Employee quits after working long unpaid hours highlighting the importance of a healthy workplace

Working in a family business can be both a pleasant and unusual experience at the same time. If you are working with family, you are more likely to be let off the hook, but if you are an outsider, there are many pitfalls, with almost little to no room for growth and learning. If you are fresh out of high school and looking for a job to get some work experience, the best option is to avoid working for a family business as told by Reddit user u/​​therealgloface. They recounted their early career experience working in a family-run business and stated why it is the worst place to be employed.

They mentioned being subjected to a lecture for being late for work once, despite regularly working long unpaid hours and ultimately deciding to quit. They wrote in a viral Reddit post, “This was from my first job in a family-run SME where the husband was the director and the wife was the GM. It was a toxic workplace and I am thankful I left the job five years ago. I dreaded every single day at that company."

Since it was their first job, they worked late into the night without any overtime compensation. They went on to tell a story about how they had to prepare materials ahead of time for a project. "My official working hours were 9 to 6 but I usually find myself getting dinner and going home around 11+. Those few days, I started to report for work a little late, about 5 to 10 mins past 9 and my boss (the director) called me into the room and gave me flak for it."

Working countless unpaid hours combined with a barrage of abuse over the most insignificant and illogical grounds would be the tipping point for any employee. In these situations, quitting is the only alternative for survival. The rule for any corporate job is to stop in your tracks when things feel out of control and results come at the cost of your mental and physical well-being. After noticing how essential the working hours are to the boss, this employee opted to adopt a few changes to adhere to the time constraints.

"From that day onwards, I stopped staying late past office hours and worked strictly from 9 to 6," they wrote. "He noticed it because he called me into his room for a chat a week later and told me he noticed I’ve been going home ‘early’ recently. I told him I’d just been on time. He couldn’t do anything to me because I’ve been delivering results." When the big resignation day arrived, the boss called them into the office for an awkward conversation. When asked if there was anything the boss could do to make the employee stay, they answered with a flat-out no. "Just know that if you want to come back to this company anytime, we will have the door open for you," the boss said, to which they replied, "Okay."

Many people in the comments applauded the employee for quitting such a toxic work environment and shared similar stories. "This is the way. Tell 'em straight up they pulled a power play and f**ked up," said u/Techn0ght. "I love how you managed to milk that final conversation for 30 minutes of being paid to stare at the boss in silence," wrote u/hard_tyrant_dinosaur. "Oh god. Flashbacks of my old boss. Same setup, SME run by a husband-wife duo. It's always sacrificing your time for us because we're family but also you can't get a raise or claim OT because you can't do this to us how dare you we're family," added u/Youlknowthatone. "It's funny how employers just want to take as much as you can give. But as soon as it starts to go the other way, by only 5 minutes, they act like you're taking the world," said u/pelorizado83.