Reply #5: I got one ten-cent raise in three years, and the managers

[Sal Minella]

were mystified and all huffy when I left without explaining why.

We were told at a company meeting (by the Big Boss) that we were not to discuss our hourly rate or raises with each other.

We were penalized fifteen minutes' pay if we punched in three minutes after 8 a.m., but the boss's wife (who "worked" in my department) punched in and out any time of day she chose, without a word to anybody. The rest of us always wondered what her hourly rate was exactly, but actually the less she was there, the better, since we had to mop up her mistakes.

The boss told us "productivity" was his favorite word. No shit.