What is considered normal or socially acceptable is changing all the time. Less than a century ago, doctors were endorsing cigarettes, and people were smoking on planes as casually as we sip juice on flights today. 50 years ago, the world was a very different place, and it’s likely that in another half century, we’ll be saying the same thing.
One aspect of our lives that’s likely to undergo major changes in the coming decades is the workplace. And according to Reddit users, there are plenty of common practices they believe will be considered unethical or illegal in the future. Below, we’ve gathered some of their most thoughtful responses, so enjoy reading through and imagining how much better work environments might be for our children and grandchildren.
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In the US (at least), I think visual privacy. I have an office, so I'm not fussed, but my staff who I love, are in "open office" that I can see anything they're doing.
I've never said it, because I totally don't give a s**t as long as they finish their work, but it should be illegal for me to be upset/report (I absolutely do not) that they've hopped on Facebook for a ten minute break or whatever.
The visual privacy thing causes a lot of stress - worrying about checking your phone at your desk, etc. If there's a performance issue, there's a performance issue. If there's not, there's not. Did you submit a Draft to me at 1:30pm? Great. Was it in good-enough quality to be workable? Great. Did you spend 15 minutes chatting on Whatsapp chatting about plans this weekend? Great.
It should be illegal for a workplace to stare-at and punish someone for living their life. And it should be unethical to have people in a fishbowl with eyes on them the entire time.
There was an experimental prison long ago, that basically put inmates in a fishbowl. No privacy ever. Constant eyes on them. Prisoners went literally, clinically insane. The experiment was deemed inhumane cruel and unusual punishment, and the concept was abandoned. Yet this is exactly the same thing as the “open office” concept that companies use and abuse, but no one seems to call for an end to, as cruel and inhumane. So I guess 21st century office workers aren’t valued as human beings in the same way that prisoners were in the last century.
Unpaid internships. Unpaid overtime.
This is already unethical or illegal in most developed countries.
Paying barely above minimum wage for jobs that require a university degree.
Not paying enough for the cost of living in the location of the office. No one should be paid minimum wage if they work in the San Francisco Bay Area, New York City, Boston, Los Angeles, etc, where rent alone is two or three times the entire monthly gross—-not net—-pay from a full time minimum wage job. Hell, no one shou,d be laid minimum wage anywhere, as areas with a low cost of living also pay a ridiculously low minimum wage amount that still isn’t enough to pay rent., much less bills and groceries.
Tipping culture being so prevalent, and even required, for some workers to barely make a living wage.
Forcing a 40-hour work week when there isn't 40 hours worth of work. If it's a salary position and there's nothing to do, we should just be able to go home. We work late when there's deadlines, but when nothing is going on we can't go home early.
This is so true. I had a sales job where we were busy from 6:30-1:30 M-Sa. We had to stay until 3:30. There were no sales to be had, but the owner paced around like a caged cat. It was the most stressful part of the day. That's what I get for going salaried. I used to just leave at 1:30 when I was hourly.
If you do a good job you're "rewarded" with extra work
Or you’re “rewarded” by sudden write ups and bad employee reviews, in an effort to get rid of you, since you’re older and at the top of the pay scale, and replace you with someone younger and cheaper. All that experience and knowledge thrown away to save a couple bucks—-stolen money which is then transferred to the CEI’s offshore account, of course—-and the company’s customers suffer for it. They forget that old people also have bills to pay, and trying to find a new job when you’re older is f*****g impossible.
Physicians being forced to work 80+ hours/week, 50 weeks/year, for 4-7 years after graduating medical school, while spending precious “free time” studying for board exams, completing tedious research projects, etc.
Lorry/truck drivers, bys drivers, pilots, are all held to strict laws re driving hours due to tiredness being a potential danger to life. Anyone in medical care should he held to the same laws... tiredness can kill!
Paying people different for same/similar jobs and prohibiting people from talking about it with each other.
Little to no maternity/paternity leave.
Again also illegal to not have good paternal leave on many places.
On call 24/7 365, even on vacation and not being compensated for anything off hours because you are salaried.
This includes the hospital as my child was born, getting written up for not answering my phone when I was under for back surgery (they knew I was having it, but my stand in couldn't answer something so they said I failed my due diligence, and cost POTENTIAL productivity.
Fun fact, I quit and they refused to take my resignation 3 times. It took 6 weeks for them to finally stop hounding me.
Attempting to encourage resignation in order to get an employee to quit without having to pay out severance or unemployment benefits.
In the UK this is classed as " Constructive Unfair Dismissal " and is illegal.
Being expected to work while sick.
Im currently about to start a ten hour shift even though Im ill and have a doctors note. Because I was negative for flu and covid, my work will count the absence against me even with a doctors note.
This is one step away from slavery. The slavery mindset is prevalent in the USA. What a sad country it has become. Americans deserve much better.
Working for decades with a skeleton crew where each employee has the tasks of 3 employees and is paid 1/3 the wage, so they need to find a second or third job just to survive.
...and the bosses are angry when you have to leave at a specific time to get to your second job.
This probably won't take 50 years, but forcing people to work in an office when their job does not require it.
Those unoccupied office buildings could easily be converted into living space—-AFFORDABLE living space—-for people who aren’t making six or seven figure yearly salaries, actually people making under $50,000.00 a year, especially in areas of unnecessarily sky high rents and vastly overpriced, artificially inflated, house purchase prices. No need to cut down trees, or break new ground to disturb existing green spaces. Just take unoccupied, perfectly sound, existing construction and convert it, ffs.
Working in a 110-125 degree fahrenheit factory while watching your coworkers fall out and having the call the ambulance multiple times a week. But don't worry we got a 20 minute lunch in our 12 hour shift.
Probably stretching but I hate when places tell you to come in for an interview for giving a wage estimate. Some situations it makes sense, but if you are running a local business offering people $7.25 US minimum wage whether they are 16 with no experience or the top of the field then you should state it and not waste people's time.
So many of the "no one wants to work" crowd are trying to offer less than McDonald's pays for positions that require years of experience, education, or training.
Especially when those jobs DO NOT actually require all that experience, education, or training. If they’re paying an ENTRY LEVEL salary, then the job shouldn’t have anything but the most basic requirements. That’s mostly being new to the field and/or a recent graduate from college, preferably in that major, or a related one. Because an entry level job is where you’re supposed to get the training and experience for a mid-level job in the field, or in a related field. If an employer wants mid- or upper-level qualified employees, they should f*****g well PAY mid- or upper-level salaries for them. M***********s.
Unpaid training. My very first job I worked at a pizza place I "trained" for 2 weeks, never getting paid. At the end of the 2 weeks, I was informed that I would actually be a cook instead of the cashier position I applied and trained for. I left immediately.
A consistent cycle of massive hiring / massive layoffs.
Needs context. Depends on the job / situation. For example one I have worked is oil refinery turn arounds. They hire a bunch of extra people when they shut down so they can get the work done quickly and get the plant back up in a few weeks. So - massive hiring / massive layoffs - but is isn't any surprise - you know that going in. Work long hours, get good pay - bail. Similar for some farming jobs in my area at harvest time. But again - it's not a secret.
boss giving you infinite amount of work and if you can't do it then it's the employee's fault.
Don’t forget that infinite amount of work is ALL a dire emergency that needs to be fixed and completed ten minutes ago! Because it was originally assigned to THEM to do, and they sat on it until the deadline was almost up. So they pass it to their employees to do for them ASAP, so they can put their name in it, hand it to their boss, and take all the credit—-and of course the raise, bonus, and promotion—-for it.
Drug testing for what people do off the clock.
Tying job performance or bonuses to number of OSHA recordables, it just encourages people to hide injuries.
Maine is doing it right. If you drug test people here and disqualify them for cannabis use they are NO LONGER ALLOWED TO DO BUSINESS HERE. We mean that freedom stuff here.
Unpaid overtime is dying out again as we enter a Covid fuelled period of low unemployment - people are not afraid to say 'no'
If a client tried to get me to work unbillable hours I'd first refuse, and if they insisted would bill the hours on other days
What is accepted/normal is forcing an employee to stand for multiple hours, knowing that they have a documented medical condition that causes them severe pain to stand for hours without end.
What is unethical/illegal in the next 50 years is that with the documented medical condition being known, the managers and supervisors flat out ignoring the ADA accommodation the employee applied for, asking for a short break/chair, and denying the accommodation so the employee has nothing to do but continue to stand in severe pain.
Hopefully being forced to stay at work once all work is done, non living wages
Hopefully, it's nepotism, but I feel it will only get much worse.
**"Clopening"** as it currently exists in the U.S.
As it stands currently OSHA suggests scheduling a person no sooner than 8 hours of their shift if the shift is 8 hours. Thankfully most companies do follow this suggestion. However, there are two problems 1) it's a suggestion and not law so some companies may schedule sooner 2) 8 hours sounds great, but it does not account for the fact that commute time back to home, cooking/eating/getting ready for bed, getting ready for the day and commuting back take up time that would be used for getting rest—you could very realistically end up with just 4 hours or rest due to a long commute, having to cook dinner, fulfill parental duties, etc.
When I worked in Danmark you had to have 11 hours off between shifts, if for some emergency reason I was called in after less than 11hours I was given an extra day off, but I was also compensated for working at heights over one meter over floor level, this compensation was however cancelled in 1999:)
Working in shops where the air can be seen because of all the diesel smoke/welding smoke etc.
I worked at Quality Name Plate in Glastonbury, CT a long time ago. The owner said he would close the shop if OSHA ever tried to inspect the place. There was one room that had open vats of nasty solvent with almost no ventilation. We had a degreasing station that was full of trichlorethylene. One day I came back from lunch to see the air in the metal warehouse filled with yellow paint because the exhaust fans in the paint room failed. The older people were dropping like flies. I was only there for 6 months and 2 guys who had been there for 20 years died from heart attacks. No regrets about quitting that place.
Rotating shifts and night shifts for less necessary positions. Obviously *some* staff has to be on call or work nights at least occasionally (LEO, healthcare, emergency response) but the average utility worker, for example, should not be required to work rotating shifts. My partner is a wastewater operator and at his previous employer he had to work two weeks of day shifts followed by 2-3 days off, then two weeks of night shifts. This lovely combination ended up giving him unprecedented, unprovoked seizures! (How fun.) His employer wouldn’t work with him to move him to more normal shifts. He went on temporary disability while he couldn’t drive, during which time they hired a replacement to fill his position, forcing him to quit and move to a different company for less pay (luckily on normal, 8-10 hour, day shifts.)
The rotating shifts suck. So do rotating weeks(days off) Can't schedule Drs. visits, etc
Note: this post originally had 34 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
Same. Another BP post that supposes what's true in USA is representative globally.
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So many of these simply serve to highlight how backward the USA is in terms of workers' rights. Most of us from Europe look at these in wonderment thinking "why would anyone put up with this?".
Because a lot of us don't have a choice. We need money to survive, and that mean finding the work we can. Suing for the legality of the conditions takes money that most of us don't have and have no guarantee of winning in whichever settlement.its a wonderful case of the rich stay rich and the poor get poorer.
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Most developed countries tackled most of these problems long ago.
Most government offices are short staffed and under funded, so things don't get looked into unless someone files a complaint or at least calls.
Load More Replies... Same. Another BP post that supposes what's true in USA is representative globally.
Load More Replies... So many of these simply serve to highlight how backward the USA is in terms of workers' rights. Most of us from Europe look at these in wonderment thinking "why would anyone put up with this?".
Because a lot of us don't have a choice. We need money to survive, and that mean finding the work we can. Suing for the legality of the conditions takes money that most of us don't have and have no guarantee of winning in whichever settlement.its a wonderful case of the rich stay rich and the poor get poorer.
Load More Replies... Most developed countries tackled most of these problems long ago.
Most government offices are short staffed and under funded, so things don't get looked into unless someone files a complaint or at least calls.
Load More Replies...