'I only held this job for the paycheck': Car wash worker written-up for not being "enthusiastic" enough after they turned down a "promotion" without a pay rise

The working arrangement is a relatively simple one: You provide your time and skills to your employer, and they provide you with a paycheck. Management likes to snazz this up and conceive unnecessary complications that weave a longer, meandering line between these two endpoints, but no matter how large of a labyrinth they build, those two endpoints remain the same and in the same place.

Things like being told you and your coworkers are a "family," "crew," or "partners," or any other of the various euphemisms used to avoid referring to workers as what they actually are; impromptu pizza parties in lieu of an actual reward for record-breaking financial periods; getting assigned more tasks and responsibility ("To contribute to your growth!") without more pay; are all actually just thinly-veiled ways of getting you to contribute more without getting more back in return.

That's not to say that a mutually beneficial working relationship can't blossom between two parties who are willing to reciprocate in going above and beyond for each other, but there's a distinct difference between this and being asked to do more without a response in kind.

It shouldn't be surprising to any manager that their workers are there for the paycheck and that, if the paychecks stopped, the work would, too. But that didn't stop this manager from writing this worker up after the worker declined a "promotion" that would have seen them with increased responsibilities without any further compensation. When the worker was asked why they had declined the promotion, they told their boss that they "Only held this job for the paycheck." Which apparently put them in violation of some inane corporate policy and resulted in them being written up.

See the worker's account of events, as originally shared with Reddit, below.

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Posted by Brad Dickson