I’m in Kentucky, USA, which is an “at-will” state, as well as a 1-party consent-record state. To clarify, this is an entry-level hourly restaurant job, but I’d still like to fight Corporate rather than just move on.
When I first started, I worked morning shifts with another employee in my department (bakery), and my schedule has since been changed to place me on a mid-shift most of the time, with one closing shift per week. The mid-shifts I was told my responsibility was to complete a preparation list as well as maintain that enough bread dough was mixed, proofed, and cut. Additionally, the hour between the morning shift employee leaving and the night shift employee coming in, I am to provide bread directly to the servers (this is what the other employees do while I prep, both morning and evening).
It’s worth noting my official job title and description says only “Bakery”
My coworkers do not do their jobs while they are at work, and consistently leave early (by an hour, roughly) and arrive late (by 20-45 minutes). If it was an occasional thing or only a few minutes, I would not mind to do a little extra and help out, but while providing bread to the servers I can’t accomplish my own work. Because I have been taking on their responsibilities, I was pulled into the office and told I need to “pull my shit together and get shit done”
Today, I put my foot down. My morning coworker left two hours before she was supposed to, and my manager told me that I needed to either do both of our jobs, (note that I’m paid below 2x minimum wage) or go home. I attempted to reason with him (without being emotional or profane) and he told me to just go home. I told him I needed a written notice as to why, which he provided, as follows:
“[My name] is being sent home @[time I was sent home] on Sunday because he* is not following instructions on what needs to be done in bakery. was instructed to help put bread in window and cut bread to do prep when both of those two things are done and refused to do so.
-[manager’s name], August 7”
What can be done? The job isn’t union, and my next shift is Tuesday. I’m of course looking into finding other employment but I want to make a case beforehand, and ideally would be able to stay here, as I really do enjoy the job for most of the time.