'[I and] half of my offices' staff quit': Boss dwindles benefits for his employees down to almost nothing, winds up losing the entire team

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Elna McHilderson • Managing Editor
Nov 12, 2023 10:00 AM EST

Have you ever had such an arrogant boss that it was laughable? Like, how comically pompous of an entitled boss can you be? The boss from the Office Space style? Or like, Jennifer Aniston from Horrible Bosses? Apparently, dentists have a bit of a reputation for over estimating their worth as a boss. 

A dental hygienist on reddit shared the story of how he and his coworkers all quit at the same time after their dentist boss tried to pull some shady move. They were already working for bare minimum, when one day their boss pulled them all into a meeting and said they were ridding all benefits (which, again, was basically nothing) and only allowing ONE day of PTO per quarter. Which means only once every three months/ only 4 days of PTO a year. WHAT A JOKE! So, when the boss left for lunch, OP and his fellow dental hygienists wrote their letters of resignation, left it on the bosses desk, and peace tf out. Apparently, when OP left the office, he saw the dentist with the office manager fumbling over all the papers and freaking out. Just goes to show, you get what ya give. 

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  • 01
    "[My boss] vastly overestimated his worth..."
    via soyfeliz2018 via pxhere
  • 02
    Posted by u/Legacy0904 Half of my offices' staff is quitting today Last Thursday my office (a dental practice in a very wealthy area of CA) had a meeting and we were informed that we would only be approved for one day off per quarter.
    via u/Legacy0904
  • 03
    So 1 day off every 3 months. None of us in the office get ANY benefits. No PTO, no medical, no holidays, nothing. We were also told that because we (the hygienists) are booked out so far that when we take our day off we will have to come in early or work late to make up for the patients we didn't see that day.
    via u/Legacy0904
  • 04
    Me and the other hygienists all put in our letters of resignation today. We all typed letters and laid them on his desk. So he got back from lunch and had to read through all the letters. My coworker told me that she saw him throw our stack of letters at the office manager while saying "look at this."
    via u/Legacy0904
  • 05
    Fortunately hygienists are in crazy high demand in CA right now and all of us already have other job offers. Tl;dr - boss tries to control our unpaid time off and vastly overestimates his worth. Winds up losing his whole clinical staff.
    via u/Legacy0904
  • 06
    Update since this blew up: for everyone that's calling BS, I posted my resignation letter and screen shots of texts in the comments. I had one prepared already but I made another one at lunch and printed it out because I felt like I needed to specify that I was quitting because of the policy on unpaid overtime. And yes I did print it out at work lol.
    via u/Legacy0904
  • 07
    Update 2: my boss decided to act like nothing happened. He didn't mention anything or even say a word about it to me and the other staff members that were quitting. My coworker did see him toss the resignation letters at our office manager and say "look at this..." The doctor and my office manager were also in a meeting by themselves at 5pm.
    via u/Legacy0904
  • 08
    He always leaves at around 330 so it was satisfying to see him staying late to sort this out. They both gave me a death stare when I walked by the little window to the room they were in though.
    via u/Legacy0904
  • 09
    Update 3: for those asking, yes I have another job already. I decided to quit Sunday night and by Monday afternoon I had another job that's 30 mins closer, higher pay and I get off 2.5 hours earlier
    via u/Legacy0904
  • 10
    Baelish2016 I deal with people from every possible job background at my work, and it's always the dental hygienists who talk about how they don't have any sick time or PTO or benefits - more so than any other 'professional' industry I encounter.
    via u/Baelish2016
  • 11
    ledgersoccer09. My mom has been a hygienist for over thirty years and not a single doctor she's worked for provided healthcare.
    via u/ledgersoccer09
  • 12
    Sloppy Meathole What a My FIL owned a dental practice and wanted to cut down before retiring. He told the staff he was going down to 3.5 days a week but would pay them for 5 days. ● He actually didn't lose any money. His employees worked quicker and loved it. They were devastated when he finally retired.
    via u/SloppyMeathole
  • 13
    IceBearCares. It would have been a boss move to sing the goodbye song while dancing in a conga line around the place.
    via u/IceBearCares
  • 14
    robotdevil. My father was a private-practice surgeon, and he consistently went out of his way to take good care of his staff. Paid higher wages than most, provided full medical benefits, paid 100% of daycare costs for his staff with young children, etc. His philosophy was basically that you need to take care of your employees so that can take care of you.
    via u/r0botdevil
  • 15
    Not surprisingly, zero turnover at his office. he had essentially Essentially everyone he hired stayed there until they retired unless they stayed until he retired. And you know what? He still took home plenty of money at the end of the day. He might have been able to take home even more profit by not treating his employees so well, but he wasn't greedy. I'm proud of him.
    via u/r0botdevil
  • 16
    NULLizm. Lmao he's trying to play if off but deep down he knows this will wreck him. Be sure to leave reviews on sites. How you worked with no benefits is beyond me but that should be included in reviews too
    via u/NULLizm
  • 17
    emp_zealoth. "Hey! I WOULD BE REALLY F D IF I LOST ALL MY OVERBOOKED WORKERS, BETTER GO TELL THEM THEY CAN GO K THEMSELVES!" Literally galaxy brain moves
    via u/emp_zealoth
  • 18
    pistolusa19 Hygienists are a misunderstood highly specialized profession. My wife is one and it baffles me how little the public realizes about your profession and how difficult the schools and certs can be. What's crazier, is how some of y'all are treated.
    via pistolusa19
  • 19
    The lack of benefits being common place is astonishing. Here in Texas, the pendulum is also starting to swing. Practices are starting to have to pay out the nose for hygienists because the temp agencies are bumping their pay so much. Sorta of an informal unionization thing.
    via u/pistolusa19
  • 20
    BigAlTrading. Haha, f em. The irony of not paying benefits in a business that only exists because of benefits...
    via u/BigAlTrading
  • 21
    Sufficient_Body7395. Good for you!! Would have loved to see this face when he saw all those lol. Best of luck to you and your coworkers
    via u/Sufficient_Body7395

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boss how to quit dental hygienist work drama employee manager work story dentist workplace environment i quit quit on the spot satisfying quitting story quitting work workplace quitting story quitting workplace story
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