Calculating Your Weekly Hours – Not So Simple

One would think that adding 2 & 2 would be an easy thing to do, but it really isn’t that simple, not by a longshot.  At least not with the companies I have worked for.  Possible scams..maybe..

Back in the days of Woolworth, they had an interesting way of paying employees.  It was called the 7-8 minute rule.  If you punched out on the 7 minute mark on any 15 minute interval, you get nothing for that time.  If you punched at the 8 to 15 minute mark of any quarter hour, then you got paid for the entire 15 minutes.  Lousy deal or great deal depending on how close one was to that 8 minute mark.  Many times I missed it by just a few seconds and no you could not cheat if a manager was standing around especially at closing time.  Sometimes, I did slow my pace down just to make that 8 minute mark just to get revenge.  To make matters worse, if an employee had multiple 7 minute periods, they could not be combined to give a full 15 minute session.  So naturally Woolworth got a LOT of free time with its employees.  Certainly this screamed “SCAM”, but one just needed to know how to play the clock to fully benefit from their rules. 

All was pretty well until one summer week about my fourth year with them when my timecard was added wrong.  Not just a little wrong, but 11½ hours of overtime off.  Certainly the management was a little embarrassed by this “mistake”, but it seemed more like a purposeful oversight just so they didn’t have to pay me so much overtime.  Woolworth and overtime never mixed well together and they always tried to keep their regular full-timers under the 40 hour mark.   It was at this point I decided to keep careful track of EVERY MINUTE I worked just so I knew I was paid properly.  This would continue right through my last minutes at Staples.

When the company went to an electronic credit card sized punch card, it was much harder to keep track of punches, but  I had marked in my little memo pad every punch in, lunch punch and punch out.  Certainly this was a lot of work, but it let the managers know they couldn’t get away with anything!!

As far as I can remember with HQ, for every minute I worked I got paid for despite the fact that the company most days would send me home before my shift ended.  I really never worried about what they paid me as anything below 40 hours was made up by my unemployment.  One of the blessings of unemployment!

Then there is Staples.  Besides of the break punch scam previously mentioned, Staples made keeping track of hours very difficult when I was first employed with the company, but when they changed to a web-based time clock application it became very easy.  Too easy.  All I had to do was hit Control-Print and my lovely punch indicator printed on the store’s laser printer in living color.  Of course, I don’t think the management liked what I did, but I NEVER trusted them at all.  This was especially true when I was once told during a night that I came in to a store meeting and the manager said “I will punch you in later”, however being the person I was I wanted to make sure that I got all the time in which I was entitled to.  Their reasoning was they didn’t want to overflow the time clock and create time-outs to the system since everyone would be punching in at once. 

I learned not to trust management to input my time once after I discovered that one of my punches were altered by the on-duty manager, because they thought I was late when I was actually helping a customer on the sales floor.  I didn’t realize this “change” until later in the week when I asked another manager to check my punches and discovered that one of them was altered.  The real question here is :  Did they have the right to change my punch without asking me about it?  My answer is DEFINITELY NO!  They took it upon themselves to alter my punch without any authorization by me at all.  Certainly this creates distrust with Staples and that distrust remained until my last day with the company.  The interesting point to be made in all of this is that other employees also began keeping track of their times after I told them of their shenanigans with me.  If there was one thing I was proud of it was getting some employees to be more aware of their hours. 

The only good news for the company now is that they have probably saved a lot of paper because I no longer am there, but whoever said I was a conservative person.

 

NOTICE TO ALL:  I am taking a short break over the holidays from writing this blog.  It doesn’t mean that the scams end during that time, but I will be reporting back again in early January.  My next thing on the topic highway:  the mandatory year in review posting.  However, if you need your fix of me while I am gone, you can connect with me through the following ways (I will still be active on these throughout the holiday season):

• Twitter - https://twitter.com/#!/louisbrown
• Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/louisbrownusa
• MySpace - http://www.myspace.com/louis_brown
• e-mail  - louisbrown24@hotmail.com
• Formspring - http://www.formspring.me/louisbrownusa
• Google+ -  https://plus.google.com/u/0/117653374122289495721

Back In January!!

Commentary: Maine Human Rights Commission and the Stripper

This post refers to the following link:

http://www.wgme.com/news/top-stories/stories/wgme_vid_10245.shtml?wap=0

Here is the proof that the Maine Human Rights Commission are boneheads.  Apparently, they allowed this woman to win her case against PT’s Showclub just because she was black.  Did they ever think she was just no good at what she was doing?  Or was this just the commission just showing its hatred toward a strip club?  Either way, its apparent they allowed this case in favor of the stripper.  Its sad when they seem to be on the wrong side of every case, just like they was with mine, which I will discuss in a future post in lengthy detail.  Once again, shame on the MHRC, don’t you have better ways to spend your time than this garbage?  Apparently not.

Staples Posts My Review -- Sort of

As mentioned in my previous post, I received an email from Staples to review a product my mother purchased. So I decided to do a demeaning review of the product and provided a plug for this blog as well.

Well, the review got posted except for the link to this blog. Shamefully, the edited this review. But I put it into a comment for those who stumble upon this review. I am not surprised that they edited this review because they didn't want my rants supported. Oh well, I still got to get to post it into the comment section.

If you wish to read the review you can find it here

Breaking Scam Info: A Newly Discovered Staples Privacy Violation Scam

Yesterday I received an email from Staples to review a product that my mother purchased at Staples store while she was out of state.  The problem with this is that she doesn’t have a rewards card with the company nor has she ever given out her (actually mine) email address.  So, how did the company get my email address?

The purchase was made with a credit card, which I also have the same card number.  I did have a Staples Reward card (a gold member one) which I have not used in nearly 9 years and I also had an associate card which hasn’t been used in nearly 3 years.  It seems that Staples linked the provided charge card number to one of my former rewards cards, thus getting the email address I signed up with on either rewards cards.  This means that Staples stores the credit card information that is linked with rewards cards whether the customers want them to or not.  Not only is this unethical, but it is very ILLEGAL!  Another great Staples scam uncovered!!  Who says that this storing of credit card numbers is even secure?  I don’t believe it is if the linking for them was so easy to do.  This is all we need is Staples illegally storing credit card information without the knowledge of its customers.  Once again Staples EXCELLENT JOB!!  You are continuing my proof of just how bad you really are!

I also wish to thank Staples for telling me of my Christmas gift as well…they really are a Scrooge and dumb as well…

Commentary: Paul LePage Just Hated 70,000 Mainers

This commentary refers to the following news article click here.

To save MaineCare from going broke, Mr. LePage plans on throwing 70,000 Mainers off the program who don’t have children.  I believe this is not only a mistake, but once again is LePage’s ignorance to his position.  Let me say that I am not on the program, but I did apply for it about 2½ years ago.  I am on a never ending waiting list because like the people he wants to throw off the program I am single with NO children.  And here lies my issue with all this.

I believe that to be fair LePage should look at ALL the participants in the program. This includes all the single teen moms, newly entered people into the country, and everyone else in the program. 

When I went to apply for the program, the Department of Human Services office was about 1/3 full of people who were foreigners, possibly many of them here in this country less than a year.  Another third was filled with the so-called teen moms along with their multiple children, quite possibly from multiple daddies as well. The remaining third were an assortment of people like myself who were truly in need of service.

After a 2 hour wait, I finally got to my interview and it didn’t take more than 15 minutes to be denied coverage just because I didn’t have any kids.  I would be put on a waiting list to when funds would be freed up and I could possible get insurance at that time.  Over 2 years later, I am still waiting.  Which brings me to my point:  Why should aliens (some illegally here of course) and teen moms (who shouldn’t have kids anyway) be allowed benefits when the people like myself who have paid into all the state programs for years get denied and those who haven’t paid anything get all the benefits?

This is where the cuts should happen.  This state, along with other states, encourage teen girls to get pregnant just to get free insurance.  Many of these girls who are under 21 have multiple baby daddies, which means they are ripping the system off even more.  What’s worse is that many of these young girls want no support from their baby daddies nor do some know where their baby daddies even are. 

As far as the foreigners go, this should be a gimme for a denial of benefits.  Why should these people who given nothing to the fund take from it.  They don’t belong in this country anyway, so stop stealing our benefits.  This may sound mean, but lets get real:  the people who earned the privilege of the benefits should get priority to them.  Let them be put on a waiting list instead and stay there. 

Sadly, this state has its priorities all messed up and wanting to kick the wrong people off the system is a HUGE mistake.  Everybody should be reevaluated and those that don’t qualify or those who don’t belong here should be removed.  I bet that when all of these people be eliminated not only will the gap be closed, but people like myself could get on the system.  However, given LePage’s past performance he will do the easy route and kick those off who shouldn't be.  I know if this happens LePage will have 70,000 less votes next election and that is guaranteed.

Commentary: Herman Cain and Staples Management Both Bad

When I first heard of Herman Cain and of his background, the first thing I thought was how similar this guy probably is to a Staples manager, more specifically my last manager Shawn Nichols.  Have I ever been correct about them.

They both share the need to lie, which is obvious given both of their backgrounds.  Both also deny any allegations that were thrown at them.  Cain denied relationships with women and immediately either said he who nothing of them or put out a scathing report against them.  He is the type of person who says “I am bad, but you are much worse”.  Certainly this type of lies has all but killed the Cain run for the Presidency and for good reason.  Nobody believes his denials and certainly the more women who come out the worse it is for him.  He should just kill the campaign once and for all and save the taxpayers money.

Herman Cain and Former Staples Manager Shawn Nichols are compulsive liars, both don’t know the real truth of anything about people.  They both need help.

Former Staples manager Shawn Nichols had a similar reputation of lying and doing so constantly.  In future posts, I will discuss in details his many lies.  The worse thing about somebody like him is the constant harassment, which he posed against me.  Sadly, he got away with it only because there were no witnesses.  The problems I did have witnesses for were ignored in my claim against Staples.  The biggest lies I had to deal with was the reason(s) I was terminated.  And yes I do mean reasons.  One of many excuses/reasons for my termination had to deal with issues that happened over 10 years ago!  If there was a problem 10 years ago, how did I stay with the company for so long?  Certainly, Mr. Nichols and Staples was looking for anything that could possibly be used as a reason for termination, no matter how stupid.  What’s worse is that people ACTUALLY believed Staples and thus denied my fight!  But in reality, I know the real reason for my termination and that is…..<stay tuned…it will be a big surprise>!

Nichols was forced out of Staples and Cain should be a man and leave the presidential race.  Both are compulsive liars who have delusional views of reality and the people in their world.  Sadly, both love to crush everyone who they hate and hope that more people don’t come out of the closet to haunt them.  Overall, I wish Nichols and Cain the worst as both should share a jail cell.  They can spend their hours comparing lying techniques….they will NEVER get bored!