I know that feel.
Right to work states FTW!
For extra fun, there’s no federal regulations guaranteeing workers to breaks so you can be forced to work eight hours or longer with no opportunity to get off your feet or grab a meal! AND federal law only forces your employer to pay you overtime if you work over forty hours a WEEK. My last job, it was common to be scheduled a twelve-hour closing shift one night, followed by a twelve-hour opening shift the next, and a third twelve-hour shift at some other point during the week, and since the schedule was set up so only one person was in the store at a time, we could never take breaks!
The store owner also had cameras on the back room and behind the counter that he’d randomly watch and you’d get written up if he caught you sitting down, reading, or eating during a slow period. All perfectly legal, because there’s no federal or state statues guaranteeing breaks of any kind!
How I found out about getting written up for sitting down is a funny story, too. I was going to mop behind the register one night, and the hem of my pants got caught on a corner of the broken tile on the stairs, and I fell and sprained my ankle. I told him what had happened when he wrote me up and he told me I should have been more careful, because he had “Watch Your Step!” signs at all the steps because of the broken tiles so it wasn’t his fault and no, I couldn’t sit down or take time off to recover.
And to get around having to pay unemployment when I was fired for a panic attack, they rescheduled me to work the next day without telling me, then fired me for a no-call, no-show, since firing me for a panic attack could’ve opened them up for a lawsuit (which I would have lost because RIGHT TO
WORKBE FIRED AT ANY TIME FOR ANY REASON) but the owner didn’t want to risk that.Reblogging for commentary; stories need to be told.