Sleazy employers and finding yourself out of a job

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Until a few days ago, I was working in the warehouse of a furniture store. I started this job last December thinking that it would be a decent job. I was a hard, diligent worker who took pride in his job, and always made sure that things in the warehouse area were safely accessible. After 90 days of employment, I was promised a raise for doing a good job. Instead of 90 days, the promised raise took nearly 5 months, and after recieving the raise, I found my work schedule reduced, which essentially made the promised, and much delayed raise redundant.

During the time that I worked here, it slowly came to my attention that the store management/ sales people were essentially ethically bankrupt and very sleazy in dealing not only with the people who were below them in the store's hierarchy, but also with the customers as well.

Many customers were sold furniture that was quite obviously damaged at very little discount, and one of the things that we were required to do was to switch out mattress displays every week, repackage them, and when sold, load them up in customer's vehicles, irregardless of the condition.

When the store had actual new, factory sealed mattresses, I would always give them new ones, and when we were out of new ones, I pointed out to quite a few customers that the mattress sets that were sold to them were in fact display models, some with obvious soiling and 'shop wear' from being out on display. I figured that this was good business. --Consequentially, quite often they would want a replacement, waiting for a new shipment to be delivered.

Apparently, this was NOT good business practice according to the store managers, who turned out to have the ethic that any sale is a good sale, no matter how unethical it was. I even wrote an anonymous Email to the consumer watchdog reporter at a local TV station asking not only if what my company was unethical, but also illegal. --He sent me an email back reaffirming that what my company was doing was unethical, but unfortunately was quite legal to do.

The warehouse manager, (fired 5 days previous to my own termination) was gathering evidence about the company's unethical practices, as was I. After he was fired, the store managers were complaining as to how messy and disorganised the warehouse area was, and demanded a reset of the area as per their directions. --This essentially amounted to placing heavy items on high shelving, which is a very unsafe practice.

When I was working there, the warehouse manager and I had the warehouse organised as best as possible given the logistical flow of the warehouse, with heavy/ bulky items placed as low as possible to minimise the risk of injury when pulling these items. --Apparantly this was 'messy', and 'disorganised' to store managers who had absolutely no experience with safety issues, logistics, or how to organise a warehouse, as the only other job experience that they had was restaurant/ diningroom management.

It became apparent that calling the company's anonymous tipster/whistleblower hotline would not have any effect when the company's VP was at the store for a day a few weeks ago. While he was there, a lady returned an dresser that I had picked and loaded for her. It was quite obvious to me that the dresser was damaged in it's box, (this is quite common) and as a result, the lady wanted a simple refund for the item.

The Company VP spent about 10 minutes trying to convince her that she didn't want a refund, but instead wanted a replacement instead. --This didn't work, and the lady finally got her cash back.

Where it became apparent that the company was completely sleazy was when the Company VP came back in and told the the store employees that the lady was quite obviously a crack head, and had damaged the item herself in order to get a refund and spend the cash that she had spent on drugs. He assumed this because of the condition of her teeth, (quite bad) and said that the reason why her teeth were in such bad condition was because she was a drug addict.

I am not in a position to judge anybody, but it's quite apparent to me that if somebody wants a refund on an item, you should give it to them, no questions asked. Also, I see it as unethical to judge people's lifestyles, and with the knowledge that if the lady was indeed a drug addict, she would not be spending over $1,000 on not only the dresser, but a lot of other items as well. --She would be spending that money on drugs instead.

So, with this knowlege, it became quite apparent that the company VP was saying this not as a matter of fact, but to curse the lady for refusing a replacement item, and depriving the company of about $300. --With that knowledge in place, it became quite apparent that calling the company's anonymous tipster/whistleblower hotline would NOT be effective, as ethical bankruptcy was essentially company policy coming from the top of the organisation.

Furthermore, I was disciplined later and suspended for misloading an order that I did not pull and load. When I told the manager that I disputed the disciplinary action and wanted the disciplinary action arbitrated as per company policy, I was accused of threatening the manager.

I returned to work in a horrible mood following the week about the whole ordeal of not having any recourse to being wronged in such a fashion by the company, and not having any recourse, only to be disciplined and fired because the manager had said that I didn't load the rails for a bedset that a customer had purchased earlier in the day when I knew full well that I had pulled the order correctly.

As a result, I am now unemployed again, and very angry at the whole ordeal involved. This is by far not the sleaziest job situation that I have had, but it ranks a close third to both the construction outfit that I worked for that kept delaying my paycheck to the point where it became redundant, as well as my worst employment situation; Finding out that the Deli that I worked for was a front for a guy who ran a prostitution ring and laundered money for the Chinese Mafia. --Needless to say I was fired from that job without reason, and stiffed out of my pay for the two weeks that I worked there.

I find myself completely disenheartened and disenfranchised again after going through this ordeal, as well as quite puzzled as to how people like this are actually successful. :evil:

Last edited by Fogman on 20 May 2009, 9:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.

just don't say anything
the manager is at fault and it is not your job to rescue the customers.

It may not be your job.... but you can't go against what you feel is a complete injustice. I fight this at my work too. ( Fighting and failing at it.)

I don't know how they get sucessful, but I asume it's because they have a misconstrued view of what sucess is. If you view it as having money by compromising morals, ethics, common sense, safety and values.... yes, they are sucessful. However, those of us who value "real wealth" know the truth... those people are just damned lucky humans crawled to the top of the food chain, least they be fodder for the beasties.

Take heart... maybe something much better will come your way.

I only realised this after getting s**tcanned. It may not be my job to do this, however if they're buying they do have a right to know they're being screwed over. --I would certainly want to know that I'm being screwed over when spending the cash that I earn is at stake.



I only hope that I can find something else quickly, given the state of the job market right now.

I dont trust ANY employer in this economy...especially one in retail. It's all about profit these days and employers will resort to really nasty lows that do more often than not p*ss off customers and most of the time when this happens, the customers take it out on the employee closest to them instead of the boss calling the shoddy breaks.

Awful.

I have no advice...

I'd rather be a bum than deal with that kind of employment...

Get online and write the Consumerist, post on message boards, etc. about your experience as honestly as you can without being libelous or making your identity readily apparent.

The weak point of anybody who treats you poorly and then has the audacity to fire you is that unemployed people have plenty of time during the day and a clear focus for their anger.

Of course you always have the option of being the better man and brushing the dust off your sandals, as it were.

But in cases where you find that the resentment becomes unhealthy (and anger held inside is just as bad for you physically as eating the wrong foods) it can be good to find an outlet. This may involve making your experience known to others, although fantasy often works well for me. And finding ways to do well for yourself. They say that living well is the best revenge and I really do believe that.

Welcome to sales!

All sales people are sleazebags. (I'm talking about the marketing suits, not the people working in the store or at the cash register.)

Don't ever trust a middle-aged white man in a suit and tie. Ever.

yes, sales is the worst thing there is.


Im a travel agent and thats sales. To date all the companies ive worked for where they dealt directly with the consumer were complete sleazebags. As you said it, the sale is everything, ethics are thrown out the window.

I prefer to work where a company sells to another company. There's little room for sleazing there as its all nicely written down in a contract and both companies have lawyers to sue the heck out of each other.

I've been fully aware that sales people are untrustworthy sleazebags, but I really wasn't aware of the level and depth of their sleaze.

And what I never understand is how gullible the public is that they don't see how sleazy and underhanded and lying these companies are! They get so many customers and stay in business many years. Yes, I have had many sales jobs where training included encouraging employees to lie to the customer

It's off-topic, but have you ever reported the business to the police, or the FBI?

I am impressed with you holding several 'sales jobs'. Not really an Aspie thing, I think...

It is a good thing you try to be honest, but it did cost you your job. In sales people buy what they see... did the mattresses have a sign on them they were brand new? Probably not, it was just implied by the packaging. And the people saw what they bought. It is not something I can concur with, but it is a think trend of sales people.

Maybe you should apply for a job in another kind of company. It would be better for your conscience.

I do not think you should try to damage your former company, you are in a fragile position now. When you try to damage them, it could give problems with a new employer. You should focus your energy on finding a good job, suited to your talents and way of thinking.

Do not follow all the rules, but be honest! Sometimes rules have to be bent for a good result, but always try to have a good conscience.

Yes, I reported them to Maine's Department of Labor for not delivering my paycheck. They told me that my complaint about that particular company was definately not the first. Secondly, they also informed me that there was ongoing investigations with other agencies taking place with that company which got shut down a few weeks after I reported them.





Also, Asterisp, I was not in a sales position with that company, I was in a Warehouse/Logistics position. Secondly, I would rather have my d**k chopped off over taking a sales position. My job consisted of unloading delivery trucks, stocking items in the warehouse, and pulling items from the warehouse and loading them as they were sold.

Secondly, the mattresses in question are considered 'new' by law here due to the fact that they were not purchased. Also, I believe that Liquidation Companies (like the one that I was working for) in this state are considered by default to be selling 'used goods' by law even though most of the goods being sold by them are 'new' directly from manufacturers. Essentially what this means is that they can actually get away with selling stuff with no guarantee, if an item they sell falls apart due to poor workmanship or other malfunction, the end user generally has no recourse to recoup their money from the company, and the company can legally refuse to take damaged items back because even though the item is for all intents and purposes 'new', it is sold under terms and conditions of 'used', so therefore they can get away with screwing people out of their $$$ legally. -- I looked up business licensing for the company, and found that the licence for another store the company in question owns in a neighboring city is registered as a business that sells used goods.

Somewhat to their credit, they do offer a 30 day return, but a good percentage of the furniture that the company sells probably will not survive much longer than that.