Poor Part-time Work Conditions: When Enough is Enough

The minimum wage in NY is $8.00; barely enough to support one person let alone a family of 6, especially when the pay is only for part-time work. So, when work-related conditions are poor, such as not having heat for more than two weeks in frigid temps, when is it enough to actually to call it quits? This was the case with a recent part-time job I had taken in a local beauty supply company where corporate affairs outweighed customer service and employee health and safety.

A local beauty supply company, which sells to licensed professionals only, advertised for part-time help around Christmas. I was tapped for cash and begged a friend who works in another store location to put in a good word for me. She did and I was hired, although red flags flew the moment I signed on.

The part-time work was simple and the money $.50 over minimum wage; not much, but a decent supplement to my two other jobs and a moldable schedule to coordinate with my children’s hectic one. All seemed well enough until I began to hear rumblings of poor corporate management.

The store I worked in had an extremely high turnover rate. Sales associates and managers came and went every few months and now I know why, the beauty supply, one of the largest in the country with over 700 stores that I cannot name here, cares more about revenue than customer satisfaction and employee health and safety.

The training concentrates on upping the almighty dollar, with a focus on using the antiquated POS, returns and exchanges and helping the consumer, but not for their ultimate satisfaction, but to ensure they buy more and don’t leave without a purchase. However, when heat was lost in my part-time employ, it was clear the goal was not on keeping customers happy, but to get their money.

Employees told me how the staff came and went and the “drama” they brought and left with them. They complained that the store remained open, without electric, after Hurricane Sandy devastated the area, despite the fact that sales were limited and salons weren’t open, suffered damages or worse.

Another Long Island area store owned by this beauty supply corporation lost heat and employees were told to work as the region, and the country, began to suffer incredibly cold temperatures. It took two weeks for that location to eventually get heat because of the corporate hoops that need to be jumped through for estimates and approvals.

The very young management in my part-time work kept our heat at 90 degrees, because “it doesn’t blow at 75.” NO! It doesn’t, the thermostat steadies when it reaches the desired temperature and kicks in when it cools down. Hence, it was only a matter of time before they broke it, and within four weeks of my working there the system shut down, in the middle of the polar vortex, with a snowstorm every week; $30,000 worth of damages.

The heat went on a Friday, January 31 to be precise. I was off on Saturday due to my children’s dance competition, thankfully, and received a text to dress warmly on Sunday. It wasn’t too bad that day, it was about 56 in the professional beauty supply and equipment store, but that was only because the Northeast enjoyed an unusual, balmy 50-degree day, which changed very fast.

Day after day the temps dropped and more snow fell, making it difficult to open boxes, count change and put away stock. Because we were bundled up, we’d accidentally knock product off the shelves and our fingers that were swollen from the cold dropped objects easily as they slid out of our hands. The skin soon turned red, chapped and cuts wouldn’t heal. Employees who suffered colds and viruses were not getting better and consistently calling out sick, which would not have occurred if the store had heat.

The manager needs to go through the district manager who needs to contact maintenance who gets in touch with repair who provides an estimate that maintenance has to have approved by corporate, and then the service can commence once the parts are ordered and a time is scheduled to complete the repair, all while the staff is left in the dark on when we can resume normal and comfortable work conditions.

After the first week of snide comments from customers about the heat, the commentary swiftly turned into complaints, concern, and people walking out because they were inconvenienced with the cold store. Shoppers told me to leave, quit, call the BBB, etc. and when the manager called maintenance for an update, the DM then reprimanded her, “It’s my job.” Well, the DM was away, so what the hell was this girl supposed to do.

The day the heat went, a ceiling leak also occurred from the weight of the snow, and the day I walked out, a 6-foot area of ceiling tile in the corner of the store swayed and hung so bad, either from snow or busted pipes, that it was inevitable it would come down, on me, customers, perhaps ruin my personal belongings and/or product, or worse and at the very least, we’d be stuck cleaning up this mess, all for $8.50 an hour.

Now please don’t get me wrong, I was grateful for the opportunity to work, even though I have 2 other jobs, however, I didn’t apply to be a postal worker or a construction worker who makes much more money, is trained for the elements and gets health benefits in order to work in extreme weather conditions. But more than two weeks is too much to work in those conditions, without an inkling as to what is happening or when the heat would be repaired.

I received a very rude answer from the other older part-timer when I questioned if she knew the status of the heat, “I just come in and do my job.” A very corporate response indeed, and one the company would be quite proud of. And when I pointed out the collapsing ceiling, the elder said, “honey, call someone, I don’t know what to tell you, I can’t work around negative people.”

Not a sour word about the beauty supply company or the inadequate management that ran it uttered from my lips that morning and that comment was unwarranted. Rather than argue with the curmudgeon, I simply gathered my belongings, clocked out and drove home. You work without heat and a ceiling that is about to fall around you. I will not endure one more minute of frigid temperature for part-time work and minimal pay, which is supposed to have heat.

I spoke with a client, shortly after I left the beauty supply and equipment job, that works for the Gap, the giant clothing retailer, and she had wonderful things to say about how the employees were treated during all of the snowstorms and Hurricane Sandy as well; the complete opposite from what I dealt with and others who work full and part-time for…, you’ll just have to guess.