I started a new job at a whole new grocery store a couple months ago. Got hired as a cashier a little while before the grand opening, but my first weeks consisted entirely of stocking all the empty shelves. Then when we opened, it was a nightmare suddenly dealing with customers for the first time but I thought I adapted fairly quickly.
Next two weeks my hours dropped from 30 per week to just 15, but my boss went out of their way to let me know I’d be getting more hours next week, so I wasn’t worried and considered it a fluke.
Of course the next schedule came out, and surprise: 0 hours for the entire week. Then my manager and boss both blatantly ignored all my attempts to talk about this on the stupid ass app we use for communication.
This happened to about 10 other coworkers too, and it clicked for me. It was just a fucking bait and switch to get some extra manual labor to get the store open sooner. Lure us in with promise of a long term job, and then throw us out like trash two months later when they’re done with us.
Please, we need some more excuses for the lack of terror.
constructive dismissal is illegal in civilized places, so… good luck if you’re in the US
To preface, I am the first to shit on corporations and the American condition in general.
However this is a highly misleading comment and may result in real-world financial harm to OP.
Being assigned reduced hours qualifies you for an unemployment benefits claim in the US state of California, it varies state to state.
Know your rights, OP. Don’t leave money on the table.
that “good luck” was meant to prod OP into checking, but it’s good to say it directly
In the U.K. you can be let go for any reason in your first two years, although you can prove you were let go for discriminatory reasons. It used to be one year, but the Tory knobs upped it to two.
i’ve also heard about zero-hours contracts over there
Yeah, they were brought in by the previous so called Labour (Democrat) government.
Obviously they’re easily open to abuse, and that government were more Conservative (Republican).
Lmao two years? I don’t know anyone who’s been in a job for longer than two years
I don’t know many. Think that that is the point.
The legal term for this is constructive dismissal btw and it’s a (sure to be unsuccessful) way to get out of paying you unemployment
we need a strangers on a train network for workers who have been screwed over like this
like if you go firebomb this shithole you’ll be on the list of prime suspects. but if you traded firebombings with another disgruntled supermarket worker a few towns over…
Firebombr now available on all side loading app stores
not available for IOS to make sure that management never sees it
“wahhh nobody wants to work” - those managers 3 years ago, probably
Those managers currently as they ignore their employees asking for hours.
Or offering ridiculous or undesirable shifts, then moaning about the same.
This is why I laughed when my old employer was a victim of a flash mob robbery, though it was pretty annoying when bootlickers tried raising money for him.
File for unemployment immediately, document all failed attempts to communicate and the posted schedules. Should be a slam dunk case for you to get paid to sit on your ass for a while.
Unfortunately I don’t have a long enough history of employment yet to qualify for unemployment in my state.
You can claim unemployment for this. It’s effectively a layoff
Depends on the state I’d think, most places I’ve seen require 6 months or so of credit hours
That fucking sucks man. Reminds me of when I got a text message at 2 AM letting me know my store was shutting down and I was unemployed, and I needed to go turn in my shit in the morning.
I needed to go turn in my shit in the morning.
Id be like you can come get it from me, i don’t work for you anymore
They had my knives there too so I had to come get them
If this isn’t everywhere already I imagine it will be soon.
I remember my old job reducing us to 20 hours a month to get rid of us lol. This stuff sucks
My current main gig likes to reduce people to 4 hrs a month for their firing waves.
You should try and contact the other people who have been ghosted and agitate for the necessity of joining a union. Nothing to lose by doing that.
You should not use your knowledge of the store and your uniform to cause havoc, unless you feel the need to blow off steam. But do it safely or with full knowledge of the risks. It might be funny to do something simple like hanging out in the break room until one of the managers sees you and stops dead in their tracks, blanches, and scurries away to their office. Also yoink as much of the free coffee that’s available while you’re there.
Take a couple cart loads of food home
my grocery store keeps swinging wildly between dying for help and then having no hours.
i’m told to work my schedule then told to stay indefinately. the whole industry is reeling and ridiculous right now because they got addicted to the covid cashflow and can’t handle the sales loss now.
investors want more more more. i was screaming this at everyone at work. once the “good times” are over the investors won’t just be like “oh wow what a good two years”. they were going to cut every corner.
shits not being sanitized. critical tasks undone. everyone is overworked.
also back when i was a dept head i would have never been allowed to do something like that. part time min 4 hours/week was the rule, 30/hr week FT. still fucked but listen to the other commenters about constructive dismissal. you can get unemployment (unless your state has a minimum work threshold of time)
the most fucked thing is how scummy that is (among EVERYTHING else). every state is at-will. they can just be like “it was seasonal/temp and you weren’t here for 90 days yet so buh bye” instead they are doing this fucking shit
stuff like this makes me so mad it’s one of the many reasons i took the pay cut and got out of management
Get unemployment from them I think you can get like 6 months
