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Just some pre-info: There are 4 people in the department. Me, another guy who's been there for a few months, and 2 new guys still in training, being trained by me and my co-worker. I've been there for about 6 months.
So today at work me and a few co-workers were freezing our ass off in an under conditioned workplace (the store) and we were complaining and what not. So one of my fellow co-workers went on break and came back with this nice looking sweatshirt with the store name on it. I was like y0!! who'd you get that from i'm freezing!? He told me who gave it to him. I asked if he had to pay for it and he said no. So when I went on my break I asked if I could get one and he was like yeah sure. So I go and grab one and say "do you want me to pay for it?" He was like "naw dude you're good".
So I went back to my department and the other 2 new employees were like "dayum yo who u get dat from and did u pay" I told them I didn't pay and who let me get one. I told them that they most likely would have to pay because new people get a lot of shit, and to be honest it's perfectly fair because they aren't as reliable as us. Hell, they could quick on the day before black friday. Anyway coming towards the end of the shift, one of the new kids asked for a sweatshirt and the supervisor was talking to me "Yeah 10 or 20 bucks" then he looked at me and said "Is that how much you paid?" I said "No they are 10 I think". I knew for a fact that they were worth 10, but he was in the room when they gave it to me for free. I could tell by him talking like that he wanted me to say a price so that the new people would have to pay for it. Yeah it's kind of discriminatory or whatever but to be honest they haven't earned free access to stuff like that yet. But yeah I just lied and said 10 because 1. I don't want to look like an idiot to my supervisor 2. We are starting to get cool with eachother and 3. I warned those new kids that they are going to be treated like shit until they start pulling in some numbers.
Anyway, as an outsider how do you feel about this? And have you ever been in a situation like this?
On a side note I have not done shit in the last 2 weeks. I feel no motivation. I have just spent my spare time watching my daily casts from youtube subs, browsing TL, or just watching a movie. I can't seem motivated to get on starcraft or black ops.
 
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That's just rude. You've worked there six months, that's great. Doesn't excuse you for treating the new employees like that. I like how the title says your boss is discriminating them, but apparently you're excused from it. Just because you want to be nice to your boss and fair to the new employees doesn't make it morally correct.
Sure I wouldn't want them to get the same as an older member, but that doesn't make it right to do things like this, and I wouldn't try to justify it as right to myself.
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Things like this are pretty common but I don't think companies often do it with something so defined as the price for a sweater. It's so obvious with the prices and paying/not paying and you have to go through lying to get away with it? Better just give benefits to your more loyal employees that are less tangible so that nobody can complain about them. Be less harsh on certain people that take 5 mins longer break than you are for the new guys who do it etc.
People in work situations aren't equals though so this isn't a big to me at all I just find it rather stupid the way they go about it. The longer you work for a company while doing a good job the more they will appreciate it clearly because they have to think about their future and a new guy doesn't guarantee them anything. You reward people for being loyal both from a social as well as a business perspective.
In this case I don't think you should want to be included in their lies though, but calling your boss out on the spot is really offensive and a bad idea. Probably would have just pulled him aside after and ask him not to include me in that shit in the future.
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of course it makes perfect sense, although i don't really understand the point of lying about it to the new employees. could've just said 'work here for X months, and you get one as a gift, otherwise $10' or something.
i don't see how a brand new employee can possibly be equal to someone who's been there long enough to be training said new employee. nevermind the obvious skill and ability differential, there's also a loyalty component involved. it's like that everywhere, even TL. longtime posters get more leeway because they're not stupid. usually.
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I think that employees who work there for a longer time should get certain benefits, but the benefits should be clearly stated so that everyone knows what they are. To treat the new employees like that by lying to them just shows that the supervisor is not only discriminating, but cheating behind their back. I wouldn't want to be treated like that at all because it shows me that the supervisor doesn't respect me as an employee, despite the fact that I am new.
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I think it's kind of like how you would help out your friends, but not random strangers. Since new people probably haven't formed any relationship with other staff yet, while the other staff are usually at least somewhat close with each other. So instead of thinking about it as the employer treating them badly, it's more like the employer was just doing you a favor since he knew you for a longer time. It's still bad though if he tried to rip them off by charging 20 dollars if he knew for certain it was 10.
On a side note, I liked how you wrote your colleagues' dialogue, yo.
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It's not discrimination imo. When you run a business, you naturally give some advantages to select employees. This is direct, be legit. While it may seem unfair in big corporations and whatnot, if you own a small company where like 2-20 people work, or more for all I care, you don't need a chart explaining everything. You just do stuff.
If I ran a place like that, I would be fine giving some little things to my employees who have been around for a while - but not to the guy who might leave tomorrow, never bringing anything to the company.
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On November 20 2010 14:33 Djzapz wrote:
It's not discrimination imo. When you run a business, you naturally give some advantages to select employees. This is direct, be legit. While it may seem unfair in big corporations and whatnot, if you own a small company where like 2-20 people work, or more for all I care, you don't need a chart explaining everything. You just do stuff.
If I ran a place like that, I would be fine giving some little things to my employees who have been around for a while - but not to the guy who might leave tomorrow, never bringing anything to the company.
Not to be nitpicky, but that is discrimination. I have no problem with that kind of discrimination though - when it's based on ignorance is when I get annoyed.
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Call it a work related bonuses. You put in quality work, you pay your dues. You get rewarded for it.
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It's not discrimination , no-one knows if those new guys will even be there next week.They may decide it just wasn't for them.
It's all about loyalty and it's not like they got ripped off with $10 for a sweatshirt anyway.
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It is discrimination. The guy's discriminating between the guy who's been there for 6 months and the guy that's been there for what, 2 weeks?
It's not company policy to give out free shirts, that's the owner's personal decision.
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When I read the title I thought this would be an obvious case of cruel mistreatment, but after reading it I don't think it's much of a big deal. Sure it's kinda bad that new co-workers are treated differently, but I guess there are reasons for that which don't have to be discrimination. Besides 10 bucks for a sweatshirt doesn't seem bad to me. They weren't forced to buy it and giving it to you for free might be more something you've earned than them being discriminated. I'd say there are a lot worse cases of discrimination happening that deserve to be worried about.
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EPT
