Bro, two things:
1) You forget that most people in most jobs do not know their rights, so they're not going for the lawsuit they probably could have and would likely win.
Most jobs know this and do whatever the fuck they want knowing that nine out of ten people aren't going to pursue it farther than whining and complaining
2) you also forget that arrogance, ignorance, and spite that Jobs have towards someone leaving.
I'll give you three instances that are absolutely true, two of which I witnessed personally.
2A) the Environmental Management Services secretary Marsha took a day off one day but I happened to see her in the hallway on the other side of the hospital. She told me not to tell anyone she was here.
She was dressed up and I asked her why and she said she had an interview to be the secretary for another department
She ended up getting the job and the department head Roger Katon, a racist George W. Bush-type veteran (his parents had money, so instead of going to Nam, he got stationed stateside while middle and lower class people had to go to Vietnam.
The day she gave her two week notice, Roger walking to the office, gave her one of his fake Smiles with no teeth, you know that white people smile, went into his office slammed the door and called up Marsha's new boss and said very loudly so she could hear "How dare you fucking hire that lazy fucking bitch"
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2B) I got a promotion to a different area and tried to give my 2 week notice. Roger told my new boss that he couldn't afford to spare me so they could keep me for two pay periods instead of one.
During that last month I was harassed constantly. I typically had the freedom in my job to work as I saw fit.
I chose to work really hard early so the last part of the day was lax. Management HATED to see me chilling for the last part of the day but there was literally nothing that needed to be done.
I didn't come in at exactly 6am everyday as I was supposed to. I knew it was wrong, but I I knew needed to be done and the time that it needed to be done by. All of my customers were always happy because I overstocked them so they weren't out of supplies by at 6 a.m.
My last month the night shift supervisor was in my office at at 6 a.m. specifically to write me up if I was late
My last day I was written up 3 times for bullshit, and one of the supervisors told me later that Roger told her to write me up or he was going to write her up and suspend her
They were trying to fire me before I could get promoted to the other department. This is the same job that try to take my position away when I got back from deployment and make me a janitor.
I had to go to the Department of Labor to get my position back. The Department of Labor told them to give me back my job by the end of the day or else.
( imagine that, a veteran at a government job having to fight for his position back when he got back from deployment from the war)
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2C) Do you remember the story of the auto body shop who paid his employee in pennies
A Georgia auto repair shop owner is accused of retaliating against a former employee by paying the worker's final wages, $915, in the form of more than 91,000 oil-soaked pennies.
These are all examples of spiteful, retaliatory tactics jobs do when a person is leaving. And often the people don't sue, they just want to leave