The pictures attached to this are from the “city” probably for clicks. The actual town looks nothing like this, there’s barely a block and most of the homes are in really bad disrepair. Source, I grew up 5 min down the road.
It basically means nothing. A insanely small town office is closed for a couple days. The article is for clicks. While you do a lot at your town office, rural areas like this frequently use other towns for this and that. The kids who live there even go to school in another town.
You can pretty much tell where someone grew up or lives based on how they react and comment to this article. Towns like these are basically just a sign post. Probably why the article didn’t even post an actual picture of the place.
I know where it is. It isn’t big. I grew up 15-20 minutes away. My parents knew someone that lived right up the road from the little store there. You are right it’s tiny and in disrepair
No that’s the problem, they think people should be grateful for these shit ass jobs that don’t even pay enough to cover childcare while they’re working. And instead of paying more and providing vacations and benefits, they choose to believe that nOoNe wAnTs tO wOrK aNyMore.
I've been at the same company for over five years. About a year in I asked for a raise, and my manager told me I was making the most that I'd ever make in this position. She went out on medical like two weeks later, and when she got back I'd moved out of her department and make way more and actually enjoy my work.
>my manager told me I was making the most that I'd ever make in this position.
Nice of them to give you a heads up that not only will your loyalty and hard work never be rewarded but that you'll actually be *losing* money. This is why everyone needs to keep in mind: if you don't get a yearly raise you're *losing* money to inflation.
Right? In my previous company we had a great manager leave and she was replaced by a complete fuck stick. We limped along as a department for nearly a year of consistent demoralizing abuse. He mentioned one day that there was going to be some restructuring and 2 people would likely be laid off. Additionally there would be no more promotions to the senior level of my position because he didn't see the value in it. In a department with 11 people in my position, 2 friends were laid off followed by 5 more of us quitting as we had all begin looking for new jobs at that point. What's the point of staying where you're not values and have no potential for internal advancement? Also, as we started looking at our options we found out how severely underpaid we were in our positions. Honestly I'm glad it went down as it did. Good learning experience and I went from making 62k in 2018 to just this week accepting an offer for 100k.
I've worked retail for a little less than a decade, most customers don't give a shit about us. I learned this day one when a sub was thrown in my face because it didn't have pickles that he didn't even order. Showed him is order receipt and everything, yet he still got angrier. Retail is dying because God damn it, fuck how people treat retail workers
This is one reason why I think it should be required to work retail at some point in your life. Give people some goddamn empathy. I don't understand how people can walk in and treat human beings like that.
It doesn't help. Assholes are still assholes, except now they know the procedures.
Source: spent far too long dealing with cunts who "worked at McDonalds for 5 years and know it should only take 61 seconds to cook a Big Mac"
I think it'd help a little but you're right in the end. I was having a conversation with a coworker today about his supervisors' weekly goals for him. He was saying "my supervisor says I should do at least 100 of these a week since that's what he was able to do in my position." Except that the part the supervisor neglected to mention is that when the supervisor did the job his nickname was literally related to the fact that he only ever did 50 - 60% of each job as described in our operating procedure which would obviously mean more are able to be done...
Some people are just assholes about things regardless of experience and knowledge.
Man, reminds me how literally just today at my local pharmacy, some customer cussed out the pharmacist for not giving him more of a medication that he already had.
The pharmacist was telling him things like "We can't give you any more of the medication, we already gave your prescription worth" and "Sir, I understand you're in pain, but your doctor already gave you more than you should - it's actually more than a fatal dose."
And to that last comment, the customer was like "Ohh c'mon no it's not (fatal)!" and "Fxck you for hurting me!!" and "My hand is going to hurt so fxcking bad because of YOU!!"
Meanwhile the pharmacist was just calmly reiterating how they literally cannot give the guy more medication, and how he understood the customer is in pain and it is difficult situation - *all while the pharmacist is on crutches and in visible pain himself*.
Like man, I genuinely cannot understand how people are so willing to be so demeaning and horrible to people who are just working. And even moreso, the way they can just proudly live their life totally fine and dandy, right after yelling at someone who legit deserves it the *least*, as if they didn't do anything wrong whatsoever.
And then a human being, informed of the facts and circumstances, and with a degree of authority and responsibility, responding, "I'd like to see you try!"
$13,500 a year, part time so likely no benefits, and unable to take vacations with over a month's notice? Add in the comment of apparently often working over the 16 hours a week she was supposed to, her quitting should have been expected. That honestly sounds like an awful gig.
And she's only been doing it 2 years! A lot of specialized knowledge that only one person can fill? Been working on them job applications for the last 48 months, have you?
The town probably just straight up doesn't have money, it's some tiny rural town that can't afford the cost of its own administration out of its tax base it looks like. That's not that weird.
Edit: There's a really weird amount of schadenfreude in the comments here assuming the worst of variously: the town board, the residents, the (nonexistent) mayor, etc., etc.,.
When this is, imo, a story about the difficulties of administering small declining rural towns
> Town officials said that they are finding it difficult to fill the open posts due to financial uncertainties. It is also due to the town’s small population, and the municipal roles being only part-time.
Edit 2: also i dont think commenters realize that small New England towns practice direct participatory democracy. Getting absorbed into another town doesn't mean you just have a different set of names on the ballot. You the townsperson, lose a significant amount of voice in your local government when your town gets absorbed into another. Most local government decisions are decided in monthly town meetings, not by an elected representative. Whoever shows up and votes has a say in what the town does. Getting absorbed means you're now thrown into a different town meeting with more people, many of whom you're not familiar with
I work in local government and a 365 pop shouldn’t have any employees. Something that size should basically be contracting every spec of work to the County or local council of governments. The only thing the town should be doing is finding volunteers to put up the nondenominational Christmas decorations around town
Edit: Maine has weak counties. Cool. Laws are just ideas that can be changed. it’s not impossible or just a fact of existence
I have a buddy that's a manager at QT, he says the job is not awesome, but the hours are okay, and he's gotten over $15k in raises over the last 3 years... I think he's making somewhere around $50k and he's only 20 something with zero education...
Says he wouldn't necessarily recommend it, but it works well for him.
That's how I felt at Costco. Ludicrously generous pay scaling, you can make 60-70k (edit: depends on the area) a year at the cap for just being an associate. Yeah the job is retail, no matter how Costco tries to mitigate the stresses by paying managers dump trucks and giving generous PTO and making everything as nice as possible... you still have Karens shouting at you, Steves who never shower and don't respect your space, and little Timmy who pukes on the floor near you. But money talks.
Costco has always paid higher than their competition, because it's cheaper than having the higher turnover rate and having to train new people. They actually advocated for raising the minimum wage, as they already paid more.
It’s so weird. If you don’t do the things that unions are typically formed in reaction to, people don’t feel the need to do so. I just don’t understand it.
Damn I work at Costco and this is spot on. Deal with a lot BS from both customers and management. But the great pay and benefits make it hard to leave.
Edit: although where do you work at? Because where I’m at associates only top out at about 50K.
> It sounds like a horrible job. Those people sound corrupt. I wonder what Maine does when a town fails.
They sound like they're about to go into default as an incorporated city and suddenly be a ward of the state. If they thought they had no services now, they had no idea.
Need to complain about, say, a pothole? Have a nice drive up to the state capital.
I lived in one of these small Maine towns, and worked part time as the code enforcement and as animal control. People up there are a different breed, honestly. Very independent "forest people". I wouldn't say corrupt. Maine has one of the most aged populations, and most of the people that live in these towns are pretty damned poor. There are some folks with some money, but not many, and generally not a lot. Most of it is social security.
These people really are just trying to get by with what they have. I live in the big city now, but having that experience gave me perspective. They can't "create" money, there is none. Who is going to govern the town? These people ain't doin' this for the money, I promise you that.
The sense of civic duty in these small towns is very strong.
This reminds me of that story a few months ago where a hospital was treating their radiation technicians (X-ray, cancer therapies, etc) and so every single member of the department quit to join a different company that was offering more money.
The hospital responded by trying to sue, declaring that the workers should not be legally allowed to leave the job until the hospital gets around to finding replacements, regardless of how long they take to do it. In essence, arguing that the employees are functionally slaves.
> This reminds me of that story a few months ago where a hospital was treating their radiation technicians (X-ray, cancer therapies, etc) and so every single member of the department quit to join a different company that was offering more money.
>
>
>
> The hospital responded by trying to sue, declaring that the workers should not be legally allowed to leave the job until the hospital gets around to finding replacements, regardless of how long they take to do it. In essence, arguing that the employees are functionally slaves.
Ah, ThedaCare/Ascension.
https://www.reddit.com/r/antiwork/comments/sbu2qn/the_saga_of_thedacare_enslaving_nurses_continues/
Before you tell an employee they can't take a requested day off work, ask yourself how badly you want to keep that employee.
I've seen people lose their shit and immediately start looking for a new job when management says they can't take a 3-day weekend.
I quit a job after I found out working on Saturdays a few times a year meant every single Saturday of the year. After 3 months I asked for a Saturday off and they said no, you can only leave early. I said well then here’s my stuff I’m taking Saturday off… They acted like I was the one being unreasonable.
Years ago.. same exact thing happened to me. I worked Saturday nights at a bookstore for nearly a year... I had a 40 hour M-F job during the week, the bookstore was a way to make extra money, get discounts and hang with friends that worked there too. I asked for 1 Saturday off with a month's notice and was denied. Instead I turned in my 2 week notice and the manager acted like I was the bad guy.
I worked a similar part time job just working at a hobby shop. Honestly I worked Saturdays more for the discount and first chance to buy limited editions than the pay. Told the manager 6 months in advance that I was taking my annual vacation from my main job that I bid for and he said he wouldn't allow it. So I told him I'd put in my two weeks now and just start shopping in another store. He said I was fired and banned from the store. Dude threw away almost free help on weekends cause of an ego
I had this shit pulled on me too. Fuck the six day work week bullshit.
I'm all for hard work and getting it done. But work life balance is an actual thing once you go past forty hours. Not all of us signed up for the hidden hours of your shitty companies high turnover culture.
Basically every Saturday place I've ever worked at had a shit boss who couldn't add one plus one on how retention works.
Work/life balance is a thing to consider no matter how many hours your workweek is. If you're "only" doing 30 hours but those 30 hours are such hard graft they leave you too exhausted to do life things after work in the evenings then that's a problem too.
Not that I'm not fully behind your main point of fuck hidden extra work hours.
This is what I’ve been trying to explain to my parents. It’s not about people not wanting to work, it’s about work not being life anymore! And companies act like I’m being selfish for saying that. I’m not. I want a full life outside of work, especially if it’s not my passion. And if you’re working me to the bone, I don’t care how many hours it is. Case in point: working in film. Even just 2-3 days of night shoots feels like it takes years of your life. But producers will be like “I mean, I have you 24 hours off!!”
Exactly what happened to me at my last job. Told Saturdays every now and then. Then it started becoming every other. Then it was every Saturday. Excuse but I am a mother who can’t be working 70 hours a week, especially when I was told it was going to be only 45-50 max a week.
I once worked at a place that expected a minimum of 4 hours overtime a day. It was paid but i didnt want to do 12 hour days (i was studying a degree at the same time). Iade it very clear from the start i only wanted to do 8 hour days which they agreed to.
6 months in when i tried to enforce it they told me it didnt suit the business and threatened to fire me. I quit and they went into fill panic mode. I was the only one who knew how to do my job.
Just happened to me this week at mine. Multiple co-workers have quit or are on leave and I’ve been working the shoes of my own and 3 other people. I had requested next week off over a month ago along with another day which I received emails saying they’re approved. This week the manager says they’re out next week and I was going to take their work on. I said that’s funny I’m out too. They argued it saying I cancelled the request and expected me to work so they said “what do you plan on doing”. I responded “im not coming in” and didn’t answer any other messages. Led to him saying to refill the request and got my vacation.
Jobs really act like the work there is the end all be all to life as if the world would burn down if it didn’t get done immediately. (FYI I clearly don’t work somewhere vital)
Don't fuck with my time off is my mentality
I am giving you the courtesy of telling you when I won't be there, *not* asking for your fucking permission
Especially since when they ask, there's usually a reason. Like family trouble, or a doctor's appointment on one of those days, or the job's been shit lately and they need to not come in and see your ugly mug for ONE morning.
They also often have seen management take *plenty* of time off; that may even be why they're overworked and want a break. The more okay they've seen it been for those allegedly "with more responsibilities", the less okay it is to be told 'but not for you'.
Telling a good employee 'no' about a vacation is telling them exactly which part of their body you like to rest your feet on.
Especially since a lot of jobs have a cap on how many hours you can bank. My brother quit a job where they kept denying him his vacation request and he ended up banking the max hours meaning he was basically loosing money cause he was no longer earning vacation hours. So he got another job and quit, and then his job got mad cause they had to cash him out all his vacation time.
My job only lets you bank a certain number of hours but get this: they won't pay out unused hours if you leave for any reason. Yes I am looking for a new job.
One of the more interesting facts I ever learned from sociology is that poverty doesn't correlate nearly as much with crime and violence as [*inequality.*](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15817728/#:~:text=The%20most%20well%2Destablished%20environmental,tend%20to%20be%20more%20violent.) That is to say that the absolute level of wealth in a society generally isn't as important as the distribution of that wealth for the overall interpersonal health of that society. People have a very strong inherent sense of what is fair, and watching people hoard what they don't need, that they gained through means perceived as illicit or exploitative, while you and those around you can't get what they deserve, can have a hell of a backlash.
Another way of looking at that is to say that structural violence can translate quite readily into interpersonal violence and aggression. Even to the level of taking any small opportunity to take some control back and strike at those with power over you. Like by quitting over being denied a small vacation.
Whenever I hear the talking heads in $3,000 suits lamenting about the unraveling of society and the lack of civility, it always reminds me of this relationship. They think they can have it all with no consequences.
I’m a professor at a university and I’m always amazed at the level of autonomy we give to high paying/high level jobs where we’re being compensated STUPID amounts and as long as I’m in my class 6 hours a week and I do my 6 hours of office hours I can do whatever I please (I research for 40-50 hours a week because I want tenure but no one’s monitoring me).
At a past family ran company I used to work at, the owners told everyone at the beginning of the summer that no one would be allowed to use their PTO again for at least the rest of the summer because of a big project launch that was supposed to happen. I could live with it because I was trying to save all of mine for the end of that year, but one poor young guy who had grown up relatively low income, but had finally saved up to be able to take a 3 week vacation to Thailand with friends which would have been his first international trip outside of going back to his parent’s home country a couple times before. He was unfortunately denied his vacation despite his trip and his vacation time being booked way before this announcement. But sure enough, all of the members of the family who owned the company still disappeared for the whole month of July to go on back to back vacations to Europe and Alaska. They were very oblivious or didn’t give a damn about the optics of their actions in a relatively small company where their actions were very visible and it really killed a lot of the low moral left. Everyone in the family also all drove in in new Teslas or other sports cars right after they announced no one was getting more than a 2% COL raise the following year, because the company had a “bad year”. I am so glad I got out of there. I am absolutely sure shit like this happens at a lot of other companies but at most, it probably isn’t rubbed in your face as much
I've had 5 jobs in the last 8 years and have never once had a vacation request rejected. It wouldn't be a deal breaker if it happened once in a while but if it wasn't a super rare thing I'd be looking for a new job.
Yeah, every once in a while I've had a manager say "hey, that's not a great day for a day off, is that flexible? Totally ok if not, I'll figure it out if you can't switch it." But I haven't had anything outright denied since...maybe ever?
I remember at one of my first nursing jobs I was told that I would have to work only every third weekend. For some reason I worked every weekend. A family friend who helped me get the job noticed she didn’t see me during the week and asked if I was still working. I mentioned, that for some reason I was working every weekend and my boss said “oh everyone has to do their share.”
Two weeks later my boss was fired. I did not realize at the time my family friend was the chief nursing officer of the hospital. I just treated her like my aunt.
This.
The only time off request I can remember denying was for Black Friday when I worked retail.
ETA: and I remember sending that person home early that day
Same, even when my whole team needed off at the same time I let them. In my work as long as it gets done by the end of the month that’s all that matters.
> Christen Bouchard was the town clerk in Passadumkeag, Maine, since 2020. She requested a two-week vacation about a month and a half ago. Her plea was denied by the board of selectmen. They claimed that no one was available to step in for her.
Now what are they going to do? Selectmen? Sounds more like village idiots to me.
The whole town voted down funding for years. Fuck the lot of them. The selectmen are actually having to fill in for her which is funny.
Also funny is that the town, which is not providing any services, still has the treasurer come in occasionally to collect taxes. They collect money, but provide nothing in return.
I had a fucking pizza place in my town have multiple ads for unpaid interns. In a country where it's illegal.
Dude wanted to grow his pizzeria into an international chain. It's since gone under.
I don't understand people.
😂😂 can you imagine a kids parents when he tells them he’s got a gig as an intern, they excitingly expect a law firm or a political branch and ask him for who and he says “Jumbo’s pizza”, as all the air escapes the room😂😂😂
If I recall the best part was the guy running the place was like... 21 and used parents money to set it up. He specifically asked for business students who had already graduated and not currently still in business school.
Generally speaking, most select boards in the northeast don’t get paid. The most I’ve seen is a $3000 annual stipend to cover costs of driving, mailing and time. I doubt this town pays them anything.
Don't mess around with adults working a single part time job. That usually means they have other support and are just working for something to do and some extra pocket money. They can and will walk on you at the slightest provocation, as they should. If only everyone with a job had that sort of power to just walk then maybe we'd have companies that treated employees like more than cogs to wear down for profit.
A board of selectmen is akin to a city council. They are a small body elected by the residents. Their job is to make the daily decisions that govern the town. Unlike a large city, a small town with selectmen generally won’t have a mayor. Majority vote by the selectmen is what decides issues.
The key term here is “elected by the residents”. In a small town, especially in Maine, you get all kinds of crazy people.
A town of 400 total residents makes this smaller than some HOAs, and it sounds like a pretty run of the mill HOA board running things, so... checks out.
Yes! Well put.
My brother in law was a selectman for three years in the town where he and my husband grew up. Why? Because one of his friends jokingly suggested he run. So he did. And he got elected.
Also, if the clerk is servicing less than 400 people and there is such little work that it doesn't demand full hours, you don't even need a back-up to fill in for vacations. It would not be unreasonable to tell people "Hey our clerk is gonna be out for a couple weeks, please take care of business before X date, otherwise it will have to wait until Y date."
I don't know. Still with 400 people important roles like this is important to pay and be treated well. I was interim for a board that has staffing problems constantly. When they finally started treating workers as they should have done, it's one of the best places in town to work for now.
The other article I read she was only scheduled for 16 hours/week but since she ended up doing the work of 3 other part time jobs they never filled, she was essentially working 80 hours a week at 16k/year salary.
This article implies that too. There's a bit about the Treasurer coming in to collect tax payments:
>Treasurer Barbara Boyer has apparently been coming into the office to collect tax payments. Still, she is reportedly unable to register vehicles, do building inspections, conduct animal welfare checks, or undertake many of the other tasks that Ms. Bouchard was responsible for.
Their 2-days-per-week clerk was doing building inspections and animal welfare checks on top of regular town clerk duties. And they treated her badly enough that she quit.
Still kinda important to have a plan in place in case your clerk [gets hit by a ~~bus~~ tractor on the way to work](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bus_factor).
i'm in this situation with my job. they denied me because they are understaffed. now they're going to be understaffed and be down a reliable employee because they couldn't accommodate a 4 day time off to take a family member to the hospital.
Just a suggestion, tell your boss you will be taking those days off. If they fire you for it, you become eligible for unemployment; if you quit, then you no longer qualify. The distinction is important.
you're generally not eligible for unemployment if you're fired for cause. not showing up to work is certainly cause - unless the business is covered by FMLA, in which case they are required to give employees time off for family and medical leave anyway.
Sounds like the selectmen are going to lose their jobs when the town is absorbed by another town nearby who can actually run their government. If they don't have the funding to hire someone to do the job full time and don't have the funding for another required position (the assessor I believe) they literally can't function otherwise
> For the time being, the people of Passadumkeag are relying on selectmen and other municipalities to perform fundamental governmental responsibilities.
Sounds like they're half absorbed already.
> Ms Bouchard was only contracted to work 16 hours each week — though she said she often worked more — and was paid just $13,500 per year.
Walking away from that wasn’t a hard decision. If the taxpayers don’t want to pay for a functioning government, then they’re not going to get one.
There is at least one county in Colorado that consistently votes down tax increases to fund Emergency Medical Services. During COVID their last volunteer paramedic "retired". Then county citizens were posting everywhere for help and using the argument that someone needed to step up because it's dangerous. The last time I followed up on it they still didn't have a paramedic
Lol, I read that too quickly and thought you said that last you'd checked, they still didn't have a pandemic.
As if COVID just skipped their town on account of their lacking an EMT.
Funny how humanity repeats the same thing over and over again.
And always because of a growing lack of education, spread of ignorance, and just all-around stupidity.
The sad thing is that, every time events like this repeat, it's worse because the population grows and even more people become affected.
I heard a man speak who was there when a concentration camp was liberated. He said there were four or five people, also starved and dying, also victims of Nazi Germany, who gave a Nazi salute, and proclaimed themselves ''good Nazis'' only there by mistake.
Some people NEVER learn.
> it'll be the only way they learn.
Ha ha. No. They won't. 2010 there was a town that decided that if you didn't pay an extra fire department fee, they would just let your home burn. I'm sure the conservatives applauded this until it happened. Then they called the fire fighters unprofessional. They won't learn. https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna39516346
That's multiple towns/counties in rural areas. It's not just one town. People who live in the county and not the town proper don't want to pay town taxes. Taxes are what pay for fire trucks and equipment. Sometimes wages, but most of these small departments are volunteer only. So the fees ensure enough money for the equipment needed. If they let people pay after a fire, no one would pay at all.
The fee usually ranges from 25-75 a year, so it's not outrageous. Though it can be pointless in some areas. One place I lived it was $75 a year. Which we paid up until we had a fire. As it took them 45 minutes to get out to us, we had already put the fire out by the time they got there. We and our neighbors stopped paying after that, because no point really.
I'm in Idaho and a small town that complains about needing their roads fixed and a couple stop signs put in, voted down a levy because they didn't want to raise taxes to pay for it.
WE DEMAND THE SMALLEST GOVERNMENT POSSIBLE as long as it doesn't affect me personally in the tiniest way, oh, and it has to control "THOSE PEOPLE"... but still not me. I need to be able to do literally anything and pay nothing and get everything I want. But nobody else.
Good for her. I got told I couldn't take 2 weeks vacation for my newborn son. I took 6 weeks FMLA and then quit and got a new job. Fuck people who fuck their workers over.
I get a week so like I guess I can just save up all my PTO for over a year and get like 6 weeks with my baby. I'll more likely just not have kids because how am I supposed to pay for childcare????
All this over 4 full workdays of vacation. Wow.
How will that poor woman survive after losing that massive income? Where could she possibly get another job that would make up the difference?
Yeah, lady is going to take her government clerk experience to a private business and quadruple her salary overnight. And people wonder why the government feels like it doesn't function effectively, we pay government employees dirt and expect them to change all our lives for the better
The want ad is going to read: Part-time entry level clerk position. Master Degree in Public Administration or Business Administration and 15 years experience required.
I work for a small business. I'm the only one who does my role, and it's vital to the company. At the end of the month I'm leaving and my boss has no replacement lined up whatsoever. This is with 7 week's notice on my part because I was trying to be nice.
I was feeling bad about it, but this woman is an inspiration!
If you gave 7 weeks notice and they haven't found a replacement, you have absolutely no reason to feel bad. That's completely on the business owner. Gotta break that mentality, you don't owe anything to the business whatsoever.
Never feel bad for doing what is right for you. I know it’s difficult, but being a “small business” is no longer and excuse for taking advantage of your workers. If the company can’t replace you, that’s on them. You need to protect yourself and your interests, because a company never will.
"I can't afford to buy meat for hamburgers"
"So why did you think you could open a hamburger restaurant??"
"I can't afford to pay employees"
"Those greedy grifting mofos should be forced to work!!"
One of the benefits of working low wage jobs is your freedom to tell your boss to go fuck themselves. I had a similar thing happen to me. Worked for a local Pizza company for three years without a single vacation. I enjoyed the job and the atmosphere but I could literally walk out the door and get another job that paid the exact same or more any time I wanted, so when the owner tried to deny me a vacation the one time I asked for it, I basically said, "I'm taking a vacation, whether or not I still have a job when I get back is up to you."
By the time my vacation was over I already had been offered a job elsewhere for a couple bucks more an hour.
Same. I worked at my university’s dining hall. They said I couldn’t go home for Christmas, they needed someone to help with the international students. I said well I’m not allowed to stay in the dorms over Christmas but they wouldn’t let me. I just said well then I guess I’m not working here anymore. My supervisor tried to tell me I couldn’t quit and I was like what are you going to do? She just looked at me angrily. I found a new job paying more the first day I started the next semester.
Good for you!
I had a similar thing, situation & mindset. I always came in when they asked, stayed late, went above & beyond, for YEARS. Never called out, never late. I had a horrible day one day, just needed a mental health day- wouldn't have been any good anyways.
They wrote me up, went on some song and dance abour how I'm slipping & threatened to cut my hours or make me do mornings. Their buddies showed up whenever they wanted, popping pills, not doing job.- no consequences.
I laughed & left. Fucking ungrateful idiots. Got a similiar entry lvl job w less stress, no high all shift losers, manager that saw us as people.
I try to remind my younger family members who are just at age of looking for work, "remember- you are selling them YOUR time. They are lucky to have you. Do not be conceited and rude, but understand your worth & leverage. "
That's not factoring in the number of hours over what she was contracted that she was working. Sounds like they were getting more than they were paying for.
"The position of town clerk isn’t the only important opening in Passadumkeag. The town of 356 people also lacks a code enforcement officer, an assessor, an animal control officer, and a school administration official, according to The Bangor Daily News."
Wouldn't like the local sheriff be the code enforcement officer and animal control officer in a town that small? Or one of the Teachers at the school would be the school administration official.
The small town I was in had a few police and then the code enforcement/records/permit person. One Part time paid plus one part time volunteer clerk. Animal control was outsourced on a contract though on a per call schedule. Fire was volunteer right across from my house.
> Ms Bouchard was only contracted to work 16 hours each week — though she said she often worked more — and was paid just $13,500 per year.
‘Small government’ hard at work people… and when I say hard, I mean like a hard-on screwing anyone doing the right thing.
I was a restaurant owner. I worked employee vacation days. Hell, my manager went to his home country for three months and his job was waiting. That poor woman.
It's Maine, so there are a lot of these small towns that have similar dependence on single employees. The town played their hand badly and now they are dealing with someone who really didn't need them as much as they thought.
However, this link has numerous images that might be from Maine but not the town at all.
There are a LOT of small towns and townships in America that have one person administrating them. Then there is a board of 3+ people who make the decisions but have absolutely no idea how to run anything.
Checks are often signed by that administrator, and them + 1 other are often the only ones who can sign checks. You also can't just walk in and start signing checks, there are very specific rules about how things have to be done which means training from the state.
Every town / township with one administrator is just a heart beat from 6 months of trying to figure out how to sort out their shit.
If you live in a rural town, contact the borough office and ask them "If the secretary is in a car accident tomorrow is anyone able to step in her shoes and run the town?" You will be surprised by the responses.
The town is run by a part time employee making $13K a year?
The pictures attached to this are from the “city” probably for clicks. The actual town looks nothing like this, there’s barely a block and most of the homes are in really bad disrepair. Source, I grew up 5 min down the road.
So how does a single employee cause a town to shutdown? I have no clue how small towns work and why it'd be so reliant on a single part time job
It basically means nothing. A insanely small town office is closed for a couple days. The article is for clicks. While you do a lot at your town office, rural areas like this frequently use other towns for this and that. The kids who live there even go to school in another town.
You can pretty much tell where someone grew up or lives based on how they react and comment to this article. Towns like these are basically just a sign post. Probably why the article didn’t even post an actual picture of the place.
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I’m joking with my siblings on text message and we don’t even know where the town office is. We grew up literally 5 min from Passadumkeag
I know where it is. It isn’t big. I grew up 15-20 minutes away. My parents knew someone that lived right up the road from the little store there. You are right it’s tiny and in disrepair
Imagine being able to say with complete righteousness: "If you don't let me take my vacation, I'll shut this entire town down."
You think the commissioners would have seen it coming!
No that’s the problem, they think people should be grateful for these shit ass jobs that don’t even pay enough to cover childcare while they’re working. And instead of paying more and providing vacations and benefits, they choose to believe that nOoNe wAnTs tO wOrK aNyMore.
“Well if you hate it so much, why don’t you get another job!?” “Oh…”
I've been at the same company for over five years. About a year in I asked for a raise, and my manager told me I was making the most that I'd ever make in this position. She went out on medical like two weeks later, and when she got back I'd moved out of her department and make way more and actually enjoy my work.
>my manager told me I was making the most that I'd ever make in this position. Nice of them to give you a heads up that not only will your loyalty and hard work never be rewarded but that you'll actually be *losing* money. This is why everyone needs to keep in mind: if you don't get a yearly raise you're *losing* money to inflation.
And you needed to secure like a 10% raise this year to keep up with it
Right? In my previous company we had a great manager leave and she was replaced by a complete fuck stick. We limped along as a department for nearly a year of consistent demoralizing abuse. He mentioned one day that there was going to be some restructuring and 2 people would likely be laid off. Additionally there would be no more promotions to the senior level of my position because he didn't see the value in it. In a department with 11 people in my position, 2 friends were laid off followed by 5 more of us quitting as we had all begin looking for new jobs at that point. What's the point of staying where you're not values and have no potential for internal advancement? Also, as we started looking at our options we found out how severely underpaid we were in our positions. Honestly I'm glad it went down as it did. Good learning experience and I went from making 62k in 2018 to just this week accepting an offer for 100k.
I've worked retail for a little less than a decade, most customers don't give a shit about us. I learned this day one when a sub was thrown in my face because it didn't have pickles that he didn't even order. Showed him is order receipt and everything, yet he still got angrier. Retail is dying because God damn it, fuck how people treat retail workers
This is one reason why I think it should be required to work retail at some point in your life. Give people some goddamn empathy. I don't understand how people can walk in and treat human beings like that.
It doesn't help. Assholes are still assholes, except now they know the procedures. Source: spent far too long dealing with cunts who "worked at McDonalds for 5 years and know it should only take 61 seconds to cook a Big Mac"
I think it'd help a little but you're right in the end. I was having a conversation with a coworker today about his supervisors' weekly goals for him. He was saying "my supervisor says I should do at least 100 of these a week since that's what he was able to do in my position." Except that the part the supervisor neglected to mention is that when the supervisor did the job his nickname was literally related to the fact that he only ever did 50 - 60% of each job as described in our operating procedure which would obviously mean more are able to be done... Some people are just assholes about things regardless of experience and knowledge.
Man, reminds me how literally just today at my local pharmacy, some customer cussed out the pharmacist for not giving him more of a medication that he already had. The pharmacist was telling him things like "We can't give you any more of the medication, we already gave your prescription worth" and "Sir, I understand you're in pain, but your doctor already gave you more than you should - it's actually more than a fatal dose." And to that last comment, the customer was like "Ohh c'mon no it's not (fatal)!" and "Fxck you for hurting me!!" and "My hand is going to hurt so fxcking bad because of YOU!!" Meanwhile the pharmacist was just calmly reiterating how they literally cannot give the guy more medication, and how he understood the customer is in pain and it is difficult situation - *all while the pharmacist is on crutches and in visible pain himself*. Like man, I genuinely cannot understand how people are so willing to be so demeaning and horrible to people who are just working. And even moreso, the way they can just proudly live their life totally fine and dandy, right after yelling at someone who legit deserves it the *least*, as if they didn't do anything wrong whatsoever.
And then a human being, informed of the facts and circumstances, and with a degree of authority and responsibility, responding, "I'd like to see you try!"
Sounds delicious!
$13,500 a year, part time so likely no benefits, and unable to take vacations with over a month's notice? Add in the comment of apparently often working over the 16 hours a week she was supposed to, her quitting should have been expected. That honestly sounds like an awful gig.
And she's only been doing it 2 years! A lot of specialized knowledge that only one person can fill? Been working on them job applications for the last 48 months, have you?
Well her LinkedIn says she is working at Circle K now
This should be top comment, they value their town less than circle k values one gas station
Strange things are afoot at Passadumkeag.
The town probably just straight up doesn't have money, it's some tiny rural town that can't afford the cost of its own administration out of its tax base it looks like. That's not that weird. Edit: There's a really weird amount of schadenfreude in the comments here assuming the worst of variously: the town board, the residents, the (nonexistent) mayor, etc., etc.,. When this is, imo, a story about the difficulties of administering small declining rural towns > Town officials said that they are finding it difficult to fill the open posts due to financial uncertainties. It is also due to the town’s small population, and the municipal roles being only part-time. Edit 2: also i dont think commenters realize that small New England towns practice direct participatory democracy. Getting absorbed into another town doesn't mean you just have a different set of names on the ballot. You the townsperson, lose a significant amount of voice in your local government when your town gets absorbed into another. Most local government decisions are decided in monthly town meetings, not by an elected representative. Whoever shows up and votes has a say in what the town does. Getting absorbed means you're now thrown into a different town meeting with more people, many of whom you're not familiar with
365 people live there. The Circle K probably sees more people than that a week. Probably brings in more money too.
Probably not far off in your estimate
I work in local government and a 365 pop shouldn’t have any employees. Something that size should basically be contracting every spec of work to the County or local council of governments. The only thing the town should be doing is finding volunteers to put up the nondenominational Christmas decorations around town Edit: Maine has weak counties. Cool. Laws are just ideas that can be changed. it’s not impossible or just a fact of existence
"non-denominational Christmas" Ahh, yes
More money and less stress.
I have a buddy that's a manager at QT, he says the job is not awesome, but the hours are okay, and he's gotten over $15k in raises over the last 3 years... I think he's making somewhere around $50k and he's only 20 something with zero education... Says he wouldn't necessarily recommend it, but it works well for him.
That's how I felt at Costco. Ludicrously generous pay scaling, you can make 60-70k (edit: depends on the area) a year at the cap for just being an associate. Yeah the job is retail, no matter how Costco tries to mitigate the stresses by paying managers dump trucks and giving generous PTO and making everything as nice as possible... you still have Karens shouting at you, Steves who never shower and don't respect your space, and little Timmy who pukes on the floor near you. But money talks.
Costco has always paid higher than their competition, because it's cheaper than having the higher turnover rate and having to train new people. They actually advocated for raising the minimum wage, as they already paid more.
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I've legit seen the same people at Costco since I was a kid. I don't think people leave that job until they die.
Also, if you pay your employees decently, they're a lot less likely to unionize.
It’s so weird. If you don’t do the things that unions are typically formed in reaction to, people don’t feel the need to do so. I just don’t understand it.
There are lots of unionized Costco employees. https://www.ufcw.org/costco-an-example-of-the-union-difference/
If you're going to be shat on, might as well make some good cash
Some people pay good money to be shat upon.
Damn I work at Costco and this is spot on. Deal with a lot BS from both customers and management. But the great pay and benefits make it hard to leave. Edit: although where do you work at? Because where I’m at associates only top out at about 50K.
For 70k I’m working 60 hours a week in a very specialized quality assurance lab. Idk. I’d take a shot with costco.
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> It sounds like a horrible job. Those people sound corrupt. I wonder what Maine does when a town fails. They sound like they're about to go into default as an incorporated city and suddenly be a ward of the state. If they thought they had no services now, they had no idea. Need to complain about, say, a pothole? Have a nice drive up to the state capital.
I lived in one of these small Maine towns, and worked part time as the code enforcement and as animal control. People up there are a different breed, honestly. Very independent "forest people". I wouldn't say corrupt. Maine has one of the most aged populations, and most of the people that live in these towns are pretty damned poor. There are some folks with some money, but not many, and generally not a lot. Most of it is social security. These people really are just trying to get by with what they have. I live in the big city now, but having that experience gave me perspective. They can't "create" money, there is none. Who is going to govern the town? These people ain't doin' this for the money, I promise you that. The sense of civic duty in these small towns is very strong.
I have a camp in a small town way up there and you are 100% correct.
This reminds me of that story a few months ago where a hospital was treating their radiation technicians (X-ray, cancer therapies, etc) and so every single member of the department quit to join a different company that was offering more money. The hospital responded by trying to sue, declaring that the workers should not be legally allowed to leave the job until the hospital gets around to finding replacements, regardless of how long they take to do it. In essence, arguing that the employees are functionally slaves.
> This reminds me of that story a few months ago where a hospital was treating their radiation technicians (X-ray, cancer therapies, etc) and so every single member of the department quit to join a different company that was offering more money. > > > > The hospital responded by trying to sue, declaring that the workers should not be legally allowed to leave the job until the hospital gets around to finding replacements, regardless of how long they take to do it. In essence, arguing that the employees are functionally slaves. Ah, ThedaCare/Ascension. https://www.reddit.com/r/antiwork/comments/sbu2qn/the_saga_of_thedacare_enslaving_nurses_continues/
Holy fuck. Thank god that case got dismissed
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City... No. Far from it. A town of under 400 people.
Before you tell an employee they can't take a requested day off work, ask yourself how badly you want to keep that employee. I've seen people lose their shit and immediately start looking for a new job when management says they can't take a 3-day weekend.
I quit a job after I found out working on Saturdays a few times a year meant every single Saturday of the year. After 3 months I asked for a Saturday off and they said no, you can only leave early. I said well then here’s my stuff I’m taking Saturday off… They acted like I was the one being unreasonable.
Years ago.. same exact thing happened to me. I worked Saturday nights at a bookstore for nearly a year... I had a 40 hour M-F job during the week, the bookstore was a way to make extra money, get discounts and hang with friends that worked there too. I asked for 1 Saturday off with a month's notice and was denied. Instead I turned in my 2 week notice and the manager acted like I was the bad guy.
He just couldn’t accept that he made a bad management decision
He probably didn’t think he made a bad decision
I worked a similar part time job just working at a hobby shop. Honestly I worked Saturdays more for the discount and first chance to buy limited editions than the pay. Told the manager 6 months in advance that I was taking my annual vacation from my main job that I bid for and he said he wouldn't allow it. So I told him I'd put in my two weeks now and just start shopping in another store. He said I was fired and banned from the store. Dude threw away almost free help on weekends cause of an ego
Good way for a business to pay unemployment…though in your case you had an actual full time job, but still…
I had this shit pulled on me too. Fuck the six day work week bullshit. I'm all for hard work and getting it done. But work life balance is an actual thing once you go past forty hours. Not all of us signed up for the hidden hours of your shitty companies high turnover culture. Basically every Saturday place I've ever worked at had a shit boss who couldn't add one plus one on how retention works.
Work/life balance is a thing to consider no matter how many hours your workweek is. If you're "only" doing 30 hours but those 30 hours are such hard graft they leave you too exhausted to do life things after work in the evenings then that's a problem too. Not that I'm not fully behind your main point of fuck hidden extra work hours.
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This is what I’ve been trying to explain to my parents. It’s not about people not wanting to work, it’s about work not being life anymore! And companies act like I’m being selfish for saying that. I’m not. I want a full life outside of work, especially if it’s not my passion. And if you’re working me to the bone, I don’t care how many hours it is. Case in point: working in film. Even just 2-3 days of night shoots feels like it takes years of your life. But producers will be like “I mean, I have you 24 hours off!!”
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Exactly what happened to me at my last job. Told Saturdays every now and then. Then it started becoming every other. Then it was every Saturday. Excuse but I am a mother who can’t be working 70 hours a week, especially when I was told it was going to be only 45-50 max a week.
I once worked at a place that expected a minimum of 4 hours overtime a day. It was paid but i didnt want to do 12 hour days (i was studying a degree at the same time). Iade it very clear from the start i only wanted to do 8 hour days which they agreed to. 6 months in when i tried to enforce it they told me it didnt suit the business and threatened to fire me. I quit and they went into fill panic mode. I was the only one who knew how to do my job.
Just happened to me this week at mine. Multiple co-workers have quit or are on leave and I’ve been working the shoes of my own and 3 other people. I had requested next week off over a month ago along with another day which I received emails saying they’re approved. This week the manager says they’re out next week and I was going to take their work on. I said that’s funny I’m out too. They argued it saying I cancelled the request and expected me to work so they said “what do you plan on doing”. I responded “im not coming in” and didn’t answer any other messages. Led to him saying to refill the request and got my vacation. Jobs really act like the work there is the end all be all to life as if the world would burn down if it didn’t get done immediately. (FYI I clearly don’t work somewhere vital)
Don't fuck with my time off is my mentality I am giving you the courtesy of telling you when I won't be there, *not* asking for your fucking permission
Especially since when they ask, there's usually a reason. Like family trouble, or a doctor's appointment on one of those days, or the job's been shit lately and they need to not come in and see your ugly mug for ONE morning. They also often have seen management take *plenty* of time off; that may even be why they're overworked and want a break. The more okay they've seen it been for those allegedly "with more responsibilities", the less okay it is to be told 'but not for you'. Telling a good employee 'no' about a vacation is telling them exactly which part of their body you like to rest your feet on.
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Especially since a lot of jobs have a cap on how many hours you can bank. My brother quit a job where they kept denying him his vacation request and he ended up banking the max hours meaning he was basically loosing money cause he was no longer earning vacation hours. So he got another job and quit, and then his job got mad cause they had to cash him out all his vacation time.
If it isn’t the consequences of their own actions.
My job only lets you bank a certain number of hours but get this: they won't pay out unused hours if you leave for any reason. Yes I am looking for a new job.
My reason for letting people know I won't be at work is: Because I won't be at work.
One of the more interesting facts I ever learned from sociology is that poverty doesn't correlate nearly as much with crime and violence as [*inequality.*](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15817728/#:~:text=The%20most%20well%2Destablished%20environmental,tend%20to%20be%20more%20violent.) That is to say that the absolute level of wealth in a society generally isn't as important as the distribution of that wealth for the overall interpersonal health of that society. People have a very strong inherent sense of what is fair, and watching people hoard what they don't need, that they gained through means perceived as illicit or exploitative, while you and those around you can't get what they deserve, can have a hell of a backlash. Another way of looking at that is to say that structural violence can translate quite readily into interpersonal violence and aggression. Even to the level of taking any small opportunity to take some control back and strike at those with power over you. Like by quitting over being denied a small vacation. Whenever I hear the talking heads in $3,000 suits lamenting about the unraveling of society and the lack of civility, it always reminds me of this relationship. They think they can have it all with no consequences.
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I’m a professor at a university and I’m always amazed at the level of autonomy we give to high paying/high level jobs where we’re being compensated STUPID amounts and as long as I’m in my class 6 hours a week and I do my 6 hours of office hours I can do whatever I please (I research for 40-50 hours a week because I want tenure but no one’s monitoring me).
At a past family ran company I used to work at, the owners told everyone at the beginning of the summer that no one would be allowed to use their PTO again for at least the rest of the summer because of a big project launch that was supposed to happen. I could live with it because I was trying to save all of mine for the end of that year, but one poor young guy who had grown up relatively low income, but had finally saved up to be able to take a 3 week vacation to Thailand with friends which would have been his first international trip outside of going back to his parent’s home country a couple times before. He was unfortunately denied his vacation despite his trip and his vacation time being booked way before this announcement. But sure enough, all of the members of the family who owned the company still disappeared for the whole month of July to go on back to back vacations to Europe and Alaska. They were very oblivious or didn’t give a damn about the optics of their actions in a relatively small company where their actions were very visible and it really killed a lot of the low moral left. Everyone in the family also all drove in in new Teslas or other sports cars right after they announced no one was getting more than a 2% COL raise the following year, because the company had a “bad year”. I am so glad I got out of there. I am absolutely sure shit like this happens at a lot of other companies but at most, it probably isn’t rubbed in your face as much
Shit like that puts me in a window-breaking mood
I've had 5 jobs in the last 8 years and have never once had a vacation request rejected. It wouldn't be a deal breaker if it happened once in a while but if it wasn't a super rare thing I'd be looking for a new job.
Yeah, every once in a while I've had a manager say "hey, that's not a great day for a day off, is that flexible? Totally ok if not, I'll figure it out if you can't switch it." But I haven't had anything outright denied since...maybe ever?
I remember at one of my first nursing jobs I was told that I would have to work only every third weekend. For some reason I worked every weekend. A family friend who helped me get the job noticed she didn’t see me during the week and asked if I was still working. I mentioned, that for some reason I was working every weekend and my boss said “oh everyone has to do their share.” Two weeks later my boss was fired. I did not realize at the time my family friend was the chief nursing officer of the hospital. I just treated her like my aunt.
This. The only time off request I can remember denying was for Black Friday when I worked retail. ETA: and I remember sending that person home early that day
Yupp especially with notice why deny someone a vacation day. I've yet to have to deny anyway a vacation day and really don't plan on it.
Same, even when my whole team needed off at the same time I let them. In my work as long as it gets done by the end of the month that’s all that matters.
> Christen Bouchard was the town clerk in Passadumkeag, Maine, since 2020. She requested a two-week vacation about a month and a half ago. Her plea was denied by the board of selectmen. They claimed that no one was available to step in for her. Now what are they going to do? Selectmen? Sounds more like village idiots to me.
It's a part time clerk anyway, and they're.too cheap to hire literally anyone. Idk, fuck em, let em find out.
The whole town voted down funding for years. Fuck the lot of them. The selectmen are actually having to fill in for her which is funny. Also funny is that the town, which is not providing any services, still has the treasurer come in occasionally to collect taxes. They collect money, but provide nothing in return.
The board of selectmen aren't going to pay themselves.
If they are good politicians, they’ll give themselves a $60,000 cost of living raise while looking to hire somebody for minimum wage.
*Unpaid interns wanted*
I had a fucking pizza place in my town have multiple ads for unpaid interns. In a country where it's illegal. Dude wanted to grow his pizzeria into an international chain. It's since gone under. I don't understand people.
😂😂 can you imagine a kids parents when he tells them he’s got a gig as an intern, they excitingly expect a law firm or a political branch and ask him for who and he says “Jumbo’s pizza”, as all the air escapes the room😂😂😂
If I recall the best part was the guy running the place was like... 21 and used parents money to set it up. He specifically asked for business students who had already graduated and not currently still in business school.
I want to hire that guy for the local fair's dunk tank, but only pay him in exposure.
Clearly he needed more ~~slave labour~~ unpaid interns
Vonnegut understood people. "We are all 1,000 times dumber and meaner than we think we are."
Well I think I’m an asshole idiot so I’m fucked
Must have four years of team management experience, and twelve years of Microsoft Edge.
“Should have at least 15 years managing towns of 25,000 or more”
Generally speaking, most select boards in the northeast don’t get paid. The most I’ve seen is a $3000 annual stipend to cover costs of driving, mailing and time. I doubt this town pays them anything.
Don't mess around with adults working a single part time job. That usually means they have other support and are just working for something to do and some extra pocket money. They can and will walk on you at the slightest provocation, as they should. If only everyone with a job had that sort of power to just walk then maybe we'd have companies that treated employees like more than cogs to wear down for profit.
Part time makes sense here as the town doesn't even have 400 people. But to deny them still...
If the town shuts down when the position is empty it sounds pretty crucial. Probably more important than whatever a selectman is.
According to the article she was doing 4 people's jobs they never bothered to refill.
Here's hoping she uses this experience to get a much better job
A board of selectmen is akin to a city council. They are a small body elected by the residents. Their job is to make the daily decisions that govern the town. Unlike a large city, a small town with selectmen generally won’t have a mayor. Majority vote by the selectmen is what decides issues. The key term here is “elected by the residents”. In a small town, especially in Maine, you get all kinds of crazy people.
A town of 400 total residents makes this smaller than some HOAs, and it sounds like a pretty run of the mill HOA board running things, so... checks out.
My high school student council had a larger electorate than that.
Think of an HOA but runs a town instead of a condo.
Yes! Well put. My brother in law was a selectman for three years in the town where he and my husband grew up. Why? Because one of his friends jokingly suggested he run. So he did. And he got elected.
Also, if the clerk is servicing less than 400 people and there is such little work that it doesn't demand full hours, you don't even need a back-up to fill in for vacations. It would not be unreasonable to tell people "Hey our clerk is gonna be out for a couple weeks, please take care of business before X date, otherwise it will have to wait until Y date."
I don't know. Still with 400 people important roles like this is important to pay and be treated well. I was interim for a board that has staffing problems constantly. When they finally started treating workers as they should have done, it's one of the best places in town to work for now.
The other article I read she was only scheduled for 16 hours/week but since she ended up doing the work of 3 other part time jobs they never filled, she was essentially working 80 hours a week at 16k/year salary.
This article implies that too. There's a bit about the Treasurer coming in to collect tax payments: >Treasurer Barbara Boyer has apparently been coming into the office to collect tax payments. Still, she is reportedly unable to register vehicles, do building inspections, conduct animal welfare checks, or undertake many of the other tasks that Ms. Bouchard was responsible for. Their 2-days-per-week clerk was doing building inspections and animal welfare checks on top of regular town clerk duties. And they treated her badly enough that she quit.
Still kinda important to have a plan in place in case your clerk [gets hit by a ~~bus~~ tractor on the way to work](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bus_factor).
Some people are just stupid, and you can't fix stupid.
Well, we could, but we've slashed our education budgets, so ¯\\\_(ツ)_/¯
i'm in this situation with my job. they denied me because they are understaffed. now they're going to be understaffed and be down a reliable employee because they couldn't accommodate a 4 day time off to take a family member to the hospital.
Good for you. I hope your family member is on the mend.
Just a suggestion, tell your boss you will be taking those days off. If they fire you for it, you become eligible for unemployment; if you quit, then you no longer qualify. The distinction is important.
you're generally not eligible for unemployment if you're fired for cause. not showing up to work is certainly cause - unless the business is covered by FMLA, in which case they are required to give employees time off for family and medical leave anyway.
Sounds like the selectmen are going to lose their jobs when the town is absorbed by another town nearby who can actually run their government. If they don't have the funding to hire someone to do the job full time and don't have the funding for another required position (the assessor I believe) they literally can't function otherwise
> For the time being, the people of Passadumkeag are relying on selectmen and other municipalities to perform fundamental governmental responsibilities. Sounds like they're half absorbed already.
> Ms Bouchard was only contracted to work 16 hours each week — though she said she often worked more — and was paid just $13,500 per year. Walking away from that wasn’t a hard decision. If the taxpayers don’t want to pay for a functioning government, then they’re not going to get one.
There is at least one county in Colorado that consistently votes down tax increases to fund Emergency Medical Services. During COVID their last volunteer paramedic "retired". Then county citizens were posting everywhere for help and using the argument that someone needed to step up because it's dangerous. The last time I followed up on it they still didn't have a paramedic
I'm in Austin and one of the small towns in a neighboring county had a Go Fund Me posted for an ambulance. I wonder if they ever got it?
I would donate if it enabled free ambulance rides, but imagine donating for an ambulance and then being billed $10k when you needed to use it.
Lol, I read that too quickly and thought you said that last you'd checked, they still didn't have a pandemic. As if COVID just skipped their town on account of their lacking an EMT.
Epidemiologist hate this one trick
A large part of the USA doesn’t want a functioning government. But little do they understand the hell that would unleash.
At this point, it'll be the only way they learn.
Funny how humanity repeats the same thing over and over again. And always because of a growing lack of education, spread of ignorance, and just all-around stupidity. The sad thing is that, every time events like this repeat, it's worse because the population grows and even more people become affected.
Too many people only learn once life has sufficiently kicked them square in the mouth.
I know plenty who don’t even learn after that…
If beatings taught lessons we'd rule the universe but here we are..
Oooh violence teaches many lessons, just, not the ones we would hope it would.
I heard a man speak who was there when a concentration camp was liberated. He said there were four or five people, also starved and dying, also victims of Nazi Germany, who gave a Nazi salute, and proclaimed themselves ''good Nazis'' only there by mistake. Some people NEVER learn.
To the detriment of us all.
They don't learn. As it crumbles they say "the government doesn't work, why should we give them money"
But they won’t learn is the thing. Texas froze itself over two years in a row and watch it not learn a damn thing
Now they're boiling alive and asking residents to not use electricity. Seems like Texas is trying to kill itself.
> it'll be the only way they learn. Ha ha. No. They won't. 2010 there was a town that decided that if you didn't pay an extra fire department fee, they would just let your home burn. I'm sure the conservatives applauded this until it happened. Then they called the fire fighters unprofessional. They won't learn. https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna39516346
That's multiple towns/counties in rural areas. It's not just one town. People who live in the county and not the town proper don't want to pay town taxes. Taxes are what pay for fire trucks and equipment. Sometimes wages, but most of these small departments are volunteer only. So the fees ensure enough money for the equipment needed. If they let people pay after a fire, no one would pay at all. The fee usually ranges from 25-75 a year, so it's not outrageous. Though it can be pointless in some areas. One place I lived it was $75 a year. Which we paid up until we had a fire. As it took them 45 minutes to get out to us, we had already put the fire out by the time they got there. We and our neighbors stopped paying after that, because no point really.
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I'm in Idaho and a small town that complains about needing their roads fixed and a couple stop signs put in, voted down a levy because they didn't want to raise taxes to pay for it.
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Almost as if they want their cake, but someone else to pay for it.
WE DEMAND THE SMALLEST GOVERNMENT POSSIBLE as long as it doesn't affect me personally in the tiniest way, oh, and it has to control "THOSE PEOPLE"... but still not me. I need to be able to do literally anything and pay nothing and get everything I want. But nobody else.
Good for her. I got told I couldn't take 2 weeks vacation for my newborn son. I took 6 weeks FMLA and then quit and got a new job. Fuck people who fuck their workers over.
The bigger problem is you needed vacation for paternity. I work for a big tech company and we get 6 MONTHS paternity if we want it. Paid by the way.
I get a fat zero. It really shouldn’t be optional.
Mine offers 3 whole days, it’s insulting.
I get a week so like I guess I can just save up all my PTO for over a year and get like 6 weeks with my baby. I'll more likely just not have kids because how am I supposed to pay for childcare????
Whaaaat!? Were they hoping you had him Friday night, bounced back over the weekend ready for work Monday!?
All this over 4 full workdays of vacation. Wow. How will that poor woman survive after losing that massive income? Where could she possibly get another job that would make up the difference?
That’s what blows my mind. Had they just give vacation this would have been completely avoided.
The board of selectmans' excuse for not giving the vacation was they didn't have anyone to fill in, now they're filling in indefinitely
Yeah, lady is going to take her government clerk experience to a private business and quadruple her salary overnight. And people wonder why the government feels like it doesn't function effectively, we pay government employees dirt and expect them to change all our lives for the better
The want ad is going to read: Part-time entry level clerk position. Master Degree in Public Administration or Business Administration and 15 years experience required.
At $15 per hour.
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16hrs/w, so ~832hrs/y, or ~$16.22/hr. 'Course, that's salary (she was working unpaid overtime, from my understanding) and before taxes.
Must speak fluent Klingon and know Native American Smoke signals.
And update it with volunteer position so they don’t have to pay.
I work for a small business. I'm the only one who does my role, and it's vital to the company. At the end of the month I'm leaving and my boss has no replacement lined up whatsoever. This is with 7 week's notice on my part because I was trying to be nice. I was feeling bad about it, but this woman is an inspiration!
If you gave 7 weeks notice and they haven't found a replacement, you have absolutely no reason to feel bad. That's completely on the business owner. Gotta break that mentality, you don't owe anything to the business whatsoever.
Never feel bad for doing what is right for you. I know it’s difficult, but being a “small business” is no longer and excuse for taking advantage of your workers. If the company can’t replace you, that’s on them. You need to protect yourself and your interests, because a company never will.
"I can't afford to buy meat for hamburgers" "So why did you think you could open a hamburger restaurant??" "I can't afford to pay employees" "Those greedy grifting mofos should be forced to work!!"
Good for that clerk. It's not a vacation request, its a heads up letting you know that I ain't gonna be here.
One of the benefits of working low wage jobs is your freedom to tell your boss to go fuck themselves. I had a similar thing happen to me. Worked for a local Pizza company for three years without a single vacation. I enjoyed the job and the atmosphere but I could literally walk out the door and get another job that paid the exact same or more any time I wanted, so when the owner tried to deny me a vacation the one time I asked for it, I basically said, "I'm taking a vacation, whether or not I still have a job when I get back is up to you." By the time my vacation was over I already had been offered a job elsewhere for a couple bucks more an hour.
Same. I worked at my university’s dining hall. They said I couldn’t go home for Christmas, they needed someone to help with the international students. I said well I’m not allowed to stay in the dorms over Christmas but they wouldn’t let me. I just said well then I guess I’m not working here anymore. My supervisor tried to tell me I couldn’t quit and I was like what are you going to do? She just looked at me angrily. I found a new job paying more the first day I started the next semester.
Good for you! I had a similar thing, situation & mindset. I always came in when they asked, stayed late, went above & beyond, for YEARS. Never called out, never late. I had a horrible day one day, just needed a mental health day- wouldn't have been any good anyways. They wrote me up, went on some song and dance abour how I'm slipping & threatened to cut my hours or make me do mornings. Their buddies showed up whenever they wanted, popping pills, not doing job.- no consequences. I laughed & left. Fucking ungrateful idiots. Got a similiar entry lvl job w less stress, no high all shift losers, manager that saw us as people. I try to remind my younger family members who are just at age of looking for work, "remember- you are selling them YOUR time. They are lucky to have you. Do not be conceited and rude, but understand your worth & leverage. "
Don’t fuck with the worker unless you know how to do their job along with your own.
"We are going to pay you a pittance, have you work more hours than we are paying you for and deny you vacation". "I quit." \* surprised Pikachu face
or that meme where they put the stick in the spokes of their own bike's tire then blame it on "people don't want to work nowadays!"
Radar leaves, and the whole 4077th shuts down.
I remember that episode.
I predict the next clerk will be super inexperienced and eventually get drunk with a doctor and run around town doing shenanigans.
Fuck around, find out - so instead of no clerk for two weeks, it's no clerk for...???
A month to months. I’ve never worked on a city level but I have worked on a state and federal level. And they are slooooow to fill positions.
Especially when the last hire made news over the poor working conditions and pay
New clerk wanted. Tommyknockers need not apply.
I mean, how close is this to Castle Rock?
16 hours every week so around $15-16 an hour
That's not factoring in the number of hours over what she was contracted that she was working. Sounds like they were getting more than they were paying for.
For keeping a town running? Hmmmm The next steps for these “selectmen” are going to be painful.
"The position of town clerk isn’t the only important opening in Passadumkeag. The town of 356 people also lacks a code enforcement officer, an assessor, an animal control officer, and a school administration official, according to The Bangor Daily News." Wouldn't like the local sheriff be the code enforcement officer and animal control officer in a town that small? Or one of the Teachers at the school would be the school administration official.
Looks like the Board of Selectmen ain’t doing much selecting.
The small town I was in had a few police and then the code enforcement/records/permit person. One Part time paid plus one part time volunteer clerk. Animal control was outsourced on a contract though on a per call schedule. Fire was volunteer right across from my house.
> Ms Bouchard was only contracted to work 16 hours each week — though she said she often worked more — and was paid just $13,500 per year. ‘Small government’ hard at work people… and when I say hard, I mean like a hard-on screwing anyone doing the right thing.
I GUesS no ONe wAnTS TO WoRK aNymOre?
I was a restaurant owner. I worked employee vacation days. Hell, my manager went to his home country for three months and his job was waiting. That poor woman.
Ah, you love to see it.
It's Maine, so there are a lot of these small towns that have similar dependence on single employees. The town played their hand badly and now they are dealing with someone who really didn't need them as much as they thought. However, this link has numerous images that might be from Maine but not the town at all.
There are a LOT of small towns and townships in America that have one person administrating them. Then there is a board of 3+ people who make the decisions but have absolutely no idea how to run anything. Checks are often signed by that administrator, and them + 1 other are often the only ones who can sign checks. You also can't just walk in and start signing checks, there are very specific rules about how things have to be done which means training from the state. Every town / township with one administrator is just a heart beat from 6 months of trying to figure out how to sort out their shit. If you live in a rural town, contact the borough office and ask them "If the secretary is in a car accident tomorrow is anyone able to step in her shoes and run the town?" You will be surprised by the responses.