Ahhhh… free labor. You can hear business owners salivating from miles away. There’s a word for free labor, but we won’t go there.
Throughout the history of corporate work, managers and executives have come up with hundreds of cleverly devious ways to exploit workers for free labor. And it works for them very well.
In this post, we will expose 5 particularly malicious tactics that bosses use to exploit you. They do this because they think “why should I pay people more if I can get this amount of work out of my employees with this limited pay”. We can fix this by driving awareness of the ways that employers manipulate employees. So, make sure to share with a friend and save months to years of their life.
Variable Pay Structure/Commission or Whatever You Want to Call It
We love pay-for-performance! Or do we?
Here’s the thing. If you have ever worked a sales job, then you know how hard it is to actually get paid what you are owed.
Companies promise lofty commissions or bonuses as a result of work or accomplishments, but then they make it as difficult as possible (or impossible) to get paid.
No matter how well you perform, and no matter how hard you work, your employer likely never intends to pay you that bonus or extra pay.
They use this payment structure so they can pay you less and convince you to work harder and make THEM money.
Larger companies actually structure this into their annual forecast and present it in a boardroom full of executives, who then approve it and go on to make millions.
False Promises
What’s the best way to get an employee to work harder for free?
Promise them a promotion or a raise, but not right away. Months or years down the line.
Time Theft
Are you on the clock or not? When you think about time theft, you probably think about warnings or propaganda from employers having accused workers of time theft.
Actually, time theft by employers is more common.
Here’s a legendary example of an exploited Walmart employee named Beth quitting over the intercom:
“Attention Walmart shoppers and associates, my name is Beth from electronics,” she announces over the in-store public announcement system in her now-viral Facebook video. “I’ve been working at Walmart for almost five years and I can say that everyone here is overworked and underpaid. The attendance policy is bullsh*t. We’re treated [by] management and customers poorly every day. Whenever we have a problem with it, we’re told that we’re replaceable. I’m tired of the constant gaslighting. This company treats their elderly associates like sh*t. To Jarred, our store manager, you’re a pervert. Greta and Kathy, shame on you for treating our associates the way you do. I hope you don’t speak to your families the way you speak to us.”
Beth (from Upworthy news)
Wage theft by employers is so common, but its actually quite difficult to find examples of due to corporate lobbying power and money spent on PR. Here is one example in California, where Apparel workers have had their time stolen through clever tactics such as paying by piece of clothing made. The report found pay violations in 85% of the locations that they checked.
One Reddit (@ztreHdrahciR) user comments on overwork:
“I, myself, have worked an average of 10 hours a day for over 30 years. All salaried exempt. That’s approximately 7500 extra hours, or almost 4 FTE years. It’s what’s expected.”
Added Job Roles
Why hire 3 people for 3 different jobs when you can get one employee to do all 3 jobs for the price of one?
All it takes is your boss gradually adding on job responsibilities. If you resist, your boss can make you feel ungrateful so that you compromise and take on the extra work.
This is so common that you have probably been victim to this. The boomers on LinkedIn even coined a new cringe term for this called ‘quiet hiring’. It’s business owners trying to make do with less.
Trial Periods
Have you ever had an unpaid internship? Which itself is a form of free labor. Apart from that, employers use this tricky little thing called a “trial period”. They would ask a potential employee to work at the job for a brief amount of time after which point they would be hired on full-time.