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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

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Our ancient ancestors had their own habits; some were strange and bewildering, others were nearly identical to those we practice today. Looking back through history, one might be surprised to find the daily lives of the ancients weren't so unrecognizable. But then again, there are still plenty of ancient habits that leave us scratching our heads.

1. Ground-Breaking Discovery

Recently, archaeologists working in Italy’s Caverna delle Arene Candide found a heap of rocks. Not exactly headline news, but these rocks had been carried up from a nearby beach and broken in a consistent, uniform fashion, and similar-sized pieces had been taken from each one. It appears that Neolithic Italians broke the rocks as a funerary rite—the rocks themselves may have represented lost loved ones, and breaking them symbolized the person dying.

2. Shake On It

person holding hands of another personPhoto by Sincerely Media on Unsplash

The tradition of greeting another person by shaking hands dates at least as far back as the Ancient Greeks. One column at the Acropolis even shows the Greek goddess of marriage, Hera, shaking hands with the Greek goddess of wisdom, Athena.

3. A Little Pick-Me-Up

Nowadays we have Viagra and Cialis, but Pliny the Elder suggested a bevy of ancient Roman aphrodisiacs that reads more like a witch’s shopping list than a doctor’s prescription. To put the pep back in your step, Pliny suggested the yolks of pigeon eggs, in honey, mixed with hog’s lard, or sparrows eggs, or a lizard drowned in one’s own urine. If that didn't work, you could always wear “the right testicle of a cock.” I’ll pause long enough for you to stop giggling.

4. For The Ladies

brown falcon on treePhoto by Photos By Beks on Unsplash

Got it out of your system? Ok, moving on: For ladies with low libido, Pliny advised ingesting a vulture’s tongue, or wearing a patch of wool soaked in bat’s blood on top of the head. It seems so obvious, doesn't it?

5. Just ’Browsing

Nothing made a Greek woman feel more attractive than having a thick, swarthy unibrow. To the Greeks, the unibrow signaled a combination of beauty and brains. Greek women would go to great lengths to get that perfect forehead mustache, lining their brows with kohl or soot, or even using tree resin to affix fake eyebrows made of goats’ hair to their foreheads.

6. Of Corset Was!

white and brown striped textilePhoto by Jamie Coupaud on Unsplash

You probably associate the fitted corset with those breathless Victorian women who, though they maintained their figure, looked constantly on the verge of fainting, but they weren't the first to wear them. The corset goes all the way back to the Ancient Minoan women of Crete, who wore similar restrictive bodices. The Minoan corsets were likely the first fitted garments ever worn.

7. To Be Taken With A Grain Of Salt

Popular superstition states that, if one should spill some salt, one can counteract the bad luck by throwing a pinch of salt over the shoulder. That practice actually goes all the way back to the ancient Assyrians. The superstition was passed on from them to the Egyptians, and then the Greeks, and the Romans, all the way to today.

8. Stairway To Heaven

an egyptian scene with a man offering a bowl to a womanPhoto by British Library on Unsplash

The same is true of walking under ladders—the Egyptians came up with that one. Because a ladder leaning against a wall formed a triangle, representative of the holy trinity of Egyptian gods, to walk through was considered sacrilegious. Naturally, that superstation lent itself perfectly to the early Christians. I always just thought it was because you're likely to get something dropped on you if you walk under a ladder.

9. As It Nappens

Just like the Spaniards with their customary siesta, the Ancient Greeks would insist on taking a quick mid-day nap throughout the summer. One 5th-century medical text advised that a brief nap around noon kept the body from “drying out.”

10. That Sucks!

In ancient Ireland, one showed submission to tribal kings by sucking their nipples. Bog-bodies (ancient remain found well-preserved by the chemicals in a bogs) have been found with slashed nipples, indicating that they had been driven from the throne.

11. Pour One Out

Even if you're completely out of touch, you’ve probably seen a rapper “pouring one out” in a music video. Feel free to pour one out in memory of Pac or Biggie, but you should know the practice actually began with the Ancient Egyptians, who first spilled their drinks as a tribute to their god of death, Osiris.

12. The Good Book

person's hand holding book pagePhoto by Rod Long on Unsplash

The practice of libations was continued by the Greeks. There is even mention of “pouring one out” in the Old Testament: Genesis 35:14 states “Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he had spoken with him [God], even a pillar of stone. He poured out a drink offering on it and poured oil on it.”

13. Beer For Breakfast

While the pharaohs had no shortage of delicacies to choose from—fruit and honey and wine and cured fish and all manner of roasted beasts—the Egyptian working class had a significantly shorter menu. The typical Egyptian breakfast consisted of bread, beer, and onions.

14. Sand Gets Everywhere

a group of people riding horses in a desertPhoto by Veronika Biró on Unsplash

And sand. Lots of sand. Keeping sand out of their food was a huge problem for Egyptians, and coupled with their rough, fibrous diet and the fact that they had no real culture of dental hygiene, it meant that Egyptians of modest means usually suffered severe dental issues.

15. Chickening Out

Roman navies always kept chickens on board their ships, but they never intended to eat the birds. Rather, the chickens were offered cake. If the chickens pecked the cake, the Romans were sure to have luck in their upcoming battle. One Roman admiral, furious that his chicken wouldn’t peck, shunned superstition by throwing his chicken overboard and declared, “If it won’t eat, it can drink instead!”

27. The Stash

green palm tree during sunsetPhoto by Kym MacKinnon on Unsplash

According to Herodotus, certain tribes to the east liked to throw bushels of marijuana on bonfires and enjoy a nice stone. As with a lot of stuff that Herodotus said, historians took this with a grain of salt, but in 2008 archaeologists discovered the tomb of a 2,700-year-old mummy in the Western Chinese province of Xinjiang.

In addition to the mummy—presumably, a shaman of the Yuehzi people—was nearly 800 grams of marijuana, worth about $8,000 to modern consumers. Also found in the tomb, a stack of Bob Marley records and a poster bearing the phrase “Legalize It.”

17. A Different Period

To cope with severe menstrual symptoms, Roman women used tampons soaked in opium, while Egyptian men were allowed—and even encouraged—to take time off work to care for their menstruating wives or daughters.

18. Don’t Sweat It

gray concrete building during daytimePhoto by Federico Di Dio photography on Unsplash

After a big day at the Colosseum, Roman fight-goers liked to celebrate the trip by buying souvenirs. Gladiator sweat was a favorite, as was lard from the animals who had been killed during the show. The sweat was mixed with olive oil and sold as a perfume. It was also considered a powerful aphrodisiac. I'll pass, thanks.

19. Decisions, Decisions

According to Herodotus, the rule of thumb among the Ancient Persians was if something was decided upon while drunk, all people involved must wait until they’ve sobered up, and decide again. Later writers added that, if something were decided while sober, the Persians would again put the decision under scrutiny by getting drunk and seeing if the idea held up. At least they covered all their bases!

20. Puking Party

girl in grey tank top holding purple flowerPhoto by Дмитрий Хрусталев-Григорьев on Unsplash

As everyone knows, the Romans loved to party, but of course one can only party so much. The idea of any Roman feast was to eat and drink as much as physically possible. When a Roman began to feel too full, or too drunk, it was socially acceptable, and even encouraged, to induce vomiting, thereby making room for more.

It should be said, however, that it's a misconception that they had special rooms called "vomitoria" for this purpose. Vomitoria did exist, but they were special passages in theaters or auditoria designed to efficiently allow many people to exit at once. The name comes from the Latin word vomo, which means "to spew forth."

21. No Pants Allowed

The Greeks and Romans had pants, they just didn’t wear them. The Greeks thought they looked silly, and the Romans considered them “for the barbarians,” since they were customarily worn by Germanic peoples to the north.

22. Spitting Image

man spitting waterPhoto by Asael Peña on Unsplash

It wouldn’t be unusual to see a Roman spit on himself; it was something they did any time they encountered a mentally ill person or someone with epilepsy. Not only were these traits undesirable, they were considered contagious as well. By spitting on himself, a Roman was protecting himself from the spread of a disease—an action that had no basis, even in Roman medicine, but remained a widely held superstition.

23. The Cure-All

For everything that spitting couldn’t cure, the Romans swore by "theriac." The compound, invented by Nero’s personal physician, was made of 64 different ingredients, including opium and viper flesh, and was said to cure everything from poisoning to plague. Theriac remained a common item in apothecaries and pharmaceutical shops well into the 19th century, because if nothing works anyway, you might as well eat some snake parts.

24. Ancient Times

grayscale photo of round analog clockPhoto by Timo C. Dinger on Unsplash

Punctual Romans carried around portable sundials, not unlike our more modern pocket watches. Each sundial came with specific instructions on how to use it based on one’s geographical coordinates and the season. But the Romans didn’t rely on a regular 60 minute hour like we do: rather, they followed the Egyptian example of keeping a 45 minute hour through the summer and a 75 minute hour in the winter. How could that not have confused people?

25. Fast Food

The Romans were a busy, on-the-go people, so it’s not surprising that, just like us moderns, they loved fast food. There were restaurants all over the Rome, many of them with windows that opened onto the street so customers could just order their food and go. I wonder if they had drive-thru windows for chariots?

17. Pompeiians Can’t Cook

brown and white concrete buildingPhoto by Yaopey Yong on Unsplash

There were more than 200 take-out restaurants in Pompeii alone. Taking dinner out was so common that many Pompeiian homes didn’t even have kitchens.

16. Vend Diagram

The Romans even had vending machines. Or at least they had the technology—the only known example, built by Roman-Egyptian inventor Hero of Alexander, was coin-operated and dispensed holy water.

28. Cone Heads

brown concrete statue of manPhoto by Tom Podmore on Unsplash

Long before the spray bottle was invented, the Egyptians developed a unique way to apply perfume. They wore tall cones of resin or ox fat on the top of their heads. The cones would be infused with aromatic oils and myrrh. As the balmy night wore on, the cones melted, leaving the Egyptians coated in fragrant oil. It was considered good hospitality to offer these cones to guests at a party.

29. The Best Part Of Waking Up…

Coffee came from Africa, tea from the far east. Neither seemed to have caught on among the Romans. Given the dearth of caffeinated beverages, the Romans began their mornings with a beverage made of goat feces and vinegar. I'll stick to my bean juice, thanks.

30. Just Do It

File:15-07-05-Schloß-Caputh-RalfR-N3S 1528.jpg - Wikimedia Commonscommons.wikimedia.org

According to Pliny the Elder (this guy again...), the goat dung and vinegar beverage was especially popular among chariot racers; it was kind of like an ancient version of Gatorade. The emperor Nero personally endorsed the drink, saying that it gave him extra strength.

31. Urine Luck

The Romans used human urine in industries like leather tanning, and some of these companies even paid a “urine tax” for the privilege. But that’s not all: Urine was used by the Romans as a laundry detergent, a fertilizer, and even as a mouthwash. Because, you know, nothing makes your mouth cleaner than...

32. A Brush With The Egyptians

blue and white plastic bottlePhoto by 莎莉 彭 on Unsplash

In this instance, at least, the Egyptians were centuries ahead of the Romans, and even ahead of pre-20th century Westerners. The Egyptians invented the toothbrush, and used it in conjunction with a toothpaste made of gum arabica, soot, and water that actually would have done an OK job.

33. Mint Condition

In fact, one 4th century Egyptian text offers a complete—though different—recipe for toothpaste: one drachma of rock salt, one drachma of iris flowers, 20 grains of pepper, and, of course, two drachmas of mint for kissably fresh breath. Hey, if it's not human urine, I'll take it!

34. Getting Around To It

man and woman statue under blue sky during daytimePhoto by Sergio García on Unsplash

Let’s talk about bad habits for a minute. Here in the modern world, many of us have trouble getting motivated—we tend to put off starting things, even if they’re important or good for us. But don't feel so bad, even our ancient ancestors struggled with procrastination.

Putting off crucial business was so common in Ancient Greece that the Greeks had a word for it: akrasia, “the state of acting against one’s own interest.”

35. So Stupid, It’s Smart

One Greek statesman discovered a trick to help him defeat akrasia: Demosthenes shaved one side of his head (seriously). Funny, but how does it help? Demosthenes reasoned—rightly, perhaps—that he would be less tempted to go outside if he knew people would make fun of his stupid haircut. Rather than risk the mockery and taunts of his fellow Athenians, he stayed home and studied. Something to remember next time you’ve got a big exam coming up.

36. Moldy Medicine

sliced bread on tablePhoto by Helena Yankovska on Unsplash

The Ancient Egyptians applied moldy bread crusts to burns. This practice has also been found in ancient Greek, Chinese, and Serbian cultures. While none of these ancient cultures had any way to know specifically, they did seem to intuit that the microbes and antibodies active in the mold were good for fighting off infections.

37. An Eyebrow Raising Habit

Eyebrows were important to the Ancient Egyptians, as well. The death of a household cat was a serious tragedy—the Egyptians literally worshipped the furry felines—and families would often demonstrate their grief by shaving their eyebrows off.

38. The Cat’s Pyjamas

Free Images : animal, monument, statue, cat, egypt, sculpture ...pxhere.com

Cats were idolized by the Egyptians because of their skill at killing vermin like rats and snakes, and because they also represented fertility. When a cat died, even the cat of a laborer, it was given a noble burial, mummified, and laid to rest surrounded by pots of milk and mummified mice. We should all be so lucky.

39. Pretty Disrespectful

The practice of mummifying cats was so common that, over the course of the 19th century, British industrialists were able to import nineteen tons of mummified kitties for use as fertilizer.

40. Not Monkeying Around

black monkey sitting on rock during daytimePhoto by Benjamin Ong on Unsplash

Cats weren’t the only pets loved by the Egyptians; they were also known to keep monkeys. Big monkeys. Really big monkeys, like baboons, in fact. Baboons don’t live in Egypt—they had to be imported to Egypt specifically—but their popularity led them to develop a wealth of cultural and religious significance to the Egyptian people, and one was considered lucky indeed to have one of the simians in their home.

41. The Hogs Of War

The Greeks and Romans employed an unlikely ally when they went to war: Because their rivals in the east typically employed elephants, the Greeks and Romans enlisted the help of war pigs, whose squeals terrified the giant beasts.

42. The Romans Treated Their Kids Like Garbage

a statue of a person holding a staffPhoto by Clemens van Lay on Unsplash

Roman families did have adoption practices—even Julius Caesar adopted his great-nephew Octavian, later known as Augustus—but it was mostly a way for the wealthy Roman elite to ensure they had an heir. For poorer families, unwanted children were often just left at the dump.

If those unwanted babies didn’t die, they were usually taken to be raised as slaves.