Millions of people count on Starbucks baristas to provide them with a jolt of caffeine each day, but those employees might be the ones truly in need of a little help: Baristas around the country are spilling the coffee beans on their employer, claiming they are overworked and strained thanks in part to the chain’s endless stream of pilot programs and new services. [More]
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Underpaid & Overstressed: 4 Things Starbucks Baristas Say Is Wrong With The Company
By 5.26.17
McDonald’s Will Pay $3.75M To Settle Franchisee’s Alleged Labor Violations
By 10.31.16
Two years after the National Labor Relations Board General Counsel declared that McDonald’s could be held responsible for franchisees’ bad labor practices, the fast food giant has agreed, for the first time, to pay $3.75 million to settle a lawsuit that claimed the company was liable for labor law violations by a California franchisee. [More]
Target, United Healthcare Tap Millennials To “Mentor” Veteran Workers
By 7.25.16
It’s not uncommon when starting a new job to be assigned a mentor to help you learn the ropes. But when it comes to reaching and selling to the highly-coveted millennial market, the roles are being reversed.
Government Will Try To Figure Out How Many Americans Are Now Part Of The “On-Demand” Workforce
By 1.26.16
How many Americans are making money from “on-demand” jobs — like being an Uber driver, selling stuff on Etsy, or renting out a room on Airbnb — that either didn’t exist until a few years ago or have exploded in popularity thanks to technological innovations? No one really knows, with various reports putting it at anywhere from 5% of the workforce to more than a third. So, for the first time in more than a decade, the U.S. Department of Labor will try to get a more accurate headcount on so-called “contingent” workers. [More]
Victoria’s Secret Plans To End On-Call Scheduling
By 6.29.15
Employees at Victoria’s Secret will no longer have to call in to find out if they’ll be hawking lotions, perfumes, bras, underwear and other products on any given day, as the company plans to end its use of on-call scheduling. [More]
Study Shocks No One By Revealing That We Snack A Lot At Work
By 1.5.15
Anyone who works somewhere with other people around know that it’s pretty much impossible to avoid snacking on the job, what with all those horrible free cupcakes and the endless parade of homemade baked goods. It is anathema to those trying to eat things that are not laden with sugar and fat. Which is why no one around here is surprised to hear that a study finds workplace snacking is the downfall of dieters. [More]
101-Year Old Man Still Working At Same Lighting Company After 73 Years
By 8.19.14
Think you’ve been at your job a long time? Odds are you’re nowhere close to one 101-year-old New Jersey man, who’s been working at the same lighting company almost nonstop since he started as a shop clerk in 1941. [More]
EEOC: Company Forced Employees To Practice Onion-Based Religion
By 6.13.14
This could just be a regular story about a company allegedly using its power over employees to force them to practice a specific religion until the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission intervened, and that would be interesting enough. However, an EEOC lawsuit alleges that the owners of a Long Island health insurance company forced employees to practice a belief system started by a relative. [More]
The Reason You Hate Your Open-Plan Office Is Because It Sucks
By 1.9.14
Do you work in an office with an open floor plan? Do you hate your office-without-walls? If you do: you’re not alone. Research finds that roughly 70% of offices have an open plan, and that those workspaces are bad for you in pretty much every way. [More]
Should Everyone Have The Right To A Break During The Work Day?
By 9.4.13
Many of us have the option of taking at least one brief lunch and/or rest break during the work day (whether you take it or not is a different discussion), and lots of people believe they are legally entitled to a break for every few hours worked. But the fact is that it is perfectly legal in most states for employers to not give employees any rest during the time they are on the clock. [More]
Would You Get A Tattoo Of Your Employer’s Logo?
By 5.1.13
Some tattoo fans (not all, obviously) believe that tattooing the name of your beloved on your body dooms your relationship. It’s the same with matching tattoos. But what about your relationship with your workplace? Does getting matching tattoos with your colleagues doom your career and guarantee a layoff? One New York City real estate brokerage hopes not. They offered agents a 15% raise if they got a company logo tattoo. [More]
Verizon Thinks My Wife Spent 10-Hour Roaming Call Talking To Co-Worker’s Voice Mail
By 3.15.13
RL isn’t arguing that his wife made a roaming call to a co-worker from a hotel in Venice, Italy. His dispute with Verizon wireless is regarding how long that call was. His wife says that it was ten minutes long. Verizon counters that it was ten hours and nine minutes. Considering that the call was to a voice mail box, that must have been an epic, almost close to the the actual meaning of the word “epic,” voicemail. [More]
Would You Buy Or Sell Your Vacation Days?
By 2.26.13
In many of my former workplaces, colleagues could donate their vacation, sick, and personal time to others in the office who were themselves ill or who had a serious illness in the family. It’s a program filled of cooperation and kindness. What if you could have more flexibility in your time off, but in a more cravenly capitalist way? This is already the case in 14% of American workplaces, where employees can “buy” additional vacation time if they want it or sell unwanted time back to the company. [More]
Man Quits His Job, Won’t Pay Taxes After Receiving W-2 Number 666
By 2.7.13
If there’s any number that freaks people out in Western culture, it’s 666, the supposed “number of the Beast” in the Bible’s book of Revelations. A Tennessee man who says that he’s been a born-again Christian for a decade was pretty spooked when he received the 666th W-2 earnings statement that his employer had printed. Now he’s quit his job and refuses to pay his taxes until he gets new, Beast-free paperwork. [More]
Get Handicapped Parking With A Fake Doctor’s Note, Maybe Go To Prison
By 9.27.12
Let’s say that you commute from a relatively rural area, and work in a dense urban environment where there’s little parking to be found. Driving is the best way to get to your office, but taking a shuttle from a distant off-site garage or fighting for street parking is such a hassle. What do you do? If you’re a certain information technology worker for the state of New York, you forge a note from your doctor granting you a handicapped parking space, then assume that you’ll never be caught. Now, instead of a luxurious parking space right near his office, he’s in jail, and could face up to four years in prison. [More]
Job Interview? Your Potential Future Is More Interesting Than Your Past
By 8.31.12
Ready to impress a hiring manager with a list of your past accomplishments? That may be a flawed approach. According to studies conducted by Stanford’s Zakary Tormala and Jayson Jia, and Harvard Business School’s Michael Norton, people prefer potential rather than achievement when evaluating others. [More]
My Employer Will Only Pay Me By Prepaid Debit Card. Is That OK?
By 6.6.12
Everyone (except consumer advocates like us) seems to love prepaid debit cards. You can get student loan fundage on them, unemployment benefits, and even federal and state tax refunds. And now they’re handling your paycheck. Christopher just took a job as a pizza delivery driver for a major chain, and he has only one option for receiving his pay (other than tips): a prepaid debit card. He doesn’t like it. [More]
How Being Too Competent Can Get You Fired
By 4.18.12
Being the weakest performer in the company or performing a service that’s utterly dispensable is dangerous to your continued employment, especially in a weak job market. But working hard and being good at what you do is potentially dangerous as well, especially if your bosses are insecure, paranoid, and just not a good as you are. To people who think this way, having a bright future within the company makes you a threat. Your future endangers theirs. [More]
