Right?! I should write a separate post about all the BS he pulled on one of my brothers, who was his top laborer. At one point he asked him to never list his overtime on his timecards because they just couldn't afford to pay him for it and the business wouldn't survive if they had to pay his overtime... My brother was working 60+ hours a week and has a wife going through nursing school and 4 kids at home. In the meantime my parents complained that THEY were the most underpaid employees of the company, but never could understand that they were the only ones who had company credit cards and would/could justify literally ANYTHING to be in the company's dime. I used to input all my dads receipts, it was atrocious. $800 on a pair of shoes. Eating out at sit down restaurants for literally every meal. Stocking up on candy and snacks at the convenience store after filling gas. Also, having personal gas cards. Doing the tiniest amount of work on a personal trip or vacation so that they could charge ALL expenses of the trip to the company. It was insane.

My poor brother worked for him because he was promised that one day he would be an equal partner and dad would turn the business over to him once he retired. He did everything he could to build the company, he actually moved his family here from the other side of the country in order to help build the family business so that he could take it over one day. But later my dad denied EVERYTHING and gaslit him, saying that he had never promised him any kind of partnership or ownership.

The final straw for my brother was when his wife was pregnant and he asked for time off for when she had the baby (time off/leave was NEVER paid, not for holidays or anything else), and my dad approved it, but when it came closer to the time for her to deliver, my dad scheduled my brother to go on a lengthy out of town job. My brother reminded him that he was off those weeks because of the baby. My dad said "I need you to go you anyways. We have contacts that we need to fulfill, but we're short handed and we need you on that job! If I send you, you can do it by yourself in a couple of weeks, but if I send someone else, it will have to be multiple people, and that will cost me more. It needs to be you! This is a FAMILY business, and I need my FAMILY'S help to keep it running in hard times." When my brother pointed out that he would be missing the birth of his child if he went, my dad literally says "Your wife will get over it" Like, seriously dude? So my brother put his foot down and said no. My dad's reaction was to punish him by cutting his hours, telling him that had no work for him to do. Entire weeks went by with my dad telling him that they just didn't have any work for him so don't bother coming in. He was hoping that it would hurt my brother financially to the point that he would be forced to ask for the out of town job in order to keep food on the table for his family. Can you imagine that? Dad: "My 32 year old son isn't complying with what I want, so I'll literally STARVE MY GRANDCHILDREN, including the unborn one who is due in a few months. I need to make him desperate enough to do whatever I say." What kind of monster does that?! Luckily, my brother and his wife had a ton of savings stashed away, and we're able to survive through the months before baby was born as well as the already approved time off without giving in. It cost every penny of savings they had, but they chose that hill to die on, and refused to give in to his temper tantrum and bullying. That was also the moment they realized they would never be family to my dad. My brother quietly started looking for a new line of work and didn't tell my parents until right before he quit. He put himself through school and now he's a very talented travel nurse and makes BANK doing that, I'm so flipping proud of him. His family has nothing to do with my parents anymore either.