Everyone has a story about a rough job they used to have. Maybe it was a bad boss who got on your nerves every day, or perhaps strict company guidelines forbidding you from wearing pants that went above your ankles. Either way it left a bad taste in your mouth that lingers to this day. What usually ends up happening when you talk it out with enough people is a lot of these shady practices seem to pop up in many areas.
Strange...
Reddit user, IllCreme, wanted to know:
What is unethical but is extremely common practice in the business world?
When You Already Know...
Giphy"I don't know about "unethical as f-ck," but going through the motions of pretending to entertain outside candidates when you've already decided on who internally will get the job. Wastes everyone's time."
Let's Keep You Where You Are
"You apply for a new job within your current company, but do not get an interview or offered the job. Your current manager blocked it because you are deemed too valuable where you are."
"A manager I worshiped apparently did this to me many times. The kicker is she would encourage me to apply for the position knowing full well what her plan was."
This Seems Really Open Ended
"Companies(mine) that give you PTO hours that end up being capped but if you use the PTO you are punished by losing pay/shift differentials."
Re-categorizing Overtime?
"Companies being allowed to give workers just below the minimum requirement of hours to avoid giving them benefits. Minimum is 40 hours a week? Work them 39.9 and not a minute more, or call any extra time 'overtime' so they get paid double or time and a half or whatever, which is great in the short term but cheaper in the long term of the company than giving them benefits."
A.B.S. = Always Be Standing
"Don't know if it's been said before, but why in 2019 is it still considered "rude" for people to be sitting on the job? Restaurant Hosts or Supermarket Cashiers, like if its a slow hour of the day just let people rest their feet I don't get it."
"Moreover, my Mother's owned a hair salon for years and has to stand up to do hair properly. She's been doing it her whole life, and used to in heels, so she has a lot of foot pain and tends to break foot bones every so often. And she doesn't even have a choice in her profession, why do that to people who would do just as good sitting down?"
Define: FREE
"Using the word "free" when I have to spend money to get the free thing."
"It's not free unless I can walk into your business, get your product or service without paying a single penny, and walk out of your business."
"If I have to pay even a single penny, it is not free, it is "included with purchase".
"If words don't mean what those words mean, then nothing means anything."
Just A Lot Of Waiting...And Waiting...And Waiting...
"On call" scheduling: i.e. requiring employees to call in two hours before their shift starts to find out whether they are actually working--if you're not needed you don't get paid."
"This insidious practice is unfortunately legal in the majority of U.S. states."
It's All The Same, Right?
"Not disclosing to the customer that their product was built with used/refurbished parts. The justification is that: They have a failure rate the same as new ones."
"I'm sure if the customer knew they'd probably be pretty pissed off though."
Sure, By The 15th You Meant The 27th, Right? Next Month?
"Paying invoices late, especially BIG companies that pay a few months late. It kills small business, and seems to be quite normal here in the UK"
Beneficial Redirection
"Investment services like Edward Jones, who will recommend investing in funds that make THEM the most money. It's impossible to get good advice from these places."
Keeping It Hidden
"Hiding fees until the service is provided."
"I was in a car accident that required an ambulance ride, and I was charged DOUBLE for it. Apparently the 2 ambulance companies in my area are in cahoots, so rather than share the business in my area 50/50, they apparently devised a way to "split" it 100/100. They each have one person from the other company ride in their company's ambulance. The explanation I received was since a medic from the other company was riding along in the ambulance I took, they now can both charge me. Again, they didn't split the fee. They each charged me fully. It's almost a brilliant scheme, but also absolutely unethical and ridiculous, and I can't fathom how this is even legal. On a side note, they didn't even treat me on the ride."
Locking Them In
"Purposefully giving part time employees erratic schedules so they can't take on a second job."
The Magical 32
"Giving your employees just few enough hours that they don't qualify as a full time employee, so you don't have to pay them benefits."
"I worked at Wal Mart in high school. There were older adults who worked tons of overtime. Really put their heart into the company. How were they rewarded? At the end of the pay period, they had shifts cancelled to keep them under 40 hours. Such a garbage company."
"You can bet when I witnessed people shoplifting I looked the other way. F--- that company."
Who Loses When You Only Watch The Bottom Line?
"Chronically and purposely understaffing."
"Looking at you, retail and Assisted Living companies."
If They Don't Say Anything, Don't Pay Nothing
"Not paying invoices until you've been chased multiple times."
"As standard policy."
Marking It Up
"raising prices before putting items on sale"
"As a former kohl's cashier, I can attest that they are the WORST with this. It should be illegal."
"Any grocery store. I buy the same stuff every week and I know what the prices are, I know you literally made the price on this 150% and marked it down to regular price."
JUST. LET. ME. CANCEL.
"I hate how convoluted it is to cancel a gym membership in most places. It's super shady. Sometimes you HAVE to mail a letter to the companies headquarters. Canceling at the gym isn't enough. Lots of people have gotten bills months later even though they were told over and over it was complete."
We Are People, After All
"The multitudes of ways in which work life bleeds into personal life and you're expected to just accept that(and worse, actively embrace it) else you're perceived as someone who doesn't want to get ahead or otherwise isn't as valued as the person who does. The company will always try and get more free time from you but far less than always (bordering on never) actually give you back what that extra time costs."
What's an awful thing your job does that's considered legal? Tell us all about it!
Unlike introverts who tend to shy away from engaging in random discussions, those who are comfortable–or too comfortable–in their own skin love to get all chatty.
That doesn't mean they have anything significant to say.
"What’s the weirdest thing someone casually told you as if it were totally normal?"
People whom you don't know tend to overshare as these Redditors experienced.
A High Request
"A story from a friend - in Colorado, someone once asked, 'Could you watch my wolves, I can pay you in weed.'"
"There's a lot to unpack in that question!"
– surlymoe
"You don't unpack wolves, you keep them together."
– hwarang_
Unsolicited Prediction
"Husband (30) and I were pushing our shopping cart out of the grocery store when a random man (who honestly looked like dumbledore) looked at my husband and said 'take my hat, you're gonna need it, you'll be bald very soon.' Obviously my husband didn't take it. It was super odd of him to say because my husband had a FULL head of hair."
"Three months later, my husband was diagnosed with a condition that made him lose all of his hair. Weird coincidence."
– hollyjollyaf
Self-Casting
"A guy once told me how he loved the feeling of wearing casts, so he'd put casts on himself- for days or weeks on end. Even if it meant he couldn't drive and would be stuck at home the entire time. He'd use vacation time just to wear full leg & arm casts."
– Present_Dust_2308
Homophobic Homosexual
A homophobic guy I know: 'Being gay is a choice.'"
"I said something like - ok, choose to be gay for a day, an hour, a single minute if you can."
"Guy - That's easy, I'm attracted to men all the time, I just choose to only like girls because I'm not gay."
"Me - Ummm..."
– discostud1515
Longheld Grudge
"Once, an older woman came up to me on the street, took hold of my wrists and simply said 'they ripped out my afterbirth', and then carried on walking."
– JennyW93
"It's strange to grab strangers. But one day in Walmart, my granny walked ahead of me, and reached to grab me to show me something, without looking and she was pulling on an old lady's arm obliviously, and the old lady's eyes were like O.O."
"My grandma didn't even apologize, she just let go and yelled at me to stay closer."
– chzygorditacrnch
A Hairdresser-In-Training
"I was getting my hair done this last weekend by my daughter at her cosmetology school. One of her fellow students was excited to meet me. She talked nonstop and eventually told me that she has hemorrhoids and that she has her husband push them back in. So much TMI from a stranger!"
– Digjam823
You never know about the personal lives of people you see on a regular basis.
Squeaky Clean
"I had a college professor on the first day of class say that she is obsessed with Q-tips and cleaning her ears and that her family has to limit her to 3 a day-"
– lokeilou
Here's The Story...
"That they have 6 kids, all with different dads & each dad is in prison."
– ChyCgx2
"I once had a coworker who had seven kids with five different women and he'd constantly complain about how most of his paycheck went to child support. You uh, dug your own grave, pal. I'm really not sympathetic to your plight."
– apocalypticradish
It's the end of the world as we know it.
End Of Civilization
"I know a guy, we don't talk often but due to business we cross paths on occasion. More or less every time we talk he asks if I'm ready for the total societal collapse coming next week, or Tuesday, or at the end of the month.. and so on."
"I just tell him that it's not gonna happen; he usually then asks about my "crystal ball" so I remind him that I've been right every time."
– rkpjr
Zombie Apocalypse
"I went to a ComicCon type event in my city years ago(Walking Dead was a new show, first season for reference) and went to a panel about zombies. They talked about historical zombie lore, the first zombie movies, and the exciting first season of the new show Walking Dead, with some actors on the panel. When they opened it up to the audience for questions one of the first ones was, 'what kind of zombies do you predict we’ll have in a real zombie apocalypse? (Fast vs slow)'…panelists don’t really know how to answer, each gives their personal favorite or worst case scenario. Then we get to, 'What do you think the timeline is for the start of a coming zombie apocalypse?' Panelists are kind of like….? Talk about how things usually play out fiction."
“'No, but exactly WHEN do you think we’ll need to be fully prepared for zombies in real life?' Like, guys, these are actors and media studies academics, first of all they don’t have the level of belief you do and second, the people you should be asking about this stuff are probably biologists."
– AlternativeAcademia
Whenever I feel threatened by a homeless person who is pressuring me to hand over them cash, I tell them, "I''m allergic to corn."
The random phrase throws them and in the brief moment they assess what they heard I'm afforded more time to distance myself from them.
It always works, especially when they realize I'm all kinds of crazy and not worth targeting.
