asked for a raise (im the only employee at a small cosmetics company. i handle the manufacturing, labeling, packing, and shipping, as well as keeping up inventory and keeping the place in order. basically everything) and my boss responds by trying to gaslight me, pulling this “we’re a small business 🥺” bullshit
he just bought a 60,000 dollar car and is taking his second vacation of the year next week
he keeps trying to hold “a week of personal time” i had to go on strike by myself to earn, “paid winter break” etc over my head. all shit that the government forces you to give your employees in every other country on the planet. america is a shit hole with no workers rights and it allows the parasitic small business tyrant class feel like they’re doing something good by offering the bare minimum. literally “i treat my slaves nicely” shit
sorry yall just wanted to rant. fuck america and work under capitalism
Sounds like he ended up in a situation where 100% of his employees are irreplacable, aware of it and radicalized against him. Pretty sure that's one of the pages in the Big Book of Business where you're supposed to draw a frowny face and (if you can) write "No".
Not really.
It sounds like the boss is saying he can find someone else to do this for $17 an hour.
that is what he’s saying, but he would quickly realize that’s not true once i left. to be honest im not sure be even believes it to be the case- the few people he’s brought in didn’t even last a year on the longer end because he’s so neurotic and the pay to work ratio isnt there. then all the work those people were doing just falls back on me and i make the same amount i always did.
he wants to pay teenager wages for adult work. the reason i’m even still here is because ive been here for almost 10yrs, its the job i got when i first moved back to the country and was rooming with my sibling and our friend, so my rent was like 200/mo at the time. i was okay with the lower pay because the lax structure made it worth it for me since i didnt need much money anyway. 10yrs later, im essentially running his warehouse and he’s still basically paying me the same. a teenager’s wage. he wont find an adult to come in and do this job for 17/hr, i know that for a fact. and no teenager can handle this job, i also know that for a fact.
so im not sure if he really believes that or is saying it as a bargaining chip
If you're essentially running the warehouse, there should be lots of data you can get your hands on, about how much is getting shipped out (which you can then use to compute the conpany's gross revenue).
Learn everything you can, while you have the opening to: the better picture you have of the company and its trade secrets, the more leverage you have in negotiating, and the easier it ends up being to duplicate their business if you want to go for that option.
Yeah. I don't mean this in a condescending or dismissive way, but this is a story as old as time, and your choices are the same as they have ever been.
You've been negotiating so you can either negotiate more firmly or find another job.
Certainly from everything you've said it does sound like this guy is happy to take advantage of you if you'll allow him to do so.
To put it more specifically it sounds like he's betting on your reluctance to find another job.
Yeah, but if you read the Big Book of Business you will find that telling your employees that they are irreplacable and hold all the cards in a negotiation also gets a frowny face. If it was easy to replace them why did the boss cave to a one person strike the first time?