So, at a big box retail store that must not be named, I had the 4pm to 1am shift in college as a cashier. We had 2 15 minute breaks and an hour lunch break. Often times they would forget my 15 minute breaks(I'd just shut off my light and tell the cashier next to me when I had to go to the bathroom)and they'd take a half hour every time to relieve me as I would be in the only lane open(the cigarette lane). I'd take a 30 minute nap in the break room after they relieved me because I was getting those breaks and then would clock out around 2am. Friday they(HR and management) would want me to take an extra long lunch to not pay me overtime. Then they'd forget on Friday and page me on the intercoms an hour and 5 minutes into that lunch. I'd go clock back in and they'd yell at me saying I'd get written up for returning late from lunch. For 3 months I just took the OT after that.
After those 3 months I got counseled by the store manager with an assistant manager for OT… I flipped it on them. My lunch was always right before the rush so they needed me back asap and I let them know about the warnings I had gotten from the CSM's for long lunches. I refused to sign their paperwork and started writing a rebuttal (English Lit major and I was annoyed, still can't spell or write for crap though). They stopped me and said they'd take care of it. They sent me back to the floor as I was being paged to cashier during the meeting( store manager was a little peeved by that).
The CSM got moved at night to stock and I was suddenly getting off on time. The next schedule they ended up giving me a split shift like I originally requested (4 hours during the break I had and 4 hours after class) so I could sleep. I was getting home around 3am and up at 7am for school. It was brutal.
I don't miss retail and I don't miss having to watch my hours for OT when I thought that should be management's responsibility. I know it was on the swip card system but I rarely looked at that because if I wasn't clocking in 5 minutes before my shift the damn CSM was paging me to check. Very rarely we got slips on Friday on how much time we'd need to cut because they had us work longer through the week. Then they'd want it taken out of the middle of our shift for the last day we worked that pay period. Heaven forbid if you got to go home early.