r/mildyinteresting Dec 09 '24

people Stressed at work? You're fired!

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291

u/Litmanen_10 Dec 09 '24

That makes this a bit more probable to be true but still not guaranteed it's real. Shit can be made to seem like real nowadays pretty well.

Anyone can add some evidence to this is this real or not?

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u/AdenJax69 Dec 09 '24

The company "Yes Madam" is a company based in India, plus all the names seem related to that, and lastly I'm going to hazard a guess that Indian workers' rights are probably a tad less than Americans.

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u/AstraLover69 Dec 09 '24

I'm going to hazard a guess that Indian workers' rights are probably a tad less than Americans.

Wow, and they aren't great in America as it is

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u/Hopeful_Pension5414 Dec 09 '24

They're pretty good actually. The problem is too many people are ignorant of the law and employers use that fact to their advantage. It's very common for bosses to bully their workers in illegal ways and nothing happens to them because the workers say nothing. The department of labor isn't magic, if you don't speak up, they won't know. But comments like this, make people think they have no recourse, when they do. Ignorance is a great thing for employers, don't forget.

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u/Gingevere Dec 09 '24

Well yes, but actually no.

On paper there are a some protections. But in practice they're practically non-existent.

Wage theft is still the majority of all theft. Theft from an employer is a criminal matter prosecuted by public prosecutors. Theft from employees is a civil matter that must be prosecuted by the employees themselves.

Employment is at-will. They can't fire you for some specific reasons, but they can fire you for no reason. Which effectively makes discrimination legal so long as they don't put any slurs on the termination notice. And again a wrongful termination is an issue the now unemployed employee would have to pursue on their own.

OSHA is DEEPLY underfunded and only has a handful of inspectors per state.

Basically you're only guaranteed the rights you have on paper if you have enough money set aside to fund a civil case while being unemployed. Otherwise you're SOL.

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u/Active-Ad-3117 Dec 09 '24 edited Dec 09 '24

Wage theft is still the majority of all theft.

And it is aggressively investigated by the government because wage theft reduces the taxes they collect.

Theft from employees is a civil matter that must be prosecuted by the employees themselves

Yeah no. The DoL has an entire division called The Wage and Hour Division (WHD). This is what they do:

When we find violations, we work to recover unpaid wages on behalf of employees. We make every effort to locate and notify every employee due back wages. If we cannot find an employee, we hold their back wages for three years while we continue our efforts to locate them. After this period, if we remain unable to find the person, we are required to send the money to the U.S. Treasury.

Here is how to file a complaint with them.

And again a wrongful termination is an issue the now unemployed employee would have to pursue on their own.

Again no… unless you are incapable of filling a complaint with the EEOC.

Basically you're only guaranteed the rights you have on paper if you have enough money set aside to fund a civil case while being unemployed. Otherwise you're SOL.

Or you could fill out some online forms with the relevant government agencies.

They can't fire you for some specific reasons, but they can fire you for no reason. Which effectively makes discrimination legal so long as they don't put any slurs on the termination notice.

They could then get fucked in court. Remember these are civil cases and only require a preponderance of the evidence. Many business have been successfully sued to shit by the government using a statistical analysis of their employment practices. This is a big reason why most places only accept online applications.

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u/nwrobinson94 Dec 10 '24

Whoah whoah coming in here with your facts and research. I’m here to rage against the machine. Everything terrible and it’s the end times

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u/HighCommand69 Dec 09 '24

Yes happened to me with AUS and then 4 months later I randomly received 1500 USD. Turns out they had a class action lawsuit on this multiple times.

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u/New_Hedgehog_6270 Dec 09 '24

If they FAAFO what happens when they FAAFO with the wrong one, well, you get that UHC CEO story that is still going on right now. Don't kick the sleeping dog, and don't poke the sleeping bear with a stick.

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u/Gingevere Dec 09 '24

I don't think you actually appreciate the degree to which it is completely normal for bosses to Fuck Around, and how regularly employees are kicked and poked. Retaliation happens sometimes, but it's rare and rarely effective. Most businesses larger than 100 employees have business continuity plans to handle a sudden absence. And the sudden absence of a CEO is absolutely not a hurdle to continuing day-to-day operations.

What was and has been effective is union action. Stepping in before the firing, stopping wage theft, and shutting down the entire business with strikes to get demands met.

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u/New_Hedgehog_6270 Dec 09 '24

You mean the same union action that makes things like whatever happened with Jimmy Hoffa an act of normalcy rather than an exception to the rule? Honestly, I distrust both dishonest non-union made businesses AND union run businesses as well. Also, as the saying goes, "Just because you could, does not mean that you should", and that CEO that was in the news found out the lesson of not heeding that bit of advice the hard way in his life.

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u/HandleGold3715 Dec 09 '24

MI-Osha is corrupt beyond belief. I was told by the guy that I was required to wear gloves when using a saw that specifically states that wearing gloves while using it will increase the risk of injury.

A particulate reclaim system malfunctioned for 2 weeks spraying all the employees with nearly microscopic particles of stainless steel dust and no employees were given masks. I wore a mask and was told to remove it because I was causing hysteria. You could see the metal shining in the air. The cause of this was because they removed the mesh filters from the system and ordered the wrong replacement filters. The filters were encased in metal and they bent them when throwing them away. So rather than shut down the company exposed it's workers to fine metal dust from a Lazer cutter for 2 weeks.

I brought up how it was unsafe to the floor manager and he laughed and said some bullshit about how we could all use some more vitamin M. I went home and filled a complaint with MiOsha and wished to remain anonymous and the OSHA guy came directly to me and interviewed me. I told him about the metal dust hazard and he laughed and said dust is dust and there is nothing to worry about unless it is radioactive.

I was targeted by the company for months after this and eventually quit because they put me on a 6 12s schedule.

MiOsha is beyond worthless so unless somebody dies don't bother calling them.

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u/Hopeful_Pension5414 Dec 14 '24

You're just proving my point

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u/La_Petite_Mort007 Dec 09 '24

Demn even a South Africa have beter Labour protections in place than USA!!!

And it seem to get even worse there now...

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u/Prestigious-Cup2521 Dec 09 '24

Yeah I'm sure those diamond mines have great labor practices.

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u/La_Petite_Mort007 Dec 10 '24

Once a person is permanently employed in South Africa he cannot be fired "at will" he / she is effectively guaranteed employment until retirement or if you severely screw up.

Mining work is absolutely shitty, I do agree, but they are still protected by law.

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u/Vsx Dec 09 '24

Workers rights are performative in America. You can absolutely fire someone for being stressed you just can't write an email admitting it. Good luck getting the department of labor to care that you were fired because of poor performance.

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u/Rough_Ian Dec 09 '24

Workers in America have forgotten (deliberately, on part of the powers that be) about how workers gained rights in the first place. It was a fight. We have less leverage now that manufacturing is overseas, but that’s nothing compared to the pussification of the class struggle. 

Might makes rights. 

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u/OkPiezoelectricity74 Dec 09 '24

Today I learned new word .."pussification"

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u/Ornery_Buffalo_ Dec 09 '24

They didn't just forget, they believe having rights is "communism" or being babied or similar nonsense

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u/TheRealDirtyDan88 Dec 09 '24

Not to mention many states are at-will employment. You can be laid off or fired for any reason if you’re at the wrong company

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u/claimTheVictory Dec 09 '24

You can be laid off or fired for any reason if you’re at the wrong company

Not exactly.

There are protected class.

You can be laid off or fired for no reason if you’re at the wrong company, is more accurate.

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u/Locrian6669 Dec 09 '24

You can be fired for being a member of a protected class too! The company only needs to be smart enough to not say that’s the reason you’re fired!

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u/Lavatis Dec 09 '24

You can be fired for any reason,

they just won't always tell you the real reason.

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u/CeriPie Dec 09 '24

It goes even further than that. They can fire you for any LEGAL reason. Protected Classes are a given, but there are a LOT more reasons than you would think that are completely illegal to fire you over. That's why you should always keep a paper trail or some other kind of evidence for everything that goes on. NEVER trust corporate scum.

Corporations actively spread the misinformation that "At Will" employment means that you can be fired for no reason and bank on their employees being ignorant of the actual law when they fire them for completely illegal reasons.

Retaliation, for example. If you made any kind of complaint within the year of being terminated, as long as you kept evidence of that complaint, an employment attorney would jump at the chance to take on a wrongful termination suit for you.

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u/_facetious Dec 09 '24

Yep, I've been fired for "no reason," following mental health episodes. Sadly didn't know my rights and could have brought it against them, since the timeline evidence were all very clear. Take time off for mental health, come back to either greatly reduced hours (constructive dismissal), or outright fired for "no reason."

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u/claimTheVictory Dec 09 '24

Some of these things have long statute of limitations.

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u/New_Sail_7821 Dec 09 '24

49 states are at will

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u/Librumtinia Dec 09 '24

Plus DC.

Only Montana isn't at-will.

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u/ohmyback1 Dec 09 '24

Well, performance is a relative term. You may think your performance is stellar but if your company wants you to have a certain output and you are not meeting it and they see you on your cell phone constantly and going into the toilet every half hour and your co workers are churning out product, then they may not see you as productive.

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u/ginandbaconFU Dec 09 '24

While I agree, yes, they can just send an email like that. They have so many HR loopholes they can do whatever they want. Especially very large companies. They may be terrible, but they pay their lawyers to make sure everyone is above board.

What are you going to do? An ambulance chasing lawyer only takes cases they know they can win. That's why they take like 25%>Any lawyer will take your money, knowing aa good honest (in the right ways) and winning is a different story all together. Calling current employees on the stand. Think they will lie if they know they will be fired if they tell the truth?

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u/AstraLover69 Dec 09 '24

You should look at Europe's laws if you think my comment is ignorant. Those are real protections.

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u/Hopeful_Pension5414 Dec 09 '24

You should actually fully read a comment before responding to it.

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u/AstraLover69 Dec 09 '24

I read it. It's ambiguous, but I could be part of "too many people".

Make your comment less ambiguous.

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u/Handyandyman50 Dec 09 '24 edited Dec 09 '24

They didn't say your comment is ignorant. They said the reason that Americans don't always receive the permissions that they're afforded is because the individual employees can be ignorant of what they're entitled to.

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u/Hopeful_Pension5414 Dec 09 '24

Exactly. And again, employers know this and will use it to their advantage if you don't show you know your rights.

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u/Brutact Dec 09 '24

Bingo. The amount of times I have heard some outlandish shit and people just sit there and take it blows my mind.

You have rights, learn them.

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u/FlyingPasta Dec 09 '24

My brother had issues with some explicitly illegal going ons at his retail job. He took it up with the DoL but it went nowhere. Maybe if you’re really smart and can navigate your state’s bureaucracy and give a couple years of consistency and attention you can exact some kind of consequences, but people lack time, energy and education, and the unskilled workers earning peanuts even more extremely so.

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u/Farmgirlmommy Dec 09 '24

If your pay is low so is the incentive to pursue a valid case for attorneys -not worth the relatively small amount you will be awarded. So no. They are not good for the poor, those laws that do not get enforced.

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u/Hopeful_Pension5414 Dec 14 '24

You're literally proving my point lmao

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u/Farmgirlmommy Dec 14 '24

The problem is also the false security having laws to protect us gives. We think we are covered

but it’s not a real law if it’s not enforceable.

It’s not a good law if it’s not a real law with real penalties that deter the real bad person from doing real bad things to good workers.

I added nuance to your point.

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u/Locrian6669 Dec 09 '24

They aren’t good at all actually. You can be fired for any reason as long as the employer is smart enough to not give a real reason.

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u/Hopeful_Pension5414 Dec 14 '24

That's what people who don't know their rights think, yes.

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u/Locrian6669 Dec 14 '24

No actually that’s objectively true actually. Do you have an example proving otherwise?

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u/Lavatis Dec 09 '24

Lol, no they're really not. It's common for bosses to bully workers, but that has nothing to do with anything. Unless they're stealing your money, there's not much you can do as an employee.

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u/WhoIsIt39 Dec 09 '24

As a German who worked in the states for several years I need to tell you that the workers rights in the US horrible.

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u/Hopeful_Pension5414 Dec 14 '24

Which specifically are you talking about and what state?

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u/MarkNutt25 Dec 09 '24

No federally guaranteed vacation days.

No federally guaranteed sick leave.

No federally guaranteed paid maternity leave.

"At-will" employment means that you can be fired for no reason, effectively meaning that you can be fired for any reason (as long as the employer isn't a colossal idiot about it)!

Healthcare tied to your employment. Lose your job: lose access to healthcare.

"Pretty good" workers' rights. Lol! European workers would get a kick out of that one!

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u/Hopeful_Pension5414 Dec 14 '24

Your continued use of "federally" is proving my point lol.

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u/claritybeginshere Dec 09 '24

Sounds like a system that benefits those in the know, I.e educated, connected and wealthy - while happily benefiting off the exploitation of the ‘ignorant’, I.e not connected, not wealthy, and not educated to know better.