QuoteTo many reasons to name but the largest single reason is the company does not understand the nature of the people in the position I am, the front line workers competent with electrical, mechanical, hydraulic, pneumatic. I have found the good ones to largely be self motivated, self organizing, and would have what today would be called non neurotypical thinking.

I'm working in retail part time.  The  company will schedule me for five hours a day, Sometimes four and a half, sometimes even four.  But I think they know that pisses me off, so not so much.  I just worked six days in a row to get 31 hours.  My proletarian undercover work tells me unions should be mandatory.  I hope your sick worker gets well.

When I am at work the young managers I work with who are actually great guys can get in the way of my self-motivated, self-organizing style.  The company just opened store number 1500 and to earn my McWage I have to follow recipes for everything.  Every day I have to do ten minutes of training video.  Cubicle workers in California figure out the 'best' way to do things and everybody learns over time how to do things the 'right' way.

No business ever succeeds without some workers just plain figuring out what their job is supposed to be and then just takes it upon themselves to do it.  But getting off script too much begs for trouble.  Not getting off script at all does not deal with the reality of every situation.

It is an ass-kissing pyramid, but I am lucky to work with a bunch of great guys.  We all work hard and look after each other. 

The company is huge and takes advantage of every opportunity to run the operation at low prices.  In WA State lunch is unpaid, but you have to take the time off.  And you must be given a half hour lunch if you work more than five hours.  This turns into pressure to cut my time.  On top of that there is heavy pressure to get things done and 'close early'.  Every pay pereiond the walls echo with 'too many hours'  'we have to cut hours'.  This does not reward good work but over a few months the company manages to screw me out of a couple of hundred.  Wage theft is part of low prices.

Some states have better employment laws, WA state is one of the states that is 'out to lunch'.  Telling an employer they must pay for all of an employees time is somehow construed to mean that an employee's civil rights are somehow being violated if you pay them by the rules of their own game.  Capitalism.  Capitalism pays for time.  WA is a 'right to work state'.

I wind up feeling like a full time worker and I currently bask in two days off in a row after working six days in a row.  For half the actual work, and of course half of full time pay.  But 100% of a full time commitment.  My social security is essentially subsidizing the company.  Without it I could not get by, and I could not be there.  I'd need more hours.  It is not would not, it is could not.  I have asked myself, 'you are doing this why' a few times in the last few days.

All power to the Soviets.  For the time being my undercover proletarian explorations will continue.  I have been undercover studying this companys' capitalism for going on three years now. 

* A "right to work" state is a state in the United States that has laws prohibiting contracts between employers and labor unions which require all employees in a unionized workplace to become union members and pay union dues.   In right-to-work states, employees are not required to join a union or pay union dues as a condition of employment, even if their workplace is unionized. These laws are intended to protect workers' freedom of association and choice regarding union membership.  In the old days even being hit up on the side of the head by a police baton was not enough to discourage union membership. Scabs had to be legalized and protected.  In 'right to work' states, workers have few rights, but scabs and exploiters do. 

I live in this greater west coast free trade zone.