[reposted from reddit - I am not OP]
I work at a store that sells kitchen appliances and other kitchen related stuff, normally when we’re supposed to leave or go on break we’re supposed to tell our manager, I was helping a long line at cash register and had already been there for 8 hours and assumed they had someone to cover me, I wasn’t allowed to use the walkies to ask to be covered to go home, so I quickly found my manager and told her my shift was done.
She got really prissy at me and said, “Could you really not stay a few more minutes?” I tried to tell her, “I thought you had someone to cover me I can stay if you want.” She then replied, “No no just go, but next time you need to wait for a manager to let you go home.”
record scratch
This was never a rule, I asked other people who’ve worked there for years and they agreed that it wasn’t a rule.
I worked again a few days later and the store was empty, my shift was over and was about to ask to go home then I remember what my manager told me.
Cue malicious compliance.
I continued to wander the store and slightly fix shelves, making sure I was near my manager.
After about 2 and a half hours she said, “You’re still here, why haven’t you gone home?” I replied, “You said I need to wait to be told to go home.” My manager looked at me as though she was mentally kicking herself. “Just go,” she said.
I clocked out and got paid an extra $30 for doing literally nothing.
TL;DR: My manager got so annoyed when I told her my shift was done that she said I had to wait for a manager to dismiss me after my shift. Well, the next time I worked I waited around for 2 and a half hours doing nothing waiting to get dismissed. When my manager noticed, she told me to go and that’s how I got paid an extra 2 hours for doing nothing.
Retail managers are about the dumbest people I’ve ever worked with. All they know how to do is boss people with passive/submissive personalities around (poorly) and make up rules when things go awry. Also shifting blame onto others is a key skill in retail management.
2 hours of overtime is $30? OP needs a union.
Thats $8/hr even. Pretty standard for retail jobs where I live.
Cost of living where I am is around $38-40 so I’m all out of whack with this, sorry. But on most contracts our first 2hrs of OT would be 1.5x, whereas you’re somehwere around 1.85x? So that’s neat.
Op worked 2.5 extra hours. That’s $8/hr * 1.5 overtime * 2.5 extra hours.
The city where I live has a higher col then the surrounding rural areas. Our living wage is $15.34 and poverty wage is $6.35 I don’t have a report for the surrounding areas but my gut says somewhere around $10/$5.
In the US you have to get paid 1.5x for hours over 40. $30/2.5/1.5 = $8. And thats assuming no paycheck deductions such as tax, healthcare, alimony, etc
Most places don’t have skyhigh col.
My midlife crisis just got a little worse.
There are places where it would literally cost me 80% less to live. I’m stuck for work reasons but damn.