Pupils have begun returning to school as lockdown restrictions were eased across England.
Outdoor markets and car showrooms have also started reopening, while the first horse racing event in months was being staged and pigeons took to the skies for a race over Yorkshire.
How can they keep more of it?
How do they hide it from staff?
They try to mask their intentions by giving a few extra pennies here and there or a pizza party as a "thank-you" every other Friday.
But how thankful can they be?
If they really cared, they would give livable wages for work well done.
Or they would stop trying to excavate ways to cut corners in their benefit but burden staff.
Redditor No-Nerve6154 wanted everyone to expose the ways the 1% bosses are screwing us over, so they asked:
"What's something employers would never want employees to know because they would lose millions?"
"How much the top execs are making. I thought I was making an ok salary, and then my company went public. In the IPO filing, it turned out the CEO was pulling in 40 million a year. Really made me think about all those year-end 3% raise conversations."
- Arete108
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"Maybe not millions, but any time your employer requires you to do something, you should be clocked in. Meetings, trainings, arriving early to 'start your shift on time,' should all be considered time on the clock, and you should be compensated for it. I've heard many managers/bosses in the past tell teams not to clock in for brief meetings, etc, which is wage theft."
- wizarddewd
"Know your benefits and rights. I manage people and handle benefits. The amount of employees that don’t have a f**king clue what they are entitled to is ridiculous. I try to coach them, especially the younger folks, but they don’t get it. Two examples..."
"1- My state offers disability leave, which includes parental leave. I’m in an 'important' role where it can be difficult if I’m out of the office. When my kid was born, you can be damn sure I took my full 3 months and not a bit less. F**k you, that’s my right, you can figure it out."
"2- My brother, who is in his forties mind, tore his ACL at work for a huge company that delivers everything to your house in 2 days. He went to the doctor and got a note. I asked him if he had reported it as a worker’s comp injury. 'No, I have insurance.' The f**k dude, you also have deductibles and copays, AND you only have 10 days to report a worker’s comp injury. Get off the phone with me and go file a report NOW. If you need surgery and light duty or disability, that s**t HAS TO GO THROUGH YOUR EMPLOYER. IT'S NOT ON YOU!"
- Biggetybird
"You're allowed to talk to your coworkers about pay. The number of people I've run into who think discussing wages is honestly a crime absolutely blows my mind. Discuss what you make, and if you're not making as much as someone else, question it."
- BrewertonFats
"I once (male)worked on a team with a woman who had an identical job and more experience than me. Pay raise time: I got 50% more than her. And honestly, she was far better. I told her about it. Management fixed her pay and six months later fired us all."
- Hopeful-Argument2603
"That just because it's written company policy, doesn't make it law or legal. Anything can be argued in a court, and a policy that blatantly breaks the law or infringes on your rights won't hold up."
- No-Group-4504
"My favorite was a hotel I worked at that wanted everyone to sign off on a new drug policy. The new policy prohibited staff from providing drugs, legal or otherwise, or alcohol to coworkers or patrons, whether for money or free."
"The problem was, I was the hotel bartender. So I refused to sign. Pointed it out to the owner and had a laugh as he tossed them all out. Every other restaurant staff member had signed it already."
- iordseyton
"The secret most companies would die to keep hidden: They have NO IDEA what their employees actually do all day."
"I watched this play out at my last company in the most infuriating way. Our VP mandated a "productivity tracking initiative" where we had to log every task for two weeks. When the results came in, they showed our team was handling triple the expected workload with outdated tools while two entire layers of management contributed almost nothing measurable."
"What happened to this eye-opening data? It disappeared. Completely buried. Why? Because fixing it would mean admitting they've been underpaying the people actually keeping the lights on while overpaying people who mostly create PowerPoints about 'synergy.'"
"The kicker? Three months later, they laid off 20% of the doers and kept all the managers. Then they couldn't figure out why deadlines were suddenly impossible to meet. So they hired expensive consultants who recommended - you guessed it - more managers to 'oversee productivity improvements.'"
"Companies would rather set money on fire than admit their precious org charts and management structures are mostly theater. The people who create actual value are treated as replaceable while those who create meetings are treated as indispensable."
- PixelPulse88
"That you can claim unemployment in the U.S. even if you are still working. If they cut your hours enough to where you're no longer making the same kind of money you were. You can file for unemployment."
"My knowledge may be a little bit dated."
- EfficientDismal
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"Most jobs don’t actually need 40 hrs a week to get done. If you cut out pointless meetings and unnecessary tasks, people could finish their work in way less time. If everyone realized that, companies would probably have to pay for actual work done, not just hours spent."
- TaskJemain-Ak
"Yeah, but they use the 40 hours a week as justification for benefits. So if everyone worked less, they'd have to provide fewer benefits. Happened at a couple of places I worked. Literally nobody was working more than 36 a week and as a result got no vacation days or health insurance."
- Wrought-Irony
"The value of labor."
- MwaslametryFEM
"I wish my current employer understood this one better, actually."
"Currently building a hospital on an island in Alaska. We never have enough material because the company is trying to save a buck by ordering small amounts of everything (no one on this crew of 140 has a 1/4 fender washer to rub against another)."
"So much money is wasted in labor by people wandering around the job site looking for simple parts. At this point, you could order a few thousand bits of each style of small hardware and throw them off the bridge and still save money if we had enough to go around and finish our work."
- motodextros
"The union thing has already been brought up multiple times. I’ll just add that if you work for a large enough company, they literally have a department that pays people just to make sure unions don’t get formed. It’s usually called something like labor relations, and the main crux of their job is to assess the unionization risk of every move the company makes. Couple that with the tactics company leaders use to disrupt/influence union votes, and it’s apparent that they are all scared sh**less of this."
- AreYouJealous
"Most non-competes are illegal under 'restraint of trade' laws. It's really just an attempt at employers getting folks thinking they are trapped there or would have to move or not work in their field in their area. It's not legal. Mainly because it allows employers to start abusing employees, freezing wages/promotions, etc."
"Ask to make it a yearly renewed one with no compete/no fire agreed to by each. I doubt you would get it, but they certainly would respect you knowing exactly what they are asking of you and expecting the same in return."
- dgrant92
"You can just take the whole toilet paper roll home from the bathroom. Nobody will stop you."
- PMMeUrHopesNDreams
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"Salaried employees can still be compensated for overtime pay if they are not exempt, many salaried employees are misclassified as exempt. If you are salaried and you get docked partial pay for partial days worked, etc, you are not salaried; you are hourly."
"Overtime hours are recorded WEEKLY past 40 hours, not every two weeks past 80 hours. Hours worked cannot be moved in different work weeks to avoid overtime pay."
"If you are a 1099 worker but get treated like an employee you more than likely have been misclassified and your employer may be screwing you out of overtime pay and for sure in taxes. Managers and supervisors cannot be in a tip pool. Only employees."
"If employees are working at multiple businesses that share common goods, managers, owners, etc., the hours at both locations need to be conglomerated for overtime pay. For example, you work 25 hours at location 1 and 20 hours at location 2 in 1 week. You don't get paid separately. You have worked 45 hours and are owed overtime for 5 hours."
"This may be considered common knowledge, but you'd be surprised how much employers attempt, and do, get away with."
- Foboomazoo
"That if you work for a public company and checked SEC Form DEF 14A for Executive Compensation, you'd feel much differently about 'layoffs.' In most cases, salary is lunch money compared to their stock holdings, and juicing the stock price by having a round of layoffs to make the company more 'efficient' means 'too bad, you have to suffer so we can make more money. '"
"Shareholder value' was a sociopathic financial model that made it ok to put shareholders (them) before even customers - and WAY before employees."
- RhythmTimeDivision
"We are the means of production, comrades. If we would stop fighting culture wars and started fighting class wars, things would get wildly entertaining."
- SwampYankee
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People work hard to make an honest living.
And all it would take to give honest people a break is just a little less greed.
Not even that much.
Keep some of your greed!
But be kinder and stop overworking and stealing from people.
What other ways do you know of that employers take advantage for profit?
In his post marking the end of his Idol run, Baylee Littrell wrote:
“My American Idol journey has come to an end… Thank you so much to all that supported me this season.”
Proud papa Brian Littrell took to the replies of his son's post to movingly express his pride:
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Littrell joined Baylee for his initial audition when he performed his original song, “Hey Jesus.”
Acknowledging his family’s music business, Baylee confessed to the camera:
“When your family’s in the music business, it opens a lot of doors, but it also creates a lot of animosity, so my big thing here is I’m here to make this on my own and carve my path.”And the audience and judges seemed to agree. Baylee joined season 23 of the music competition with returning judges Luke Bryan and Lionel Ritchie, and season four American Idol winner, Carrie Underwood. He made it to the Top 20 with his uplifting rendition of “Happy” with his own Pharrell Williams’s top hat. "Bailey! I feel like you’re owning your voice and your moment more, and I love seeing that," praised Underwood. "I love seeing you work the stage. I love seeing you interact with the crowd.”Littrell’s family and members of The Backstreet Boys also celebrated Baylee’s time on American Idol:
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Leighanne Littrell is Baylee’s Mom, and Annie Littrell is Baylee’s aunt. And Kevin Richardson of BSB is famously the cousin of Brian Littrell.
Fans of the up-and-coming singer also chimed in:
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One family member that Baylee is hesitant to contact about his elimination… is his dear grandfather:
“I don't know how I'm going to break this to my grandfather… He doesn't know.”
We’re sure he’s proud of you no matter what.
Despite getting cut, Littrell did dedicate a familiar Backstreet Boys song that was sure to make his father’s day:
- YouTube American Idol/YouTube
BSB fans can also recall that “Gone Without Goodbye” was a song written during the tragedy of 9/11, as it recounts the themes of loss without a proper farewell. Baylee and Brian even mention that his mother was supposed to be on the second flight that struck the World Trade Center.
Host Ryan Seacrest acknowledged the song’s message:
“That song is really dedicated to tragedy—9/11, you know, all the victims that it affected."
Viewers of the performance loved Baylee’s cover:
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Brian Littrell has one album called 770 Country, which was released in November 2019. In terms of his favorite Backstreet Boys member, his answer is… AJ McLean.
But on Wednesday's episode of her podcast IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson, she tackled the topic head-on while speaking with her cohost/brother and their guest Taraji P. Henson.
The former FLOTUS said:
"My decision to skip the inauguration; you know what people don't realize... my decision to make choices at the beginning of this year that suited me were met with such ridicule and criticism."
You can see the beginning of that discussion from YouTube and a clip from X here:
- YouTube youtu.be
Obama continued:
"People couldn't believe that I was saying no for any other reason, that they had to assume that my marriage was falling apart."
"While I'm here, really trying to own my life and intentionally practice making the choice that was right for me—and it took everything in my power to not do the thing that was right, or that was... perceived as right, but do the thing that was right for me."
"That was a hard thing for me to do."
While trolls are always out in full-force to attack the former FLOTUS—the first Black woman to hold that position—some people understood her reasoning.
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And they remembered who skipped Democratic President Joe Biden's inauguration in 2021.
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Obama has been learning the "art of saying no" to people and events that are not in her best interests or do not align with her beliefs.
Speaking to the expectations placed on women, especially BIPOC women, she added:
"It’s a muscle that you have to build. And I think we suffered, because it’s almost like we started training late in life to build that muscle, right? I am just now starting to build it."
You can see Mace's video of her own unhinged behavior here:
Apparently being asked to meet with or speak to the people she represents is extremely triggering for MAGA Mace.
Earlier in the month, Mace posted a series of videos berating her constituents for wanting her to stop ignoring them.
But Mace is too busy picking fights with colleagues, policing bathrooms, and threatening trans people to talk to the people she represents.
The man in Mace's viral video is now speaking out after Mace made unsupported accusations against him. Mace claimed that she was a victim of his aggression—even though her own video showed otherwise.
Mace's video—viewed over 7 million times now—showed Ely Murray-Quick standing a respectful distance from Mace and never getting in her face as she claimed.
He had his own video to share:
Murray-Quick, a gay small-business owner, was running an errand to buy face wash when he saw his elected congressional representative in the skin care aisle and decided to ask about an expected constituent service.
Mace's reaction was captured on her own phone, but Murray-Quick was not intimidated by the homophobic, transphobic, MAGA member of Congress and her in-person and online shenanigans.
Speaking to The Advocate, Murray-Quick said:
"A fire was lit. Being a gay man in South Carolina, I’ve had my fair share of hurtful insults thrown my way. And I’ve given myself a thicker skin because of it."
"So a simple 'f*ck you' from Nancy Mace isn’t going to hurt me the way that she thinks it does."
Recalling the events of the day Mace filmed him, Murray-Quick added:
"I took the opportunity to ask her the question that a lot of her constituents wanted to know. I asked her when she was hosting a real [town hall]."
"I’m of the opinion that what she has recently hosted wasn’t real. She fielded several questions over dinner, over the phone, and didn’t give her constituents and the people in South Carolina an opportunity to ask real questions."
"She decided to tell me to f*ck myself."
"And I think it speaks a lot to her character that this is the type of language she decides to use to someone who is in the same space as her who asked her a simple question."
Dismissing Mace's gaslighting, Murray-Quick stated:
"She believes, 'Hey, I voted for gay marriage twice. You owe me everything'. Which couldn’t be anything further from the truth."
"There are bigger issues I want to vote on, and I want to see it resolved. Insurance, health care, the education system in South Carolina will consistently rank the lowest in the states, and she’s not addressing the reason."
Murray-Quick continued:
"I was appropriately six to eight, maybe even 10 feet away at all times. There was no physical confrontation. There was no aggression. She wasn’t locked in the aisle. She was free to leave and not answer my question if she had chosen to."
Mace has accused others of aggression or threatening her after she behaves badly.
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But South Carolina business owner Murray-Quick countered he wasn’t unreasonable or aggressive:
"We don’t want a gated Beaufort Country Club meeting by invite only. We don’t want Turning Point USA ticket attendees. We want a real raw town hall. That’s what people are saying."
"I walked out of the store, and yeah, I felt a bit of adrenaline. It was one of those situations where a lot of people do want to ask the questions to their elected officials in person and they don’t get the opportunity or [they] pass up on the opportunity."
"And I said to myself, I’m not passing up on the opportunity."
Murray-Quick later shared:
"I don’t feel great about the future of South Carolina politics until she’s out of office."
Mace milked the brief encounter for online attention. In a follow-up video recorded on the way to a White nationalist organization Turning Point USA event, she played the victim while also claiming to be a "bada** b*tch."
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Mace said of the harassment that never happened:
"It’s not the first time I’ve ever used language with people before, and it certainly won’t be the last."
"You don’t have the right to harass me. It’s not ever going to be OK. And if you want to get in my face, expect it right back, and I will record you and I’ll make you famous."
People online weren't buying Mace's MAGA martyrdom or her tough girl act—especially in the South Carolina subReddit.
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Mace did have one defender in the South Carolina crowd.
But...
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A debate over an appropriate descriptor for Mace also occurred among the people of South Carolina.
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But Murray-Quick left the Ulta with more than face wash, telling The Advocate:
"I think I’ve learned that I’m a lot more confrontational than I knew I was, in a positive way. I want to help make a difference in any way I can, and I see a bit more of myself now."
When The Advocate asked if he felt being a member of the LGBTQ+ community made a difference, he responded:
"Absolutely. I’m immensely proud of myself. I took an opportunity to ask a question that I believed a lot of people wanted to be asked. And she decided to have a meltdown over it."
