American work culture is full of eyeroll-worthy and infuriating dynamics, but “we’re like a family here” is probably one of the worst. Because, unlike family, those “work family” relationships always seem to be completely one-sided, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Case in point, a man who actually lost his job for supposedly betraying his “work family.” What egregious thing did he do to his workplace tribe? Well, he had the audacity to expect to be paid.
In his post online, the worker wrote that he’s eight months into his new job and already quite fed up with his manager’s “we’re a family here” speeches, especially because they always seem to come when she wants something for free, namely labor.
“Last week she asked me to finish a presentation after my shift,” the worker wrote. He refused, because that’s not how things work. Jobs are for pay. That’s the only reason we go to them!
But this manager seems to be confused about that. “She hit me with ‘I thought we were a team’ and how it’s ‘important for the company,'” he wrote. So he stood up for himself by stating the obvious. “I told her if it’s that important, pay me overtime.” That, as you can guess, did not go over well at all.
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The blowback for his refusal to work for free was immediate. “[She] said I was being ‘difficult’ and ‘not a team player,” he wrote. “Then the classic boomer line: ‘When I was your age, I stayed late all the time to prove myself.'”
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He flatly told her, “That’s why you’re still here and I’m planning my exit strategy.” He could tell immediately that she was furious, and soon enough, the inevitable arrived. “Friday comes and HR calls me in. They’re ‘letting me go’ for ‘cultural fit issues,'” he wrote.
The “cultural fit issue” in question, of course, is the expectation of being paid for his work. He was given “no severance. No warning. Just out,” and he wrote that he felt he was “canned for having boundaries,” an all-too-common thing these days.
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The federal Fair Labor Standards Act, or FLSA, states that it is illegal to ask non-salaried workers to work off the clock without an hourly wage and overtime. Workers must be paid at least the (insulting) federal minimum wage of $7.50 plus 1.5 times their usual rate, aka “time and a half,” for anything over 40 hours of work.
What his boss asked was flatly illegal. The problem, of course, is proving that it happened, which is often impossible to do without documentation. This is why employment lawyers say to document any and all incidents like this by either demanding your boss put the requests in writing or by emailing a rundown of the conversation to all parties involved. This establishes some semblance of a paper trail.
Still, even if there’s no documentation, lawyers say to file a complaint with the state and local labor boards, including the US Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division, which will often penalize the employer and compel them to pay for any past violations of the FLSA.
You should also speak to a labor or employment lawyer, most of whom will consult with you for free. Pay is the literal point of work, and there is no justifiable reason to be asked to work for free. It doesn’t matter how long that was, “the way it was done.” It’s not the boomer era anymore. No need to play their games.
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John Sundholm is a writer, editor, and video personality with 20 years of experience in media and entertainment. He covers culture, mental health, and human interest topics.
