She wasn’t comfortable with her boss putting her grandkids to work under dangerous circumstances. She Just couldn’t sit by and do nothing. Read on to find out how she put an end to her manager’s abuse of child labor laws.
Her First Job
A few years ago, when the Original Poster (OP) was in her second year of college, she got a job at a well-known beauty supply store. At first, everything seemed fine, but soon, she noticed a red flag.
One afternoon, when OP came in for her shift, she was surprised to see two young children putting out stock from boxes onto the shelves.
One child appeared to be about ten years old, and the other was six or seven. Confused, she asked her coworker what was happening, and she found out the kids were her manager’s grandkids. OP was still puzzled but shrugged it off until her manager returned from her lunch break.
She Was Uncomfortable With the Situation
When OP brought up the issue of the kids being in the store, her manager revealed she watched them that day and decided to put them to work.
As it was stock day, she figured they could help and offered to pay them $10 each at the end of the day. OP did some quick calculations and realized that these kids had been working for their grandmother for a while, for a mere ten dollars per day.
While the merchandise they were handling wasn’t too heavy, they kept 3-4 large bottles of shampoo and conditioner for salons.
They Were Handling Dangerous Chemicals
Additionally, there were several chemicals that could spill into the boxes, and if they didn’t wear gloves, they risked getting burns. OP knew this from personal experience, as she accidentally burned her hand in her second week at the store.
She felt it was against child labor laws and was not comfortable working alongside the children.
When she brought her concerns to her manager, things quickly turned sour.
Her manager brushed off her worries and told her it was her business and that she could do what she wanted with her grandkids.
OP persisted, citing the potential for liability if one of the children were injured, but her manager shut her down, telling her to mind her own business and do her job.
She Had a Plan
OP was left with a tough decision to make. She didn’t want to get on her manager’s bad side, but she also felt that what was happening was not right. She decided to come up with a plan.
She asked her manager to email her instructions on how to work around the kids under the guise of wanting to make sure her coworker knew what to do if she was in the back. Her manager complied, sending an email that basically confirmed everything she had said earlier.
OP decided to use this email to her advantage. In the email, she “accidentally” CC’d the district manager, who was her boss’s direct boss.
She did the same thing a few more times over the next few weeks, sending the email to the next shift worker and accidentally CC’ing the district manager again.
Finally, after three instances of the email being sent, the district manager called her on her day off.
Her Plan Paid Off
He wanted to know what was going on, and she explained everything, providing the emails as proof.
In the end, her plan worked, and her manager was fired for violating child labor laws. OP felt proud of herself for standing up for what was right, even though navigating it was difficult.
What Redditors Said
Tuna_tofu replied, “In our state, you need a license to handle beauty supplies because of the chemicals, so this is probably an OSHA violation.”
Legal_bagel said, “Not saying the manager was right in the least, but lack of affordable childcare is a major issue, not something that a 19-year-old would think of.”
What do you think? Was she doing the right thing or making a big deal out of something? What would you have done?
The post She Couldn’t Stand Idly by and Watch Her Boss’s Grandkids Work With Dangerous Chemicals for $10 a Day first appeared on Wealthy Living
Featured Image Credit: Shutterstock / Roman Samborskyi. The people shown in the images are for illustrative purposes only, not the actual people featured in the story.
Source: Reddit