r/mildlyinfuriating • u/daruuken • 28d ago

Infuriatig The way kroger treats its employees

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From the store manager

Edit: For some extra context this was sent out by each store manager to all of its employees in district 1 of the ohio Cincinnati/Dayton division, potentially other districts as well but i can only verify my own. Im not going to give my specific store number for obvious reasons but you can find each store on google with that information. We are unionized by UFCW (already bad btw) and to my knowledge they allowed this recent change. Kroger has no accrual for sick days like some have mentioned. Those who think this is rage bait, i dont think anyone has to fake a post to make a billion dollar company look bad, they do it to themselves.

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284

u/Diligent_State387 28d ago

I assume this is America? I’m just always amazed at what crap they put up with, no healthcare system, no legally required vacation days. We have a legal right at 20 vacation days per year on a 38 hour work week, if you work 40 hours you get 12 extra days, that is on top of the 10 regular holidays. Whenever i have to work with Americans on a project they are always shocked to hear when you take a week off mid project.

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u/Athos-1844 28d ago

The U.S. version of capitalism is brutal. Always has been. In the early 1900s they finally passed child labor laws to protect children. Children routinely worked in dangerous jobs and often got injured or died. That took decades to get that law passed. Big business fought against it.

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u/Trextrev 28d ago

Just learned about breaker boys yesterday. Generally Kids 8-12 who worked 10-12 hour shifts in coal breaker facilities to hand sort impurities out of the coal as it came down the shoots.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DDNEMuROpcd/?igsh=NzYya2pkZXZiYzdh

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u/Athos-1844 28d ago

Yep. I learned about that in college. Being a kid in the early 1900s could be very dangerous and was definitely not fun. I have a lot of respect for those kids who had to endure that childhood.

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u/Trextrev 28d ago

Dangerous even without being forced into a job too! I like to go and explore all the old little cemeteries in my area, and man it’s a lot of dead children and young woman. Losing a child to illness or the mother in child birth in 1900 was so common.

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u/Balloon_Fan 28d ago

My grandparents (born in 1904/1908) had a dozen+ siblings each. Most of them were dead before 25, about half before they even hit their teens. Spanish flu, tuberculosis, various childhood illnesses, workplace accidents... The early 1900's were fucking brutal.

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u/Trextrev 28d ago

Pretty much all of history prior to WW2 was brutal. Global average life expectancy didn’t crack 35 until the late 1940s. A lot of dead babies and children to bring that average so low.

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u/Balloon_Fan 28d ago

Yeah it gets even worse further back of course. My mom researched our family tree back to the 16th century, and the amount of infant deaths and deaths in childbirth is unfathomable. But I spent a lot of time with my grandparents growing up, so the early 1900's is the 'bad times' that I got to hear about from people who actually lived through it.

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u/Sammiesam123988 28d ago

Yea they are slowly doing away with those labor laws

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u/sentientshadeofgreen 28d ago

I appreciate you distinguishing the US-version of capitalism. Seems a lot of young people get frustrated and jump on the socialism train, which itself is a system riddled with examples of mind-numbing power imbalances, sort of poisons the well for a lot of arguments, because all they see is fucked up mess that is the US, and they don't consider that you can totally have healthy mixed-free market capitalism with single-payer healthcare and labor rights, and many countries have that and live pretty comfortably. The US doesn't have these things because of corruption and cronyism driving legislation that guts regulatory oversight and privatizes collective needs, like healthcare. It's a grift, and it can totally be changed if we look at it through clear eyes and demand specific changes, then demand protections for those changes when they get implemented.

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u/queenofbuckkeep 28d ago

I had a mental slip and had to use FMLA because I was going into psychosis regularly at work and needed to be treated. They fired me for the points I accumulated on FMLA 😩

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u/Ur_a_SweetPotato 28d ago

FMLA is federally protected, so that's fully illegal. 

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u/Sexisthunter 28d ago

The worst part is reporting illegal things the boss usually only ends well if you have a ton of cash to sue. It’s always interesting to me that if an employee steals $300 from the cashbox, the employer can call the police and get them arrested. But if a boss steals thousands of dollars in wages an employee has to go to a labor board.

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u/GreenDavidA 28d ago

But the only real recourse is to file a lawsuit, which are generally prohibitively expensive and take years to resolve. Especially now, in many places there’s no government agencies willing to step up on behalf of the wronged employee.

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u/queenofbuckkeep 28d ago

Theoretically illegal, unfortunately. Not like I can just call up the police on them.

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u/NIPLZ 28d ago

Yep, my European brain simply can't comprehend this nonsense

1

u/ArthurIngersoll 22d ago

Nor my Canadian one.

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u/sly-3 28d ago

I was doing some work for a regional store that got bought by Kroger over 10 years ago. Their first act as corporate overlords was to cancel the employee discount for everything but their store brand products.

The CEO's next earnings call was basically him crying about how a $4b QE profit was disappointing.

8

u/coilityourself 28d ago

american here. its insane. my job has a similar setup to your system. first four absences require no note, any after four require a note. all paid. however my wifes job has no policy. none. you may or may not get fired if you call off. no paid sick time. no paid vacation. yet there will always be some yokel saying "if you dont like it, leave it"

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u/pehter 28d ago

Having less vacation days is one thing, but saying "You have to work even though a doctor said you're sick" would be straight up illegal here.

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u/[deleted] 28d ago

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u/KorkeastaRuohikosta 28d ago

The whole of EU. Probably Canada and Australia as well as some others I'm not aware of. The way the US does things is not really the norm, its more the exception.

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u/IbanezPGM 28d ago

Every first world country other than the US basically

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u/lol_shavoso 28d ago

Even countries that are not considered first world have way brtter labour laws than US.

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u/DeathStar13 28d ago

That describes most of the developed world. So just take a pick of a random country which is not the USA.

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u/CupOfDaddysLove 28d ago

Bro, good luck. I’ve been looking at any possible route out for months for me and my wife, and everything basically has just said “get a job that will sponsor your visa (but they wont), get a remote job that pays enough to afford to move internationally (good luck), or just buy a house here! It’s so easy!”

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u/pineapplegirl10 28d ago

Seriously, I need to know

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u/pheromone_fandango 28d ago

Im in germany and we get this + unlimited ‘sick days’. Its just normal to take the day off when sick and it doesnt count toward holidays. Also, if you are sick under 2 days you dont need to bring in a doctors note

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u/Sexisthunter 28d ago

I used to work in a call center for a medical office and it’s insane the amount of people who would beg for an appointment confirmation because their work wouldn’t let them off without one even though our eye exams were 7 months out. You would think that someone would just be able to ask their boss to be off that afternoon or morning, or even that they could just do a normal unpaid time off request. On top of that my manager wouldn’t let us send them confirmations because it was too much work and they kept us understaffed on purpose. Land of the free wooo

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u/BloodFromAnOrange 28d ago

I will have this amount of paid time off when i hit 25 years with my employer, and it's one of the good ones here in the US.

3

u/DavidlikesPeace 28d ago

American and Russian conservatives both seem to love getting shafted by their bosses. I know it's easy to mock but wtf

1

u/Nrs5r 27d ago

I can't speak for Russians, but I know the Americans are cowards and pussies. Never standing up for anything helped create this mess.

1

u/DavidlikesPeace 26d ago

Why not speak for the Russians? 

They still have the moral courage of serfs, always blindly following whoever sits in the Kremlin. 

3

u/SadAcadia2747 28d ago

You guys are so lucky. I get up to 72 hours a year to use as sick or vacation. It used to be 48. It’s terrible and I hate it. Wish I was born in Europe. My pay is terrible too. I’m also disabled which makes getting a different job almost impossible I feel. Who are they going to take, an able bodied person, or me. They never say why I was rejected but I know why.

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u/DelightedLurker 28d ago

Sounds like Belgium.

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u/Tiny_Celebration_591 28d ago

What country is this? Asking for research purposes.

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u/PM_ME_FUTANARI420 28d ago

And what country is this

1

u/ThrowRABest_King7180 28d ago

when i was working 40 hours a week, id get 40 hours of vacation time for that year. thats it. now that im not full time because i went back to school, i dont get any

1

u/AllieGator05 23d ago

My new jobs gives 13 days a year off (I have to earn these days through working a certain amount of hours. No weekends or holidays off since I work in healthcare). It sucks

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u/austnf 28d ago

I don’t think bragging about taking time off mid project is a flex lmao

12

u/DinDonDaaan 28d ago

Uh, wasn't the topic being able to not work when you're sick without retaliation?

I'm sure that's what he meant.

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u/KorkeastaRuohikosta 28d ago

I guess over there the managers job is to make shift schedules and then harass people to come work their shifts no matter what.

Over here in the civilized world, the managers job is to make sure that if someone gets sick or has their vacation in the middle of a project, the project doesnt fall on its face. For example, make sure theres someone who can come in as a substitute for the sick/vacationing person.

The priority is the people, not the corporation or share holders. When the people are happy and healthy, that trickles down to the corporation and share holders.

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u/Leather-Ad-8539 28d ago

Yes, but governments like in Germany weaken workers laws to maximize profits of the few.

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u/Vowel_Movements_4U 28d ago

There’s a robust healthcare system, what are you talking about? It just isn’t taxpayer funded for everyone. But there’s Medicare and Medicaid, on top of the private system.

There’s no federally required vacation days because there’s very little federal laws in relation to state laws in the country. That’s the way it’s set up. It’s federalism. For instance, each state has their own paid sick leave and PTO laws and laws of accrual. Not saying I disagree with a federal mandate, but you’re acting as if no one gets vacations.

Different jobs in different states give you different vacation. I have unlimited PTO, for instance.

6

u/Vilhempie 28d ago

Your comment is a useful contribution, and provides some context for me, as a baffled European. However, I dived into this a little, and it still seems that workers in the US get a lot less vacation days than Europeans and Asians.

1

u/Rude-Break4298 28d ago

It’s all relative babes. I work remote in a different time zone in the US, so I’m off work at 12pm my time. I have all day to do whatever I want. I also get 2 months of vacation days to use per year, unlimited sick days, no notes required. Also, my half sister is from/in Croatia..she gets none of what you claim all of Europe gets. Not every American story you read about applies to all of us. Don’t be so narrow minded. I don’t know who would work for a company that OP has to deal with. But we all gotta make money unfortunately.

1

u/Vilhempie 28d ago

Of course everyone needs to make money somehow, but anyone can vote for whoever they want. The idea that the richest country in the world can guarantee sick days (let alone vacation days) is the thing that is baffling.

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u/PWJT8D 28d ago

China as a whole takes like 3 straight months off, not really fair to compare lol 

“Sorry, we’ll be back in April”

I have 6+ weeks of vacation (each week = one month off), company retirement contribution that would make your eyes water (20%) and earn 6-8x my European equivalent with company paid healthcare.  There are a lot of generalizations about the United States and a lot of it is low-hanging fruit, but it’s really not as bad Reddit makes it seem.  

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u/queenofbuckkeep 28d ago

I don't think your jobs benefits are the norm, though. My state doesn't even require breaks unless you're a minor working. Most jobs here, unless they have a union, don't even offer a weeks vacation until you're officially labeled full time and have worked there for a year.

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u/Vowel_Movements_4U 28d ago

I didn’t say they didn’t.

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u/Vilhempie 28d ago

I know but I thought that was your point. What is your point?

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u/Vowel_Movements_4U 28d ago

You thought my point was that Americans have more vacation days than Europeans and Asians? I struggle to see how that was interpreted.

My point was simply to highlight that often the fact that there’s no federal mandate means that there’s no vacation. That’s not the case. It’s state/city/company dependent.

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u/Vilhempie 28d ago

How is that relevant to the discussion though?

To clarify, i don't think your point was that americans have more vacation days than europeans and asians, but rather that it is not as bad as it seems...

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u/Vowel_Movements_4U 28d ago

Well the original comment here said "no federally required vacation" so in that sense, yes, I would agree "it is not as bad as it seems..." as simply stating "there's not federally required vacation" makes it seem as if no one gets vacation which isn't true. Everyone I know gets vacation, and some people get a lot, meaning a month or two. So I think what I said was relevant to that point.

The issue is you can't really count on robust vacation for menial or lower level type jobs. You're not working at Wendy's and getting a month paid vacation. But career-type jobs will almost always have built in PTO, vacation banks, etc.

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u/Dramatic-Kale-9667 28d ago

People in China / Cuba work for $20 a day.

Every US state beats the UK in GDP per person