im in grad school full time. & school is my main priority. i got a part time job in retail because obviously i need to pay rent & eat. when i interviewed for the job i was very clear about the job only being to pay bills. i told them i was in school & school came first. i told them with my class schedule i couldn’t work more than 20 hours a week. they hired me knowing that.
my first semester of grad school they had me doing at least 30 hours a week & during my finals week i was working over 40 because that was in december so we were super busy for the holidays.
after that i had a talk with my boss. i told her i would not be working over 20 hours again. she agreed & apologized for scheduling me more than we had agreed.
this semester has been better. she has only scheduled me 20 hours a week, but regularly does that boss thing where they try to guilt you into picking up shifts to help cover. i say no because it’s almost always when i’m in class.
the other day my boss said that she gets the feeling i’m only there for the money. i said she was correct. she threatened writing me up because i’m not passionate about the job.
the other day i was in a zoom meeting & the district manager was talking about how much more work we should be doing. this is despite most stores increasing profits. she talked about how disappointed she is that most of us aren’t “going the extra mile.” she talked about an employee that uses their off days to go to other store locations & talk to their best sellers & see what they can improve on. obviously i’m not going to fucking do that. no free labor & all
but after that meeting my boss has been even more up my ass about how i need to show i’m not just here for the money. she has started to push the expectation that we use our time off to become better salespeople. she’s trying to get us to come in on off days & just observe our coworkers. & to go to other store locations to do the same. i told her i will not do that for free. i said she can pay me to sit & observe people, & those will be scheduled hours & will count as part of the 20 hours i work a week. or she can pay me to come in 20 hours a week to actually do my job & stop trying to steal my time.
well she didn’t love that. i know she can’t fire me for not coming in when i’m not scheduled. but i’m fairly confident she’s trying to find another reason to fire me, especially since most of my co workers are doing the unpaid observation bs. im thinking i should just quit. i feel so uncomfortable at work now & it feels like i’m walking on egg shells to not give her an excuse to fire me. in the past i’ve only ever quit jobs because i literally could not work there anymore (like i was moving, or i was a case worker before starting grad school & they only offer full time & the work hours were the exact same as my school hours.) because of this my old bosses have been super understanding & it’s always been amicable. ive never quit a job just because i hate it. i keep trying to get myself to just quit. but then i can’t make myself follow through. i think i really just need encouragement to leave that place