So I was laid off back in November which is a story for a whole 'nother post… since then I have been working PT at a retirement community (20 hours a week) so I can have a little bit of income and health insurance while I look for a new FT job (which is very slow going since people aren't doing a ton of hiring in my industry [interior design] because of the recession).
I have not worked an hourly job in probably 10 years, I have been salaried for my last few jobs so this has been a difficult adjustment. Is it normal for PT jobs to require that you are available to work 12 hours a day 7 days a week? And deny your vacations? I am SO flexible with them, letting them schedule me whenever they need me, just blocking off occasional times when I have personal things going on. It irks me when they respond to my request saying “your doctor's appointment at 9 AM on Thursday has been approved.” Like no shit, I'm going to go to my doctor's appointment whether or not my $20 an hour/20 hours a week job says I can.
Last month I requested to leave at 7:00 on Valentine's Day so I could babysit my nephew. My boss never responded so I asked again the day before with no response, and then the day of, saying “is it ok if I sneak out at 7:00 instead of 7:30?” She gave me a wishy-washy answer about how it would be nice for me to stay until after the band was done (I had worked there all afternoon and evening for the Valentine's party). So I wasn't totally sure if she was telling me I had to stay or just saying it would be nice if I stayed, so I just ended up clocking out at 7:00. The next day, my boss called me into her office and looked very serious, and said that I was required to work every single holiday and this was hugely concerning that I clocked out 30 minutes early. She said that I was told in my interview that I had to work every single holiday. This most definitely was not told to me during my interview, I would've never accepted this job if that was the case. I asked HR for my job description and nowhere in it does it say anything about working holidays.
I guess I am just trying to figure out how this part time job thinks they own every hour of my week and anything I want to schedule for my personal life has to be approved by them. They definitely need me more than I need them, this position has been vacant for over a year with a huge turnover of people staying for a week or two and then leaving. The residents of the retirement community LOVE me and would be so upset if I left. Next time they deny a vacation (I'm pretty sure they are going to deny my request to go see my parents for Easter) I'm just going to say “that's fine, I will just hand in my resignation in that case.” I could substitute teacher for not much less than I'm making at the retirement community and have a lot more flexibility. Also as a note, this is not a life or death position, it is an activities assistant position for their independent living. It's not like I am a nurse or work in dining services where it is critical that I be there at certain times. I don't even go to most of the activities, I end up just sitting in my office messing around on the computer until my shift is over.
One other thing that really rubbed me the wrong way, a few weeks ago while I was running errands before my shift I suddenly puked all over my car. I immediately texted my boss and said I don't think I should come in since I might have a stomach bug. This was 1 hr and 31 minutes before my shift. The next day when I'm in I get called into my boss's office again saying I was having a point added to my file for not calling in at least two hours before my shift. I was like “ok, so should I have come in and exposed the vulnerable senior citizens to a possible stomach bug because I threw up less than two hours before my shift?” She was like “no, you should've called in at least two hours before.” I'm not sure how I could've done this when I puked 1 hr and 31 minutes before my shift.
Anyway, thanks for letting me rant. It's just frustrating because you would think they would want to do anything to keep me since I am so well loved by the residents, it's a really hard position to fill, and I have been beyond accommodating coming in days, evenings, weekends, whenever they need me for programs.