Yep :(

Party and events coordinator/office admin. There were some mild to moderate red flags in the first week of training, but no hard no-goes like this. This was supposed to be a transition away from manual labor into a more managerial side of the same field I've worked in for a long time.

In the state I live in, if you work more than six hours without taking a meal break, you are entitled to time and a half after the sixth hour and a bonus hour worth of work paid. 6 hours and 2 minutes without a break? Legally you should be paid for 7 hours and 3 minutes. This employer apparently thinks that's too much and instructed me that their SOP is to add in lunch break punches on the backend for anyone who goes over. Worked 6 hours and 1 minutes at this place? Paid for 5 hours and 31 minutes. And the people this is being done to work a lot more than that, seems like 10+ hour shifts are the norm, which is pretty normal for event work. I know what that work is like, I've done it- if you don't take a break, it's because your boss didn't bother to account for one. And this business apparently doesn't. That's 2 hours of paid time they are being robbed of (the bonus hour + the extra hour from OT kicking in at 6 instead of 8) every time this happens, most of the shifts they work. What a load of absolute fucking bullshit.

I'm sad. This job was supposed to be a good thing. I've been unemployed for months leading up to getting it, and just having any income lined up was already such a relief, let alone a good one. But I can't turn around and undercut the livelihoods of other people to obtain that. I've also completely lost trust that my own pay (which was to include things like bonuses and commissions on parties I work) will be delivered as promised. It's just a hard no, they can't walk that shit back.

Gonna call out sick because fuck 'em, then go in tomorrow and tell as many of their kitchen and event staff as I can find on premises that their boss is shaving off their hours and committing wage theft, then hand in the key they gave me. I'm gonna look up what government agency their workers should contact to request an audit/investigation, and print up some pamphlets to hand out to them. I ain't no fucking class traitor.

There's a bit of schadenfreude in it at least. Their current coordinator is quitting to move cross country soon (this was not explained during the interview process, and my position was described more as a support for them instead of a replacement, which was one of the first red flags), and I can tell the owner is *really* betting on getting me trained up within the next couple weeks and having me assume that person's responsibilities before their moving date deadline. The owner has no one else to handle those tasks, doesn't seem to be interviewing any other people, and I can tell that he doesn't know shit about fuck in terms of how to do those things himself- critical tasks like scheduling orders and building quotes, that his business cannot run without. He's going to *really* be up a creek when he gets put right back at the start of the interviewing process for that role, and I can tell that this will actually hurt him. Even if he somehow manages to ride things out and find a replacement in time, which seems unlikely, he'll be pulling his hair out for a few weeks stressing about it. Sucks to suck, I guess.

Tl;Dr New job, seemed great on paper, expected me to compromise morals in a way I refuse to.