New employee clocks in and out on time, faces judgment for not adding another hour to their workday: 'The rest of the team comes in around 8 AM and stays until 6:30 PM or later'

Too many jobs come with hidden assumptions, and not enough employees challenge them.

While it might say one thing on the work contract, the day-to-day reality of the workplace situation can prove to be a totally different beast. Pressure gets piled on, duties become more complicated without any increase in pay, and the hours sneakily stretch into overtime territory without any recognition of that fact. It is an unfortunate reality that many employers will happily exploit those who work for them in these not-so-subtle ways, so long as they go along with it.

What is even worse is that those who do challenge unfair expectations often find themselves penalized for it, especially if they are going against what is considered to be the company culture. When everybody follows the unwritten rules except you, it can be an uphill battle for your behavior to be accepted. It may even be the case that staying in that job becomes untenable. It does not always matter that you are doing something that you are within your rights to do; if everyone else decides it is incorrect, you may have no choice but to conform to some unreasonable expectations or find work elsewhere.

via Hennie Stander
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One of the most common ways in which workplaces exploit their employees is by encouraging a culture that makes them work more hours than they are supposed to. Most of the time, this situation does not translate to an increase in pay, but it is done because that is what the expectation is.
One individual had only been in their job for two months when their coworkers decided that the hours they were working were causing an issue. Their day supposedly started at 8:30 AM and finished at 5 PM, with an hour break for lunch.
Their colleagues began to make comments about how other members of the team came in early and stayed late, despite the fact that the employee was more than capable of completing the work they were assigned within normal hours. Frustrated at this state of affairs, they looked for a place to vent about the situation.
My new job has a weird problem with my punctuality.

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