People Share 35 Normal Workplace Practices That Will Hopefully Be Illegal In The Future

We are aware that many social norms and customs have changed over time. This applies to society at large and even to as specific a group as in the workplace. We are all too aware that not too long ago, certain corporate positions were awarded based on gender.

#1

In the US (at least), I think visual privacy. I have an office, so I’m not fussed, but my staff who I love, are in “open office” that I can see anything they’re doing.

I’ve never said it, because I totally don’t give a s**t as long as they finish their work, but it should be illegal for me to be upset/report (I absolutely do not) that they’ve hopped on Facebook for a ten minute break or whatever.

The visual privacy thing causes a lot of stress – worrying about checking your phone at your desk, etc. If there’s a performance issue, there’s a performance issue. If there’s not, there’s not. Did you submit a Draft to me at 1:30pm? Great. Was it in good-enough quality to be workable? Great. Did you spend 15 minutes chatting on Whatsapp chatting about plans this weekend? Great.

It should be illegal for a workplace to stare-at and punish someone for living their life. And it should be unethical to have people in a fishbowl with eyes on them the entire time.

#2 Forcing a 40-hour work week when there isn’t 40 hours worth of work. If it’s a salary position and there’s nothing to do, we should just be able to go home. We work late when there’s deadlines, but when nothing is going on we can’t go home early.

#3 On call 24/7 365, even on vacation and not being compensated for anything off hours because you are salaried.

This includes the hospital as my child was born, getting written up for not answering my phone when I was under for back surgery (they knew I was having it, but my stand in couldn’t answer something so they said I failed my due diligence, and cost POTENTIAL productivity.

Fun fact, I quit and they refused to take my resignation 3 times. It took 6 weeks for them to finally stop hounding me.

#4 Working for decades with a skeleton crew where each employee has the tasks of 3 employees and is paid 1/3 the wage, so they need to find a second or third job just to survive.

#5 boss giving you infinite amount of work and if you can’t do it then it’s the employee’s fault.

#6 Unpaid internships. Unpaid overtime.

#7 If you do a good job you’re “rewarded” with extra work

#8 Salaried employees working 70-80 hours workweeks.

#9 Working in a 110-125 degree fahrenheit factory while watching your coworkers fall out and having the call the ambulance multiple times a week. But don’t worry we got a 20 minute lunch in our 12 hour shift.

#10 Unpaid overtime is dying out again as we enter a Covid fuelled period of low unemployment – people are not afraid to say ‘no’. If a client tried to get me to work unbillable hours I’d first refuse, and if they insisted would bill the hours on other days

#11 Paying barely above minimum wage for jobs that require a university degree.

#12 Physicians being forced to work 80+ hours/week, 50 weeks/year, for 4-7 years after graduating medical school, while spending precious “free time” studying for board exams, completing tedious research projects, etc.

#13 A consistent cycle of massive hiring / massive layoffs.

#14

Probably stretching but I hate when places tell you to come in for an interview for giving a wage estimate. Some situations it makes sense, but if you are running a local business offering people $7.25 US minimum wage whether they are 16 with no experience or the top of the field then you should state it and not waste people’s time.

So many of the “no one wants to work” crowd are trying to offer less than McDonald’s pays for positions that require years of experience, education, or training.

#15 Drug testing for what people do off the clock. Tying job performance or bonuses to number of OSHA recordables, it just encourages people to hide injuries.

#16 Health insurance tied to employment.

#17 Paying people different for same/similar jobs and prohibiting people from talking about it with each other.

#18 Being expected to work while sick. I’m currently about to start a ten hour shift even though Im ill and have a doctors note. Because I was negative for flu and covid, my work will count the absence against me even with a doctors note.

#19 Unpaid training. My very first job I worked at a pizza place I “trained” for 2 weeks, never getting paid. At the end of the 2 weeks, I was informed that I would actually be a cook instead of the cashier position I applied and trained for. I left immediately.

#20 Hopefully being forced to stay at work once all work is done, non living wages

#21 Tipping culture being so prevalent, and even required, for some workers to barely make a living wage.

#22 Little to no maternity/paternity leave.

#23 Attempting to encourage resignation in order to get an employee to quit without having to pay out severance or unemployment benefits.

#24 This probably won’t take 50 years, but forcing people to work in an office when their job does not require it.

#25 Not having places or times for women to pump

Shanilou Perera

Shanilou has always loved reading and learning about the world we live in. While she enjoys fictional books and stories just as much, since childhood she was especially fascinated by encyclopaedias and strangely enough, self-help books. As a kid, she spent most of her time consuming as much knowledge as she could get her hands on and could always be found at the library. Now, she still enjoys finding out about all the amazing things that surround us in our day-to-day lives and is blessed to be able to write about them to share with the whole world as a profession.