Are Companies Stealing From Their Employees but Distracting Us With Cries of Shoplifting?
Yes. But it's complicated.
If you've ever had your wages stolen, you understand the feelings of despair, helplessness, and anger. As a teenager, it happened to me in front of my face. My manager didn't even try to hide it from us.
In the late nineties, I was working my first retail job. I was a cashier in a fast-fashion, young women's clothing store. We had this giant book where we recorded our time - in pencil. (I don't know - terrible idea.)
One night the store was a mess, and we'd stayed late to recover. After we'd all written down our clock-out times in the book, our manager came behind us, erased what we had written, and recorded an earlier time.
She stole about thirty minutes from all of us.
As I watched her do it, I knew it was wrong. I knew they were stealing wages from us, but what would I say?
"Excuse me Ms. Manager, you are stealing from us and that's wrong."
No.
Even if I wanted to raise hell, I didn't know where to start. And, if you can believe it or not, I felt sorry for her. She was so stressed out, and as she erased our time, she muttered something about how we weren't supposed to stay that late.
I figured, "Oh well, I'm an eighteen year old kid working a summer job. Whatever." I also didn't speak up because I didn't want to lose my job.
But what about all the people who aren't working a summer job? What if that thirty minutes of wages helps to cover food for someone's family or gas to get to work?
Wage theft is still a huge problem, but companies don't want to tell you about it. They'd rather distract you with stories of smash-and-grabs. That's more exciting anyway, right?
The Los Angeles Times recently covered this very topic. Their article calls out former Home Depot Chief Executive Bob Nardelli. Nardelli has been making the rounds on the Fox channel, yelling about shoplifting gangs and scaring the viewers.
Turns out he's not sharing the whole picture. Shocking.
The LA Times reports,
"Back in June, Nardelli's former company settled a class-action lawsuit with workers alleging widespread wage theft for $72.5 million."
Employees were made to wait for a supervisor to let them out of the building after they'd clocked out of their closing shift. Home Depot did not admit wrongdoing; they settled to make the lawsuit disappear.
Wage theft has far more impact on working people than organized retail crime (ORC), but it's not easily sensationalized. Let's be honest: Group ORC hits will generate more clicks for news organizations, and CEOs aren't likely to go on air and be interviewed about how they steal from their hourly workers.
Here's how companies steal wages:
Paying less than minimum wage
Not paying over time
Denying meal breaks
Diverting tips
Making employees work off the clock to prepare for their shifts
Wage theft is a problem across all companies, large and small. Don't think that Amazon, Walmart, or Bank of America aren't pulling some of these wage theft tactics; they are. But ORC hits are just way more sexy, no?
The companies don't want the press. They don't want the heat, so they settle and help the story gets buried. Usually, it does.
Loss calculated in the books of retail companies is called shrink. Shrink happens in three ways:
External loss - shoplifting, ORC hits
Internal loss - employees stealing
Paperwork errors - checking in shipment wrong, not scanning a tag correctly when selling an item - stuff like that
However, external loss gets all the attention.
Are ORC hits real and scary? Yes. When I worked in retail, I witnessed many of them. But what's more infuriating is when I heard stories from my teenage associates about how the other jobs they held stole from them.
They were made to sign away their right to breaks and made to work off the clock. Instead of reporting bad behavior, they quit. Of course, they did. I would have as well. Not many people want to be a whistleblower and companies know it.
Theft is on the rise, and ORC hits are real. Just don't be distracted by all the news coverage. Wage theft is much more harmful; it's just not covered.
If you're an hourly wage worker, know the laws in your state. A quick Google search will do. Search for “Labor laws in _____.” Read them.
Make sure you look at your pay stub every pay period and ensure you're being paid correctly because your employer will not do it for you.
MAILBOX
This message came from a frustrated leader after she took a shift to help a co-worker.
"I asked my store manager if I could have Sunday or Monday off to make up for the extra shift I took. She said no! I'd be working 6 days. Like, why am I being punished for doing someone a favor?"
Great question.
If you lead a team, flexibility is as important as empathy. Be flexible with your schedule. Let others switch shifts around if they've helped out someone else. It's really easy to make things work; you just have to try.
Don’t be a jerk.
LEVEL UP
One thing you can do today to be a better leader.
Be Flexible.
When I led stores, the business came first. I'd switch my shifts or help others find someone to cover their shifts if needed. Yes, this shouldn't always happen - that's a story for another day - so help people when needed.
It's often easy to look at a schedule and see what shift switches are possible. When you tell people to figure it out on their own or punish them for helping others out, they will quit. Maybe not today, but they will quit.
It's really easy to be cool to people. Try it.
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Wage theft can take on much more insidious ways, too. If you have an unpaid lunch, and someone asks you to perform a work-related task, or even asks a quick question? That just became paid time (or should, anyway).
If your asked to complete required training at home and it's framed as "you can do it while watching TV?" Same story.
Want me to "hop on a call" on my day off? You bet. You know my applicable hourly rate.
I should note that these examples are all management requests. If one of my coworkers needs help, I'm coming.
I didn’t need up working 6 days in a row after all. The person I was doing the shift cover took over one of my shifts. But if she didn’t, my boss was still going to punish me by making me work a long stretch.