“Why Can’t You Just Sit Quiet And Nod Your Head Like Everyone Else?”: Manager Fired For Standing Up For His Employees
If there’s one thing you learn after working for a big company — being a cog in a machine — is that people are expendable. And that’s precisely what Reddit user Durncha just realized.
The man has been a manager at a store for years and had a great track record. Superb sales numbers, impressive employee retention; the corporate office was very happy with his results. But it hated the way Durncha achieved them. You see, he actually listened to his team and treated them like human beings.
The manager went to countless meetings where he was schooled for caring, and eventually got kicked out for it.
In the end, he made a post about everything he went through on the subreddit r/AntiWork, and it perfectly captures how cold and inhumane the system can be.
One Reddit user wanted to vent after getting fired from a company he dedicated years of his life to
Image credits: TheStandingDesk (not an actual photo)
So he made a post, describing the corporate BS he had to deal with
Image credits: Jake Nebov (not an actual photo)
Image credits: Dylan Gillis (not an actual photo)
You’d think that companies would have detailed strategies in place for taking the best possible care of their employees. But sadly, this post isn’t a standalone case. Employee well-being was a low priority for many companies last year.
According to the 2021 Wellbeing Diagnostic Survey that was released just two days ago by Willis Towers Watson (WTW), although almost all companies had identified burnout as a threat to their workers:
- Less than half (48%) had employee well-being programs.
- Only 26% had adopted and articulated a worker well-being strategy with objectives and goals for each program;
- And only 14% had effectively communicated the strategy and value proposition behind their programs and delivered what they promised.
The survey, which was conducted in October, has a margin of error of +/- 5%.
The survey identified the top two actions respondents plan to take in 2022 or are considering for 2023 to improve the emotional, physical, social and financial wellbeing of workers.
Regina Ihrke, the senior director of health and benefits for WTW, told Forbes that, “Since the pandemic, we have definitely seen well-being have a whole new priority for employers that we expected to emerge pre-pandemic—but the pandemic really accelerated the need for more at a quicker pace.”
“However, when we look at the priorities that employers will focus on from the survey, they are very focused on evolving benefits and programs in the four pillars, physical, emotional, financial and social with emotional and financial at the forefront of areas to prioritize,” she said.
Maybe the Great Resignation and the challenges it brings to recruiting replacements will encourage employers to speed up the implementation of their well-being programs. Or at the very least, not to fire their star team leaders for microscopic wrongdoings.
People think the only losers in this story are the executives who just lost a valuable employee
After someone commented that a district manager monitoring a random store’s active timesheet at precisely the right moment to notice a discrepancy, Durncha provided more information on what happened.
“The program is called Dayforce, and our area manager has a district Excel sheet that he logs all of his 8 stores regular pay, OT, double-time, sick time, vacation, holiday, etc.”
“Every week he goes into the specific store’s time clock screen to go and get that data from a report that is generated. During this time, the area manager checks for mistakes in the time clock (Someone forgetting to clock out for the day, someone missing their lunch, etc) and he emails the store manager a list of errors or mistakes.”
While he was compiling this information for Durncha’s store, he took note of the flagged late shift, and then when he refreshed later, he saw that it was gone.
“If you still don’t believe me after that explanation, then I apologize I don’t think there’s anything else I can do,” the Redditor added.
I wonder how many more stories about American jerk employers BP is going to publish. At some point it gets really depressing to read once again how people who act like civilised, empathetic persons are kicked out because of "company policy." But what's even more depressing is that the US government seems to actually be quite content that this is all legal. It seems like they think that employees should be happy to be subjected to this kind of arbitrariness and job insecurity.
It wasn't til I came to live in America that I saw everything for what it was, and why everything is so broken - the government doesn't WORK here, it's a self defeating setup which never accomplishes anything except colleting taxes and declaring war. This place is still the Wild West.
Load More Replies...
From OPs other comments on other sub-reddits, they worked for a "medium-sized retailer in California". No other name and shame, I'm afraid.
Prolly get sued into oblivion if he stated who he worked for. Speaking truth to power is a good way to get a target on your back. People have gotten fired from places for criticism of their employer on Facebook. Even if what your stating is the truth, it's hard to prove it. Lack of proof means the company can call it defamation/slander/liable depending on the case. The law favors expensive lawyers over the truth.
Load More Replies...
The thing about the point system is it is very effective if your goal is to shed employees who have complicated lives and you want to keep the remaining employees constantly fearful. But it requires a constant stream of new people to fill the positions of those who get fired for point violations. Right now, the job market doesn’t have that stream of low wage workers - there’s competition for them now. So if a manager tries to give you points, you can shrug and go work next door for the same money and no points. For the first time in a long time, the worker has power. They need to convert that power into permanent change by unionizing.
my boss was just telling us how she got fired for being 20 seconds at one of her previous jobs. and we all agreed those kinds of policies don't do anything except fire good workers.
Because keeping your head down and just nodding were part of why some of the biggest atrocities were able to be committed actually.
America never stops amazing me, out of sick time, that is insane. If you're sick, you're sick, why the f**k would you have a limit to that? But besides that, too many companies vies their employees as robots, to replace when there are not functioning exactly as the top thinks is the best way, so blind to what a little humanity can do for a business.
Need a lot more "Name & Shame". If you are merely stating facts, they have no legal grounds to attack you.
They can drag you through the mud quite easily, especially if it blows up. Don't blame someone for knowing to keep their head down.
Load More Replies...
I dont get it. If someone is late the punishment is suspension? So less workers is better? I dont get those "policies"...
The people who come up with bullshit like that are people who have NEVER worked at that level, so have zero idea—-and apparently also give zero f***s about—-how the trickle down is going to affect the front line employees, but they look like f*****g geniuses to the CEO, who also probably never worked the front line, or hasn’t since Nixon was President. They probably voted for Nixon too..
Load More Replies...
Good job being compassionate and respectful and getting good results, OP. Though I do kinda see where the upper management was coming from thinking that falsifying time records was crossing a line, I wish it hadn't ended with OP getting fired.
Sooo... I guess I won't be able to get a job then. I care about people.
I was the manager of a small office. I tried to make it easier for everyone to take time off or come early/leave early or if they were late. I ended up having to "retire" due to health reasons. No one is happy about the micro-manager that replaced me. I'm not saying I was the best, but I tried really hard not to be the type that you dread hearing their footsteps coming down the hall. Also, 16 seconds!!! We had a 15 minute margin of being on time/late.
Your employer sounds like HCA that i used to work before. They have point system when call in sick, depending how many hours prior your shift you called out. And if you clocked out late because you are not finished yet or got busy at the end of the shift (like you have an emergency for a specific patient, a late admission or your patient poop at the last minute and you just cant leave her lying on a soiled diaper before giving report. My manager has this book that we have to justify why we clocked out 1 minute after our shift. And you just cannot put understaffed (which is always the reason coz they always cancelled the extra staff.
The most important component of a company, despite the popular belief that it's the customer, is actually the employee.
It blows me away how many companies don't look at the big picture (this manager had increased productivity drastically in 5 years.) But still impulsively fired over one issue without warning I've never worked for a company who fired good employees without discussions and warnings.
I always believe that good will hunting.. Any good deed you do, will always come back to your door. Even if not today, may be tomorrow.. Cheer up..
Karma works in mysterious ways. It’s obvious that the company was heading in a downhill direction judging from the new policies they had implemented and upper management was exposing themselves as incompetent morons. Fortunately you were pushed off the wagon before it went over the cliff.
What’s even more infuriating is that the OP gets fired and probably didn’t get any severance while, depending on which company and how long ago this was, the assholes at Corporate would probably get fired with enormous “golden parachutes” even if they cost the company millions in profits.
Load More Replies...
As an American, I will say this seems common, but it's also common that we end up with decent workplaces and bosses. I blame the "MBA" mentality that there's some one-theory-of-workplace to be imposed on any company. Bit like throwing a slab of rock on people to make them the same height, IMO. It works, but it's not actually sustainable.
If it's propaganda, then why do so many people have a similar experience from their own lives? Also, the OP is no revolutionary, just someone who believed management should not be psychopathic. I think the fact that people identify capitalism with psychopathy really gets to the heart of why pure capitalism simply doesn't work. Neither does pure communism, of course, because it too easily subverts democracy. Fortunately, many MANY nations have found a more successful balance than the US and the argument that we shouldn't be more balanced "because communism" is much more propaganda than any tale of workplace woe.
Load More Replies...
Feel free to go elsewhere instead of cluttering up the comment section with your nonsense here.
Load More Replies... I wonder how many more stories about American jerk employers BP is going to publish. At some point it gets really depressing to read once again how people who act like civilised, empathetic persons are kicked out because of "company policy." But what's even more depressing is that the US government seems to actually be quite content that this is all legal. It seems like they think that employees should be happy to be subjected to this kind of arbitrariness and job insecurity.
It wasn't til I came to live in America that I saw everything for what it was, and why everything is so broken - the government doesn't WORK here, it's a self defeating setup which never accomplishes anything except colleting taxes and declaring war. This place is still the Wild West.
Load More Replies... From OPs other comments on other sub-reddits, they worked for a "medium-sized retailer in California". No other name and shame, I'm afraid.
Prolly get sued into oblivion if he stated who he worked for. Speaking truth to power is a good way to get a target on your back. People have gotten fired from places for criticism of their employer on Facebook. Even if what your stating is the truth, it's hard to prove it. Lack of proof means the company can call it defamation/slander/liable depending on the case. The law favors expensive lawyers over the truth.
Load More Replies... The thing about the point system is it is very effective if your goal is to shed employees who have complicated lives and you want to keep the remaining employees constantly fearful. But it requires a constant stream of new people to fill the positions of those who get fired for point violations. Right now, the job market doesn’t have that stream of low wage workers - there’s competition for them now. So if a manager tries to give you points, you can shrug and go work next door for the same money and no points. For the first time in a long time, the worker has power. They need to convert that power into permanent change by unionizing.
my boss was just telling us how she got fired for being 20 seconds at one of her previous jobs. and we all agreed those kinds of policies don't do anything except fire good workers.
Because keeping your head down and just nodding were part of why some of the biggest atrocities were able to be committed actually.
America never stops amazing me, out of sick time, that is insane. If you're sick, you're sick, why the f**k would you have a limit to that? But besides that, too many companies vies their employees as robots, to replace when there are not functioning exactly as the top thinks is the best way, so blind to what a little humanity can do for a business.
Need a lot more "Name & Shame". If you are merely stating facts, they have no legal grounds to attack you.
They can drag you through the mud quite easily, especially if it blows up. Don't blame someone for knowing to keep their head down.
Load More Replies... I dont get it. If someone is late the punishment is suspension? So less workers is better? I dont get those "policies"...
The people who come up with bullshit like that are people who have NEVER worked at that level, so have zero idea—-and apparently also give zero f***s about—-how the trickle down is going to affect the front line employees, but they look like f*****g geniuses to the CEO, who also probably never worked the front line, or hasn’t since Nixon was President. They probably voted for Nixon too..
Load More Replies... Good job being compassionate and respectful and getting good results, OP. Though I do kinda see where the upper management was coming from thinking that falsifying time records was crossing a line, I wish it hadn't ended with OP getting fired.
Sooo... I guess I won't be able to get a job then. I care about people.
I was the manager of a small office. I tried to make it easier for everyone to take time off or come early/leave early or if they were late. I ended up having to "retire" due to health reasons. No one is happy about the micro-manager that replaced me. I'm not saying I was the best, but I tried really hard not to be the type that you dread hearing their footsteps coming down the hall. Also, 16 seconds!!! We had a 15 minute margin of being on time/late.
Your employer sounds like HCA that i used to work before. They have point system when call in sick, depending how many hours prior your shift you called out. And if you clocked out late because you are not finished yet or got busy at the end of the shift (like you have an emergency for a specific patient, a late admission or your patient poop at the last minute and you just cant leave her lying on a soiled diaper before giving report. My manager has this book that we have to justify why we clocked out 1 minute after our shift. And you just cannot put understaffed (which is always the reason coz they always cancelled the extra staff.
The most important component of a company, despite the popular belief that it's the customer, is actually the employee.
It blows me away how many companies don't look at the big picture (this manager had increased productivity drastically in 5 years.) But still impulsively fired over one issue without warning I've never worked for a company who fired good employees without discussions and warnings.
I always believe that good will hunting.. Any good deed you do, will always come back to your door. Even if not today, may be tomorrow.. Cheer up..
Karma works in mysterious ways. It’s obvious that the company was heading in a downhill direction judging from the new policies they had implemented and upper management was exposing themselves as incompetent morons. Fortunately you were pushed off the wagon before it went over the cliff.
What’s even more infuriating is that the OP gets fired and probably didn’t get any severance while, depending on which company and how long ago this was, the assholes at Corporate would probably get fired with enormous “golden parachutes” even if they cost the company millions in profits.
Load More Replies... As an American, I will say this seems common, but it's also common that we end up with decent workplaces and bosses. I blame the "MBA" mentality that there's some one-theory-of-workplace to be imposed on any company. Bit like throwing a slab of rock on people to make them the same height, IMO. It works, but it's not actually sustainable.
If it's propaganda, then why do so many people have a similar experience from their own lives? Also, the OP is no revolutionary, just someone who believed management should not be psychopathic. I think the fact that people identify capitalism with psychopathy really gets to the heart of why pure capitalism simply doesn't work. Neither does pure communism, of course, because it too easily subverts democracy. Fortunately, many MANY nations have found a more successful balance than the US and the argument that we shouldn't be more balanced "because communism" is much more propaganda than any tale of workplace woe.
Load More Replies... Feel free to go elsewhere instead of cluttering up the comment section with your nonsense here.
Load More Replies...
86
50