Things Employers Don't Want Workers To Know Because It Would Cost Them Big Bucks

Money, money, money.

Sometimes, that is all employers care about.

How can they keep more of it?

How do they hide it from staff?

They try to mask their intentions by giving a few extra pennies here and there or a pizza party as a "thank-you" every other Friday.

But how thankful can they be?

If they really cared, they would give livable wages for work well done.

Or they would stop trying to excavate ways to cut corners in their benefit but burden staff.

Redditor No-Nerve6154 wanted everyone to expose the ways the 1% bosses are screwing us over, so they asked:

"What's something employers would never want employees to know because they would lose millions?"

The 1%

"How much the top execs are making. I thought I was making an ok salary, and then my company went public. In the IPO filing, it turned out the CEO was pulling in 40 million a year. Really made me think about all those year-end 3% raise conversations."

- Arete108

Hustling Dave Chappelle GIFGiphy

Theft

"Maybe not millions, but any time your employer requires you to do something, you should be clocked in. Meetings, trainings, arriving early to 'start your shift on time,' should all be considered time on the clock, and you should be compensated for it. I've heard many managers/bosses in the past tell teams not to clock in for brief meetings, etc, which is wage theft."

- wizarddewd

IT'S NOT ON YOU!!!

"Know your benefits and rights. I manage people and handle benefits. The amount of employees that don’t have a f**king clue what they are entitled to is ridiculous. I try to coach them, especially the younger folks, but they don’t get it. Two examples..."

"1- My state offers disability leave, which includes parental leave. I’m in an 'important' role where it can be difficult if I’m out of the office. When my kid was born, you can be damn sure I took my full 3 months and not a bit less. F**k you, that’s my right, you can figure it out."

"2- My brother, who is in his forties mind, tore his ACL at work for a huge company that delivers everything to your house in 2 days. He went to the doctor and got a note. I asked him if he had reported it as a worker’s comp injury. 'No, I have insurance.' The f**k dude, you also have deductibles and copays, AND you only have 10 days to report a worker’s comp injury. Get off the phone with me and go file a report NOW. If you need surgery and light duty or disability, that s**t HAS TO GO THROUGH YOUR EMPLOYER. IT'S NOT ON YOU!"

- Biggetybird

Speak Up

"You're allowed to talk to your coworkers about pay. The number of people I've run into who think discussing wages is honestly a crime absolutely blows my mind. Discuss what you make, and if you're not making as much as someone else, question it."

- BrewertonFats

"I once (male)worked on a team with a woman who had an identical job and more experience than me. Pay raise time: I got 50% more than her. And honestly, she was far better. I told her about it. Management fixed her pay and six months later fired us all."

- Hopeful-Argument2603

Policy

"That just because it's written company policy, doesn't make it law or legal. Anything can be argued in a court, and a policy that blatantly breaks the law or infringes on your rights won't hold up."

- No-Group-4504

"My favorite was a hotel I worked at that wanted everyone to sign off on a new drug policy. The new policy prohibited staff from providing drugs, legal or otherwise, or alcohol to coworkers or patrons, whether for money or free."

"The problem was, I was the hotel bartender. So I refused to sign. Pointed it out to the owner and had a laugh as he tossed them all out. Every other restaurant staff member had signed it already."

- iordseyton

Synergy

"The secret most companies would die to keep hidden: They have NO IDEA what their employees actually do all day."

"I watched this play out at my last company in the most infuriating way. Our VP mandated a "productivity tracking initiative" where we had to log every task for two weeks. When the results came in, they showed our team was handling triple the expected workload with outdated tools while two entire layers of management contributed almost nothing measurable."

"What happened to this eye-opening data? It disappeared. Completely buried. Why? Because fixing it would mean admitting they've been underpaying the people actually keeping the lights on while overpaying people who mostly create PowerPoints about 'synergy.'"

"The kicker? Three months later, they laid off 20% of the doers and kept all the managers. Then they couldn't figure out why deadlines were suddenly impossible to meet. So they hired expensive consultants who recommended - you guessed it - more managers to 'oversee productivity improvements.'"

"Companies would rather set money on fire than admit their precious org charts and management structures are mostly theater. The people who create actual value are treated as replaceable while those who create meetings are treated as indispensable."

- PixelPulse88

Counting the Hours

"That you can claim unemployment in the U.S. even if you are still working. If they cut your hours enough to where you're no longer making the same kind of money you were. You can file for unemployment."

"My knowledge may be a little bit dated."

- EfficientDismal

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40 Hours

"Most jobs don’t actually need 40 hrs a week to get done. If you cut out pointless meetings and unnecessary tasks, people could finish their work in way less time. If everyone realized that, companies would probably have to pay for actual work done, not just hours spent."

- TaskJemain-Ak

"Yeah, but they use the 40 hours a week as justification for benefits. So if everyone worked less, they'd have to provide fewer benefits. Happened at a couple of places I worked. Literally nobody was working more than 36 a week and as a result got no vacation days or health insurance."

- Wrought-Irony

Finish the Work

"The value of labor."

- MwaslametryFEM

"I wish my current employer understood this one better, actually."

"Currently building a hospital on an island in Alaska. We never have enough material because the company is trying to save a buck by ordering small amounts of everything (no one on this crew of 140 has a 1/4 fender washer to rub against another)."

"So much money is wasted in labor by people wandering around the job site looking for simple parts. At this point, you could order a few thousand bits of each style of small hardware and throw them off the bridge and still save money if we had enough to go around and finish our work."

- motodextros

The Crux

"The union thing has already been brought up multiple times. I’ll just add that if you work for a large enough company, they literally have a department that pays people just to make sure unions don’t get formed. It’s usually called something like labor relations, and the main crux of their job is to assess the unionization risk of every move the company makes. Couple that with the tactics company leaders use to disrupt/influence union votes, and it’s apparent that they are all scared sh**less of this."

- AreYouJealous

Legalities

"Most non-competes are illegal under 'restraint of trade' laws. It's really just an attempt at employers getting folks thinking they are trapped there or would have to move or not work in their field in their area. It's not legal. Mainly because it allows employers to start abusing employees, freezing wages/promotions, etc."

"Ask to make it a yearly renewed one with no compete/no fire agreed to by each. I doubt you would get it, but they certainly would respect you knowing exactly what they are asking of you and expecting the same in return."

- dgrant92

Take it...

"You can just take the whole toilet paper roll home from the bathroom. Nobody will stop you."

- PMMeUrHopesNDreams

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Common Knowledge

"Salaried employees can still be compensated for overtime pay if they are not exempt, many salaried employees are misclassified as exempt. If you are salaried and you get docked partial pay for partial days worked, etc, you are not salaried; you are hourly."

"Overtime hours are recorded WEEKLY past 40 hours, not every two weeks past 80 hours. Hours worked cannot be moved in different work weeks to avoid overtime pay."

"If you are a 1099 worker but get treated like an employee you more than likely have been misclassified and your employer may be screwing you out of overtime pay and for sure in taxes. Managers and supervisors cannot be in a tip pool. Only employees."

"If employees are working at multiple businesses that share common goods, managers, owners, etc., the hours at both locations need to be conglomerated for overtime pay. For example, you work 25 hours at location 1 and 20 hours at location 2 in 1 week. You don't get paid separately. You have worked 45 hours and are owed overtime for 5 hours."

"This may be considered common knowledge, but you'd be surprised how much employers attempt, and do, get away with."

- Foboomazoo

Efficient

"That if you work for a public company and checked SEC Form DEF 14A for Executive Compensation, you'd feel much differently about 'layoffs.' In most cases, salary is lunch money compared to their stock holdings, and juicing the stock price by having a round of layoffs to make the company more 'efficient' means 'too bad, you have to suffer so we can make more money. '"

"Shareholder value' was a sociopathic financial model that made it ok to put shareholders (them) before even customers - and WAY before employees."

- RhythmTimeDivision

WAR

"We are the means of production, comrades. If we would stop fighting culture wars and started fighting class wars, things would get wildly entertaining."

- SwampYankee

War Running GIF by Curiosity StreamGiphy

People work hard to make an honest living.

And all it would take to give honest people a break is just a little less greed.

Not even that much.

Keep some of your greed!

But be kinder and stop overworking and stealing from people.

What other ways do you know of that employers take advantage for profit?