What should I have done?

[MarcoTheBee]

Hello again fellow leftists, I'm hear again to seek knowledge when it come to issues about workers rights and other such topics so hear we go:

I'm curious as to how any of you would've reacted or would have acted had you been in my situation when it comes to this issue of working a blue collar job.

I'm from central New Jersey and during my senior year of high school, I got my first steady job in April 2010. I was working in the convience store section of a Sunoco gas station that was part of a rest stop of the NJ Turnpike north. It was a decvent paying job for me at least. about 7.85 an hour and I worked 8 hour shifts with an unpaid half hour break. The job entailed working the register, cleaning the floor, stocking the shelves, counting the tobacco products, counting the open-air cold food storage products, refilling the coffee machines, cleaning the coffee machines, restocking the drink coolers and keeping the store tidy in general. I worked with one other employee always with a few exceptions.

It was hard work, especially cleaning the coffee machines, I hated that, but I still didn't mind. I only worked 3 days a week because I also had class and It's hard for me to balance both. Management was pretty lax in my first few months working there. The manager was nice and understandning i guess. He was also very impersonal and didn't really like handling negative aspects of managment like firing people, he had other folks do it for him.

But towards the end of the summer of 2010, we got a new manager. And he imposed some pretty unpopular rules.

1. We weren't allowed to sit onb the job, even when there were no customers around.
2. We were not allowed to read on the job, regardless if anyone was in the store. This was especially a bummer for the night shift when noone came for long intervals of time.
3. We were made to count everything in the store, when I mean everything I mean EVERYTHING. This could be a serious pain in the ass at times

There were some other unpopular rules he made some of which allude me at the moment. But he also made new rules affecting the fuel attendents which they didn't like at all. But I never bothered asking since they pretty much kept to themselves.

There are two incidents that come to my memory that I really want to know how you wouldve handled.

First one involved a man, whom I percieved was standing too close to our register space, since he was getting hot choclate, and the hot chocolate machine is right next to the register space opening. And I had previously gotten in trouble for ignoring something like this because I myself thought the customer wasn't too far in the register space for it to be a problem, but accoring to our manager he was, and I got a write up for that. I didn't want another write up and I figured that he was a little too close to register space for comfort and I didn't want to take any changes. So I proceeded to POLITELY ask him to move a little bit away from the register space since I didn't want to get in trouble. And he got really angry, and asked for the manager. He explained what had happened and the manager took the customers side. To which i was shocked, and he didn't let me expalin myself and gave me another write up.

The second one led to the termination of my employment in the spring of 2012. It was kind of my fault, but I'll say it anyway. Pretty much, I was working the morning shift and I didnt eat breakfast, and I had little money to buy anything except 25 cents. I had some more change in my car but I wasn't allowed to leave. I was so hungry, so I waited a little bit until I couldn't wait anymore and I took a little mozzarella cheese stick and scanned it and put my 25 cents in. It cost a dollar BUT I was going to go go and get the rest of the change from my car at the end of my shift or maybe ask another employee for some extra change when we were all cashing out. Normally I got change but if not, being 75 cents short wasn't gonna kill me. But for whatever reason, one employee found out I had not paid enough on my first register opening and told the management. I told them I was gonna pay the rest back, but they didn't want to hear it. I mean yes it technically was stealing, but i didn't lie about it, nor was I tryinbg to be secretive about it. They showed the fottage of me on CCTV and I wasn't acting sneaky about it. But the damage was done. One of my store managers freaked out and asked me to leave. So I did, came back to work next week and when I got there I was told I was fired.

So with all of that out of my chest. I ask you, what would you have done, and how would you percive my situation through the veil of leftism, marx- leninism, syndicalism etc etc.

[Rosso]

If you have colleagues who also don't want to eat any more shitty rules and/or get screwed over for these little things then the best you can do I think is to unite . If you have enough people then I don't see the reason to bow any longer for such a prick. Good example again of what capitalism makes possible. Good luck finding another job ;)

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

your bosses are wankers and you are a character out of a Bruce Springsteen song.

But seriously - this is why I fuckin' hate aspects of the world we live in. What has it come to when a few pennies (literally pennies) matters more than someone's nourishment and well-being? Fuckers.

Don't feel bad. Stealing is only a socially constructed crime - if you're hungry, you do what you gotta do. I'd have done the fuckin' same.

[MarcoTheBee]

Haha thank you Boss, I like the comparison

[Czy]

Infuriating story, but sadly so common in the world we live in.

All that matters to these guys is their paycheck - never mind the wellbeing of those around them. I don't think there's much you can do - other than let this fuel your flame; and channel any anger from this episode into your politics.

[OGirly]

I would have done the same. You being hungry would only hurt your job performance. You had no intention to steal, you worked there long enough to show you were not untrustworthy. The boss could have cut you a break for a momentary lapse in good judgement. It happens, and when your desperately hungry it's easy to make questionable choices.

I would have started raising issues when they told you no sitting on the job. I can understand, although I don't agree with, the restrictions on reading etc. Not allowing a human being to have the simplest comforts on the job again only hinders their job performance. Sounds like you had a master not a manager.

Be glad your moving on. Seems like that job was not going to develop into anything but a hassle for you.

[MarcoTheBee]

If you have colleagues who also don't want to eat any more shitty rules and/or get screwed over for these little things then the best you can do I think is to unite . If you have enough people then I don't see the reason to bow any longer for such a prick. Good example again of what capitalism makes possible. Good luck finding another job ;)

Thank you for the kind words, but back then I didn't know about things like unions and uniting against industry, neither did any of my co-workers. I think If I had known about such things before I would've joined our local IWW since their central NJ headquarters is in New Brunswick which isn't too far away from where our work was and I would encouraged other employees to join, but alas ignorance on my part won that day.

[Arrin Snyders]

Well, your former boss sounds like a pretty absurd fellow. The no sitting rule was quite idiotic since it meant the employees would tire more easily and so would be more prone to making mistakes. When it comes to the 75 cents I would have probably used the same reasoning you did and made the same mistake. It was a heavy handed response to a minor offense. If it would have been about 50 dollars or some such sum perhaps it could have been considered stealing, but for 75 cents it shouldn't have gotten you more than a warning.

[Left Voice]

Unfortunately, while it certainly is an extreme punishment for an extremely minor offence, it is pretty standard to fire people for doing that, regardless of how little the value.

A supermarket I have worked for in the past (which shall remain nameless) regularly fired people for eating single chocolates that were going to be thrown into the waste. It was literally going into a waste compactor, but eating it rather than throwing it away is deemed to be theft. In fact, managers who wanted to sack certain employees would set them up - get them working on the waste compactor plant chocolates in there, so they can fire them rather than have to make them redundant.

I'm absolutely on your side, by the way, and also agree with other posts here. I'm just making the point that this is not an isolated case at a 'bad egg' company, but the toxic practice is widespread.

[Arrin Snyders]

Where is the logic behind that? I just can't see it. How could it be stealing when you're dealing with something that is about to be throw out anyway?

[Firebrand]

Where is the logic behind that? I just can't see it. How could it be stealing when you're dealing with something that is about to be throw out anyway?

Because it is not the product itself that makes them profit, but your need for the product. By eating food that you haven't paid for you are in effect stealing demand, thus reducing their profits by removing your custom. The product itself has no intrinsic value, rather it is its capacity to reduce your hunger that is being exploited. Thus it is against the interests of the sellers to allow you to find alternative methods of alleviating your hunger.

Thus proving that capitalism is sick.

[Arrin Snyders]

Thus proving that capitalism is sick.

Indeed. :(

[MarcoTheBee]

Unfortunately, while it certainly is an extreme punishment for an extremely minor offence, it is pretty standard to fire people for doing that, regardless of how little the value.

A supermarket I have worked for in the past (which shall remain nameless) regularly fired people for eating single chocolates that were going to be thrown into the waste. It was literally going into a waste compactor, but eating it rather than throwing it away is deemed to be theft. In fact, managers who wanted to sack certain employees would set them up - get them working on the waste compactor plant chocolates in there, so they can fire them rather than have to make them redundant.

I'm absolutely on your side, by the way, and also agree with other posts here. I'm just making the point that this is not an isolated case at a 'bad egg' company, but the toxic practice is widespread.

WE HAD THE EXACT SAME PROBLEM! Wow that's crazy. Although I didn't work for this specific section in our store, there was a Roy Rogers that would literally throw away perfectly good meat and chicken that they used for their burgers and hot dogs if no one had bought it in a half hour. Food that could be freeze dried and given to the homeless was just thrown out like it was nothing, and there were definitely leftovers on a daily basis which a friend of mine who worked in that section had told me about. There was a penalty for stealing if you took or ate any leftover meat. That's insanity and wastefulness to anyone with half a brain stem and it's such a shame to hear that this situation is present in other stores.