Nobody at my employer has received a raise in 3 years. This was our reaction as the owner of the company told several of us that he just purchased a beach condo with cash...

Mottwally · 1 month

Stories like this make me feel like I won the job lotto. I work in a small shop that stamps metal for mostly the auto industry.

When times are fat, our boss takes in a bunch, but also is very generous at sharing the profits.

When times are lean, and we are still working hard, he still rewards us out of pocket.

He's one of those guys that talking to, and looking at, you'd never guess he's got a ton of cash.

Bad thing is, I don't ever think I could work for anyone else. I've been spoiled rotten.

Sinopsis · 1 month

I work for UPS. You would think this wouldn't be a very good job. It's a shipping company in the US for those who do not know. (United Parcel Service) hardest work of my life, compared to the military and you lose about 30lbs in the first month working there.

My point is that at UPS you start off at 8.50 an hour, about 1.25 above minimum wage. Not so great right? Wrong. After 3 months I automatically get a dollar raise to 9.50. Then I can opt to take a test a month later showing me knowledge of my job where I can earn ANOTHER dollar an hour bam, 10.50. Then at the end of the year I automatically earned another dollar. 11.50 an hour right there, ALSO this is a PART TIME JOB, NOT FULL TIME. And here's the awesome part. After a year of working with UPS they cover you completely as a PART TIME WORKER on their health insurance. This includes dental, vision, all of it. The works, with no extra payment from your paycheck. And after another 6 months they'll cover your entire family as well, no matter how many children you have. All while doing the same job. After about 2 more years. (which then I'll be at 13.50 an hour) You qualify to be a supervisor WOO. That boosts your pay to about 20 an hour. and from there there's just more and more oppurtunities to gain raises.....UPS is a promote from within company...our CEO used to be loading boxes.

Also they will match your 401k penny for penny. Now think about this, a dollar raise for every year you work there...regardless of position. If you stayed as a loader...for lets say 30 years. You are now making 43.50 an hour. And they have matched your 401k penny for penny...you are retiring a wealthy man.

Oh and lets not forget the discounts. Not just UPS discounts either....UPS is the largest shipping company in the US...we ship thing for every company in the US or close to....So they offer us discounts. I get a 50% off discount from my phone bill each month just for working with them. And I have hundreds of other amazing coupons I have access to that must be verified for something like 25% a brand new pc.

devilcraft · 1 month

Not getting a raise in 3 years means that in reality your wage has been lowered equal to the inflation.

skintigh · 1 month

I had a boss do something similar. He didn't give employees raises, ever. We had one guy there 5 years without a raise. But he bought some classes car then showed it off and told us how he spent 25k or 50k on the renovation.

However, I learned well from my mom. She didn't get a raise 2 years in a row, confronted the boss, and he said "well you didn't ask for one so I didn't think you wanted one." Well, I demanded my boss give me a raise. After much bullshit, lying, and yelling, he gave me one. I did this the next 2 years, too. I told my other coworkers, too, and they all said they didn't want to "rock the boat." Eventually most of us were all laid off with 0 days notice or less at the peak of the recession even though the boss knew this was coming for almost a year.

Good thing they didn't rock the boat by being fairly compensated up until then.

jeepdave · 1 month

Eh, I honestly wouldn't care. But then again, if I have been there for 3 years and seen no sign of a raise I would already be looking for better employment elsewhere.

stevenwalters · 1 month

No one has gotten a raise at my company in 3 years either, all the while we've had multiple record quarters and our stock price is up almost 20%. When's the money supposed to start trickling down?

Errenden · 1 month

Time to start looking for other work and leave in mass with no two week notices.

physicscat · 1 month

Buying a beach house is his prerogative, he's in business to make money.

Telling your employees for whom you have not given raises, was callous, unprofessional, and stupid.

Edit: I have never gotten so many up votes on Reddit before. Ever. Wow.

Axlefire · 1 month

I love jags fan so much

porkfish66 · 1 month

1) Find address of beach house.

2) Rotating schedule of which employee craps on his porch each day.

Grandpas_Spells · 1 month

As somebody who deals with stuff like this, I just want to throw out an alternative.

My family business works in an industry that got pretty badly beat up in the 2000's. Account managers saw their number of customers drop by 25% and found themselves without a lot to do at times. The financially smart move would have been to lay some people off, but that wasn't done.

One of them complained that he hadn't gotten a raise in a few years. The partners were livid. Revenues dropped a ton and NOBODY took a pay cut (except the partners, who weren't getting rich when times were good) and nobody got laid off. There seemed to be a communication disconnect between employees, who thought getting a raise every few years was standard, and the employers, who thought they were being extremely generous by not cutting staff or furloughing people.

I don't know the financial health of your company, but perhaps something similar is going on here. Having been on the other side of this, I'd consider that if your boss isn't otherwise a huge dickhead, this may be a perspective issue. "Condo on the beach money" may be nowhere near "permanent payroll increase" money in most businesses. Or he may have saved this money when times were good, and was waiting for the right deal.

vertigo4 · 1 month

I remember working at a bar, my $25 paycheck bounced, along with the entire staffs, causing me a $35 fee. The bosses wife pulled up in a brand new Mercedes that same night. Hilarious.

Unshavenhelga · 1 month

This has become the norm in America. While it's always been the prerogative of the owner to make money, prior to this generation, they lifted those who worked with them at the same time. The boomers are selfish and have forgotten what society is.

byleth · 1 month

Relax Americans! We don't want to anger the job creators now do we?

Monkee1313 · 1 month

Douchebag C-assholes at a consulting company I worked for 10 years ago did the same sort of stuff. Cancelled end of year bonuses a week before they were to be paid. The CE-HOLE drove up in a new BMW he bought that morning with cash. I left the company a few weeks later and the company folded in February. The C-assholes all got multi-year severance packages. I hope he gets mauled by a raccoon.

thechapattack · 1 month

If this isnt social commentary on our society i dont know what is. "Let them eat cake"

gaoshan · 1 month

This is why we need to keep taxes low for the rich and for small businesses. So he can eventually afford to pay cash for a boat to go with the condo.

ttk2 · 1 month

Sounds like its about time for a strike. Before you talk about the state of the economy think for a bit, the cost of hiring new employees training them, transferring projects, various regulatory requirements and so on means that even with a wealth of applicants its significantly cheaper to give you a raise up to a given point. Do the math, strike, demand a raise that's still cheaper than replacing the work force.

sirdomino · 1 month

It is the American Dream, to become a dictator of a small organization, to exploit those in your collective, and then reap the profits via undervaluing their contributions.

winja · 1 month

This will be unpopular, but:

What's to say he hasn't spent the past 10 years setting money aside to buy a beach house? Or that his wife has contributed massively, and maybe has her own job that brings in a significant amount of cash? Or that he cashed in bonds he purchased years ago? Or that the house was an absurdly good deal that he had to jump on? Or any of the many, many other reasons he may have come across or had enough cash to make that purchase?

His timing, to be sure, is atrocious. It's the worst form to be so out of touch with your employees that you don't even realize (at least, I hope he didn't realize...) telling them he just spent a significant chunk of change on non-essentials while they have been toiling with an actual decrease in income is a mite insensitive.

But people have different priorities. I went on a 10 day trip to London not too long ago -- but I'm also the lowest paid employee at my company. I saved for a long time for that trip. It had nothing to do with a sudden raise, or bonus.

Great_Gig_In_The_Sky · 1 month

The clear answer here is to kill him and reenact weekend at Bernie's

broken337 · 1 month

My favorite was my boss parking all of the work vans to "save money". Then he pulls onto the job site in his $60,000 truck and leaves the air conditioning blasting with the doors open for an hour. Fucking fuckface.

frugal_masturbater · 1 month

I work for a medium-sized, privately held company. Business is good, and the owners recently announced that they have a $800,000 pool they will distribute among employees as a thank-you for good results.

That's on top of an annual profit sharing bonus we already received. Love that place.

theeRut · 1 month

So this is what the "job creators" are doing with their tax breaks.

Thereminz · 1 month

Just say "oohh so that's why I haven't had a raise in three years"

wolf156 · 1 month

The owner of the moving company i worked for always would say "well we dont have the funds to fix any of the trucks we just need to make do guys." Then he buys himself a helicopter. Such a prick.

robo_engineer73 · 1 month

This is why I am glad I am a unionized public sector worker.

aggykryss · 1 month

This kind of thing is what makes me so mad about capitalist systems. You get apologists for big corporations or bosses who pull this crap... "Raising an employee's salary/giving them insurance is too expensive, blah blah blah." No. If the people running the show weren't such greedy fucks and would accept a smaller salary in order to treat their employees as they should be treated, then they could.

My mom's company recently denied everyone raises for several years, then purchased a shit ton of high def TVs they could run their announcements on in the hallways. NO CUSTOMERS EVER ENTER THE BUILDING, as it is a calling/processing center.

DoubleJumps · 1 month

A family member works for a company whose owners just told an employee to quit or deal with it after reneging on a $2000 raise, then did everything to force her to quit for the audacity to ask for the raise they promised her after 3 years without one.

I went and did a job at their mansion right after this and found more than $2000 worth of food in their fridge.

I hate people like this.

EDIT: I should probably add that it took weeks and some decent nagging to get them to pay the $160 they owed me for the job I did.

reddust174 · 1 month

[deleted]

Pituquasi · 1 month

Don't waste your time with 1%'er apologists or children telling you to walk out. Go here and learn how to organize a union in your workplace. Call people. Scumbag bosses are the reasons why unions exist. I'm a life-long unionist and a steward. You need a contract. Solidarity Forever!

gj45 · 1 month

If only there were some sort of organization whose purpose was to ensure the workforce gained fair compensation and a safe work environment...

Ekhart · 1 month

but, but, but… he's a job creator!

ronsterofMock · 1 month

Get the address, start ordering novelty services to his door. Enjoy

Bronloch · 1 month

This is the type of thing that Unionised Labour corrects!

amandaletta · 1 month

My previous boss did this exact thing. People at the company haven't gotten a raise in 5 years (except the sales reps, naturally), he buys an airplane, an electric Tesla, and then stores ALL of his cars and plane (and brothers and friends planes) in the warehouse for all the laborers to look at all day while they work. The most I ever saw was I believe six planes total plus the Tesla, BMW, and three other cars that belonged to his daughters and wife.

floydfan · 1 month

I worked at my last employer for 12 years. we had a wage freeze for 3 years, some people had not received raises in 4.

I'm in I.T., so I had access to a lot of confidential information, including profit and loss reports, employee wage info, etc. turned out that they were making a 24% profit off the backs of people who are making between 9 and 10 bucks an hour. I mean, 24% is millions and inexcusable.

I left, of course. It wasn't just the wage freeze that got to me though, my boss was a huge jerk.

questionforyounow · 1 month

My ex boss decided that she would no longer offer paid time off, all vacations will be without pay and no more raises. But she will complain when everyone leaves the clinic at 5 on the dot, while there are patients still in the clinic. She had the nerve to tell us at a meeting that each and every one of us are disposable, because in this economy everyone is looking for work. She gets a lot of NP students and PA students to do their rotation at the clinic so she doesn't have to have a full staff. She has hired a lot of new physicians, PA's and NP's, but they never stay for more than 3 months because she talks down to them, uses them to see all her patients, while she takes vacations. I quit, when she asked me to stay over one evening to do paperwork, then asked me to leave 3 hours early on Friday so I wouldn't have overtime. Fuck that!!

lagspike · 1 month

your employer can do this, cause what are you going to do in an economy like this...quit?

good luck finding a replacement job.

aghast_entities · 1 month

What?! THe guy in the $5000.00 suit is going to do that?!

wardser · 1 month

You actually took a huge paycut.

If you were making $60K in 2008, you are now only making $57K.

The loss of income also reflects from lower salary. $60K at 5% annual raises(more or less standard)...would mean you lost another $3K in the first year, another $6.6K in the second year, and another $9.5K in the third year. So that's 20 grand that were stolen from you.

Finally, you have 3 more years experience, the 5% annual raises are just there try to keep up with with the growth in skill level so you wouldn't quit, but in reality they fall short of actual value...which is why finding a new job is always much more profitable...even with a 5% raise after 3 years you'd still be about $5-10K short of the salary bump you'd get at another company.

So your boss basically stole $3K thru inflation from you, another $20K thru lack of raises, and even if he paid you all that, you would have still gotten paid $5K/yr less.

Oh and of course, even when raises will resume...you'll still only get a 5% raise...you won't get paid back for the sacrifice in salary you made for the company. That is if the raises resume...the freezing of raises is a huge benefit to companies...so even when the companies are profitable, they can blame the general economy to keep costs down.

You want to know why the economy is in the crapper? Because millions of people like you didn't get that $20K in raises...that's $20K that didn't go into the economy.

Missionary · 1 month

People who say just quit, or open up your own business must be smoking some serious blue sky meth.

5h17h34d · 1 month

All made possible by Reagan's "trickle down economics" and your neighbors unwillingness to man up and defend the unions that used to level the playing ground.

GrooveCombo · 1 month

And yet nobody spoke up.

manonthemount · 1 month

My boss overloads our employees and then threatens them with replacement when they request to log the overtime they work and get paid for it. She insisted adding someone would put us over budget, and announced two days ago she was hiring her friend, an MBA/CPA, who will probably make twice what everyone else does.

ofd1197 · 1 month

There is power in a democracy, power in the land, Power in the hands of the worker. But it all amounts to nothing if together we don't stand. There is power in a union.

maxcitybitch · 1 month

Expects Christmas bonus. Jelly of the Month Club membership

dwohio · 1 month

Find a new employer. He will keep fucking you till you leave.

earwigy1990 · 1 month

That is how my piece of shit boss is. I haven't gotten a raise in two years despite moving up drastically in the company multiple times, I make less than they pay In N Out employees and my boss has bought 4 F150 raptors suped up at $100,000 a piece for him and his girlfriend. What that actual fucking fuck!

Verteros · 1 month

Check your contract, I didn't realise when I was employeed at my workplace that I was entitled to a $10,000 dollar raise from 2 years of work. The rise was based on a 5% pay increase for every year of employment.

OxGaabe6 · 1 month

I work for a non-profit and a few years ago our president started saying how we have to cut back and make sacrifices during this rough economic period, so nobody even asked about reviews or raises.

Then we looked at our public records and found out that he's been giving himself and the VP (his brother) a 20% raise every year. But you know, the other 4 people who work there can't even get a small raise because you know... bad economy... Employee morale is at a low.

fifteen_two · 1 month

It's been five years since anyone at my office has gotten a raise. It all stopped when the company owners (married), separated. Now, instead of getting pay increases, we watch them argue every day over their personal finances while what would be our potential pay increases go to their now dual house payments while their kids still go to the top area colleges. It seems like we all took the financial hit for their marriage failing and they still each live their life to the previous standard while everything around me gets more expensive without my pay adjusting to account for it.

ursuslotor · 1 month

just burn it.

there. done.

MichB1 · 1 month

Husband in same boat. In a publicly traded company, no increases at all, constant cuts in staff, and yet CEO gets $300K bonus for taking the company into penny-stock country, and the zillion VPs get similar bonuses.

Myself, worked for a software company owned by Mitt's friends (literally, yes) who did the same shit as CEO and "founder," (she has certain PR "liabilities") and off they went to spend 2 weeks at Christmas in Bermuda. He spent most of the work day doing work for the state Rethuglican party, and she spent most of the workday shopping.

Weeks from my five-year anniversary (where I would have been vested and got three weeks of vacation) they laid me off and hired someone half my age to do my exact job (minus one line in the job description) for half my pay. He burned out in three months.

funny

MODERATORS

funny

MODERATORS

you'll need to login or register to do that

create a new account

login