Now of course it may depend on the job market you are in. I admit that. But my experience over the past 17 years I have worked now (minus pandemic years I guess...) I have never seen anything as bad as what I am witnessing on a regular basis now for 3 full years now. This isn't even the Pandemic that gets to be the one to catch all the blame for this. These employers are so heinous they have been this way since before 2019.
But the pandemic has made it even worse. It's made it so that even employers who were once kinda decent are now even worse.
And the cherry on top of this shit sundae? I've found proof that helps prove my point in regards to some of my old jobs. One of them was never a good place to work at in the first place, but it looks kinda nice and seemed better than most. How wrong was I?
Well, so wrong that even though my reporting of them to the health board had them fail atrociously, they had already failed atrociously for multiple years now. Going back as far as 2010 if I remember correctly. And this seems to be a repeat occurrence the more I dig into the subject. Bad bosses have bad kitchens. (Yes, I'm food industry.) And bad kitchens tend to be run by bad bosses. There are exceptions to the rule it seems, but generally speaking... if you think you should report a place; you probably should have already done it before you stepped foot into the building.
That's how bad it is right now. In Alberta, Canada.
Again, there are a lot of good employers too, but I seem to keep missing them. Some I thought were bad though... turned out to be not half bad once they got their heads back on straight though. Hence my mentioning of that even the kinda decent ones earlier.
One such employer, might just hire me back on, cause he's having a hard time finding anyone wanting to work in the kitchen. Can't say I blame them, since it's a small kitchen and it can be easy to get annoyed with other people in a small kitchen. Very easy. But none the less, he basically offered me a job back after talking to him about my last paycheck I left there during Wave 3. (And yes, if he were to read this, he would know exactly who I am right now. heh...)
Anyways.
I'm sure this fellow has his reasons for getting out of freelancing; but to me the freedom of being answerable ultimately to only myself is kind of nice. I don't mind hustling for a decent gig if need be, just so long as they treat me like a freaking human being. And so far... I seem to get that treatment more so from people I am helping doing gig work on the side, than I get from people who should know better than to treat their fellow coworkers like crap. Or their employees. Etc.
As a final note: I highly suggest any Albertan's or anyone looking to come to Alberta for any reason at all, to avoid any restaurants that look even remotely dingy or seedy. If that kitchen doesn't sparkle, don't go into it. Yeah, it's that bad. Places that seem respectable on the outside will have some of the unholiest of kitchens on the inside. It's so bad, I'm considering moving back to Saskatchewan... the place I left to get away from BS back there. (Totally partially my fault.)