Unemployment is an awful situation to experience, but working under an abusive boss who mismanages wages can be worse. A worker in California prepares mentally to get fired, but the reason is not due to poor performance or causing problems at the workplace. Instead, their crooked employer was upset that the employee had spoken to another co-worker about being underpaid, calling it “insubordination.” Then, when she started to underpay this individual, they wrote a report with proof stating the wages were incorrect; she called them a liar and scolded them. Now, she’s finally pulling the plug on their position, and Reddit agrees that it’s not right.
“I’m getting fired; what should I do?” the California worker asks Reddit, deeply concerned about how they’ll move forward from all this work drama with their abusive boss. They already had their hours cut from trying to help their abused co-worker before having their pay unjustly cut. Now, to be without a job — it’s all definitely mentally taxing, if not emotionally miserable, to deal with all this. “What should I do in the meeting?” they anxiously ask, referring to the meeting where their termination would be announced. “What should I do afterward?“
Fortunately, many Reddit users were sympathetic to the employee’s situation and provided fairly solid advice. “Sign nothing is the most important thing,” instructs the top commenter. “Say nothing is also important,” adds in a reply. Thousands of users upvoted another commenter’s suggestion that echoed the same thing: “Don’t sign anything. Don’t argue about anything. Thank them for the time you had there. File for unemployment.” Another person pointed out that they shouldn’t just take the abuse lying down after being fired, given there’s proof of underpayment and retaliation: “Gather all the evidence possible and file a complaint to the state.”
“This sounds like wage theft and retaliation for protected speech. Consult an actual attorney,” another person says. Taking legal action might even be an action once OP has filed a report with the Department of Labor. Whatever happens, though, they just need to make sure that they don’t give in to signing anything, as that would spell their failure at any chance of getting back at the abusive boss.
