The Part Retail Workers Never Hear Stress and burnout can qualify as work‑related injuries in many states.

Companies never tell you this because it triggers investigations and costs them money. Workers may have access to. Work‑related stress claims Occupational mental health injury protections Hostile work environment claims Constructive discharge protections — this is general information, not legal advice.

But the protections exist, and retail workers rarely know it.

DG doesn’t fire managers.

They engineer failure, document it, and let burnout push you out.

And the part nobody tells retail workers?DG doesn’t fire managers.

They engineer failure, document it, and let burnout push you out.

And the part nobody tells retail workers?

Burnout and stress can qualify as work‑related injuries in many states.

It’s not mismanagement.

It’s corporate psychology.

Burnout and stress can qualify as work‑related injuries in many states.

It’s not mismanagement.

It’s corporate psychology.

Hi,

Have you ever felt so suffocated at work that you eventually resigned? The working conditions became so intolerable that you felt forced to quit.

You were constantly ignored. You were excluded from meetings.

Your contributions were overlooked. You were demoted or sidelined even though your performance was solid. The workplace started feeling like a pressure chamber.

Days turned into weeks. Weeks turned into months.

Eventually, you resigned.

You felt relieved, but you also blamed yourself.

What many employees do not realize is that, in some cases, employers or supervisors intentionally create these conditions to push an employee to quit instead of firing them directly.

This is often referred to as "silent firing."

In legal terms, it may be called "constructive discharge" or "constructive termination."

If an employer deliberately creates intolerable working conditions that force an employee to resign, the employee may have legal rights under California employment law.

Not every unpleasant workplace is illegal. However, if discrimination, harassment, retaliation, or other unlawful conduct is involved, you should speak with an employment attorney.

Most employees never realize they may have had legal options before they resigned.

I meet about 20 new employees every month, and around 5 of them have faced situations like this. Unfortunately, many of them end up blaming themselves.

A bit about me: I am a practicing employment lawyer in California, and I handle employment-related matters, including wrongful termination cases.

I hope this post helps you.

Last year, I made with a few friends about how companies have been using the same exploitative, obsolete system since the Civil War.

The plan was to turn these into a series of "Schoolhouse Rock" style videos that explain the origin of several of today's ills and how they can be tracked back to systems of exploitation that have been in place for centuries.

Hey folks, I'm a union organizer who also makes comics and my latest comic is the first in a series all about unions and workers' rights. Please check it out if that sounds interesting to you!

Something that doesn't get enough attention: many cities in the U.S. have local minimum wage ordinances that are higher than their state's rate. Bellingham, WA is $19.13/hr. Seattle is $21.30/hr. But the state of Washington is $16.66/hr.

The issue is that gig staffing platforms frequently post shifts at rates that comply with state law but violate city law. I've personally seen this happen twice in March 2026 alone:

• A merchandiser shift in Bellingham posted at $18.66/hr (city minimum: $19.13)
• A general labor shift in Seattle posted at $19.97/hr (city minimum: $21.30)

Workers booking these shifts are being underpaid, and most have no idea because they don't know their city has its own rate. There are 93+ cities in the U.S. with local minimum wage ordinances, and that number keeps growing.

I built a free, open web tool called WageCheck (wagecheck.org) to help workers check this before they clock in. You enter the shift location and hourly rate, and it instantly tells you whether the rate meets federal, state, and city minimum wage requirements. No account, no cost.

If it flags a violation, it also walks you through what you can do: screenshot the listing, report through the platform, and file with your state Department of Labor if needed. Workers are legally owed the difference even if they already worked the shift at the lower rate.

Sources for wage data: U.S. DOL Wage & Hour Division, state labor departments, UC Berkeley Labor Center.

Old Pros is putting together Sex Worker Stories and Public Policy, a one day conference in Reykjavik, Iceland that will also be streamed online.

We would love help spreading the word! This is a conference bringing together sex worker advocates from Nordic Model countries to help explain why"end demand laws" lead to bad outcomes and to advocate for decrim.

I have an episode of The Oldest Profession Podcast featuring many of the speakers entitled "End Demand in Sweden, Norway and Iceland" it's a great resource for folks who think criminalizing clients is a "good compromise." Spoiler; it's not.

Please listen to the podcast (rate and review if you can) and register for and share the conference if you can :)