Boss gets called out for taking money out of pest control worker's paycheck to discount his friends: 'It's a negligible amount'

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Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
Jan 11, 2025 2:00 PM EST

Giving frequent discounts to friendly customers is a generous act, but it should never come out of workers' paychecks. One would think this practice would be against the rules and regulations of any company, and yet, this toxic boss was able to frame his constant discounts to friends with a technicality and a loophole that only hurt his workers in the process.

That kind of shady behavior from management seldom ends well for the company. Making enemies out of one's employees—especially when their labor is a professional service that is not easily replaceable—is perhaps a one-way ticket to disaster for the future of the company.

Keep scrolling below for this pest control worker's account of his boss's shady behavior!

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    Cheezburger Image 10452707072
    via Unsplash+ (Getty Images)

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

  • Here, we have a pest control worker who always gets a percentage of what the customer pays in addition to his standard paycheck. This has been the norm since he started working for this company. Unfortunately, his boss's incessant desire to give discounts to his friends means that the pest control worker is always getting a smaller amount than he should when it comes to that extra percentage. Talk about a scam!

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    Boss's discount to friends, my labor and paycheck

    TI; Dr below. I work in a service industry (pest control) that pays me a percentage of what my customers pay as an extra paycheck on top of my normal hourly rate paychecks. Ex: I go to
    via Wishgabishgus
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    a customer whose bill is $100, I get $20. If im out sick that day and a coworker goes, they get it instead. Each month the grand total is added up, a certain dollar
    via Wishgabishgus
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    value is removed for company baseline, and of what remains, I get 20%. (Its more complex than this but thats all thats needed for the story.)
    via Wishgabishgus
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    My boss has a bad habit of giving discounts to friends of his, usually below the company minimums that have been set for me and my coworkers if we were
    via Wishgabishgus
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    to sell the work ourselves. The problem is that despite these people not being my friends, I still got assigned to do the work and now that customer has paid less,
    via Wishgabishgus
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    so I get paid less (ex: $80 bill now pays me $16). I have brought up to them multiple times over the years that if they want their friends to pay less, fine, but in the computer I should get my cut
    via Wishgabishgus
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    as if it was based on the full, current price that the market demands. Each time, my boss's response has been to pull his phone out for his calculator and play off the $4 difference (or
    via Wishgabishgus
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    whatever it is, sometimes a lot more) as insubstantial in the grand scheme of my total paycheck. They have so far proven incapable of understanding how disrespectful this is to me: if its such a meaningless and small amount,
    via Wishgabishgus
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    then why is it so hard to pay it to me, who actually did the labor? Nevermind that not only do these stack up against me, but we're not a very financially successful
    via Wishgabishgus
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    company and cant afford the discounts. Its a matter of principle. Anyway, they are effectively pinching pennies out of my paycheck, and its all justified under the current system
    via Wishgabishgus
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    because long time customers also have similarly low prices, so it's just supposed to be considered one of those. Nothing illegal is happening with my pay,
    via Wishgabishgus
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    strictly speaking, just an absence of respect and morals. This just happened again despite recent discussions and I am starting to snap.
    via Wishgabishgus
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    The revenge: I fill up my work truck usually every 3 days, so combined with all the other employees, naturally the gasoline bill is a regular talking point about trying to keep low. I've always had a strong work ethic, and tried
    via Wishgabishgus
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    to do my part for efficiency even before the first time I heard the gas speech in a meeting. If I had personal errands (which we're allowed to do, within reason) I
    via Wishgabishgus
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    would wait days or sometimes weeks until I was driving in that area. I was one of the first to go above and beyond and reorganize my route so that I was in one neighborhood per day, all
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    to save gas. No longer. My work truck is gps tracked, and if they ever stop being lazy enough to start checking, they're going to notice a sudden loss of
    via Wishgabishgus
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    efficiency. If they ask? Im going to pull out my calculator and suggest its a negligible difference they should just get over.
    via Wishgabishgus
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    Cheezburger Image 10452706816
    via Unsplash+ (Getty Images)
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    TI; Dr: boss discounts his friends which lowers my paycheck, I stop being fuel efficient and selfless with the company gasoline.
    via Wishgabishgus

  • Several members of the community shared their reactions to the pest control worker's valid petty revenge scheme. Here's what they had to say about it all!

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    CoderJoe1. Save time with those discounted customers by breezing through so fast -nilly. If your spraying boss complains, tell him that's the difference in service between a $20 commission and a $16 dollar commission. They get what they pay for.
    via Wishgabishgus
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    MamaBearonher... I'm with you. Your commission should be based on the full list price of the service. The discount should come out of the COMPANY portion, because it's the COMPANY that is offering discounts it can't afford to people who should be paying full price.
    via Wishgabishgus
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    MotionlessTraveler You're boss sounds like a pest.
    via Wishgabishgus

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Tags

toxic-manager toxic-workplace job Professional At Work work petty revenge Horrible Bosses paycheck toxic-work-environment
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