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First holiday job was in a bakery at the height of summer. 10 hr shift picking up loaves from a conveyor and putting them in a tray. At the end of the shift I forgot to clock-out, so they didn't pay me anything for that day! Valuable life lesson learnt.
Understandable to take the job though, if you kneaded the dough.
Aren't you allowed to steal from shitty jobs where you are treated like that?
nwmlarge
Full MemberLesson 1: life ain’t fair, get on with it or get a new job, expect to be working from the bottom.
Bad advice in general, terrible advice for a young person imo. You've got to be willing to stand your ground, the 2 choices aren't "suck it up or leave".
Amazed that places take the piss like this. My summer job paid for every bit of time, even when there were days between clocking in and out.
Used to take on and trial a lot of staff each season in that job and every day we headed back to the yard with the new guys the boss would be waiting with enough cash for the agreed rate. We knew the job wasn't for everyone, but their effort was appreciated and showed that the boss didn't shy from his commitments.
Next job cut the line so close that when the seasonal job asked if I could do another season, I told them I'll be there in a fortnight and the current job I was off due to falling through on their promises and taking the piss.
Tell her to find somewhere else pronto!!! A decent life lesson at that age is the value of working/earning. A poor life lesson is being exploited.
I fallen into the part time "crap" job world post Covid after my music career was largely wiped out....driving a supermarket delivery van. Did a couple of hours shelf filling as I was done early tonight. The night staff are one about 12/13 quid per hour shelf filling. 20% staff discount, and massively subsidised canteen. There's definitely worse employment situations than that I'm sure, especially considering how low the entry requirements are (you basically need to be a human that is alive)
At the end of the shift I forgot to clock-out, so they didn’t pay me anything for that day! Valuable life lesson learnt.
Was the lesson "don't work for ****s?"
Good money in trucking just now. Just sayin'
Subsidised canteens
We get a free 3 course meal every day, plus free fruit and drinks. I don’t usually have it as we also have a gym next to the canteen, only 3 of us use that and we laugh as pretty much everyone sat in the canteen eating and looking at their phones go up in clothes sizes
But for the OP that seems out of order but it seems a lesson worth sticking out. I did shit jobs as a teenager and my first real job after leaving school was horrific, it motivated me to finish school as an adult and get a degree and gives me perspective now. My girlfriend who never worked or had a shit job now moans about the most petty nonsense in her corporate job. Of course for her it’s a big deal and doesn’t detract from the stress it causes her but I do struggle sometimes to empathise
how many employees supply free labour.
I am no socialist but this just highlights the asymmetric relationship between employer and employee. Arguably more so at the lower end of the market.
But for the OP that seems out of order but it seems a lesson worth sticking out. I did shit jobs as a teenager and my first real job after leaving school was horrific, it motivated me to finish school as an adult and get a degree and gives me perspective now. My girlfriend who never worked or had a shit job now moans about the most petty nonsense in her corporate job. Of course for her it’s a big deal and doesn’t detract from the stress it causes her but I do struggle sometimes to empathise
Interesting perspective. I had a Saturday milkround that started at 4am, worked for a horticultural business in 40°plus greenhouses, worked on farms for minimum agricultural wage, holiday jobs in office's where the key job was to make teas correctly.
Subsidised canteen at first job. You lunched with friends, got to know people outside a pure work context. Could tell who were single blokes using the free three course meal! Used the loss of that value to help negotiate an increased offer when I moved on.
My girlfriend who never worked or had a shit job now moans about the most petty nonsense in her corporate job. Of course for her it’s a big deal and doesn’t detract from the stress it causes her but I do struggle sometimes to empathise
The following is said without knowing anything about you, your girlfriend, or the kind of stuff she is complaining about.
Another perspective could be that, as a person who hasn't experienced an employer acting illegally and fully expecting to get away with it, she has a better perspective than someone who has been conditioned to expect their employer to cheat them out of pay and conditions?
It's not something I'd want any of my children to come to expect wherever they end up working.
One of my clients still has one!
When I say imagine eating with your colleagues every day and most people think “oh sod that, I’m not spending anymore time with those dicks”.
Up until Covid we all used to eat together - depending on the office I was in it was either reheated food from tupperware or a subsidised canteen. And for me, personally, it was great. We'd chat about pretty much anything other than work, and it was a nice way to build personal relationships with the rest of the team without the stress of some corporate team-building exercise.
I am no socialist but this just highlights the asymmetric relationship between employer and employee. Arguably more so at the lower end of the market.
IME it's worse in the middle - earning enough wages to feel grateful to your employer, and prepared to do "a bit more" to work your way up the ladder.
I'd be spending time now looking for a replacement job, being docked when 1/2 the time was down to the owners chit chat is just a pisstake 😕
I've walked out a few jobs, pretty much like everyone else. Usually the meat trade where it just gets too much when you're supposed to be the staff and end up taking on more and more extra duties.
I did pick up a days work once many moons ago picking potatoes, farmer came to the homeless unit looking for people to hand pick the veg, we all went out to the farm and after 5 minutes I thought **** this and walked the 8 or so miles back to the unit. Sat had a nice day watching TV, lunch and when the rest got back they applauded me for leaving saying their time was hell, muddy, very sore backs and that was before it started raining 😆
Of course the tories these days have made it difficult for people to walk off rubbish jobs by penalizing them with suspended benefits and the like.
I thought **** this and walked the 8 or so miles back to the unit.
Reminded me of a story my mate told me, he works on a gated industrial park in the Aldershot / Farnborough area, and the security guys on the gates are mainly ex forces including a lot of ex Gurkha.
And one day the security manager gets a phone call from one saying that the minibus that collects them from the nearby town/station hadn't arrived.
'Oh, I'm sorry, I'll see if I can get another out to you as soon as possible'
'No no, no trouble, we just wanted to tell you - we're running there now but we might be a few minutes later than usual'
...and then tabbed there in formation (about 3 miles up the A30)
The following is said without knowing anything about you, your girlfriend, or the kind of stuff she is complaining about.
Another perspective could be that, as a person who hasn’t experienced an employer acting illegally and fully expecting to get away with it, she has a better perspective than someone who has been conditioned to expect their employer to cheat them out of pay and conditions?
It’s not something I’d want any of my children to come to expect wherever they end up working.
Interesting point. Personally my experience has made me know not to tolerate such conditions anymore, but that’s only because I now have an amazing employer and a truly inspiring manager (she’s not on here so I say that as a fact and not an attempt to earn points:)). Someone who was not so lucky/motivated and continued between bad/terrible employers may experience what you outline above
Another way of looking at it is that between us me and the mrs are a good lookout for each other by way of seeing stuff through opposite perspectives
For the OP then maybe stick it out a bit but make sure she gets something decent next time so she knows what is and isn’t good?
Sounds crap, she can chalk it up to experience. Do the job while looking for another, in her exit interview she can explain that them doing her out of £2 was the reason, she’ll move on and they wont change.
I agree with this.
It's not worth the hassle and stress to start something over £2.30.
It says a lot about your parenting skills if your young daughter is motivated enough to do such a job; I doubt money is the primary objective of getting the job, and for £2.30 she has learnt a very good lessons in the work place already:
That some battles aren't worth fighting.
That some people are simply not nice.
That some jobs exist to support you getting a better one.
Unbelievable that this employer is taking advantage of your daughter.
As others have said, she should stay until she finds something better, but I feel they need to know its bad practice.
At the age of 17 I started full time work. Not until I walked out at the age of nearly 23 did I realise what a dreadful, money grabbing, mean minded, miserable, slave driving lot my employers were. (2 weeks holiday per year - only bank holiday off over Christmas for nearly 6 years).
Luckily I got another job straight away - with a company car, uniform, double the wage, double the holidays, more trust, more respect and just an all round lovely team to work with. Also a kind, appreciative boss.
My 16 year old is waiting tables in a local pub for minimum wage. I’m not happy about the pay but she’s doing it for the experience and to boost her confidence. I’ve told her that if her bosses or anyone else treats her with anything less than respect then she should tell them it’s unacceptable and walk out there and then. Thankfully it seems like a well run place so no issues yet.
I sort of agree, but valuable life lessons:
1/ life's often unfair, in your case some customers - some people - are just pricks and knowing and to an extent accepting that will get you a long way rather than railing against every injustice.
2/ Pick your battles; someone's a bit rude, develop the thick skin to deal with it. But absolutely there are boundaries which are different for different people and if your boundaries are crossed then learn to deal - appropriately - with that. Which isn't necessarily walking out.
My daughter is lucky - she's been nearly a year now at the posh people's supermarket in a nice town and they pay staff the going rate irrespective of age so as a checkout and general duties staffer she's on the same as her 40 year old colleague give or take. Doesn't mean that some well to do people from the nice town aren't nobs though, in fact they're just a different type of self entitled nob. I've posted a few times about her experiences doing the door in Covid times and she's done so well standing up to people where needed; rolling with the blows when they give her a bit of attitude, and also calling a manager when needed who then have always taken their staff's side.
She's a way more capable 17yo as a result, compared to what I was like at that age.
To the OP the life lesson you should be teaching your daughter is to stand up for herself rationally and calmly, or she'll spend the rest of her life getting the piss taken out of her.
"I think that your 2:30 assessment is unfair. I was here and available to work on time, for a 3 hour shift. What you do with my time whilst I'm here is up to you - but I was on time, and am due the 3 hours' pay. I was waiting for you and training is part of any job".
Realities of the world mean that he might be a ****t and take advantage - but right now she needs to be learning to stand up for herself. So that conversation needs to be had so the next time it happens she's not so scared or timid to not be able to stand up to an employer.
If he tells her "no" then the next lesson she needs to learn is to start looking for another job with a better employer as soon as possible. There are other people out there. She should not argue with him (other than say "I think that's unfair, but it's your business"), but keep schtum after that.
Then when she walks out of the door she needs to calmly and rationally say "Thank you for employing me, but I'm leaving for a different job because I feel you take advantage of your staff a bit too much". Not rage and rant and show her arse. Just move on.
Life lessons learned.
Eldest, 16, just started a Saturday job at a local Café, 7 hr shift. Took home £40, @ £5 an hour plus £5 of tips. Owner seems a genuinely good type. Hope it will give her some real life communication skills/dealing with people.
As a comparison I got £35 a week when I started working and had to had over £15 into the family pot, oh how times have changed.
At the age of 17 I started full time work. Not until I walked out at the age of nearly 23 did I realise what a dreadful, money grabbing, mean minded, miserable, slave driving lot my employers were.
Sounds familiar, though I was fresh out of Uni aged 20. The problem is, in your first job, you have no baseline and just assume that's what working life is like.
I've walked out of jobs in a fit of pique... at least twice, and as someone else said I still derive satisfaction from that. The first was a part-time job whilst I was a student, working in a bowling alley. Two incidents that prompted my departure from there. The first was the surprise having my wages docked for a till short; I can count, I don't have till shorts and I hadn't signed off on that. So I broke into the management office, opened the safe and found that night's closing paperwork - they'd forged my signature. The second was someone had scribbled on the wall behind one of the counters. The manager concluded that it was either staff or, if a customer then staff negligence, so the cost of repainting the entire room would be split across all the staff who'd been on shift over the last couple of days. I handed my notice that day, the duty manager said to me "you know what [store manager] Steve is going to do with that don't you?" and I replied "roll it tightly and grease it lightly I hope."
The second one was a bait-and switch. I'd gone for a webdev role, they offered me a tech support position and I declined, I was trying to get out of support. They offered a compromise, I could have the dev role if I agreed to help out in support occasionally. Long story short, it turned out to be the other way around, and it came to a head a few months down the line when my chasing the company car I'd been promised in the interview was met with "support staff don't get company cars." That, the fact that precisely no-one had taken any interest in the dev work I'd done, and the woman on the adjacent desk was a crackpot, it was a pisstake too far and I told them to shove it. Ironically, one of the directors later did finally come to me for an update, I showed him what I'd created and he was bowled over. "That's great, can we do this and this and this?" I took immense pleasure in telling him that yes I absolutely could except it's my last day tomorrow.