1.) Invest in infrastructure.
2.) Create quality permanent jobs.
3.) Stop outsourcing.
In your emails, Facebook posts, tweets, and texts, those are three main things you said you want to hear from President Obama.
Tonight at 7pm ET, we’ll hear the President’s plan to get Americans back to work – and we’ll see if his vision matches our own.
One great part of being one of the 3 million Working America members is that you do not need to watch the speech alone. We are hosting a Virtual Watch Party during the speech and you are invited!
You can join our live chat right here on the blog, tweet your comments using #ready2work or post to our Facebook wall. You’ll be able to connect with other Working America members and our staff in real time.
It is a trying time for working families. Will the president’s plan lead us to a greater recovery? Sign up below for our virtual watch party, and we’ll discover the answer together.
This year’s Bad Boss contest exposed many horrible bosses. More than 700 horrible bosses, actually. Ranging from hilarious to heartbreaking to just plain horrifying, they showed us just how bad bosses can be. Now, after thousands of votes, we’ve got our three winners.
Bad Barista garnered the most votes to win the People’s Choice Grand Prize with the story “Boss with No Heart.”
My boss called me several times, threatening to fire me because I was unable to do my job. She continued to keep calling me, specifically harassing me about how my health problems were causing scheduling problems for the business, until my mother picked up my phone in the ER and told her to leave me alone. (She didn’t.)
Traumatized Tracy’s story “Please Put Your Granny Panties Away!” won the Most Shared Online Grand Prize after having the most shared story on Facebook.
Is there a polite, professional way to ask your boss to put away her undies? This is the question I have been asking myself for the past six months…
“No Chairs for You!” by DownloadMe , was a standout in the eyes of the Working America staff, and took the Staff Pick Grand Prize.
The second month we doubled sales to $150K, but “it wasn’t enough”…so to “teach us a lesson” our boss took away all of our chairs…FOREVER!!!
Each of these deserving winners will get a much-needed vacation from their bad bosses, thanks to Union Plus. But while they’re the only ones who get a free vacation, if you’re a Working America member you could get a discount at any of the places our winners may be visiting. That’s because all Working America members are eligible for a wide range of Union Plus discounts and benefits, including vacation discounts.
Whether you submitted a story, voted or shared a story on Facebook, thanks for your participation in the Bad Boss contest.
Bathroom breaks seem pretty basic. It’s something every worker needs. For one of this week’s Bad Boss semifinalists, using the restroom was an unreasonable request.
“Freebird,” who worked at a bar in Indiana, writes:
On weekends I was sometimes told I couldn’t go to the bathroom & more times than not I worked those 8 hr shifts without a break or even able to relieve myself or eat. This was a regular thing.
This bad boss, who also made fun of employees’ weight in front of customers, helped “Freebird” earn one of the last two semifinalist spots.
The Bad Boss contest is coming to a close: There is just one week left. Based on your votes, the stories have been narrowed down to six semifinalists. Now it’s time to pick the People’s Choice Grand Prize winner. Head to the site and vote for the semifinalist you think most deserves to win.
Our second semifinalist this week is a disturbing tale from “Working Late.” It seems her boss thought he was alone in the office late one night when he literally was caught with his pants down.
As I turned the corner to the back/executive office, I saw the owner at his desk staring intently at his computer screen….I noticed the beads of sweat dripping from his balding head.
Let’s just say it’s a good thing there were no kids around to see the video he was watching.
Each of our semifinalists deserves a vacation but only one can win the People’s Choice prize. Reread all six semifinalists and vote for your favorite. Time is running out!
Did your boss ever complain about how much it costs to gas up his Porsche while you’re struggling just to pay for your commute? Or maybe she just leaves her underwear all over the office for you to stumble across? Her dirty underwear.
Well, those are the stories that earned this week’s semifinal spots in the Bad Boss contest. With just one week left to enter your story, check out the site right now and enter your own bad boss story if you think it could make you one of the last two semifinalists.
Semifinalist “Sydney Bristow” was having trouble affording the commute to work and went to her boss for help. Her boss, who makes considerably more money, tried to “sympathize,” saying:
“I know, when I take my Porsche out of storage for the summer, it’s going to cost a lot to gas it up.”
Maybe Sydney should have offered to take the Porsche off her boss’s hands if it was giving him so much trouble.
“Traumatized Tracy” shares a story that might just traumatize you as well. We’ve all heard you’re supposed to “dress for success,” but it seems that Tracy’s boss struggles with staying dressed at all.
“Is there a polite, professional way to ask your boss to put away her undies?…Every day I come into work not knowing where I will stumble across my boss’s oversized undergarments.”
Gross…and this story gets worse. If you want to read the rest, or any of our Bad Boss entries, click here to visit the site.
There is less than one week left to enter your own story. If you’ve got a story that can top these, make sure you enter right away. Three winners will get a seven-night vacation escape from their bad bosses, courtesy of Union Plus. Also, be sure to vote for your favorite stories. Your votes will choose our last two semifinalists!
The people have spoken, and Working America’s Bad Boss contest has its first two semi-finalists. But the contest is far from over. The votes have been cleared from the first round and voting is underway for the second round; two more semi-finalists will be chosen July 13 based on your votes. (So go vote.)
Here are your semi-finalists, who will go forward to the final round of voting on July 20th.
“Bad Barista” was in an ambulance on the way to the hospital with a life or death heart condition when:
my boss called me several times, threatening to fire me because I was unable to do my job. She continued to keep calling me, specifically harassing me about how my health problems were causing scheduling problems for the business, until my mother picked up my phone in the ER and told her to leave me alone. (She didn’t).
Bad Barista and all her coworkers lost their health insurance just weeks later.
“Big Kitty” in Ohio was supposed to fire a problem employee. Only it turned out that:
he and his wife had recently watched from the bleachers as their teenage son died before their eyes while playing in a high school game. Their boy had suffered a heart attack from an undetected heart condition, and the employee had recently discovered that he also had the same hereditary heart condition.
No matter. Big Kitty was still given a bad performance review for not firing the grieving father.
You can help make the call about who our next two semi-finalists will be. Vote for your favorite stories today. Or, if you think you’ve had a boss who had what it takes to make you a winner, there’s still plenty of time to enter your story. Remember, the Grand Prize winner will get a seven-night vacation escape from their bad bosses, courtesy of Union Plus.
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