This will be a long one, so I apologize.
Tl; dr: Treated poorly and unfairly by supervisor, finally took my life back and quit the FT position that makes me miserable and will only do the PT position that brings me joy.
I’ve been working at my current job for over a year now. It’s adjacent to what my bachelor’s degree is in, so I enjoy what I do, and I also enjoy nearly all of the people I work with. I’ve really never worked for a greater bunch of people.
That being said, there is no work/life balance, and I’m exhausted.
I’m unhappy in my position, and I’ve tried, countless times, to resolve the issue. I was told tough luck by my supervisor.
I’m currently FT in one position and PT in another (the PT one I love. It’s what my degree is in. The FT is adjacent).
I was promised I’d move to a FT position I really wanted (the one I’m PT in). That was empty. Another position opened, so I applied. I worked one of my days off for a month “training,” and was told they’re giving it to someone else (someone outside the practice who applied). I was upset. I want out of my current position. It’s stressful, and I’m shafted every shift.
On top of this, I’m on call to work overnight every Tuesday if an emergency comes in, despite having worked a full shift that day already (adds up to 14+hrs, 1/2pm-4am) and needing to work a full shift the next day (around 12/1pm-9pm). I tried to get rid of this shift, but was told tough luck.
I work 12+hrs Saturdays and Sundays (6am until 6/7pm, sometimes later if necessary). I tried to get rid of 6hrs on Saturdays. I was told tough luck.
I want to stay here because I love the people, but there was no give, only take, and I exhaust myself every shift, always say yes to coming in early, cover coworkers, even on my days off, stay hours over my shift to help, and work nearly every holiday.
My roommate told me to stick it out, that “good things come to those who wait.”
Horse shit. You want good things to happen, you fight for it.
There were many things that should’ve broke me and made me quit, like not being able to use PTO if they couldn’t find anyone to cover my shift, getting stuck with a schedule I never agreed on during the hiring process, being left alone to handle a full animal hospital when we’re supposed to get help over a certain number of patients, being left all the chores nobody felt like doing during their shift, always needing to be the one to come in early because nobody else could ever stay an hour or two after their shift, always staying hours after my shift to help, working multiple 12+ hr shifts with only 2 days off, many times only 1 day off because I’m always called in, 10pm-6am not accumulating toward overtime hours (which I’m still fighting), etc, etc. There’s so much.
My tipping point, however, was when my supervisor called me this past Monday after noon. It was a slow day for me, so I was scheduled 5-9pm. I had just worked 22+ hrs that weekend and was exhausted, enjoying some of the only free time I get this week.
Cue supervisor call. She asks if I can come in early. I asked what time she needed me, she said 2pm. I looked at the clock, saw it was 12:20pm, and was trying to do the math to ensure I could make it there on time because I was doing something when she called and live 30mins away without traffic.
I must’ve not answered fast enough because she said, abruptly and rudely, as I was literally saying yes to coming in, “I’ll just ask [so and so],” and hung up on me. In the matter of 30 seconds. I couldn’t take a moment to actually decide if I wanted to give up my only free-time. Because I didn’t immediately ask “how high?” when she told me to jump.
That was my tipping point. I was baffled and hurt. The only time I’ve ever said no to coming in early was when I was literally hiking up a mountain and simply couldn’t, and she knows this. I’ve been working here over a year, am always, at least, 15mins early to every shift, and the only time I was ever late was actually two weeks ago when there was a blizzard, and I had work at 6am. Roads hadn’t been touched, and I got stuck.
That day, I went to my manager and quit the position I’m in, asking to move to strictly my PT position, and my manager agreed (my manager is fantastic and let me talk out my grievances with her, to which she understood and was very apologetic that my supervisor was acting this way).
I understand going to strictly PT is hard. I have applied to other work, and honestly, with my degree and experience, I could go anywhere in the industry I’m in, so I’m not worried about that.
I just need a break. I need sleep. I need my mental health back.
I want my free time again so I can spend more time on my hobbies and writing career because, if I had the means to do so, I’d be writing full time. Much of the free time I’ll have now will be dedicated to my writing until I find more work (that being said, if anyone likes SciFi-horror, apocalyptic fiction, and/or zombie fiction and needs something new to read, the first book in my series is on Amazon).
But overall, I feel free. I’m proud of myself.
This is me taking back my life and hopefully, things start to look up.
Good things come to those who fight for it, so fight for it.