Fuck you, coffee-and-donut-shop-which-will-not-be-named:
After weeks of desperate job searching, I had the misfortune of getting hired at your criminal corporation. After ten and a half hours of watching training videos that made me want to blow my brains out – listening to some bitch drone on about corporate rules for six hours, two six hour orientations where you told me 14 times how to pour a cup of coffee and put a lid on and generally treated me like a moron – you fired me for wearing a little hemp bracelet to work.
I explained to you that I had been wearing it for six years and it meant a lot to me. But, desperate as I was for work, I took it off…
Thanks a lot for bringing me in for yet ANOTHER training shift, to which I did not wear the bracelet, and letting me see for myself after that that I had been taken off the schedule.
I told you that I could not pay rent without this job, yet you refused to pay me for the 30+ hours I had spent in training.
I hope you`re happy with yourselves, now I’m totally screwed. I can`t pay my bills, and have to somehow move all the way back to where my family lives in BC.
But you know what, I`m glad you fired me. That bracelet is worth more to me than a job where I get treated like shit, have to wear a hairnet, and get paid 50 cents under minimum wage.
At least I have the satisfaction of knowing you spend 40 hours a week in hell. —free at last
This article appears in Jul 22-28, 2010.
was it because you were caught trying to smoke your newly removed bracelet on break or something?
Poor fucking baby. I guess you didn’t pay attention to the fucking hygiene part, Who wants your fucking dirty bracelet (hemp or gold or whatever) dangling in their fod or your fucking hair. You sound like a stuck up fucking I’m better than everyone, twat.
that’s un-fucking-believable. i just left there for a different reason, but i’m sorry they actually fired you for your bracelet. i really hope things work out for you, at least you won’t be working there when you’re in your 40s.
-jesse
Unless you signed an agreement to train for free they have to pay you for those hours, albeit only at the minimum wage level even though you may have been promised more.
Go to the provincial Labour Standards office in the office building opposite the Westin on Hollis/Terminal Road and go upstairs to file a written complaint.
Knowing your labour law and speaking up about illegal operation helps not only yourself but everyone else that might get abused by cheap owners who try to get around the law to save themselves a few dollars at the cost of the employees’ sanity and dignity.
So that’s why I can’t stop drinking those appalling iced coffees.
And the reason you keep going back to crappy Chinese resatuarants is , the cherry sauce – 50% raw uncut opium.
Was it Slim Norton’s or Jarducks?
Cherry sauce – the last time I snorted that stuff, I was revirginated.
wearing it was no problem, it was the smoking part of it that was. what a fucking dildo head.
Could you imagine the stench of that bracelet?
Lmfao Urban. I’m going to guess it was Slim Norton’s since he said coffee-and-donut shop, and no one wears hairnets at any other coffee chain. Loved the names. I’m gonna call it Jarducks from now on, I think.
OP, that’s kinda ridiculous. :/ It’s just a bracelet. But that’s what you get when you work at places like that sometimes. I can understand to a point, because some places of employment are meant to maintain a certain image; mostly a neutral image, which is why they make it mandatory that men/women don’t wear certain piercings or have dyed hair, etc. But, if you had in fact removed it after she consulted you the first time, then that’s a little… well, unfair.
Contact the labour board, though. You did 30+ hours of training, and as someone said earlier, unless you signed a waiver saying that you agreed to not being paid for it, that money should be yours.
I wouldn’t want any food made with a 6 year old hemp bracelet hovering over it, so removing it during work hours is appropriate. Getting fired after compliance makes me wonder if it was more than just the hemp attachment that got your ass canned.
I quit a job at a burger joint before because they wouldn’t let me wear more than one pair of earrings. And then got mad when the pair I wore were in the same ear, and not in the lobes. Ridiculous. I had customers ask me more about all the empty holes in my ears (I think at the time I had 2 earrings in each lobe and two in the upper cartelidge in one ear). I can sort of understand why they wouldn’t want you to wear a hemp bracelet – at least with rings people can take them off and pin them to their uniform or put them on a necklace. Bracelets, especially hemp which remains damp if it gets wet, can hold onto germs easily. Still, if you removed it, no reason to fire you (especially when it was only a training shift!). Good luck on your future job hunt op.
How can they pay you less than minimum wage? I’m pretty sure that is illegal. Unless you were getting paid under the table or something…in which case I say it’s better you got out now before you put even more time in and didn’t get paid for it!
Sometimes tip-earner’s are paid less than minimum wage to off-set the tipping income with mandatory 15% tipout to staff and management so that everyone gets to have their fingers in the pie.
In NS, OL, I’m pretty sure that policy doesn’t apply. It does in Ontario, but I’m almost certain it’s against the min wage act to pay less than min wage. There are, however, two levels of min wage set in nova scotia: 9.20 for experienced workers and 8.70 for inexperienced.
Info on the min wage act and links to the labour standards code are here: http://www.gov.ns.ca/lwd/employmentrights/…
in On. you have to be a liquor server to pay less than min. wage
Having served liquor in Ontario, this I know to be true martym. The last time I served liquor in NS a server’s license and TB test were required. I’m not up up on today’s server’s standards in NS, I’ll admit, which is nothing but a good thing. Glad to have those days behind me but they did put food on the table and a Hawg in the garage.
Thanks for the link PK. I should probably get informed about labour standards in the good old Enn Ess.
yea you have to you’re : Serving it Right anywhere in Canada far as i know
Q: What’s orange and red and looks good on hippies?
A: Fire.
SHITD…
love the pic!
as for the personality… it’s a bit lacking.
You should meet Kay, I’m sure you’d get along just fine.
Do they even have to give a reason if it’s less than 90 days since the hire date? I thought that before the 3 month mark they could just tell you it’s not working out.
Besides, I’m sure there’s another unskilled, untrained individual with no experience out there who DOESN’T wear a hemp bracelet that will take the job.
They don’t have to give you a reason before 90 days, however, most organizations have some sort of progressive discipline policies…which maybe leads me to believe there’s more to the story here, although this particular chain DID fire some poor woman for giving a kid or someone a jim fit (heh).
I’m stumped as to why they won’t pay her for the training though…did you sign a waiver, OP? Perhaps stating that you had to work a certain number of regular shifts (or maybe just one) in order to qualify for paid training?
Thing is companies get away with shit that’s against the min wage act all the time. One big box store makes their employees purchase their uniform — which is explicitly against the act, given that most get paid min wage and by having to pay for your uniform and having it taken out of your pay (like this company does), it would put you under the min wage level. Not sure if they do it anymore, but it wouldn’t surprise me.
And something also tells me that the labour board is useless.
PK— That same probationary period allows for some leniency on the minimum wage; so, as long as the employer doesn’t force you to pay for it past those 90 days, they’re in the clear. A certain “local” grocery store pays below the minimum wage during their training period. Moreover, most companies that have turnover do not apply their disciplinary policy upon trainees within that probationary period, so they’re likely to fore you for just about anything, because they want to instill a culture of fear.
And the Labour Board is useful, but it’s toothless. It’s walking into WWII with a rusty razor blade as a weapon. You’re likely to die, unless you know how to use that razor real well.
WTF? Since when is jewellery in food service acceptable?
Read any text in the industry and one of the first things you will find in the safety section is… take a wild guess…
This is part of why we should not eat fast food.
It’s not just food safety either, it is personal worker safety. Myself I’d rather not have any rings, watches, bracelets or necklaces of any kind on while operating a slicer or chopper. Or spend 5 minutes in the -60 walk-in and tell me how that watch feels…
etc. etc.
And WHY should we feel bad for your situation? Clean yourself up and get a real job. Pouring coffee requires no intelligence.