A boss told gym staff not to discuss wages and their response was simply brilliant

Poke Staff. Updated April 11th, 2022

Here’s a fabulous tale to make your day better, which began when Redditor AMasterfulWriter shared the warning note put up in their workplace by their boss.

It told them they were ‘strictly forbidden’ from discussing their wages, warning then that their employment could be ‘terminated for any reason without legal percussion’.

‘Is this sign legal? My boss posted it in our breakroom,’ asked AMasterfulWriter in their first post.

Just in case that’s tricky to read …

ATTENTION ALL SUBORDINATES

EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY – CONVERSING ABOUT WAGES (BOTH ON DUTY AND OFF DUTY) IS STRICTLY FORBIDDEN.

This is considered proprietary information and as such, it is protected legally. If you are overheard speaking (OR LISTENING TO!) a conversation in which wages are discussed, you will receive disciplinary action up to and including termination.

As a reminder, Kentucky is an at-will state, meaning your employment can be terminated for any reason without legal percussion. Or NO REASON.

‘Legal percussion,’ anyone?

And then this happened, and it’s brilliant.

‘UPDATE to the gym break room sign,’ wrote AMasterfulWriter.

And once again, just in case that’s tricky to read …

Seeing as you’re a manager … it may behoove you to become familiar with the laws pertaining to it.

Since research ain’t your forte, I’ve included a link to the pertinent documents on the left, right, top and bottom of this paper. Kinda hard to miss.

Needless to say, you can’t legally tell us not to discuss wages in the good ol’ US of A. We will continue to do so.

Furthermore, for the sake of making this a little more streamlined, shall we?

And following this was a list of staff and exactly how much they earn per hour.

‘The rest of your ‘subordinates’ could not be reached, but they’re welcome to post their wage above.

Love,

$10.50 an hour Shelly

Boom!

The response was made by a colleague of the original poster, and it really did say it all.

As for AMasterfulWriter, they said they had been in touch with the HR director for the club’s region, who they’ll be talking to next week.

And here’s a little bit more of what AMasterfulWriter, had to say about it.

‘But yeahhhhhh, one of my friends decided to take a different approach when she read the thread here on r/antiwork yesterday. She took the same link but created a little sign of her own to post…the picture that’s the main post of this thread. She hung the sign up sometime on yesterday morning, after throwing Jer’s sign away.

‘Surprisingly, she said she worked the rest of her shift without much fanfare. The other workers on her shift were supportive and thought it was hilarious, and obviously a few people added their names. She did say that her shift supervisor (McKenzie) told her she should take it down and that she was just worried Jer would fire her.

‘Jer never came by, but by the time I came in to work this morning, the poster was taken down. So, might’ve been another employee or a supervisor, idk. So that’s it for now! We all know each other’s wages, and hopefully we can use that in some way to have leverage in the future. No crazy raises or anything now, though.’

The initial post even prompted an article in Newsweek, which you can read here.

Let’s hope it all works out for the best.

Source Reddit u/AMasterfulWriter