No one handled the start of the pandemic well.
It was an awful time and still continues to be an awful working time for some.
Reddit user, ObviousQuail, wanted to know who to possibly avoid in the future when they asked:
Which companies used COVID as an opportunity to be worse to their customers/employees?
Some companies felt the best way to protect the company and all the people working there was to let go of all the people.
All In The Name Of Saving Money...In A Profitable Year
"My company Trimble canceled wages and promotions then gave a pay cut. Which was awkward because we then had one of the best years ever , the stock was soaring up. They did repay us our cut wages after 10 months. But we still lost our in the raises, not too bad for me, but a woman I work with had a promotion canceled so lost out on a year of a higher pay grade."
SaltyChickenDip
Putting It All On The People
"Carluccio's fired all their employees without giving them their wages for their last month of work in March 2020. We had to unionise and got paid by the UK government - two months later."
SMFC_234
Seems Like This Is Happening A Lot
"Best Buy took away bonuses for all employees and fired all the experienced full-timers at my store to replace them with part-time employees"
Ok-Ad1798
"My company did that too. They basically told everyone that there weren't going to be any bonuses. In reality, it was no bonuses for all the regular workers. Everyone VP and above got their normal bonus payout; if not more. It's was the worst. I basically had to give up my bonus payout so that my staff could get some bonus last year."
kuvlubnpe
Unable To Act Without Corporate
"Kroger but specifically management. The way they treat my poor mom should be illegal. Insane hours like 70+ a week. They are being blamed for the staffing shortage because it's definitely management's fault and not the fact that they pay terrible wages versus comparable jobs. If I remember right the only thank you they got for working through the pandemic was like a $10 gift card."
gettingcrunkontea
"Our local Kroger manager is on NextDoor begging people to stop harassing her employees about long lines, empty shelves, masks, etc. It's so sad. She also mentioned she's not allowed to raise wages, it's only authorized by corporate and they froze wage increases for all stores in our area. Eventually working at Walmart will pay more than Kroger."
Anneisab-tch
Many companies didn't do much to hurt their staff, but their patrons? Their customers?
That's all fair game.
Charging The Same For Less Given
"Universities charged the same price, many actually increased prices while providing substandard virtual classes."
clocks212
"My husband's school charged him $300 for not filling out a form that no one told him he had to fill out to suspend enrollment and not attend two semesters of school. He informed the admin office, of course, and conveniently no one told him about this form when he was letting them know he would not be attending that semester."
"Highway robbery. They should be ashamed."
drsandwich_MD
Canceling Your Miles
"Several airlines continued to expire miles and credits even though there was literally no way to utilize them. Yes, you Southwest!!!"
dewayneestes
"Also for employees many airlines fired their crews in march and reemployed them on a different contract later which is obviously much sh-ttier, or they launched a subsidiary airline which offers much worse conditions (e.g. SAS Connect, Eurowings Discover)."
"One airline in particular I'm familiar with now pays their pilots up to 40% (!!!) less than before Covid and offers 8-9 days less of holiday."
"I know the covid crisis was a hard hit for employers, but it's no excuse for permanent worsening of conditions"
bahenbihen69
You Can't Workout In A Pandemic!
"Planet Fitness shortened their hours and services without decreasing my monthly bill."
thatwhatthis
"They tried to require a doctor's note from my wife in order to cancel. We opted to simply tell our bank to deny any further charges from them."
gingerofthenorth
And then there's these, companies and businesses hit the hardest by the worldwide pandemic, doing absolutely the wrong thing in the wrong circumstances.
This One Makes Sense. Have You Seen People Lately?
"CVS, terrible working conditions for pharmacy workers as they continue to push even more things on them with less help"
Potential_Yak5783
"I got my flu shot at CVS the other day. It's fairly obvious that everyone working there just hates it."
Boredum_Allergy
"My CVS is always busy and never seems like a great place to work but when I turned up for a flu shot a few weeks ago it was even more chaotic than I'm used to. The rush cleared up by the time the pharmacist got to me so I commented on how tough that must have been, and he told me that he wasn't even the regular pharmacist for this location."
"He normally works in a town 45 min away but he keeps getting called into other stores all over the state because they can't hold onto anyone. Felt so bad for the poor guy and the two techs working that day."
isilluminated
People Are Upset About Pets
"The entire vet med industry. More vet techs are leaving the industry than ever before since COVID since a lot of them are fed up with low wages (equivalent to or even less than what retail workers get paid in a lot of states; while a few states like California or companies like VEG do pay better, up to $40 for working in specialty or emergency its still not enough when 90% of the industry still pays abysmal wages) and lack of benefits and a work/life balance, rude and abusive clients that have only increased with COVID, and toxic work environments."
"There is a reason why clinics that actually pay well, actually give benefits, respect the work/life balance, aren't toxic, and fire toxic and abusive clients are called "unicorn clinics"."
matchakuromitsu
"I was getting paid only $7 an hour (often working 10-12 hour days), had a client threaten to assault me because of curbside drop off/pick up, and was expected to be back at work after being hospitalized due to heart failure."
"I will never go back into general practice."
Yeesh. Yeah. All Of This.
" Amazon quietly removed the two-day shipping guarantee from their Prime services."
oooo_football_friend
"For workers, Amazon has 150% turnover and caught a lot of bad press when, at the beginning of the pandemic, their automated productivity system started firing a ton of "essential workers" who were trying to keep up with increased demand. They temporarily made that system laxer and were sure to tell the press but didn't communicate that clearly to workers. Meanwhile, during the pandemic, they've successfully squashed several labor organizing movements."
elizzybeth