f themselves. One of them tried to guilt trip me because my co-worker went home at his scheduled time, all because they chose to change his time off from 10 to 10:30 literally the night before, after hours, and didn't bother to tell him.

We ended up getting back at that boss though, my entire department mass quit the day I left to go back to college. Not because of me, but because that was a happy coincidence. I went back there a couple months ago to pick some stuff up, and turns out they only have 1 person working my department because everyone else refused to work there. Now they are losing people left right and center.

YugiNoob posted...

Nope. At worst they (successfully) bribed me by saying that a coworker that I liked was working lol. In all fairness they had us work nearby and let us talk rather than being shitty with the usual Look for something else to do mentality.

I got bribed into my first overtime day by being allowed to pick my post. At first they just said I could do hospital duty but I declined that offer. It's a sweet gig but you typically have to come in early and don't get off on time either and it's already a 12.25 hour shift. Even if your relief shows up on time (they usually don't cause stopping to get food on the way) you gotta drive the car back to the unit fill out some paperwork regarding mileage on the car and turn equipment in. But heybyou can watch TV the whole shift.

I chose to work segregation instead. No entertainment but equally as easy to do.

No. Never had a job where this happened.
Wage jobs were in my teens. Worked for my self sorta in the early 20's

Nope. They know better when they realize I'm barely even there mentally to work my normal shift

Sufferedphoenix posted...

I couldn't live off 32 hours a week.

I dont think the 32 hour work week was intended to also result in a pay loss. Otherwise no one would support it.

ClayGuida posted...

Wage theft is the scummiest of all non violent theft.

The one thing worse than wage theft is the government directly overriding your right to work by allowing discriminatory requests by employers (like police clearances).

That's been happening all the time with my job. We are insanely understaffed. For understandable reasons. One of the actions I've been doing as a supervisor is asking people for overtime. I do it myself, and id like to work just 40 hours. But when your making barely above minimum. The offer of overtime is unfortunately a go getter when compared to our normal pay.

Dark_Arbron posted...

I dont think the 32 hour work week was intended to also result in a pay loss. Otherwise no one would support it.

I get paid by the hour. Which is how I prefer to be paid. I'll be damned if I work 35 hours this week and 60 the next and get paid the same for both weeks.

I've worked places where the managers where salary and they would work them into the ground.

Dark_Arbron posted...

The one thing worse than wage theft is the government directly overriding your right to work by allowing discriminatory requests by employers (like police clearances).

You say this sort of thing a lot.

While I dont think all jobs should require a police check, there are clearly some that do. I also think that while people shouldnt be made completely unemployable as a result of having a criminal record, the victim act doesnt quite ring true, especially when talking about discrimination. It doesnt belong to the same kind of behaviour as not employing somebody because of their race, gender, sexuality or whatever, because people dont choose those. While there are many factors at play, if somebody has a criminal record, thats generally going to be as a result of choices which they have made.

Also, Id dispute your claim that having a criminal record makes it impossible to get a job. I know many people with criminal records who have jobs. Very few of them have good jobs, in fairness, but they were able to gain employment.

Glob posted...

You say this sort of thing a lot.

While I dont think all jobs should require a police check, there are clearly some that do. I also think that while people shouldnt be made completely unemployable as a result of having a criminal record, the victim act doesnt quite ring true, especially when talking about discrimination. It doesnt belong to the same kind of behaviour as not employing somebody because of their race, gender, sexuality or whatever, because people dont choose those. While there are many factors at play, if somebody has a criminal record, thats generally going to be as a result of choices which they have made.

Also, Id dispute your claim that having a criminal record makes it impossible to get a job. I know many people with criminal records who have jobs. Very few of them have good jobs, in fairness, but they were able to gain employment.

I think you should only be denied employment based on a crime if the crime in question would be problematic for the job. Like say they got arrested for stealing from a cash register at another job yeah don't hire them as a cashier or any capacity where they are dealing with company money. If they have a history of being violent or aggressive I wouldn't give a spot dealing with the public.

I can't remember what state it's in but there is a bread company that prides itself on hiring felons. Think over 30% of its employees are felons. The owner is a felon. Pretty good bread too. Dave's killer bread. Their white bread is meh but generally I won't eat wheat bread but theirs...theirs is good.

We're all family here

First manager was my cousin and would always ask me what I was doing instead of saying yes to come in. I stopped taking his calls because he would add always down play what I was doing on my day off.

Second one was a little worse. Would call at the worst times on my days off to ask if I could come in. He wasnt a bad manager, just couldnt stop scheduling his friends, then they would call off because they got drunk the previous night. Then that would lead my boss calling me again and again to the point I just threw my cell phone into a lake. Now he doesnt bother because I have kids to take care of.

Yep. It doesn't work on me.

Sufferedphoenix posted...

I think you should only be denied employment based on a crime if the crime in question would be problematic for the job. Like say they got arrested for stealing from a cash register at another job yeah don't hire them as a cashier or any capacity where they are dealing with company money. If they have a history of being violent or aggressive I wouldn't give a spot dealing with the public.

I can't remember what state it's in but there is a bread company that prides itself on hiring felons. Think over 30% of its employees are felons. The owner is a felon. Pretty good bread too. Dave's killer bread. Their white bread is meh but generally I won't eat wheat bread but theirs...theirs is good.

Theres a company in the UK that hires convicts that mostly does key cutting, locksmithing and shoe repairs.

They try. There was a vicious cycle of underemployment and then someone going "oh shit we don't have enough employment, can someone please work much more than you should again." Nah, I walked out.

Glob posted...

Theres a company in the UK that hires convicts that mostly does key cutting, locksmithing and shoe repairs.

Teaching known criminals locksmithing....seems smart.

I can say inmates could have the corner market on shoe stuff though. I'm sure some sneaker heads would pay to have their shoes cleaned and restored as best as possible.

Sufferedphoenix posted...

Teaching known criminals locksmithing....seems smart.

Alternate take: Who makes a better locksmith than somebody who already knows how to pick locks?

TMOG posted...

Alternate take: Who makes a better locksmith than somebody who already knows how to pick locks?

If they know. It's not really that common of a skill set even with criminals.

Sufferedphoenix posted...

Teaching known criminals locksmithing....seems smart.

I can say inmates could have the corner market on shoe stuff though. I'm sure some sneaker heads would pay to have their shoes cleaned and restored as best as possible.

The problem here is the label known criminal. Being a one off offender is very different to being a career criminal (like someone involved in organised crime). Hence why all the experts Ive worked recently have specifically avoided the term criminal and encouraged us not to use the term to refer to ourselves either. Same way AOD counsellors dont use the term alcoholic.

Dark_Arbron posted...

The problem here is the label known criminal. Being a one off offender is very different to being a career criminal (like someone involved in organised crime). Hence why all the experts Ive worked recently have specifically avoided the term criminal and encouraged us not to use the term to refer to ourselves either. Same way AOD counsellors dont use the term alcoholic.

I sure as shit got called a alcoholic in rehab. And was told I'd always be one even if I never drank again.

I personally prefer addict cause I don't see the sense in separating alcohol addiction from drug addiction.

This world is too damn sensitive over terminology though.

Also one of the offenders I met during my journey through the legal system was a career criminal. Spent 28 years total in prison. Guess what? His step daughter finally helped him realize that wasnt a life to continue and hes now both reformed and the founder of an ex-inmate support program.

Fascist voters would have ruled him a lost cause decades ago and cheered on the death penalty, because most voters are trash people and the power they wield is basically a threat to human rights.

i have cerebral palsy and was expected to stand for hours at walmart with no accommodations for over 2 months because i didn't have a doctor's note. they kept telling me to "get past the first few weeks and get used to the environment and we'll get you accommodations later (never happened)"

whenever i said the pain was too much, my workers gave indirect comments that amounted to "well you did say you can handle this job" which really made me feel bad about having physical problems at work, like i was lying in my interview when i said i could handle basic tasks

i felt so depressed that i had to quickly quit. my parents basically said "it's a really shitty thing to just quit so try to work out until the end of the month and give a notice." i obliged because i feel like they would've made me feel like a complete loser for up and quitting. i ended up being in pain for months because of the emotional pressure of everyone

My employer ( I'm neither a slave nor a dog so I don't have a boss) likes to use veiled threats instead.

Being fully aware that my position in the company is very hard to replace, I usually just tell gim to go fuck himself abyway

Dark_Arbron posted...

Also one of the offenders I met during my journey through the legal system was a career criminal. Spent 28 years total in prison. Guess what? His step daughter finally helped him realize that wasnt a life to continue and hes now both reformed and the founder of an ex-inmate support program.

Fascist voters would have ruled him a lost cause decades ago and cheered on the death penalty, because most voters are trash people and the power they wield is basically a threat to human rights.

I don't agree with long sentences. It should be 5 years max or life no in between. Kinda hard to get back on your feet not only with the stigma attached but having decades of no real work expierence.

Sufferedphoenix posted...

I don't agree with long sentences. It should be 5 years max or life no in between. Kinda hard to get back on your feet not only with the stigma attached but having decades of no real work expierence.

Oh his sentence wasnt 28 years in one go. It was accumulated over most of his life. He was a standover man with a history of drug abuse and violence. Stuff that happens because people have unresolved trauma and get in with the wrong crowd, not because they wake up one morning and decide to be an asshole for the lulz (no matter what the public and tough on crime fascist politicians claim otherwise).

In fact a direct quote from one of my psyches: in my 15 years Ive encountered maybe one or two offenders at most whose actions were based solely on the desire to hurt people. Unfortunately this is difficult to talk about because it even applies to more serious offences and people will falsely accuse you of apologizing for them.

As always, the people who know things and the people who make the decisions have zero overlap.

Dark_Arbron posted...

Oh his sentence wasnt 28 years in one go. It was accumulated over most of his life. He was a standover man with a history of drug abuse and violence.

Either way it happens.

Know a inmate that got 80 years off one day of crime. 4 counts of attempted murder. He's a gang bangers so I assume a drive by or drug deal gon wrong.

In prison he was a stand up guy imo. He would check other inmates of they where being disrespectful to officers especially if it was a woman. If he had a problem with staff he would come talk respectfully about it.

But let's say he lives long enough to serve his sentence. Unlikely but not impossible. He will be a old ass man likely with no family still alive that gives a shit about him he wonf be able to find work or anything.

I mean in this case it's almost positive he will die in prison but you can easily get one that can be locked up in their 20s and not be released till they are in their 50s. Their life is pretty much fucked

Sufferedphoenix posted...

I don't agree with long sentences. It should be 5 years max or life no in between. Kinda hard to get back on your feet not only with the stigma attached but having decades of no real work expierence.

I agree with this, but those that are sentenced to 5 years or less need to be adequately helped to stand any chance of rehabilitation. I dont think that happens anywhere near enough.

Dark_Arbron posted...

Oh his sentence wasnt 28 years in one go. It was accumulated over most of his life. He was a standover man with a history of drug abuse and violence. Stuff that happens because people have unresolved trauma and get in with the wrong crowd, not because they wake up one morning and decide to be an asshole for the lulz (no matter what the public and tough on crime fascist politicians claim otherwise).

In fact a direct quote from one of my psyches: in my 15 years Ive encountered maybe one or two offenders at most whose actions were based solely on the desire to hurt people. Unfortunately this is difficult to talk about because it even applies to more serious offences and people will falsely accuse you of apologizing for them.

As always, the people who know things and the people who make the decisions have zero overlap.

Theres definitely a lot of factors at play in terms of why people commit crimes, but I dont believe that people who get off on hurting others are as rare as that. I will concede, as somebody who grew up in a household with major links to organised crime, my perspective may be skewed.