
When you were a minute late at work, our clocking system would notice and you didn’t get paid for the full hour, but for forty-five minutes. In the past people came late and this was the only solution…
Every first Saturday of the month, we had a kick-off meeting. All the employees would turn up an hour before we were supposed to start, and talked about the great things we accomplished in the past month, and the things that needed to improve. You got a free cup of tea. No salary.
I refused to show up at the meeting if I didn’t get the money I deserved. It’s a two-way story, I said to my line manager. I was not amused.
Every week, there was a half-four meeting on Friday with some special departments that worked close together. My line-manager put me on the list to attend them and if I didn’t go, he would have a reason to sack me. What he forgot was my argument for not showing up, and he also forgot that these meetings counted as work time, providing me with an extra hour of salary in the week. The only thing I did was smile and nip my tea.
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