Man Works For His Uncle’s Landscaping Business, But The Way He’s Paid For Overtime Has Him Frustrated
Shutterstock
When you work for a family business, calling out the owner for doing something wrong can be kind of tricky because the owner is a family member. If you care about your family, you don’t want to see them get in trouble or do anything to hurt them financially, but at the same time, you shouldn’t really look the other way when they’re doing something illegal.
In this story, one man works for his uncle’s landscaping company, and he knows the way his uncle pays the employees for overtime is illegal.
His uncle claims the employees are getting a good deal, and he doesn’t want his nephew complaining.
Should the nephew stay quiet, or is he right to complain?
Let’s read the whole story to decide.
AITA for complaining to my fellow employees about not getting paid overtime?
I work for my aunt and uncle’s landscaping company as a project manager/delivery driver.
My uncle has us working at least 10 hour days 5 days a week.
He sends 40 of our hours through his payroll company then cuts a personal check for the rest of the hours he owes us at our regular hourly pay, not paying any overtime (which is illegal).
He justifies this by saying we are making about the same as we would from overtime after having to pay taxes through his payroll company.
He is not okay with this.
I talked/complained to other employees about this (they’ve all only worked there for a couple months) after I started having to take more responsibility and essentially take over as the company manager without getting a pay raise.
I also talked to the office manager, who is my uncles brother in law (Not actually related to me) and he said that paying us a regular hourly wage through a personal check doesn’t come close to what getting paid overtime even after taxes would be.
My aunt and uncle then called me into their office for a meeting and called me out on complaining to other employees about how we’re getting paid. They said, “everyone is fine with how they’re being paid”, “you are dragging our names through the mud and jeopardizing my family’s livelihood by saying we’re not paying overtime just to enrich ourselves”, “if you have a problem you should talk to us directly instead of BSing with other employees about it”.
But he doesn’t want to upset his family.
I said I was sorry and I was fine with how I’m paid and left the office.
They’re my family, and I don’t want to insult them or hurt our relationship, but I totally feel they are exploiting their workers and I can’t tell them that to their face.
I totally feel used by my own family, but no one else is speaking up to them about it.
What they’re doing is illegal. I get that they’re his family, but it’s still illegal.
Let’s see how Reddit responded.
This person suggests looking for another job.
Sign up to get our BEST stories of the week straight to your inbox.
Another person knows what his uncle is doing is illegal.
This person reassures OP that he didn’t do anything wrong.
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a dad who can’t understand why his son can sleep in now that he’s not commuting to the office.
Another person thinks he did the right thing.
His uncle should start paying his employees proper overtime instead of trying to save a few bucks and doing something illegal. That’s not okay.
It’s not wrong to want to be paid fairly.
Enjoyed this story?
Sign up to get our BEST stories of the week straight to your inbox.
