'My girlfriend might have been Quiet Fired': Barista calls out pay discrepancy, boss cuts her hours to zero and ghosts her

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Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
Sep 24, 2024 8:00 AM EDT

This guy's girlfriend better start looking for a new job as soon as possible.

Unfortunately, there were red flags long before she was "quiet fired." First, there was the fact that when she applied for her current barista position, she was promised free meals that were automatically deducted from her paycheck. Those "benefits" were taken away from employees soon after her hiring, but she noticed something strange about her subsequent paychecks. It turns out that they were still deducting the lunch money from her checks well after the benefits were removed. When she called her boss out on this shady behavior, he barely acknowledged it but then decided to cut her hours to zero when he released everyone's shift schedules the following week. Of course, he attempted to ghost her when she followed up.

Keep scrolling below for the full story. For more, check out this post about useless high-paying jobs. 

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  • 01
    Cheezburger Image 10408271872
    via Nathan Dumlao

    This image is for illustration only, and the subjects are models; the image does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • 02
    I got a text from her this morning saying that her schedule for the upcoming week dropped,
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  • 03
    and she has no hours on it. Other employees all do. She's texted/called her boss with no response all day.
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  • 04
    Context: she's been working at this coffee shop for a little under a month now. When she was brought on, everything seemed cool with the job.
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  • 05
    When she was hired they told her that one of the "perks" was a discounted coffee/small meal per day, which was
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  • 06
    automatically taken from her pay. She was then told a few weeks ago that they were discontinuing this, but were still
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  • 07
    deducting the cost from each check. She asked about this last week and was met with no answer,
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  • 08
    was met with no answer, but criticisms about her work (that weren't merited) and lied to ("you're supposed to mop TWICE every night, in a row, you haven't been doing this")
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  • 09
    These people are obviously going under considering they're scraping money wherever
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  • 10
    they can, and she'd been looking for a new job anyway, but is there any recourse for having her hours cut to zero and no response about it? This is in Boston.
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  • 11
    Animorp... Contact the labor board and file for unemployment. She has been fired and they are breaking the law with the meal deduction
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  • 12
    rajapaws Forced deduction for meals is illegal. Honestly it sounds like if they cut her hours to zero she's
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  • 13
    been effectively laid off, but she should still file with the state labor relations board for her meal deduction.
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  • 14
    This is a lesson you need to learn early in life. Conversations last as long as the sound travels through the air to ears withing reach.
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  • 15
    Always document any compensation related communication from your employer over email. Document, document, document."
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    "Dear Boss, I am sending this email to document the conversation we had today where you informed me that the employee meal and drink would still be
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    deducted from my pay even though we will no longer receive this employee benefit."
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  • 18
    Squirrel... Sounds like they were forcing employees to buy their meals at the shop which may not be legal.
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  • 19
    Deducting money without even providing a meal is just theft. File for unemployment. File a complaint with eeoc or equivalent.
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  • 20
    Post reviews under indeed or other job sites to warn others. Collect unemployment and look for a better job.
    via waaaghboyz

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