Top Stories

Minimum Wage Employees Reveal Their Worst 'I Don't Get Paid Enough For This Sh*t' Moments

The minimum wage in America is insultingly low, yet employees working for a pittance are still expected to go above and beyond the call of duty. Some of these stories are pretty frustrating, and only makes it clearer that all work deserves decent pay.

justme112358 asked minimum wage workers of Reddit: What's you re "I don't get paid enough for this shIt" story?

Submissions have been edited for clarity, context, and profanity.


10. Workers comp ain't enough.

So I broke my shoulder this winter because of an icy sidewalk. I work with elder care and one of our jobs is to wash and shower those who are bedridden. I took this job since I really need the money but the pay is less than the after school job I had when I was 13. Anyway my boss and I decided to see if I could work with one arm, which would be fine if I could do something else than the bed showers. When you shower someone who cant move, you'll have to turn them over and make the bed with them laying there. It's simply impossible to do properly with one arm, without ruining that one too. And what did my boss give me.. 3 different bed showers where one of them is a lady close to 200 kg. I did my round and told my boss that that was my last shift.

Ziphoria

9. "Right to work," ain't capitalism great?

Our breaks changed. Instead of 2 ten-minute breaks for working 6 hours, 6 hours started to require a 30 minute lunch. So they started scheduling us for five hours and forty-five minute shifts... with one ten minute break somewhere in there, maybe.

kroka4loka

I regularly work 10 hour days with a 30 minute break. I do that about 3 days a week. We don't offer full time positions at my job but you bet your @ss I work 39 hours and 45 minutes every week. If we work less than 7 hours they won't even give us breaks.

There's no laws in Michigan about giving employees breaks based on hours worked. Legally they could work us 6am to 6pm every day with no break

fruitloops26

8. This was the right response.

I work at Subway, and there are a ton of great stories chock full of annoying customers that I can regale, so I'll riddle you with this one. This kid and his older sister walk in and there's a line of two people before they show up. The sister sighs, and drags the kid to the back of the line. Once I'm done with the other customers, the girl says "Finally," and starts shoving her list of four sandwiches down my throat. Okay, so I make them quite skillfully but in the middle of one BMT she stops me and gives me this stupid look.

"More lettuce."

"Alrighty then," I reply. I put a handful of lettuce on the bread.


"What are you doing? I said more, not all the damn lettuce you have."

I smile, and decided to start fresh with a new sandwich. Thankfully it's up to her standard this time, and she continues giving me her other orders. Once I'm sure she done, I direct her to the checkout and all that jazz, and I see the kid grab a sub off the counter. This particular sub had hot sauce (as she requested) on it, and that didn't seem right.

"That one's a little hot," I say to the kid. The lady reassures me that he can handle it, so I shrug and let him make off with the sandwich. Well it didn't take long for the boy to start crying over how hot the sub was, like I had thought. The woman yelled at me and said she had requested "mild" sauce to which I replied that it was indeed mild.

"You're an idiot. I want my money back for that."

Well that does it. I retort with the standard no refund policy crap we have to spout and she just stands there with her arm outstretched, waiting for me to give her some kind of handout. I just stare at her until she proposes the idea of a free sub.

"I don't get paid enough for this. If you want another sandwich, make it yourself." Apparently that was the wrong move to make, but I didn't care. I had my buddy try to calm her down since I didn't give two sh*ts about how she felt.

Nytroniks

7. Pharmacy techs are supposed to control the weather, apparently.

I work in the Walgreens pharmacy and a couple of days ago we had a really bad storm, there was a tornado watch and everything.

So this lady comes in the drive thru and asks to pick up her medication, and in the middle of the conversation lightning hits something and our phones and computers went out, so we were offline, but the power was still kinda on. I tried to talk to her through the drawer and she swears she couldn't hear me, so I wrote: I'm sorry due to the bad weather my systems just went offline, my register is down, I cannot sell you the prescription (or finish it because nothing was working).


Starts screaming at me saying, "why are you denying me my medication, this is ridiculous" I tried explaining to her it's not me, but the weather shut down my stuff so I can't do anything, legally I cannot just give you a naked bottle of pills. AND SHE WAS LIKE I DONT BELIEVE YOU. JUST GIVE ME MY STUFF AND ILL PAY YOU BACK LATER. "Sorry ma'am that's not how it works"

Then this devil of lady okay, she does, "why did you make the weather this bad, it's so inconvenient for me. How dare you, is this what you do to people?"

LIKE WHAT. WHAAAAAT. so I'm like "ma'am I don't have to power to make it rain or storm."

DO I LOOK LIKE ZEUS?

She then proceeds to sit In her car for 40 minutes IN MY DRIVE THRU. CALLS OUR COMPLAINT LINE SAYING WE DENY HER MEDICATION. AND I'M LIKE please let them know that OUR SYSTEMS ARE DOWN BECAUSE THAT'S PRETTY IMPORTANT INFORMATION.

F*cking people like that make me want to bash my head into the wall.

twerkinqpugs

6. Well-played.

My retail job allowed all pets in the store and whenever a dog would sh*t on the floor, I'd find a manager to clean it up. They get paid way more than I do and I would claim, "I'm not qualified to handle biohazards," which meant "Y'all don't pay me enough for this."

rosesaremaroon

I'm a manager at Home Depot and wont let my associates clean up that stuff. It's disgusting and I almost throw up every time but I still do it myself. I mean who can actually tell someone else to go clean up sh!t? I cant do it and keep a good conscience at the end of it.

thejack32

You are a good manager and leader. Leading by example and using your brain about what is reasonable to ask of your employees is underrated these days.

SerialWalnut

5. This militant couponer.

This happened a few years back, had to spend 20 minutes patiently explaining to an older, irate customer why we couldn't accept her coupons that had expired a month ago. She asked for a manager less than half way through the debacle, who then proceeded to tell her everything I had just told her. That was a fun way to spend a Sunday morning.

AbsoluteZer0_II

4. But you DID get to use a sledgehammer.

I worked at a now-defunct Kmart. I was asked to disassemble the electronics desk and put it into the compactor. So, I get this huge desk all the way across the store and to the compactor, and... it's not going down. They asked me to crawl in there with a sledgehammer and beat the hell out of it until it finally went down. I was paid $7.25 an hour for that. It took a good half hour to accomplish said task because I had never used a sledgehammer because, let's be honest, I'm no Peter Gabriel and I kept hitting the hammer against the wall by accident. It was what I imagine living inside a giant bell would be like.

PerpetuallyVerdant

3. People like this shouldn't have kids.

Less than minimum wage actually, it was an internship (~40 hrs a week at ~2.50 and hour, I was 16).

It was at a nature center (located in a park/nature reserve w/ info activities and even some resident animals [unreleasable due to health issues]) and I worked in their kids day camp programs. The kids were supposed to be ages 5-12.

Only these entitled parents decided their just barely 4-year-old should be allowed to go. Normally the director wouldn't have allowed it, but these parents had just bought us a new building so...


Cue the worst week I ever had at that job. 4yo was placed in my group for the week. Yay me. To list just some of the incidents: she wasn't appropriately potty trained for a camp like this (she could manage with reminders and a nearby bathroom; but it wasn't our responsibility to remind and we regularly went on hikes where there were no nearby bathrooms), she hit other campers (no damage, she was tiny but still totally not okay), and would try to open the animals enclosures to take them out. When I tried to tell her she wasnt allowed to do that because it was dangerous to her and the animals she said "but they're mine!!!" (would not believe me that they were not).

The worst was when, after being told several times she needed to wait like all the other kids for her parents to come pick her up at the end of the day, she took advantage of me having to deal with another kid having a sneezing fit with a bloody nose (which was fun even in itself) in order to run away and take herself home.

I noticed only moments after she left but it was enough time for her to have left the building and there are plenty of places in the park/nature reserve for a kid like her to hide (yes she hid from searchers). It was a sh*t show. She was found just fine a few hours later but her parents tried to blame me.

I'd have quit on the spot if the Director hadn't decided to finally stand up to them. She was not welcome back for the rest of the week.

ghostboy00

2. Yeah, f*ck that.

Certified Nursing Assistant, hadn't even finished school yet. Did clinicals at a few different places right before doing our certifying exams. Hated most of them, but there was one I really liked. I asked a CNA what they paid him and it was like $8.25 an hour (2009)

And then we had a resident get violently sick. Like vomit on the ceiling and walls, sh*t all over the bed, call in a f*cking hazmat team sick.

It took about 3 hours to clean that room and the guy who did it only earned $25 for his time? F*ck thaaaat.

Seventy_x_7


This is why I work at the hospital. Most incontinent people I ever got was 4 out of 9 patients I usually work with. And if there's ever an episode like that, we have EVS to call.

Nanigans

1. Seems dangerous but okay.

I worked as a grocery store cashier for about six months with my sister and my best friend. A lot of crazy sh*t happened but my favorite was when the managers asked us to be on the lookout for a woman who was stealing groceries.

Apparently she would fill up her entire cart as if she was going to buy it but instead of going to the registers would just sprint out the front door.

Thankfully I never had to deal with her but being asked to chase down criminals was definitely not worth $8 an hour.

_x_e_l_a_

A lady did this at our local Walmart and tripped on her run through the parking lot and she and the cart fell over. She abandoned her $650 of stolen stuff and ran away. All caught on their security cam. Very amusing.

Spazmer

People Reveal The Weirdest Thing About Themselves

Reddit user Isitjustmedownhere asked: 'Give an example; how weird are you really?'

Let's get one thing straight: no one is normal. We're all weird in our own ways, and that is actually normal.

Of course, that doesn't mean we don't all have that one strange trait or quirk that outweighs all the other weirdness we possess.

For me, it's the fact that I'm almost 30 years old, and I still have an imaginary friend. Her name is Sarah, she has red hair and green eyes, and I strongly believe that, since I lived in India when I created her and there were no actual people with red hair around, she was based on Daphne Blake from Scooby-Doo.

I also didn't know the name Sarah when I created her, so that came later. I know she's not really there, hence the term 'imaginary friend,' but she's kind of always been around. We all have conversations in our heads; mine are with Sarah. She keeps me on task and efficient.

My mom thinks I'm crazy that I still have an imaginary friend, and writing about her like this makes me think I may actually be crazy, but I don't mind. As I said, we're all weird, and we all have that one trait that outweighs all the other weirdness.

Redditors know this all too well and are eager to share their weird traits.

It all started when Redditor Isitjustmedownhere asked:

"Give an example; how weird are you really?"

Monsters Under My Bed

"My bed doesn't touch any wall."

"Edit: I guess i should clarify im not rich."

– Practical_Eye_3600

"Gosh the monsters can get you from any angle then."

– bikergirlr7

"At first I thought this was a flex on how big your bedroom is, but then I realized you're just a psycho 😁"

– zenOFiniquity8

Can You See Why?

"I bought one of those super-powerful fans to dry a basement carpet. Afterwards, I realized that it can point straight up and that it would be amazing to use on myself post-shower. Now I squeegee my body with my hands, step out of the shower and get blasted by a wide jet of room-temp air. I barely use my towel at all. Wife thinks I'm weird."

– KingBooRadley

Remember

"In 1990 when I was 8 years old and bored on a field trip, I saw a black Oldsmobile Cutlass driving down the street on a hot day to where you could see that mirage like distortion from the heat on the road. I took a “snapshot” by blinking my eyes and told myself “I wonder how long I can remember this image” ….well."

– AquamarineCheetah

"Even before smartphones, I always take "snapshots" by blinking my eyes hoping I'll remember every detail so I can draw it when I get home. Unfortunately, I may have taken so much snapshots that I can no longer remember every detail I want to draw."

"Makes me think my "memory is full.""

– Reasonable-Pirate902

Same, Same

"I have eaten the same lunch every day for the past 4 years and I'm not bored yet."

– OhhGoood

"How f**king big was this lunch when you started?"

– notmyrealnam3

Not Sure Who Was Weirder

"Had a line cook that worked for us for 6 months never said much. My sous chef once told him with no context, "Baw wit da baw daw bang daw bang diggy diggy." The guy smiled, left, and never came back."

– Frostygrunt

Imagination

"I pace around my house for hours listening to music imagining that I have done all the things I simply lack the brain capacity to do, or in some really bizarre scenarios, I can really get immersed in these imaginations sometimes I don't know if this is some form of schizophrenia or what."

– RandomSharinganUser

"I do the same exact thing, sometimes for hours. When I was young it would be a ridiculous amount of time and many years later it’s sort of trickled off into almost nothing (almost). It’s weird but I just thought it’s how my brain processes sh*t."

– Kolkeia

If Only

"Even as an adult I still think that if you are in a car that goes over a cliff; and right as you are about to hit the ground if you jump up you can avoid the damage and will land safely. I know I'm wrong. You shut up. I'm not crying."

– ShotCompetition2593

Pet Food

"As a kid I would snack on my dog's Milkbones."

– drummerskillit

"Haha, I have a clear memory of myself doing this as well. I was around 3 y/o. Needless to say no one was supervising me."

– Isitjustmedownhere

"When I was younger, one of my responsibilities was to feed the pet fish every day. Instead, I would hide under the futon in the spare bedroom and eat the fish food."

– -GateKeep-

My Favorite Subject

"I'm autistic and have always had a thing for insects. My neurotypical best friend and I used to hang out at this local bar to talk to girls, back in the late 90s. One time he claimed that my tendency to circle conversations back to insects was hurting my game. The next time we went to that bar (with a few other friends), he turned and said sternly "No talking about bugs. Or space, or statistics or other bullsh*t but mainly no bugs." I felt like he was losing his mind over nothing."

"It was summer, the bar had its windows open. Our group hit it off with a group of young ladies, We were all chatting and having a good time. I was talking to one of these girls, my buddy was behind her facing away from me talking to a few other people."

"A cloudless sulphur flies in and lands on little thing that holds coasters."

"Cue Jordan Peele sweating gif."

"The girl notices my tension, and asks if I am looking at the leaf. "Actually, that's a lepidoptera called..." I looked at the back of my friend's head, he wasn't looking, "I mean a butterfly..." I poked it and it spread its wings the girl says "oh that's a BUG?!" and I still remember my friend turning around slowly to look at me with chastisement. The ONE thing he told me not to do."

"I was 21, and was completely not aware that I already had a rep for being an oddball. It got worse from there."

– Phormicidae

*Teeth Chatter*

"I bite ice cream sometimes."

RedditbOiiiiiiiiii

"That's how I am with popsicles. My wife shudders every single time."

monobarreller

Never Speak Of This

"I put ice in my milk."

– GTFOakaFOD

"You should keep that kind of thing to yourself. Even when asked."

– We-R-Doomed

"There's some disturbing sh*t in this thread, but this one takes the cake."

– RatonaMuffin

More Than Super Hearing

"I can hear the television while it's on mute."

– Tira13e

"What does it say to you, child?"

– Mama_Skip

Yikes!

"I put mustard on my omelettes."

– Deleted User

"Oh."

– NotCrustOr-filling

Evened Up

"Whenever I say a word and feel like I used a half of my mouth more than the other half, I have to even it out by saying the word again using the other half of my mouth more. If I don't do it correctly, that can go on forever until I feel it's ok."

"I do it silently so I don't creep people out."

– LesPaltaX

"That sounds like a symptom of OCD (I have it myself). Some people with OCD feel like certain actions have to be balanced (like counting or making sure physical movements are even). You should find a therapist who specializes in OCD, because they can help you."

– MoonlightKayla

I totally have the same need for things to be balanced! Guess I'm weird and a little OCD!

Close up face of a woman in bed, staring into the camera
Photo by Jen Theodore

Experiencing death is a fascinating and frightening idea.

Who doesn't want to know what is waiting for us on the other side?

But so many of us want to know and then come back and live a little longer.

It would be so great to be sure there is something else.

But the whole dying part is not that great, so we'll have to rely on other people's accounts.

Redditor AlaskaStiletto wanted to hear from everyone who has returned to life, so they asked:

"Redditors who have 'died' and come back to life, what did you see?"

Sensations

Happy Good Vibes GIF by Major League SoccerGiphy

"My dad's heart stopped when he had a heart attack and he had to be brought back to life. He kept the paper copy of the heart monitor which shows he flatlined. He said he felt an overwhelming sensation of peace, like nothing he had felt before."

PeachesnPain

Recovery

"I had surgical complications in 2010 that caused a great deal of blood loss. As a result, I had extremely low blood pressure and could barely stay awake. I remember feeling like I was surrounded by loved ones who had passed. They were in a circle around me and I knew they were there to guide me onwards. I told them I was not ready to go because my kids needed me and I came back."

"My nurse later said she was afraid she’d find me dead every time she came into the room."

"It took months, and blood transfusions, but I recovered."

good_golly99

Take Me Back

"Overwhelming peace and happiness. A bright airy and floating feeling. I live a very stressful life. Imagine finding out the person you have had a crush on reveals they have the same feelings for you and then you win the lotto later that day - that was the feeling I had."

"I never feared death afterward and am relieved when I hear of people dying after suffering from an illness."

rayrayrayray

Free

The Light Minnie GIF by (G)I-DLEGiphy

"I had a heart surgery with near-death experience, for me at least (well the possibility that those effects are caused by morphine is also there) I just saw black and nothing else but it was warm and I had such inner peace, its weird as I sometimes still think about it and wish this feeling of being so light and free again."

TooReDTooHigh

This is why I hate surgery.

You just never know.

Shocked

Giphy

"More of a near-death experience. I was electrocuted. I felt like I was in a deep hole looking straight up in the sky. My life flashed before me. Felt sad for my family, but I had a deep sense of peace."

Admirable_Buyer6528

The SOB

"Nursing in the ICU, we’ve had people try to die on us many times during the years, some successfully. One guy stood out to me. His heart stopped. We called a code, are working on him, and suddenly he comes to. We hadn’t vented him yet, so he was able to talk, and he started screaming, 'Don’t let them take me, don’t let them take me, they are coming,' he was scared and yelling."

"Then he yelled a little more, as we tried to calm him down, he screamed, 'No, No,' and gestured towards the end of the bed, and died again. We didn’t get him back. It was seriously creepy. We called his son to tell him the news, and the son said basically, 'Good, he was an SOB.'”

1-cupcake-at-a-time

Colors

"My sister died and said it was extremely peaceful. She said it was very loud like a train station and lots of talking and she was stuck in this area that was like a curtain with lots of beautiful colors (colors that you don’t see in real life according to her) a man told her 'He was sorry, but she had to go back as it wasn’t her time.'"

Hannah_LL7

"I had a really similar experience except I was in an endless garden with flowers that were colors I had never seen before. It was quiet and peaceful and a woman in a dress looked at me, shook her head, and just said 'Not yet.' As I was coming back, it was extremely loud, like everyone in the world was trying to talk all at once. It was all very disorienting but it changed my perspective on life!"

huntokarrr

The Fog

"I was in a gray fog with a girl who looked a lot like a young version of my grandmother (who was still alive) but dressed like a pioneer in the 1800s she didn't say anything but kept pulling me towards an opening in the wall. I kept refusing to go because I was so tired."

"I finally got tired of her nagging and went and that's when I came to. I had bled out during a c-section and my heart could not beat without blood. They had to deliver the baby and sew up the bleeders. refill me with blood before they could restart my heart so, like, at least 12 minutes gone."

Fluffy-Hotel-5184

Through the Walls

"My spouse was dead for a couple of minutes one miserable night. She maintains that she saw nothing, but only heard people talking about her like through a wall. The only thing she remembers for absolute certain was begging an ER nurse that she didn't want to die."

"She's quite alive and well today."

Hot-Refrigerator6583

Well let's all be happy to be alive.

It seems to be all we have.

Man's waist line
Santhosh Vaithiyanathan/Unsplash

Trying to lose weight is a struggle understood by many people regardless of size.

The goal of reaching a healthy weight may seem unattainable, but with diet and exercise, it can pay off through persistence and discipline.

Seeing the pounds gradually drop off can also be a great motivator and incentivize people to stay the course.

Those who've achieved their respective weight goals shared their experiences when Redditor apprenti8455 asked:

"People who lost a lot of weight, what surprises you the most now?"

Redditors didn't see these coming.

Shiver Me Timbers

"I’m always cold now!"

– Telrom_1

"I had a coworker lose over 130 pounds five or six years ago. I’ve never seen him without a jacket on since."

– r7ndom

"140 lbs lost here starting just before COVID, I feel like that little old lady that's always cold, damn this top comment was on point lmao."

– mr_remy

Drawing Concern

"I lost 100 pounds over a year and a half but since I’m old(70’s) it seems few people comment on it because (I think) they think I’m wasting away from some terminal illness."

– dee-fondy

"Congrats on the weight loss! It’s honestly a real accomplishment 🙂"

"Working in oncology, I can never comment on someone’s weight loss unless I specifically know it was on purpose, regardless of their age. I think it kind of ruffles feathers at times, but like I don’t want to congratulate someone for having cancer or something. It’s a weird place to be in."

– LizardofDeath

Unleashing Insults

"I remember when I lost the first big chunk of weight (around 50 lbs) it was like it gave some people license to talk sh*t about the 'old' me. Old coworkers, friends, made a lot of not just negative, but harsh comments about what I used to look like. One person I met after the big loss saw a picture of me prior and said, 'Wow, we wouldn’t even be friends!'”

"It wasn’t extremely common, but I was a little alarmed by some of the attention. My weight has been up and down since then, but every time I gain a little it gets me a little down thinking about those things people said."

– alanamablamaspama

Not Everything Goes After Losing Weight

"The loose skin is a bit unexpected."

– KeltarCentauri

"I haven’t experienced it myself, but surgery to remove skin takes a long time to recover. Longer than bariatric surgery and usually isn’t covered by insurance unless you have both."

– KatMagic1977

"It definitely does take a long time to recover. My Dad dropped a little over 200 pounds a few years back and decided to go through with skin removal surgery to deal with the excess. His procedure was extensive, as in he had skin taken from just about every part of his body excluding his head, and he went through hell for weeks in recovery, and he was bedridden for a lot of it."

– Jaew96

These Redditors shared their pleasantly surprising experiences.

Shopping

"I can buy clothes in any store I want."

– WaySavvyD

"When I lost weight I was dying to go find cute, smaller clothes and I really struggled. As someone who had always been restricted to one or two stores that catered to plus-sized clothing, a full mall of shops with items in my size was daunting. Too many options and not enough knowledge of brands that were good vs cheap. I usually went home pretty frustrated."

– ganache98012

No More Symptoms

"Lost about 80 pounds in the past year and a half, biggest thing that I’ve noticed that I haven’t seen mentioned on here yet is my acid reflux and heartburn are basically gone. I used to be popping tums every couple hours and now they just sit in the medicine cabinet collecting dust."

– colleennicole93

Expanding Capabilities

"I'm all for not judging people by their appearance and I recognise that there are unhealthy, unachievable beauty standards, but one thing that is undeniable is that I can just do stuff now. Just stamina and flexibility alone are worth it, appearance is tertiary at best."

– Ramblonius

People Change Their Tune

"How much nicer people are to you."

"My feet weren't 'wide' they were 'fat.'"

– LiZZygsu

"Have to agree. Lost 220 lbs, people make eye contact and hold open doors and stuff"

"And on the foot thing, I also lost a full shoe size numerically and also wear regular width now 😅"

– awholedamngarden

It's gonna take some getting used to.

Bones Everywhere

"Having bones. Collarbones, wrist bones, knee bones, hip bones, ribs. I have so many bones sticking out everywhere and it’s weird as hell."

– Princess-Pancake-97

"I noticed the shadow of my ribs the other day and it threw me, there’s a whole skeleton in here."

– bekastrange

Knee Pillow

"Right?! And they’re so … pointy! Now I get why people sleep with pillows between their legs - the knee bones laying on top of each other (side sleeper here) is weird and jarring."

– snic2030

"I lost only 40 pounds within the last year or so. I’m struggling to relate to most of these comments as I feel like I just 'slimmed down' rather than dropped a ton. But wow, the pillow between the knees at night. YES! I can relate to this. I think a lot of my weight was in my thighs. I never needed to do this up until recently."

– Strongbad23

More Mobility

"I’ve lost 100 lbs since 2020. It’s a collection of little things that surprise me. For at least 10 years I couldn’t put on socks, or tie my shoes. I couldn’t bend over and pick something up. I couldn’t climb a ladder to fix something. Simple things like that I can do now that fascinate me."

"Edit: Some additional little things are sitting in a chair with arms, sitting in a booth in a restaurant, being able to shop in a normal store AND not needing to buy the biggest size there, being able to easily wipe my butt, and looking down and being able to see my penis."

– dma1965

People making significant changes, whether for mental or physical health, can surely find a newfound perspective on life.

But they can also discover different issues they never saw coming.

That being said, overcoming any challenge in life is laudable, especially if it leads to gaining confidence and ditching insecurities.