I worked for a non profit agency that regularly held fundraisers. One
of our biggest fundraisers is a weekend long bike ride that is held
annually at an out of town location. All of the full time employees
are required to work the event. We were given minimal information in
advance, and later found out why……

On Friday morning we were given our specific assignments and drove
two hours to the event location, where we were immediately put to
work. There was no lunch break, and no food available. Dinner time
came, and again, no break and no food. We worked until 11pm that
evening–a total of 15 hours. Finally we went to our motel where I
had to share the room with four other women, and sleep in the same
bed with my boss.

We were awakened at 3am after about 3 hours of sleep and put to work
again, making breakfast for the cyclists. We were told that if there
were any leftovers we could have something to eat. We then worked all
day, no lunch, no dinner, and finished at 11pm. 3 hours sleep, up at
3am, same drill. The event ended Sunday evening and we had to clean
up the event site. Around 9pm we were finally headed home, but had to
be back at the office the next morning to empty the trucks of all the
gear. Our agency president spent the entire event shmoozing with the
fundraisers and getting in the way. I still don’t know how it is
legal to treat employees this way!

I am a Paramedic, who works 24hr shifts. I became ill, and called my
Lt. at 6 in the morning advising him that I wouldn’t be able to make
it to work that day. He proceeded to ask me what was wrong. I
responded that it was personal – to which he advised me that he
needed a description of the illness to award my EARNED sick time.
I considered this a gross invasion of privacy, but complied anyway.
Upon returning to work the next shift I was told I would not be paid
my sick time since I didn’t call in a SECOND TIME to make the
officers aware that I was recovering at my residence.
Furthermore I was told there was no recourse to appeal the “no pay”
decision since it wasn’t a disciplinary action. Since when is NOT
GETTING PAID, not disciplinary?!

I worked in the sales department of a poorly-run hotel for 8 months.
They got a new General Manager after I had been there about 4 months.
He was *the definition* of a narcissistic sociopath. Every morning we
would start off the day with a meeting saying what we would be doing
that day. If he didn’t think what someone said was “amazing” enough
(his favorite word), he would make rude little jabs about how “lazy”
they are or make a sarcastic remark like “OH..you’re just SOO busy
today. Ha ha.” He would look us up and down to see what we were
wearing, but not say a word. Then an hour later we would receive a
Memo letting us know that we were no longer allowed to wear whatever
item it was that he didnt like (open toed shoes, etc).

He lived in said hotel since he was from another part of the country,
looking for a permanent residence while he was working as the GM. He
would get drunk in the hotel bar at night and wander around the hotel
looking for things to complain about. He was reported by 3 separate
male staff members for touching them inappropriately on the face/neck
and following one guy into the bathroom.

He also printed out a spreadsheet which contained everyone’s
salaries, gave it to the head Chef to use as a roster for banquet
employees, and then everyone found out how much everyone else made.

This jerk is paid $85,000/year and still works there!

I started working at my uncle’s burger joint when I was 16 and the
manager there was an absolute pig!

About 3 months after I started, the manager came up to me and asked me
to meet him in the back room. So being obedient, I did. He told me he
had a large beef order that he wanted me to take care of then proceeded to
lock the door and remove his pants. He then attempted to unbutton my
blouse, not knowing that I had pepper spray in my back pocket. I
grabbed the spray and got him in his right eye while he was messing
with my shirt. He pulled away and I screamed until my uncle ran in and
called the cops. He was put in jail and I quit my job at my uncles
restaurant.

In 1991 I got pregnant. Unplanned, but not unwanted. My boss tried to
get me to confide in her, because she thought I was making a poor
decision in not terminating the pregnancy. She actually came out and
said that my pregnancy was impacting her negatively (on the job), and
that I should consider having an abortion.

Admittedly, I took some sick hours because I was terribly nauseated
around the clock, for a few months. But they were my hours to take.

The last day I worked for her, she started to chew me out for
something, so I stood up and walked down the hallway to where the
timeclock was, to punch out and quit. In full view and hearing of
patients (we worked in a medical clinic) and staff, she followed me
down the hall, shouting, “This is very unprofessional! You need to
talk about this!”

In a quiet, even tone, as I signed my timecard and handed it to her,
I responded, “Yes, it is unprofessional, and no, I don’t need to talk
about it. But you seem to need to.” I turned around and walked out.

The next day I had an interview with a local municipal government,
and started working the following day making $2 more an hour. I
worked there all through my pregnancy, and when I came back from
maternity leave, they hired me as a regular employee. I worked there
for five more years.

A co-worker and I were talking about the long weekend that had just
passed for the 4th of July. My boss joins in saying how nice her
weekend with family had been, everyone together enjoying the cookout,
etc. They all settled down to watch fireworks and she said they were
great but she regretted not having some 3-D glasses so she could
really get the full effect.