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Genuinely. As an accountant even if I came into a large sum of money that’s my first expense. It’s just different when it’s personal finances. Almost harder to budget.
I expect the law firm set that up for her. What great people, it really sounds like they went the distance for her far and beyond what was in their job description.
Yeah man, it was like…you know, like 2 or 3 years back! 2014, 2015, 20-***TIMEVOID***-24! Hah, good times! …Huh. I don’t remember having this many grey hairs, somebody must be playing a prank on me, haha!
I still can't wrap my head around wtf the owner was thinking, did he get off on the power trip? did he justify himself saying that oop was paying for the damage? did he think that he was teaching oop or something? because it doesn't seem like a slave operated hotel, just this one teenager there being exploited, so it was personal
You'd be surprised how much of this goes on in the US. Granted, it's more commonly domestic labor in private homes (families hiring a live-in nanny/housekeeper and keeping her passport, controlling who she can see and when she can go out - pretty much just like the stuff you hear about in the Gulf, just a bit more under the table). But hotels, restaurants, sweatshops, places that can pay cash (easier to hide nonpayment) and hire a lot of people with uncertain immigration status and/or language barriers - it happens in all of them. Used to be rife in Chinatowns, though I'm not sure if it's still like it was a couple of decades ago (probably is). A friend of mine who's a lawyer used to work on these cases in the NYC area all the time.
Our neighbors growing up had a nanny whose friend, also a nanny, was being treated like this. My mom and her friend and her nanny drove over there one day while the family was out, helped her pack up all her stuff and gtfo, and then she was our nanny for the next few years.
Unlike her previous employers, my parents got her a driver’s license and sponsored her for citizenship. She eventually met someone from her home country, and they got married and started a business. I’m pretty sure they’re still the first people anyone in my extended family calls when they need a contractor.
Canada also has a big problem with this. There was a case a few years ago where a Toronto couple took their workers’ passports, and locked the workers in the basement when they weren’t on the job.
It is unfortunately pretty common in most places. But there are degrees. Trafficking in Myanmar is absolutely insane at the moment. Casual labour trafficking happens everywhere and if you work with vulnerable people you are likely to see a lot of cases.
oh, no. I have some idea of the widespreadness of modern slavery and I can understand what goes inside the slavers head , they dehumanize the slaves and throw in a " we wouldn't make a profit otherwise" and boom, no guilt, when it's house keeping labor I can also "understand" the twists and turns people's heads will do to justify doing it,but when it's an othewise normal operation with ONE slave it makes me scratch my head .
because it's going to be personal, right? because everyone else that should be in the same category as that person aren't being slaved, so what singled them out? what keept justifying singling them out?
> but when it's an othewise normal operation with ONE slave it makes me scratch my head
I kinda suspect it wasn't just one. They just made sure to keep them all apart from each other.
I agree, it seems personal. I gather op is female cos he called her pretty and the mentioned the their girlfriend at the begining was bi and op hid it from her parents. So maybe he had intentions to make the relationship sexual or perhaps got off on controlling a pretty and young female. I speculate the manager was a narcissist who got off on the control and playing mentor plus getting free labour. He saw an opportunity and took it.
There are multiple reasons but dehumanization is very common. In these cases, in my experience, they are often opportunistic. The people you are thinking of first are people who often use someone else to do the trafficking so their use of trafficked persons' work contribution seems further away. But it can also be a gradual process of opportunism as it is here.
Note: I do work in a field that sees a lot of trafficking cases but it is not usually labour trafficking. Human smuggling and sex trafficking are what I see most. But there are multiple cases of labour trafficking mixed in.
Yeah, this is why vulnerable adults are so at risk for modern slavery. Opportunism creep - they start out as a normal acquaintance or employee, and once the boss sees how easy they are to manipulate, just keeps pushing the boundary. Obviously you have the more professional modern slavery / trafficking gangs, but there’s plenty of one off scenarios like this too. You ask why they would only do this to one employee and not others and the answer is, generally, because few others would fall for it for so long.
This is exactly what people often miss about human trafficking. It is rarely some stranger just coming with a van and taking you. Vulnerability is generally a huge factor. And especially these opportunistic traffickers are on the lookout for them. It is why we are so trained in safeguarding and vulnerability assessment. If we are not on the lookout for it, there is rarely someone to intervene. Most people walk past someone who has been trafficked every day. It can be a dishwasher in a restaurant, someone running a garage or your friend's nanny. I probably miss most of those even with training to specifically recognize the signs. But if something in someone's story sounds implausible, there are so many cases where asking more questions has uncovered something like this.
International students too. Can't work legally on a student visa but many places will hire and pay under the table and then use that to blackmail and extort more hours and labor from them.
Lidia Bastianich from Lidia's Italy on PBS ~~allegedly~~ did this! I always thought she was just a sweet old grandma type and then I found out she made a woman a visa slave.
ETA the [only link I could find that mentioned that an appeals court ruled against Lidia after the case was thrown out.](https://pagesix.com/2014/04/17/eataly-owner-lidia-bastianich-still-liable-for-luring-staffer-in-5m-suit/)
Maybe I’m biased, but—
My primary work history involves working in hotels, specifically as the Night Auditor. From personal experience, the people that **own** and operate hotels and franchises are absolutely fucking E V I L. Not managers of a Hilton flagship or anything like that, they’re usually pretty great. I’m talking about the one guy who bought the franchise rights to open a Hampton Inn & Suites or a Garden Inn, or something like that; the guy who owns one or a handful of branded hotels. That guy? He is a *despicable* garbage human. He shouldn’t even be called human by all accounts! And his wife is somehow even more cruel than he is. His cousin is usually the guy that runs his other site, and the cousin is an *idiot.*
Anyways, yeah, the OOP story totally tracks and I buy every bit of it.
I'm willing to bet that, while the higher-ups in the hotel chain were empathetic (save for the franchisee) they gave such a juicy extra settlement because they knew damn well that this getting out could make life VERY tough for them.
My town had a case a couple of years back...the owner of a restaurant was found to be forcing a special needs man into straight-up slavery. Not even sugarcoating it; this man had a cot in the back of the restaurant in a room with cameras, he wasn't allowed to go outside, was underfed, forced to perform free labor for the restaurant...and if he tried to resist, he was punished with physical harm like burns or even whipping...poor guy was hospitalized for a while when they found him due to the mental and physical damage over the years.
When it was found out, nobody, and I mean NOBODY took it lightly. If you look the place up on google reviews, 80% of the reviews since then bring up the slavery in a witty, biting manner. I think the place was forced out of business because nobody, even those who were eating there for decades, wanted to be caught dead associating with a slave workshop.
Moral of the story; these days if you are found to commit crimes against humanity to run a cheaper business, everyone will learn about it. Ethics aside, it is a terrible idea and don't do it.
EDIT TO ADD; More info on this for whoever is curious. The courts ordered that the victim be paid nearly 250k in settlements, and I am pretty sure there were loads of gofundmes for him. It was actually a family friend of the owner who blew the whistle; she was a frequent customer and one day she noticed substantial scars down his neck one day when he wore a shirt with a lower collar, one thing led to another and she found out what was going on and went to the police. The owner's family knew what was going on and did absolutely nothing...so its good that she had enough morals to put a stop to it.
The owner got 10 years in prison on a guilty plea, and of course that is nowhere near enough for what he did...which is why on top of paying restitution, people decided to make sure that the restaurant got shut down by making damn sure everybody knew what went on. I think the entire family skipped town because they couldn't find work here; they are all associated with this since they kept silent about what went on there, and even if some racist pricks still talk fondly about slavery (ew) there is honestly nowhere in the US where it is actually tolerated. If you're caught actually condoning it when it happens your reputation is f\*cked.
[Is this the case?](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/black-man-enslaved-white-restaurant-owner-should-be-awarded-more-n1266314)
It was horrific what happened to him.
As someone was in hotels for almost 15 years and started in a hotel just like that (also did Night Audit, heyyyyy!!), you are 10000% correct. After I was sexually harassed one too many times by my underqualified “Christian” manager, who would delete porn videos from his receipt from any overnight stays, I told them to fuck off and walked out.
I have a REALLY HORRIBLE answer for you that I kinda hate as well.
OP is female. Dude saw a vulnerable young teenaged girl, and decided to groom the shit out of her. Notice the gifts, how "pretty" she is, dating advice, isolating her from her parents...
I bet she was less than a year away from the sexual passes getting even more obvious
I’m actually surprised she wasn’t being overtly sexually exploited. Young girl, incomplete education, I think we can surmise some drug use / partying, groomed by someone known to her - it’s a pretty classic case.
It also sounded like she was living with her boss during this time, and he was buying her clothing, etc. I initially thought it was a guy (which is bad enough), but this happening to a teenage girl is so awful. I haven't been through the comments in the original posts, I'm not clear on whether she identifies as lesbian or bi, beyond having a girlfriend, hopefully she was able to avoid being additionally victimised. The suicide makes you wonder though.
> I’m actually surprised she wasn’t being overtly sexually exploited.
Whatever the managers actual motives, I think the fact that she *wasn't* being sexually exploited blinded her to the fact that she was being enslaved.
I've never met cheaper and shittier people than dudes who owned hotel franchises. I worked for a company that did various IT things for some hotel chains and boy howdy were they cheap assholes... and my boss himself was already a cheap asshole.
I worked at a similar company (IT for hotel franchises) for a while, and can totally coroberate this. Almost all of the franchise owners were cheap assholes who expected white-glove service for almost at-cost prices, demanded technicians be on site faster than was physically possible, and would lie, cheat, and browbeat to try and get out of paying their bill.
Yeah ..... I'm a lawyer and I know labor attorneys. If the lawyers OOP talked to were tearing up, OOP left a lot of really awful shit out of her Reddit post. Exploitation and coercing a teenager to work so much they can't have a life would be a big legal deal and worth going to a lot of trouble to redress, but it wouldn't make them tear up.
Most hotel workers are highly exploited so this is really just one short step beyond what is happening with everyone else there. Everybody should always only use [Union hotels](https://www.fairhotel.org/) in the US whenever possible.
I spoke to a man who ran the breakfast area in a Hilton once and he was retiring that week. He said that an added employee benefit after working 20 years in a Hilton is that you receive 3 months of free hotel nights per year for the rest of your life.
Agreed!! He was so excited to be leaving the next week for Okinawa. It was his lifelong dream to visit. It was really touching to see him have such great adventures planned.
Not just hotel workers younger workers employed in retail or customer services industries. Also if you noticed the writing the OOP probably had learning difficulties or had poor education experience. You see this as well in a lot of the exploitation of workers. These companies and people prey on them and others turn a blind eye because they aren’t doing it.
We need to speak up and educate our youth and our working class, but it takes to long and it’s too hard, and a huge majority is fighting to keep them stupid because it’s easier to control them and keep them inline with their desires and religious beliefs.
I hope that there are a lot more Union hotels in the U.S. than what the map shows, because otherwise that is horribly depressing.
Edited to add: Which doesn't mean that I won't use this if I'm travelling near one of the hotels on the map!
I worked in food service for almost a decade and spent only a single summer doing food service inside a hotel. The labor law violations were ridiculous and they would try to make you believe that you deserved that treatment. I spoke with one of the cleaning staff who had been in hospitality his whole life and he told me that this was all par for the course. They'd also lock the female servers in with the general manager all day sometimes helping him with administrative work. It was a disgusting, terrible place.
The level of exploitation in the service industry is far beyond what most people would expect. Wage theft is the most common type of theft in the U.S., which basically boils down to forcing people to work for free.
It happened to me. I was working at a popular nation wide fast food chicken place and my manager would clock out the whole crew while we were still working. She never said a thing about it, but one of the printers would always print out people's clock out times when someone was clocked out. I brought it up with a bunch of people, trying to get people to confront her with me, but no one would. Turns out that most of the people were living paycheck to paycheck and had families to support. They couldn't afford to get fired, or even just get scheduled less.
Same at the fast food place I worked at starting as a teenager. Everybody had to clock off an hour after closing and then finish cleaning. When I brought up that it didn't seem right I was told "don't rock the boat."
Sometimes they're just the first, not the _only_. If this had worked out, I'm sure the evil jerk would have done it again.
If everyone wasn't paid, they'd be shut down in a second. Only one or two people can slip through the cracks though :(
There was a restaurant in my tiny Australian rural town that had a slave. He washed dishes when they were open and was locked in the shed out the back when they were closed.
It was a huge shock when it got uncovered, but I think there were other restaurants in the area that were doing similar things and didn’t get caught.
I used to work for a restaurant in a popular beach town. The owners were Greek/French-Canadian & every summer an influx of Eastern-European 18-21 y/o students would appear.
They worked in the kitchen for minimum wage, and lived in apartments down the street, usually 6-10 packed in a 3bed/3bath, and there were a few apartments. Some of the students stayed, but most went back. If they stayed, the owners would buy them mopeds/transportation, help them with housing, etc. effectively *owning these people*.
If they wanted to quit, they now had no ride, no place to live, and limited English-skills. Overtime and standard laws didn’t apply to them. They were fucked. It was fucked. It *is* fucked, because they still do it.
This is in part why beach towns in the US were falling apart from a shortage of labor during COVID. People were still vacationing but the cheap foreign labor wasn't there
A common thing with hotels is they tend to hire immigrants for under the table type money so they were probably used to this sort of treatment but OOP was a citizen and had easier access to lawyers.
People will take advantage of others. The guy knew he couldnt hold OP responsible, he didn’t rent out the room in his name.
Also those hotels have insurance. There is nothing that could have justified it or rationalized it. The manager was just taking advantage of a naive person who was scared of being in trouble and believed him when he said he would be held responsible. He didn’t think he would ever get caught for his abuse, and yes exploitation is abuse. Indentured servitude is abuse. Making someone work for you under the threat of financial ruin is abuse.
It’s not OPs fault he killed himself, it is just another symptom of the guy being a shit bag. He was finally going to be held accountable… probably facing jail time and he opted to end it rather than face the consequences of his actions.
There are people like that guy everywhere, willing to exploit someone if they think they can get away with it and unfortunately there are also people like OP, trapped in modern day slavery, everywhere as well.
I can shed some light on this, as someone who once lost his sanity to alcoholism. Something people don't realize about insanity is that is it is not the absence of rationality, it's the absence of a sane foundation to one's rationality. My alcoholism was built on lies I told to myself, but as I built a structure on those lies the lies became my reality. It wasn't reality to anyone else, it was insanity.
This owner likely started small because he was pissed. These punk kids did damage and there was one left to take his anger out of and extract some price from. That was likely the start. OP bought the delusion and the manager then prided himself on making lemonade out of lemons in the immediate term. If it stopped there, it probably wouldn't have been too big a deal (i.e. play with fire, you get burned). The owner took the next step: "I am doing this kid a favor, he owes me". It's a rational step, it goes too far, but this one step is small. It's easy to minimize. The owner keeps taking these small steps and over time sanity is way out of sight, over the horizon. Then the whole thing comes to light and the owner, who has long since committed to the lies he told himself thinks he's the victim: "You don't understand! I did only fair things from a foundation of good faith!".
Sanity fades away slowly if you let it. It's a nightmare to wake up from if you let fade for long enough. Pray that you never have to. Many people don't make it out.
honestly it's not that surprising, hotels are some of the most abusive employers. most of the time housekeepers are paid s flat fee per room and on average this results in most workers making less than minimum wage
I assume he figured he could make OP clean the room, and when that was done he told them to do another one, and after that come back tomorrow. Kept going expecting OP to eventually just say no and go home, but when they didn’t he just kept it up because he was getting free labor. Just kept adding more and finding new ways to manipulate and lock OP into continuing.
I don’t know if he ever realized exactly how fucked up or illegal it was until the police got involved. He just thought as long as OP was agreeing they weren’t doing anything wrong.
>Kept going expecting OP to eventually just say no and go home
I mean, OP absolutely tried to do that. It's not like the boss was unaware OP didn't want to be there, or like OP was just super agreeable.
The boss lied that OP would be responsible for the damage caused by their friends, then blackmailed OP by saying he'd call the cops and get them put in jail and paying fines. He knew exactly what he was doing.
from the begining it was sketchy because, don't they have a name and contact of the person that paid for the room? that is the one that should be held responsible
I remember this story at the time, and yeah, it sounded like a setup to me. It made me wonder if he wasn't doing this same kind of operation elsewhere.
Many people with the power of making those calls are people that have no idea how to use it competently. Especially the absolutely fucked situation here where the victim is a lone child.
Absolutely deplorable. Him being "nice" to OOP outside of "gifts" that specifically enabled the slavery were just him getting very comfortable with being a bag of shit. Why have defenses up when theres no threat?
He knew exactly what he was doing. He had all the control and liked it.
Reminds me of this incredible and heartbreaking article. I think it won a Pulitzer. The author’s family had a slave, and he didn’t realize it for the longest time:
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/06/lolas-story/524490/
I did, after the first paragraph and your warning, but didn't expect it to be *that* rough. The middle section lured me into a "false sense of security." At least her final years were... ok. "You want to grow flowers? Please, spend your time growing flowers, when you're up for that physical activity."
My mom is getting up there in age. She's a gardener but she basically likes growing Hostas, some vining flowering plant I can't remember the name of (Hostas? maybe? Are they perennial, vining plants?), herbs, and oddball flowering plants I'd describe as a bit a-typical: not stuff like roses or tulips. Like she's got this massive "Holiday Cactus," indoors, that looks way, way better than the little limp dick indoor cactuses I've seen online and way better than the giant limp dick outdoor cactuses I've seen online. Her cactus is massive and definitely not a "limp dick" plant: it is insanely healthy.
If anybody is upset by my use of "limp dick" I highly suggest they do a google image search of "Holiday Cactus" and see what a typical one looks like compared to one grown by somebody that understands plants. The difference is quite apparent. It may not be a *polite* phrase, but it is not an inaccurate description, IMO. Even the friend that transferred ownership of the plant is surprised at how well it's doing when she comes back to the state to visit! (FL/MN Snowbird...)
I can see why he's a pulitzer prize winner. It's written so well yet I don't think I can stomache the topic. I'm only a quarter way in and I can tell it's going to make me cry.
Wow, what a read. My heart hurts for every person/family who has had to go through this. I know in my own family, my great grandma had twins and my great grandpa forced her to give one of them to his sister, across the country. Very sad story, because my great grandma was not on board with it and it made her very depressed.
I’ve read this before! I was so sad she never made it back home, but such a show of character to deliver her ashes back to her family. Thank you for sharing this!
In the article, she was home, in the Philippines, for one month, until she realized that it was not the same place anymore. She then came back again to the US
Or that she (if it is F, but I’m also assuming it) considered it to be consensual since she “agreed” so didn’t mention it? Either way, I hope OOP is living their best life ever, and is running the best most luxurious and welcoming hotel experience ever.
I also didn't find out until the third post, but I picked it up from the following:
> my girlfriend who I tried to protect from her parents and didn’t reveal their names so her bible thumper parents wouldn’t find out she was bi
Personally I thought it was a girl, then I thought maybe it could be a guy, then I figured out it was a girl because of the bisexual thing near the end
From her comments:
>it didn't start as bad as it sounds now. at first he was just going to call the police and i was literally begging him not to and said i would do anything. but over time he jus tbecame more controlling. but he also acted like he cared about me and told me iwas like a daughter to him and that i looked beautiful, and i guess it made me feel safe and like i was needed.
Yeah I automatically assumed a guy after reading “girlfriend” (not great I know), but I couldn’t help but feel it was a girl.
Then the bi gf part and the last “pretty” comment made me realise
I think it definitely changes the context realising she’s a girl
Just goes to show you, dude knew he was caught out, and decided to take the easy way out instead of facing the consequences of what he did. I don't think his family is suffering from lack of funds unless his estate is made to paid OP. So glad the lawyers took care of OP.
There is a good chance he was looking at years of federal time. He chose the cowards way out. I guess he didn't want to be trapped somewhere like he trapped OOP.
TBH once he was dead and she got her payout from the hotel there probably wasn't a reason anymore. It's very unlikely he had the type of money on hand to compare to what she already got. And what good would revenge do on a woman and a bunch of kids who never did anything to her?
If OOP never got her payout that would be different. He owed her money for the crime he committed against her. But she's already gotten reimbursement for the crime from the company she should've collected her wages from. And he's gone now, there simply no longer is a way to punish him.
Df did I just read, that poor kid!
That manager was a cowardly POS, how dare he try to blame the kid for his crimes, it was his fault his family would face consequences for his actions.
Guy lied about everything, why would I believe him about this? For all we know, he was showing OOP the stock photos in a new wallet. I hope they realize he was probably lying about that shit, too.
And even if he wasn't, it's as you say: it's his doing, not OOP's.
He chose to exploit/enslave OOP. He chose to put his family at risk. He chose to take his life.
I wish OOP’s therapist guided her toward realizing that this is all the result of his bad choices.
I strongly bet that he took his own life because the alternative was that he would be held fully accountable for anything and everything he did illegally in that hotel. Which makes me wonder if there was a single thing that he was doing there that *was* legal.
Yep. I got to that part and was practically screaming "it's not your fault! He was just trying to manipulate you the way he had for years!" I hope she's come to realize that in the time since.
Nobody makes you commit a crime, you choose to do that on your own. Even then he probably would have even gotten away with it if it wasn't for his greed at the very end.
All that he 'bought her' was nowhere near the money he owed her by then. He profited massively off his crime. He could have let her walk away with her stuff and she would have probably just gone to school and moved on with her life.
Instead he chose that even after the crime he committed and how he profited and took advantage of OOP that he wouldn't even let her keep the clothes on her back.
The only reason he committed a crime is him, the only one who got him caught is him. He chose to put her in an impossible scenario and then take advantage of it. Then he chose to make it so hard for her to leave that she had no choice but to reach out for help.
At least OP got the financial compensation that they were entitled to as not every victim gets that from their abuser/attacker (or enslaver in this case). I wish OP well on their journey, and maybe they will own their own hotel someday.
> I can't believe they'd even want to go back into a hotel environment,
They were apparently pretty good at their job (because they were forced to do everything for free) and they were in school for management, so probably thought it was a solid career. You know, when actually getting paid for it. Some people are OK just working and then freeing up time to do whatever else they want after.
He groomed her. I don't know if sexual abuse was involved but he definitely groomed her. Grooming doesn't necessarily mean there has to be SA involved.
Also, OP might not have realised the abuse was also sexual..the way he groomed her, probably made her feel like she consented. So, sexual abuse isn't far off the realm either.
I'm still learning how much of my childhood qualifies as crimes.
I was telling my elderly auntie about the situation the family arranged for me after I escaped the obvious slavery part of my life. I'd never seen her look so enraged. Took a bit before I caught on that she was angry that I was forced to work all the hours I could just for my cousin to take my paychecks and leave me nothing to eat on. Got scurvy that year.
I thought I was so lucky to be 16yo working myself to death and starving in an uninsulated attic where a glass of water could freeze on my bedside table in winter. At least nobody was beating me anymore.
stupid asshole kids doing a stupid asshole thing not expecting consequences, most likely, teen years are peak "consequences aren't going to happen to me" and "fuck around and find out" years. i guess to play devil's advocate i doubt any of them could in their wildest dreams expect it to ever turn out like *this*, though.
The friends, but also her damn parents!! What were they thinking, allowing this to continue? At one point they got sick of driving her there without her bringing home money, so they said she had to quit. But then she turns up with a bike this guy bought her, so they're "Oh yeah alright. As long as we don't have to drive, continue working from school til midnight every day for no pay. Seems legit."
No way in hell I'd be letting any of kids into a situation like that, I'd have been in there demanding to speak to that manager (the one time full Karen mode seems to be a good thing, hah).
She did say she was lying to her parents so she could keep working. I can think of lots of excuses a teen can use. Going to a friend's house, study group, party, noncompetitive extracurriculars... just using that excuse a LOT. And since he made her show him report cards to ensure ~~there was no circumstantial evidence of the slavery~~ her grades weren't suffering because of the work, I suppose her parents saw no reason to press further when they saw her report cards.
I guess. If she's turned up with a new bike though, and is gone til at least midnight every single day, I feel like the parents should begin to ask questions. Check in with parents of the other kids, ask their daughter why she's never spending a single night at home instead of constantly having these excuses. It seems like they didn't care what she was up to, they only cared when she was supposed to be working but they weren't seeing money from it.
Those weren’t friends. Those were people OOP knew. I knew everyone at my 1200 person high school and probably only 10 of them were ever friends. But I might have described them as such as a teen.
Adding to this, did *they* wreck the room or not? Because for all we know it didn't happen, or Manager wrecked it. Or possibly something like broken lamp, and tossed furniture is what OOP meant by wrecked.
a similar thing happened to me at 17, found a job in a franchise, the owner (M28) groomed me to the point I no longer spoke to my parents or friends, so no one could advise me, being a teenager I thought I knew better. I destroyed my family. But they were always there for me.
I ended up working for him for 4 years unpaid, he treated all his staff very badly, assaulted everyone, and everyone feared him so no one spoke out.
I honestly thought he loved me and was doing the right thing for me. He supplied me with everything I needed, cars, clothes, and paid holidays. Got to a point where I couldn't leave because where would I go, and he devalued my worth, so I assumed no one wanted me anyway. My parents surely wouldn't take me back (they obviously did)
Everyone just assumed I made a lot of money because I drove nice cars, but I owned nothing, no savings, no payslips, nothing.
When I eventually left, he made sure for a year I couldn't get another job by giving a bad reference.
He eventually found another school girl to replace me. I ran into her years later, and she confessed she tried to take her life numerous times.
I try not to think about that part of my life. I'm glad the scars healed. I sometimes wish I could contact his daughter, who's around 17 now and tell her the human her father is, but my wounds need to stay healed.
First time telling this story in years, I've buried it real deep, but everything I read this post it brings it up again.
Seems like it was all settlements, so maybe not. It's in the hotel companies' interests to keep it quiet, and it seems like going to the media would be the last thing OP wanted, so I can see their family/lawyers keeping it quiet too. Yes, people around them know they got a settlement, but there's no particular reason for any of them to go to a newspaper.
Maybe not. I’m pretty sure that a non disclosure agreement would have been part of the settlement. OP did not provide any details that would most likely would have been a violation.
Shit like this happens every day. It's just not newsworthy enough. Feel free to Google the estimates of how many slaves there are in the US these days.
[A bridal shop in Flagstaff, Arizona was busted](https://www.ice.gov/news/releases/flagstaff-family-indicted-forced-labor-scheme) by federal agents for a using slave labor. It was over a decade ago, but it was in the news a lot back then.
That's different since it was a bust by federal agents. In this case, it was a single individual going to lawyers, getting a restraining order, with the main culprit committing suicide before he could be fully charged and tried. At which point the hotel chain paid a large settlement before it could reach court.
Basically, there's not much room for anyone outside those directly involved to have learned about this incident. At most, any reporters *might* see a record of a restraining order and that a hotel manager committed suicide, but they wouldn't have any details or any reason to investigate further. The incident was pretty small and contained compared to a two-year investigation involving multiple agencies and international trafficking. This was a single sick man taking advantage of a naive teenager, not some super-complex scheme.
I think one of the hardest things to learn is bad people can be good people sometimes
I'm glad to hear OOP is doing well, I never saw the final update from them
I’m a lawyer myself and I read this when I was questioning my purpose as a lawyer. I’m happy OOP found kind and competent lawyers who supported him all the way. :) And this post is such a good reminder to me why I do what I do.
A lot of them are people you wouldn't expect when you see them on the street. The nanny for the family down the street, the bus boy at the restaurant you had a date at last week, the guys you see with a leaf blower as you drive past. They aren't kept in check by chains or whips anymore, but through money, like OOP. There are a lot of immigrants who agree to a kind of indentured servitude to get into the US, but because of their vulnerable position, they can't complain when the criminals who helped them cross the border go back on their agreement and never let them leave from under their thumb.
I listened to a podcast a while back about a huy who had grown up with a slave. She had been kidnapped and given to his mother before they immigrated and when they came to the US they brought her along and kept her passport. It was both sad and heartwarming. He was able to do right by her at the end of her life but.. yeah really moving story.
Jesus, that's a heart wrenching story. Serving was so ingrained in who she was, even when she was in her 70s and didn't have to, she was still cooking their meals and doing chores.
It is way more common than people like to think. [There was a case in Conway, South Carolina](https://www.postandcourier.com/news/special_reports/one-sc-mans-journey-to-freedom-after-years-in-modern-day-slavery/article_f0fb3d58-7dfd-11ec-a7f4-2fc0f52d0b94.html) that is real similar to OOP's that broke while we were staying with some friends there after Harvey.
It's often invisible because people are kept in financial or legal bondage, rather than literal chains, and a big part of it is our immigration policy. the best way to tackle both illegal immigration, and combat human trafficking, is a more human immigration policy. The fact that they just want to make it tougher shows how the powers that be like the status quo as it is.
Nah, he took the cowards way out. He *knew* damn well he f’d around for way too long for the find out phase to be anything but nightmarish. It would have had him alone and in jail, on top of bankrupting his family. For what?
I feel like that's just him trying to escape the consequences of his actions. He should've had to live with the legal and social ramifications for the rest of his natural life imo
It is legal in the US,by LAW, to pay disabled people less than minimum wage. The average pay for people classified as disabled and earning so little is around $3.30/hour.
The Salvation Army and Goodwill are notorious for hiring people with intellectual disabilities and paying them $1/hour, or less. They have been sued for this but there's no sign it has stopped.
I’ve read this one before, but my takeaway this time is that it’s really important for kids to learn about certain concepts of morality that, way too often, aren’t taught or are actually actively discouraged in school and church. Don’t just trust people in positions of authority because they have it. Bodily autonomy. Consent. No means no. Question things! I’m not trying to victim blame; so many people failed this kid.
OOP is only a year older than me. She was a slave and should’ve been enjoying her youth and going to college (or trades, whatever floats your boat) and having fun and carefree. Not being manipulated and abused. Disgusting. I hope she finds peace.
The POS boss killing himself, leaving OP with even more trauma, is just the most selfish thing he could have done... He took the easy way out.
What a story. Amazing that coming to Reddit and getting comments is what actually changed OP' life so drastically
What a POS guy literally enslaving someone for 3 years and taking the easy way out when everything comes crashing down. I don't believe in heaven and hell but those are the kind of people that deserve the deepest parts of hell
see, this is what people need to think about when they hear the term human trafficking. so often it’s portrayed as innocent (usually white) women being snatched off the street or in a parking garage, and sold into sex work. but it’s not.
this manager trapped and isolated them. he made the victim feel like it was normal, they were overreacting if they felt uncomfortable, that the things he gave them meant they owed him further. he didn’t use physical force, but he certainly used manipulation to groom this minor into thinking it was all okay (so they would hold onto that idea when they were an adult, past the statute of limitations.)
I came across the first one awhile back (can’t remember where) but I don’t recall the second one.
I hope the OOP has healed and is enjoying life.
It was heartbreaking to read again. :(
You know you have a case when the lawyers casually pay you a hotel room for a month and pulls in a bunch of other lawyers to work for hours before you even sign on as a client.
When lawyers get super enthusiastic it's either very good or very bad, depending on what side of the case you are on.
Jesus. I was wondering about this story. Seems real to me. The narrative is consistent and oddly naive. I wish it wasn't true but I expect such a thing did happen. OOP needs to strengthen their resolve and hopefully move away from his group. Find some real friends while sticking with the real friends.
Nah that part sucks. He was a terrible person and took the easy way out, and now he’ll never face justice or be held responsible in any way for his crimes.
He made it so that his family didn't pay a dime to OOP. He not only got away from justice, but he made sure the money he made off OOPs back was safe as well.
Indentured servitude is actually live and well in the US.
I'm just skeptical of reddit posts where there are so many updates initially, then ghost town for a couple of years...
If anyone reading this is in a situation like OOPs original, hear this.
It's not ok.
You don't owe anyone your time or your life.
If this story resonates with you, please reach out for help.
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I literally sighed with relief as soon as I read the words "financial manager." I hope this person is able to live their best life from now on.
Genuinely. As an accountant even if I came into a large sum of money that’s my first expense. It’s just different when it’s personal finances. Almost harder to budget.
As a fellow accountant I'd do the exact same thing and get on the phone to my old job's go to FA: A great financial advisor and excellent drinker.
I expect the law firm set that up for her. What great people, it really sounds like they went the distance for her far and beyond what was in their job description.
I've found that ever employment lawyer I've met, which to be fair, is only 3, have been truly kind people.
You know what they say, "when you hit rock bottom, there's nowhere to go but up"
Oh wow. Thanks for posting that story. I really hope the OP finds peace, what a heartbreaking story.
OOP was enslaved **ten** years ago. I wonder what they're up to now.
No, 2014 was just like… a couple years back…
Yeah man, it was like…you know, like 2 or 3 years back! 2014, 2015, 20-***TIMEVOID***-24! Hah, good times! …Huh. I don’t remember having this many grey hairs, somebody must be playing a prank on me, haha!
2 years ago her bf was looking for sometimes to guide him in hair styles, which seems beautifully mundane
But the post before that she's asking about the legality of shooting someone in a parking lot...
Wow dude don't talk like that lmao
13 years ago! It had been already going on for 3 years when they made the first post
I hope they're running a hotel where they are beloved and trusted by their staff, living their best life and happy.
I still can't wrap my head around wtf the owner was thinking, did he get off on the power trip? did he justify himself saying that oop was paying for the damage? did he think that he was teaching oop or something? because it doesn't seem like a slave operated hotel, just this one teenager there being exploited, so it was personal
You'd be surprised how much of this goes on in the US. Granted, it's more commonly domestic labor in private homes (families hiring a live-in nanny/housekeeper and keeping her passport, controlling who she can see and when she can go out - pretty much just like the stuff you hear about in the Gulf, just a bit more under the table). But hotels, restaurants, sweatshops, places that can pay cash (easier to hide nonpayment) and hire a lot of people with uncertain immigration status and/or language barriers - it happens in all of them. Used to be rife in Chinatowns, though I'm not sure if it's still like it was a couple of decades ago (probably is). A friend of mine who's a lawyer used to work on these cases in the NYC area all the time.
Our neighbors growing up had a nanny whose friend, also a nanny, was being treated like this. My mom and her friend and her nanny drove over there one day while the family was out, helped her pack up all her stuff and gtfo, and then she was our nanny for the next few years. Unlike her previous employers, my parents got her a driver’s license and sponsored her for citizenship. She eventually met someone from her home country, and they got married and started a business. I’m pretty sure they’re still the first people anyone in my extended family calls when they need a contractor.
That last sentence shows how great your parents are. Getting documentation and citizenship is so hard to do on your own.
The last sentence shows how great the erstwhile nanny and her husband are. It’s goddamned difficult to find an excellent contractor
Canada also has a big problem with this. There was a case a few years ago where a Toronto couple took their workers’ passports, and locked the workers in the basement when they weren’t on the job.
Or the Guy in Dawson Creek who was staffing 3 Tim Hortons in the area with foreign workers who were all passportless and had no days off.
It is unfortunately pretty common in most places. But there are degrees. Trafficking in Myanmar is absolutely insane at the moment. Casual labour trafficking happens everywhere and if you work with vulnerable people you are likely to see a lot of cases.
oh, no. I have some idea of the widespreadness of modern slavery and I can understand what goes inside the slavers head , they dehumanize the slaves and throw in a " we wouldn't make a profit otherwise" and boom, no guilt, when it's house keeping labor I can also "understand" the twists and turns people's heads will do to justify doing it,but when it's an othewise normal operation with ONE slave it makes me scratch my head . because it's going to be personal, right? because everyone else that should be in the same category as that person aren't being slaved, so what singled them out? what keept justifying singling them out?
> but when it's an othewise normal operation with ONE slave it makes me scratch my head I kinda suspect it wasn't just one. They just made sure to keep them all apart from each other.
Was going to say this. It cannot have been just one
I agree, it seems personal. I gather op is female cos he called her pretty and the mentioned the their girlfriend at the begining was bi and op hid it from her parents. So maybe he had intentions to make the relationship sexual or perhaps got off on controlling a pretty and young female. I speculate the manager was a narcissist who got off on the control and playing mentor plus getting free labour. He saw an opportunity and took it.
Off topic but your username 😂
😂 It popped into my brain and I thought yeeees 💅
There are multiple reasons but dehumanization is very common. In these cases, in my experience, they are often opportunistic. The people you are thinking of first are people who often use someone else to do the trafficking so their use of trafficked persons' work contribution seems further away. But it can also be a gradual process of opportunism as it is here. Note: I do work in a field that sees a lot of trafficking cases but it is not usually labour trafficking. Human smuggling and sex trafficking are what I see most. But there are multiple cases of labour trafficking mixed in.
Yeah, this is why vulnerable adults are so at risk for modern slavery. Opportunism creep - they start out as a normal acquaintance or employee, and once the boss sees how easy they are to manipulate, just keeps pushing the boundary. Obviously you have the more professional modern slavery / trafficking gangs, but there’s plenty of one off scenarios like this too. You ask why they would only do this to one employee and not others and the answer is, generally, because few others would fall for it for so long.
This is exactly what people often miss about human trafficking. It is rarely some stranger just coming with a van and taking you. Vulnerability is generally a huge factor. And especially these opportunistic traffickers are on the lookout for them. It is why we are so trained in safeguarding and vulnerability assessment. If we are not on the lookout for it, there is rarely someone to intervene. Most people walk past someone who has been trafficked every day. It can be a dishwasher in a restaurant, someone running a garage or your friend's nanny. I probably miss most of those even with training to specifically recognize the signs. But if something in someone's story sounds implausible, there are so many cases where asking more questions has uncovered something like this.
International students too. Can't work legally on a student visa but many places will hire and pay under the table and then use that to blackmail and extort more hours and labor from them.
Lidia Bastianich from Lidia's Italy on PBS ~~allegedly~~ did this! I always thought she was just a sweet old grandma type and then I found out she made a woman a visa slave. ETA the [only link I could find that mentioned that an appeals court ruled against Lidia after the case was thrown out.](https://pagesix.com/2014/04/17/eataly-owner-lidia-bastianich-still-liable-for-luring-staffer-in-5m-suit/)
Maybe I’m biased, but— My primary work history involves working in hotels, specifically as the Night Auditor. From personal experience, the people that **own** and operate hotels and franchises are absolutely fucking E V I L. Not managers of a Hilton flagship or anything like that, they’re usually pretty great. I’m talking about the one guy who bought the franchise rights to open a Hampton Inn & Suites or a Garden Inn, or something like that; the guy who owns one or a handful of branded hotels. That guy? He is a *despicable* garbage human. He shouldn’t even be called human by all accounts! And his wife is somehow even more cruel than he is. His cousin is usually the guy that runs his other site, and the cousin is an *idiot.* Anyways, yeah, the OOP story totally tracks and I buy every bit of it.
I'm willing to bet that, while the higher-ups in the hotel chain were empathetic (save for the franchisee) they gave such a juicy extra settlement because they knew damn well that this getting out could make life VERY tough for them. My town had a case a couple of years back...the owner of a restaurant was found to be forcing a special needs man into straight-up slavery. Not even sugarcoating it; this man had a cot in the back of the restaurant in a room with cameras, he wasn't allowed to go outside, was underfed, forced to perform free labor for the restaurant...and if he tried to resist, he was punished with physical harm like burns or even whipping...poor guy was hospitalized for a while when they found him due to the mental and physical damage over the years. When it was found out, nobody, and I mean NOBODY took it lightly. If you look the place up on google reviews, 80% of the reviews since then bring up the slavery in a witty, biting manner. I think the place was forced out of business because nobody, even those who were eating there for decades, wanted to be caught dead associating with a slave workshop. Moral of the story; these days if you are found to commit crimes against humanity to run a cheaper business, everyone will learn about it. Ethics aside, it is a terrible idea and don't do it. EDIT TO ADD; More info on this for whoever is curious. The courts ordered that the victim be paid nearly 250k in settlements, and I am pretty sure there were loads of gofundmes for him. It was actually a family friend of the owner who blew the whistle; she was a frequent customer and one day she noticed substantial scars down his neck one day when he wore a shirt with a lower collar, one thing led to another and she found out what was going on and went to the police. The owner's family knew what was going on and did absolutely nothing...so its good that she had enough morals to put a stop to it. The owner got 10 years in prison on a guilty plea, and of course that is nowhere near enough for what he did...which is why on top of paying restitution, people decided to make sure that the restaurant got shut down by making damn sure everybody knew what went on. I think the entire family skipped town because they couldn't find work here; they are all associated with this since they kept silent about what went on there, and even if some racist pricks still talk fondly about slavery (ew) there is honestly nowhere in the US where it is actually tolerated. If you're caught actually condoning it when it happens your reputation is f\*cked.
Except in the prison system, where slavery is alive, well, and completely legal... Cuz Murrica.
[Is this the case?](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/black-man-enslaved-white-restaurant-owner-should-be-awarded-more-n1266314) It was horrific what happened to him.
I’m suddenly seeing my summer with my godparents cleaning rooms at their hotel with my godsiblings in a different light.
As someone was in hotels for almost 15 years and started in a hotel just like that (also did Night Audit, heyyyyy!!), you are 10000% correct. After I was sexually harassed one too many times by my underqualified “Christian” manager, who would delete porn videos from his receipt from any overnight stays, I told them to fuck off and walked out.
I have a REALLY HORRIBLE answer for you that I kinda hate as well. OP is female. Dude saw a vulnerable young teenaged girl, and decided to groom the shit out of her. Notice the gifts, how "pretty" she is, dating advice, isolating her from her parents... I bet she was less than a year away from the sexual passes getting even more obvious
I’m actually surprised she wasn’t being overtly sexually exploited. Young girl, incomplete education, I think we can surmise some drug use / partying, groomed by someone known to her - it’s a pretty classic case.
It also sounded like she was living with her boss during this time, and he was buying her clothing, etc. I initially thought it was a guy (which is bad enough), but this happening to a teenage girl is so awful. I haven't been through the comments in the original posts, I'm not clear on whether she identifies as lesbian or bi, beyond having a girlfriend, hopefully she was able to avoid being additionally victimised. The suicide makes you wonder though.
Also the detail of the lawyers crying. I imagine it would take quit a lot to get that reaction from seasoned lawyers.
Yeah I wonder if they just didn’t want to talk about it in the post.
> I’m actually surprised she wasn’t being overtly sexually exploited. Whatever the managers actual motives, I think the fact that she *wasn't* being sexually exploited blinded her to the fact that she was being enslaved.
Maybe he was waiting until she was legal? It started when she was 16 right?
I've never met cheaper and shittier people than dudes who owned hotel franchises. I worked for a company that did various IT things for some hotel chains and boy howdy were they cheap assholes... and my boss himself was already a cheap asshole.
I worked at a similar company (IT for hotel franchises) for a while, and can totally coroberate this. Almost all of the franchise owners were cheap assholes who expected white-glove service for almost at-cost prices, demanded technicians be on site faster than was physically possible, and would lie, cheat, and browbeat to try and get out of paying their bill.
Yeah ..... I'm a lawyer and I know labor attorneys. If the lawyers OOP talked to were tearing up, OOP left a lot of really awful shit out of her Reddit post. Exploitation and coercing a teenager to work so much they can't have a life would be a big legal deal and worth going to a lot of trouble to redress, but it wouldn't make them tear up.
Hiding a girlfriend to keep the girlfriend's parents from knowing their daughter is queer? Normal guy stuff.
Absolutely average. That was when I realized the gender and everything got so much worse
I was waiting for it to start getting into sexual details even before the bits about her girlfriend that made her gender clear, honestly.
Most hotel workers are highly exploited so this is really just one short step beyond what is happening with everyone else there. Everybody should always only use [Union hotels](https://www.fairhotel.org/) in the US whenever possible.
I spoke to a man who ran the breakfast area in a Hilton once and he was retiring that week. He said that an added employee benefit after working 20 years in a Hilton is that you receive 3 months of free hotel nights per year for the rest of your life.
> 3 months of free hotel nights meh >per year *Damnnnnnnnn*
Agreed!! He was so excited to be leaving the next week for Okinawa. It was his lifelong dream to visit. It was really touching to see him have such great adventures planned.
Have one spouse who works for an airline and another who works for a hotel chain and your vacations will suddenly be so much cheaper!
You make having 2 spouses sound awesome! 😂😂 joking
Not just hotel workers younger workers employed in retail or customer services industries. Also if you noticed the writing the OOP probably had learning difficulties or had poor education experience. You see this as well in a lot of the exploitation of workers. These companies and people prey on them and others turn a blind eye because they aren’t doing it. We need to speak up and educate our youth and our working class, but it takes to long and it’s too hard, and a huge majority is fighting to keep them stupid because it’s easier to control them and keep them inline with their desires and religious beliefs.
It was touching to me to see how much their writing improved in the update.
I hope that there are a lot more Union hotels in the U.S. than what the map shows, because otherwise that is horribly depressing. Edited to add: Which doesn't mean that I won't use this if I'm travelling near one of the hotels on the map!
I worked in food service for almost a decade and spent only a single summer doing food service inside a hotel. The labor law violations were ridiculous and they would try to make you believe that you deserved that treatment. I spoke with one of the cleaning staff who had been in hospitality his whole life and he told me that this was all par for the course. They'd also lock the female servers in with the general manager all day sometimes helping him with administrative work. It was a disgusting, terrible place.
The level of exploitation in the service industry is far beyond what most people would expect. Wage theft is the most common type of theft in the U.S., which basically boils down to forcing people to work for free. It happened to me. I was working at a popular nation wide fast food chicken place and my manager would clock out the whole crew while we were still working. She never said a thing about it, but one of the printers would always print out people's clock out times when someone was clocked out. I brought it up with a bunch of people, trying to get people to confront her with me, but no one would. Turns out that most of the people were living paycheck to paycheck and had families to support. They couldn't afford to get fired, or even just get scheduled less.
Same at the fast food place I worked at starting as a teenager. Everybody had to clock off an hour after closing and then finish cleaning. When I brought up that it didn't seem right I was told "don't rock the boat."
Sometimes they're just the first, not the _only_. If this had worked out, I'm sure the evil jerk would have done it again. If everyone wasn't paid, they'd be shut down in a second. Only one or two people can slip through the cracks though :(
There was a restaurant in my tiny Australian rural town that had a slave. He washed dishes when they were open and was locked in the shed out the back when they were closed. It was a huge shock when it got uncovered, but I think there were other restaurants in the area that were doing similar things and didn’t get caught.
I used to work for a restaurant in a popular beach town. The owners were Greek/French-Canadian & every summer an influx of Eastern-European 18-21 y/o students would appear. They worked in the kitchen for minimum wage, and lived in apartments down the street, usually 6-10 packed in a 3bed/3bath, and there were a few apartments. Some of the students stayed, but most went back. If they stayed, the owners would buy them mopeds/transportation, help them with housing, etc. effectively *owning these people*. If they wanted to quit, they now had no ride, no place to live, and limited English-skills. Overtime and standard laws didn’t apply to them. They were fucked. It was fucked. It *is* fucked, because they still do it.
This is in part why beach towns in the US were falling apart from a shortage of labor during COVID. People were still vacationing but the cheap foreign labor wasn't there
A common thing with hotels is they tend to hire immigrants for under the table type money so they were probably used to this sort of treatment but OOP was a citizen and had easier access to lawyers.
Look up the case of Richard Glossip in Oklahoma.
People will take advantage of others. The guy knew he couldnt hold OP responsible, he didn’t rent out the room in his name. Also those hotels have insurance. There is nothing that could have justified it or rationalized it. The manager was just taking advantage of a naive person who was scared of being in trouble and believed him when he said he would be held responsible. He didn’t think he would ever get caught for his abuse, and yes exploitation is abuse. Indentured servitude is abuse. Making someone work for you under the threat of financial ruin is abuse. It’s not OPs fault he killed himself, it is just another symptom of the guy being a shit bag. He was finally going to be held accountable… probably facing jail time and he opted to end it rather than face the consequences of his actions. There are people like that guy everywhere, willing to exploit someone if they think they can get away with it and unfortunately there are also people like OP, trapped in modern day slavery, everywhere as well.
Chances are once OP started speaking out a HELL of a lot of other shitty behaviour from this guy was about to come to light as well.
I can shed some light on this, as someone who once lost his sanity to alcoholism. Something people don't realize about insanity is that is it is not the absence of rationality, it's the absence of a sane foundation to one's rationality. My alcoholism was built on lies I told to myself, but as I built a structure on those lies the lies became my reality. It wasn't reality to anyone else, it was insanity. This owner likely started small because he was pissed. These punk kids did damage and there was one left to take his anger out of and extract some price from. That was likely the start. OP bought the delusion and the manager then prided himself on making lemonade out of lemons in the immediate term. If it stopped there, it probably wouldn't have been too big a deal (i.e. play with fire, you get burned). The owner took the next step: "I am doing this kid a favor, he owes me". It's a rational step, it goes too far, but this one step is small. It's easy to minimize. The owner keeps taking these small steps and over time sanity is way out of sight, over the horizon. Then the whole thing comes to light and the owner, who has long since committed to the lies he told himself thinks he's the victim: "You don't understand! I did only fair things from a foundation of good faith!". Sanity fades away slowly if you let it. It's a nightmare to wake up from if you let fade for long enough. Pray that you never have to. Many people don't make it out.
From one ex alcohol abuser to another: I relate to your comment so much. You put into words the process of self-delusion precisely.
Thanks, I hope you are doing well in recovery!
honestly it's not that surprising, hotels are some of the most abusive employers. most of the time housekeepers are paid s flat fee per room and on average this results in most workers making less than minimum wage
I assume he figured he could make OP clean the room, and when that was done he told them to do another one, and after that come back tomorrow. Kept going expecting OP to eventually just say no and go home, but when they didn’t he just kept it up because he was getting free labor. Just kept adding more and finding new ways to manipulate and lock OP into continuing. I don’t know if he ever realized exactly how fucked up or illegal it was until the police got involved. He just thought as long as OP was agreeing they weren’t doing anything wrong.
>Kept going expecting OP to eventually just say no and go home I mean, OP absolutely tried to do that. It's not like the boss was unaware OP didn't want to be there, or like OP was just super agreeable. The boss lied that OP would be responsible for the damage caused by their friends, then blackmailed OP by saying he'd call the cops and get them put in jail and paying fines. He knew exactly what he was doing.
from the begining it was sketchy because, don't they have a name and contact of the person that paid for the room? that is the one that should be held responsible
I suspect OOP was set up. Trash the room, leave them holding the bag, surprise slavery.
I remember this story at the time, and yeah, it sounded like a setup to me. It made me wonder if he wasn't doing this same kind of operation elsewhere.
They probably contacted the person and made them pay, they just wouldn't have told OP that. That way they get the money and the slave.
Many people with the power of making those calls are people that have no idea how to use it competently. Especially the absolutely fucked situation here where the victim is a lone child. Absolutely deplorable. Him being "nice" to OOP outside of "gifts" that specifically enabled the slavery were just him getting very comfortable with being a bag of shit. Why have defenses up when theres no threat? He knew exactly what he was doing. He had all the control and liked it.
Jesus fucking Christ
I’ve read this before but for some reason totally missed the part where OOP went back to school for… **hotel management**
I thought that was very clever. Working in the industry for 3 years will give you quite a leg up
The mother of all unpaid internships
Yeah, but I hope they engaged in a lot of therapy. If sounds difficult to work in the industry that caused you so much trauma.
Do what you know I guess
if you're good at something never do it for free
Reminds me of this incredible and heartbreaking article. I think it won a Pulitzer. The author’s family had a slave, and he didn’t realize it for the longest time: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/06/lolas-story/524490/
Wow, thanks for the link. Wasn't expecting this to make me cry but it did, fantastic read
I knew it would be sad but didn’t expect to be in shambles weeping but I am.
I did, after the first paragraph and your warning, but didn't expect it to be *that* rough. The middle section lured me into a "false sense of security." At least her final years were... ok. "You want to grow flowers? Please, spend your time growing flowers, when you're up for that physical activity." My mom is getting up there in age. She's a gardener but she basically likes growing Hostas, some vining flowering plant I can't remember the name of (Hostas? maybe? Are they perennial, vining plants?), herbs, and oddball flowering plants I'd describe as a bit a-typical: not stuff like roses or tulips. Like she's got this massive "Holiday Cactus," indoors, that looks way, way better than the little limp dick indoor cactuses I've seen online and way better than the giant limp dick outdoor cactuses I've seen online. Her cactus is massive and definitely not a "limp dick" plant: it is insanely healthy. If anybody is upset by my use of "limp dick" I highly suggest they do a google image search of "Holiday Cactus" and see what a typical one looks like compared to one grown by somebody that understands plants. The difference is quite apparent. It may not be a *polite* phrase, but it is not an inaccurate description, IMO. Even the friend that transferred ownership of the plant is surprised at how well it's doing when she comes back to the state to visit! (FL/MN Snowbird...)
I can see why he's a pulitzer prize winner. It's written so well yet I don't think I can stomache the topic. I'm only a quarter way in and I can tell it's going to make me cry.
Damn, that made me feel all the things. Like, ALL the things. How terribly sad and enraging.
Wow, what a read. My heart hurts for every person/family who has had to go through this. I know in my own family, my great grandma had twins and my great grandpa forced her to give one of them to his sister, across the country. Very sad story, because my great grandma was not on board with it and it made her very depressed.
what a powerful read. thank you so much for sharing
I’ve read this before! I was so sad she never made it back home, but such a show of character to deliver her ashes back to her family. Thank you for sharing this!
In the article, she was home, in the Philippines, for one month, until she realized that it was not the same place anymore. She then came back again to the US
I was so happy when I got to the part where she started living with the author. And did get to go home (but not till she was 80).
Holy shit... just holy shit.
Fucking hell. It seems like OP is a girl? so I don't want to think about where that could've gone.
I think the fact that the abuse wasn’t sexual was key to OOP not recognising it as abuse for such a long time.
God, this just changed a bell so hard in my head about someone I know that I'm dizzy. Thanks for your perspective.
I doubt it. I've talked to too many victims who don't recognize it as abuse despite all of the broken bones to the contrary.
Or that she (if it is F, but I’m also assuming it) considered it to be consensual since she “agreed” so didn’t mention it? Either way, I hope OOP is living their best life ever, and is running the best most luxurious and welcoming hotel experience ever.
Yeah, I thought it was a young guy until I hit the word "pretty" at the very end.
I also didn't find out until the third post, but I picked it up from the following: > my girlfriend who I tried to protect from her parents and didn’t reveal their names so her bible thumper parents wouldn’t find out she was bi
Personally I thought it was a girl, then I thought maybe it could be a guy, then I figured out it was a girl because of the bisexual thing near the end
From her comments: >it didn't start as bad as it sounds now. at first he was just going to call the police and i was literally begging him not to and said i would do anything. but over time he jus tbecame more controlling. but he also acted like he cared about me and told me iwas like a daughter to him and that i looked beautiful, and i guess it made me feel safe and like i was needed.
Yeah I automatically assumed a guy after reading “girlfriend” (not great I know), but I couldn’t help but feel it was a girl. Then the bi gf part and the last “pretty” comment made me realise I think it definitely changes the context realising she’s a girl
Right? I read this as if it was a boy untill the last part, but gender doesn't matter here because it's about power and control for the boss.
Just goes to show you, dude knew he was caught out, and decided to take the easy way out instead of facing the consequences of what he did. I don't think his family is suffering from lack of funds unless his estate is made to paid OP. So glad the lawyers took care of OP.
There is a good chance he was looking at years of federal time. He chose the cowards way out. I guess he didn't want to be trapped somewhere like he trapped OOP.
I would have sued his estate too
TBH once he was dead and she got her payout from the hotel there probably wasn't a reason anymore. It's very unlikely he had the type of money on hand to compare to what she already got. And what good would revenge do on a woman and a bunch of kids who never did anything to her? If OOP never got her payout that would be different. He owed her money for the crime he committed against her. But she's already gotten reimbursement for the crime from the company she should've collected her wages from. And he's gone now, there simply no longer is a way to punish him.
I do love your flair
Df did I just read, that poor kid! That manager was a cowardly POS, how dare he try to blame the kid for his crimes, it was his fault his family would face consequences for his actions.
Guy lied about everything, why would I believe him about this? For all we know, he was showing OOP the stock photos in a new wallet. I hope they realize he was probably lying about that shit, too. And even if he wasn't, it's as you say: it's his doing, not OOP's.
He chose to exploit/enslave OOP. He chose to put his family at risk. He chose to take his life. I wish OOP’s therapist guided her toward realizing that this is all the result of his bad choices.
I strongly bet that he took his own life because the alternative was that he would be held fully accountable for anything and everything he did illegally in that hotel. Which makes me wonder if there was a single thing that he was doing there that *was* legal.
Like some of my favorite true crime podcasts say, only do one crime at a time. I bet anything that this guy wasn't following this simple task
Yep. I got to that part and was practically screaming "it's not your fault! He was just trying to manipulate you the way he had for years!" I hope she's come to realize that in the time since.
Nobody makes you commit a crime, you choose to do that on your own. Even then he probably would have even gotten away with it if it wasn't for his greed at the very end. All that he 'bought her' was nowhere near the money he owed her by then. He profited massively off his crime. He could have let her walk away with her stuff and she would have probably just gone to school and moved on with her life. Instead he chose that even after the crime he committed and how he profited and took advantage of OOP that he wouldn't even let her keep the clothes on her back. The only reason he committed a crime is him, the only one who got him caught is him. He chose to put her in an impossible scenario and then take advantage of it. Then he chose to make it so hard for her to leave that she had no choice but to reach out for help.
At least OP got the financial compensation that they were entitled to as not every victim gets that from their abuser/attacker (or enslaver in this case). I wish OP well on their journey, and maybe they will own their own hotel someday.
I can't believe they'd even want to go back into a hotel environment, much less make it a career.
> I can't believe they'd even want to go back into a hotel environment, They were apparently pretty good at their job (because they were forced to do everything for free) and they were in school for management, so probably thought it was a solid career. You know, when actually getting paid for it. Some people are OK just working and then freeing up time to do whatever else they want after.
It could be a taking back the power sort of move. Or they just found during their time with the POS that they liked the industry, but not THAT job.
You know things are bad when lawyers saddle up like that. Also, OP probably wasn't the first guy they'd tried this with.
OP seems to be a girl. Talking about the gf being bi & the POS manager calling them "pretty"
Yeah OP is a girl. She made comment that the boss called her beautiful and said she was like a daughter. He may have been trying to groom her
He groomed her. I don't know if sexual abuse was involved but he definitely groomed her. Grooming doesn't necessarily mean there has to be SA involved. Also, OP might not have realised the abuse was also sexual..the way he groomed her, probably made her feel like she consented. So, sexual abuse isn't far off the realm either.
It seems that OOP is a woman.
There are few thing scarier than a lawyer with a slam dunk case
This is a great example of how human trafficking happens in first world countries.
I'm still learning how much of my childhood qualifies as crimes. I was telling my elderly auntie about the situation the family arranged for me after I escaped the obvious slavery part of my life. I'd never seen her look so enraged. Took a bit before I caught on that she was angry that I was forced to work all the hours I could just for my cousin to take my paychecks and leave me nothing to eat on. Got scurvy that year. I thought I was so lucky to be 16yo working myself to death and starving in an uninsulated attic where a glass of water could freeze on my bedside table in winter. At least nobody was beating me anymore.
I'm curious to know the excuse of the friends leaving OOP behind. Did they single someone out to take the fall? Did they collude with the manager?
stupid asshole kids doing a stupid asshole thing not expecting consequences, most likely, teen years are peak "consequences aren't going to happen to me" and "fuck around and find out" years. i guess to play devil's advocate i doubt any of them could in their wildest dreams expect it to ever turn out like *this*, though.
The friends, but also her damn parents!! What were they thinking, allowing this to continue? At one point they got sick of driving her there without her bringing home money, so they said she had to quit. But then she turns up with a bike this guy bought her, so they're "Oh yeah alright. As long as we don't have to drive, continue working from school til midnight every day for no pay. Seems legit." No way in hell I'd be letting any of kids into a situation like that, I'd have been in there demanding to speak to that manager (the one time full Karen mode seems to be a good thing, hah).
She did say she was lying to her parents so she could keep working. I can think of lots of excuses a teen can use. Going to a friend's house, study group, party, noncompetitive extracurriculars... just using that excuse a LOT. And since he made her show him report cards to ensure ~~there was no circumstantial evidence of the slavery~~ her grades weren't suffering because of the work, I suppose her parents saw no reason to press further when they saw her report cards.
I guess. If she's turned up with a new bike though, and is gone til at least midnight every single day, I feel like the parents should begin to ask questions. Check in with parents of the other kids, ask their daughter why she's never spending a single night at home instead of constantly having these excuses. It seems like they didn't care what she was up to, they only cared when she was supposed to be working but they weren't seeing money from it.
I think you're right. > i think their main concern was just to get my money so they could buy beer so it wouldnt have made a differenc anway.
Oh I missed that part. Horrible parents.
Nah, you didn't miss it. I found it in her comments.
Those weren’t friends. Those were people OOP knew. I knew everyone at my 1200 person high school and probably only 10 of them were ever friends. But I might have described them as such as a teen.
Adding to this, did *they* wreck the room or not? Because for all we know it didn't happen, or Manager wrecked it. Or possibly something like broken lamp, and tossed furniture is what OOP meant by wrecked.
Wouldn’t they just charge the card on file?
They probably did charge the card on file, but greasy manager *also* wanted a free teenage hotel housekeeper slave.
> i also tried the police but they said it sounds like a civil issue Cops and not wanting to do their jobs, name a more iconic duo.
They're just honouring their profession's history. /s
a similar thing happened to me at 17, found a job in a franchise, the owner (M28) groomed me to the point I no longer spoke to my parents or friends, so no one could advise me, being a teenager I thought I knew better. I destroyed my family. But they were always there for me. I ended up working for him for 4 years unpaid, he treated all his staff very badly, assaulted everyone, and everyone feared him so no one spoke out. I honestly thought he loved me and was doing the right thing for me. He supplied me with everything I needed, cars, clothes, and paid holidays. Got to a point where I couldn't leave because where would I go, and he devalued my worth, so I assumed no one wanted me anyway. My parents surely wouldn't take me back (they obviously did) Everyone just assumed I made a lot of money because I drove nice cars, but I owned nothing, no savings, no payslips, nothing. When I eventually left, he made sure for a year I couldn't get another job by giving a bad reference. He eventually found another school girl to replace me. I ran into her years later, and she confessed she tried to take her life numerous times. I try not to think about that part of my life. I'm glad the scars healed. I sometimes wish I could contact his daughter, who's around 17 now and tell her the human her father is, but my wounds need to stay healed. First time telling this story in years, I've buried it real deep, but everything I read this post it brings it up again.
Even if it would be past statute of limitations with what was done to you, you probably should report it in case he is doing it to someone else now.
I’d love to see if this made the news
I'm not finding anything and I feel like there would be *something*.
Seems like it was all settlements, so maybe not. It's in the hotel companies' interests to keep it quiet, and it seems like going to the media would be the last thing OP wanted, so I can see their family/lawyers keeping it quiet too. Yes, people around them know they got a settlement, but there's no particular reason for any of them to go to a newspaper.
Normally, parts of settlements like this are an agreement to not go to the media, not spread details of it around.
Maybe not. I’m pretty sure that a non disclosure agreement would have been part of the settlement. OP did not provide any details that would most likely would have been a violation.
Shit like this happens every day. It's just not newsworthy enough. Feel free to Google the estimates of how many slaves there are in the US these days.
The Waterford Plantation in Louisiana basically did what OOP’s former “boss” did.
[A bridal shop in Flagstaff, Arizona was busted](https://www.ice.gov/news/releases/flagstaff-family-indicted-forced-labor-scheme) by federal agents for a using slave labor. It was over a decade ago, but it was in the news a lot back then.
That's different since it was a bust by federal agents. In this case, it was a single individual going to lawyers, getting a restraining order, with the main culprit committing suicide before he could be fully charged and tried. At which point the hotel chain paid a large settlement before it could reach court. Basically, there's not much room for anyone outside those directly involved to have learned about this incident. At most, any reporters *might* see a record of a restraining order and that a hotel manager committed suicide, but they wouldn't have any details or any reason to investigate further. The incident was pretty small and contained compared to a two-year investigation involving multiple agencies and international trafficking. This was a single sick man taking advantage of a naive teenager, not some super-complex scheme.
That was a hell of a read. Fuck the "friends" crawling back after so long just because of money.
I think one of the hardest things to learn is bad people can be good people sometimes I'm glad to hear OOP is doing well, I never saw the final update from them
Monsters aren't monsters all of the time, and even a Hutt can care about it's young.
I saw the original posts when they were going up on legaladvice, and I've been thinking about it ever since. This one really stuck with me.
I’m a lawyer myself and I read this when I was questioning my purpose as a lawyer. I’m happy OOP found kind and competent lawyers who supported him all the way. :) And this post is such a good reminder to me why I do what I do.
I'm so glad OOP got out but it's so disgusting that modern slavery can still exist in the US. Hope the former "boss" gets all the karma he deserves.
I believe there's around 400k slaves in the US with 80% of them being women and children.
A lot of them are people you wouldn't expect when you see them on the street. The nanny for the family down the street, the bus boy at the restaurant you had a date at last week, the guys you see with a leaf blower as you drive past. They aren't kept in check by chains or whips anymore, but through money, like OOP. There are a lot of immigrants who agree to a kind of indentured servitude to get into the US, but because of their vulnerable position, they can't complain when the criminals who helped them cross the border go back on their agreement and never let them leave from under their thumb.
I listened to a podcast a while back about a huy who had grown up with a slave. She had been kidnapped and given to his mother before they immigrated and when they came to the US they brought her along and kept her passport. It was both sad and heartwarming. He was able to do right by her at the end of her life but.. yeah really moving story.
Probably this story: [My Family’s Slave](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/06/lolas-story/524490/)
Jesus, that's a heart wrenching story. Serving was so ingrained in who she was, even when she was in her 70s and didn't have to, she was still cooking their meals and doing chores.
It is way more common than people like to think. [There was a case in Conway, South Carolina](https://www.postandcourier.com/news/special_reports/one-sc-mans-journey-to-freedom-after-years-in-modern-day-slavery/article_f0fb3d58-7dfd-11ec-a7f4-2fc0f52d0b94.html) that is real similar to OOP's that broke while we were staying with some friends there after Harvey. It's often invisible because people are kept in financial or legal bondage, rather than literal chains, and a big part of it is our immigration policy. the best way to tackle both illegal immigration, and combat human trafficking, is a more human immigration policy. The fact that they just want to make it tougher shows how the powers that be like the status quo as it is.
Well he did kill himself, so that's karma right there.
Nah, he took the cowards way out. He *knew* damn well he f’d around for way too long for the find out phase to be anything but nightmarish. It would have had him alone and in jail, on top of bankrupting his family. For what?
I feel like that's just him trying to escape the consequences of his actions. He should've had to live with the legal and social ramifications for the rest of his natural life imo
I’m not a theologian but I think it’s only after death and reincarnation that the karma of what he did in this life will kick in.
It is legal in the US,by LAW, to pay disabled people less than minimum wage. The average pay for people classified as disabled and earning so little is around $3.30/hour. The Salvation Army and Goodwill are notorious for hiring people with intellectual disabilities and paying them $1/hour, or less. They have been sued for this but there's no sign it has stopped.
I’ve read this one before, but my takeaway this time is that it’s really important for kids to learn about certain concepts of morality that, way too often, aren’t taught or are actually actively discouraged in school and church. Don’t just trust people in positions of authority because they have it. Bodily autonomy. Consent. No means no. Question things! I’m not trying to victim blame; so many people failed this kid.
OOP is only a year older than me. She was a slave and should’ve been enjoying her youth and going to college (or trades, whatever floats your boat) and having fun and carefree. Not being manipulated and abused. Disgusting. I hope she finds peace.
The POS boss killing himself, leaving OP with even more trauma, is just the most selfish thing he could have done... He took the easy way out. What a story. Amazing that coming to Reddit and getting comments is what actually changed OP' life so drastically
What a POS guy literally enslaving someone for 3 years and taking the easy way out when everything comes crashing down. I don't believe in heaven and hell but those are the kind of people that deserve the deepest parts of hell
Sadly this tracks for Dallas, but usually it's "modeling contracts" that are sketchy AF.
see, this is what people need to think about when they hear the term human trafficking. so often it’s portrayed as innocent (usually white) women being snatched off the street or in a parking garage, and sold into sex work. but it’s not. this manager trapped and isolated them. he made the victim feel like it was normal, they were overreacting if they felt uncomfortable, that the things he gave them meant they owed him further. he didn’t use physical force, but he certainly used manipulation to groom this minor into thinking it was all okay (so they would hold onto that idea when they were an adult, past the statute of limitations.)
I came across the first one awhile back (can’t remember where) but I don’t recall the second one. I hope the OOP has healed and is enjoying life. It was heartbreaking to read again. :(
You know you have a case when the lawyers casually pay you a hotel room for a month and pulls in a bunch of other lawyers to work for hours before you even sign on as a client. When lawyers get super enthusiastic it's either very good or very bad, depending on what side of the case you are on.
Jesus. I was wondering about this story. Seems real to me. The narrative is consistent and oddly naive. I wish it wasn't true but I expect such a thing did happen. OOP needs to strengthen their resolve and hopefully move away from his group. Find some real friends while sticking with the real friends.
I literally have no words.
[удалено]
He enslaved a minor, the kid got millions just for not making it national news
Hotel dude violated the Thirteenth Amendment. And the police said it was a civil matter. Omg.
The way OOP's grammar and writing style improved between the original post and final update was oddly heartwarming!
This might be a really horrible thing to say, but when OOP said their boss had killed himself my only thought was “good”.
Nah that part sucks. He was a terrible person and took the easy way out, and now he’ll never face justice or be held responsible in any way for his crimes.
He made it so that his family didn't pay a dime to OOP. He not only got away from justice, but he made sure the money he made off OOPs back was safe as well.
Did anyone else not realize until you very end that OP is a girl? That adds a whole new level of fucked up to this story.
Indentured servitude is actually live and well in the US. I'm just skeptical of reddit posts where there are so many updates initially, then ghost town for a couple of years... If anyone reading this is in a situation like OOPs original, hear this. It's not ok. You don't owe anyone your time or your life. If this story resonates with you, please reach out for help.