So I had a job, a part-time second job a couple of nights a week. Basically the job sucked.
It was fun in theory, but the owner treated all of the girls hired like shit. He'd boss
us around in a berating manner. At first required us to wear a minimum of 3 inch heels,
which after the first night of agonizing blisters was changed to 2.5! He, along with his
managers would belittle us in front of customers, refer to us by knick names (ie: one
of the girls named heidi, he called 'heidi-ho', or sometimes just 'ho'). They required us
to come in two nights a week for four hours at a time to practice, but we didn't get paid
for it. Yet, it was a requirement to keep our job, which im almost 100% positive is illegal.
Well, I brought up my concerns with one of the female managers last week after my shift. I
haven't worked since (i usually work tue/wed, and have practice mon/thu), so nothing has
happened since, but I got a phone call an hour before practice yesterday that simply said
"I'm sorry, we're going to have to let you go". When I asked why, they said "because I had
a bad attitude".
How would you deal with this situation? Would you just let it go?
For the first month that I was employed there I wasn't paid a dime. I'd come to practice
three times a week, and they wanted me to learn certain things before I actually worked a
shift. So I worked a month for free, AND then continued to work 2 nights a week for free.
I had to buy over 100.00 in clothing because they required us to wear a certain thing, yet
didn't provide us with uniforms.
I'm just thinking about telling them they need to pay me for all of the "practice" time that
I worked where I wasn't paid.
What would you guys do? Let it go, or try to get some restitution? I had been letting it
slide that we weren't getting paid to practice because we were promised major pay for shows
we would be doing in the future, but I was fired before I got to work them, so all of that
donated time for nothing!
cliff notes: job screwed me. try to get money, or let it go?
