Hello all.
My wife is in a very rough predicament at work and I don't know how to help her. I'm just looking for some advice I could share with her, or to hear from someone who has been in a similar situation.
She works for a company that runs many, many university bookstores throughout the United States. She's the manager at a VERY popular University in the mid-west. They have had a very hard time keeping a manager at that location. They are constantly busy for all of their operating hours (8am-4:30pm, although she's required to get there at 7am everyday because there are things to do before the store can open). She is also not allowed any overtime under any circumstance.
Normally, she gets one employee for a few hours per day so she has time to take a lunch and do actual manager tasks, like receiving orders, scheduling, making product orders, and merchandising received product out to the sales floor. It is important to reiterate the fact that her store is always busy. If she doesn't have an employee, she is the only one available to ring customers out, and that is an open to close task.
She received an email this morning telling her that starting on February 1st, she was only going to be allowed 50 hours per week of labor, INCLUDING HER OWN 40 HOURS. That means she only has ten hours of labor to spend on her employees. That also means that there will be several days a week where she will be the only person in the store from 7am til 4:30pm without the ability to take a lunch or even go to the bathroom. This was discussed with her manager and they told her to just close the store down to take a lunch or go to the bathroom. The problem with this though, is that the University does not want her to do this, and they've made that clear. They depend on that store to be open during all hours because it is such an incredibly busy campus.
This seems wildly inhumane to me. I know how much her store makes per day – the amount of labor they're allowing her per week is covered monetarily in less than half of one day. I just feel so bad for her and I can't believe how low some corporations will sink so maximize profits. These are human beings lives that they are so flippantly disregarding.
Does anyone have any advice I could give to her about handling this situation, or has anyone found themselves in similar situation, and how did you handle it?
Thank you! I'm a long-time lurker, first time poster to this sub.