So this is about the job I’m currently leaving. Back in April I was hired on to the location, and then in early August our big boss was walked out and the entire HR department quit on the spot with her (they still got charged). HR at the time wrote our schedules out nearly 3 months so we were scheduled through the week of thanksgiving already. The recently hired department lead was suddenly temporarily thrust into being big boss, HR and department lead so obviously things were bound to be mixed up.
At the start of October a lot of us were asking for December’s schedule to make holiday plans, and she assured us it would be up by October 15. On October 17 I and 1 other staff member realized we were alone in not having a schedule. We both asked the department lead where our schedules were, as the shifts we typically worked had already been picked up for OT and approved for other staff.
The department lead assured us they would be written soon and it would “all work out”. On November 5th I was done waiting and cornered her in her office wanting to know where my schedule was and telling her I better get my full time hours on my assigned shifts, I didn’t care she had given them away to others. That’s where she informed me that I was a “flex” employee and responsible for just picking up shifts that were open and making my own schedule.
I told her that is the PRN position, flex employees are just not set to a shift and assigned where needed most. Also they got a flex employee premium and did she see that on my checks? Her response was that she will fix that but I needed to pick up shifts and would no longer be getting a schedule, and that there was nothing to be done about it. That night when I cane in for my shift I slid a photocopy of my hiring contract under her office door with the “hours and days” portion highlighted, paper clipped to it was the business card of a lawyer that loves defending employees and taking bad companies to the cleaners.
You see I had been hired with a promise of the most coveted shifts adding to 32 hours, and a guaranteed round up to a 40 hour check. I had been nice and was allowing the former HR to mix around my schedule and hours from September to January with the promise I would return to my slot Jan 1 (3 employees were on maternity leave and 1 on military assignment).
She called me at 815 the next morning (about 5 minutes after she got there) and suddenly wanted to discuss getting me a schedule. But the one I had been hired for was no longer feasible because she had given those days to more senior employees who needed them more and deserved them. I was only 4 months into the industry and I wasn’t going to find a better paying job anywhere because I’m already over paid for my experience level as is. So I should take the one she was offering (some of the worst shifts and 38 hours a week) and she wasn’t doing the round up either. I decided at that moment I was going to make her hurt.
I accepted the schedule (because it’s the holidays and I need money) and after hanging up put in 1 single application to a facility that has been trying hard to recruit me. This was a Tuesday and on that Friday I interviewed, was offered my premium schedule with my 32 hours rounded to 40, and a $7/hr pay raise until 90 days where it goes to a $20/hr raise. I knew I was underemployed but I liked the mission of the location I was working.
Since the day she was generous enough to give me a schedule, she has been calling me and “convincing” me to pick up several other shifts between now and March 28th. I’m basically working 12’s 6 days a week all the way through. She constantly uses the “I should lower your pay, and it’s ridiculous someone with only 4 months experience even has your position” and telling me I was making the right decision because I only was going to get a job at a gas station if I left. I’ve agreed to every single pick up, and even trading the few good slots I have with other employees that have the worst shift slots. Basically my heavily over burdened schedule is filled with trash slots that typically take weeks off begging and offering a premium to the hourly pay to fill. Even then only about 50% get picked up.
Today when I left my shift I placed an envelope with my resignation letter effective immediately and employee badge in her mail box. At the bottom of the resignation letter I put the license number and state it was issued in that I held before transferring it here 4.5 months ago. I have over 17 years experience and was heavily over qualified for the position and pay I held, and they will never be able to afford to fully replace me as a non profit that runs just barely in the green each year. Add to that she is now going to be running below safety standards almost every day for months, or pay through the nose to cover the shifts no one wants.
I’m guessing she got the letter and looked up the license number because so far I have 12 text messages from her and 4 missed calls from the facility. All asking me to come talk to her and reconsider, we can work the scheduling issue out. She’s also texted saying that I should have told her that it was my state license that was 4 months old and not my experience.
Honestly I feel she should have 1) actually looked at my contract before assuming anything 2) realized that me being beneath her but making only 10 cents less an hour (when most in my “position” were being paid pennies given it’s a nonprofit) probably warranted further research and 3) actually teamed to me rather then degrade and talk down to me as she clearly didn’t respect me as a human even.
I tried hard to take 2 of her more experienced staff with me, but they are going to come after winter because they hate driving in the snow. Because even my coworkers recognized I clearly was more experienced than most that come to work there, so they asked me about my history. She deserves everything that comes to her. And given that the last missed call I have was from the office number of the interim Administrator (I haven’t listened to the VM yet), I’m guessing she is probably about to have to answer some questions she would rather avoid right now.
Hope she enjoys working a lowly position, and actually performing to the standards she unrealistically demanded of us with less than half the equipment and a third of the staff needed to reach that level. I still believe in their mission, and if she ever leaves before I start prepping for retirement I’ll probably be going back.