So I work in childcare. I might’ve said that before, not that I post in this sub super often. But it’s summer break right now and only the afterschool program is open right now, but all day rather than, we’ll, after school. I and six of my fully adult co-workers plus two summer interns have decided not to use up any more PTO and this we’ve been put in charge of a whopping 27-30 kids a day. It’s not exactly a stressful situation.
So on Tuesday I had an opening at 6:30 AM, and by noon, I decided I was bored enough to ask my co-workers if I could leave early. Literally everyone said it was okay and so I left for greener pastures (namely playing Aliens: Dark Descent, highly recommended).
That evening at my martial arts club, I guess I caught a tiny bug or something, because I felt under the weather and called in sick to admin, who I expected to pass the message on to everyone else. They didn’t. My nearest co-worker calls me asking where I am, I explain the situation to them. They then mention that apparently when people said that it was okay that I left early, they actually meant the opposite. Sigh.
So there’s been a discussion in my absence and now the agreement is that everyone has to work all scheduled hours. Why can’t grown-ass people who pay bills and have almost adult children actually say what they mean? If people had just said “no, sorry, we’d like it if you stayed a bit longer,” I would have.
And even more to the point: why is it so bad that everyone else gets to leave a bit earlier too? God knows that once the semester starts for real, we’re going to be overworked to the bone and in about a year, everyone will be muttering angrily about the pittance that they’re offering us in the way of raises. Go do something that makes you happy while you can. Spend time with your families. Go to the goddamn beach, god knows it’s going to be dark and cold for six months in a bit. People, man.