So, I work travel job that pays $16 an hour. It is exhausting. Our trips are often short and sometimes can be back to back, leaving myself and others to be away for long periods of time. The work itself is also very physically demanding. I'm not trying to be too specific with what I do, but there are some times when I'm not traveling as much and I'm left to do office work.
Now, in the office I do not have a set job. I am supposed to go out and “find my passion” in another department. My supervisor will also often assign us work that is work another department or herself should be doing or is way above our pay/title/job level or is straight up busy work. Her go to for work is to “make a resource.” We have resources for any aspect of our job and they are absolutely useless. Our department head also says “some of this work is work that we might use later.” With my supervisor and department head I have made it very clear that this is not fair for several reasons.
• This is a full time job, not an internship. We shouldn't be looking for our passion. Also, a job should only require a specific set of skills, not skills to do everything. Not to mention, how can our supervisor manage us when we are doing projects she has no experience/knowledge in?
• When traveling, it can be hard to keep up with our office projects. I've explained this as well and it goes no where. Work piles up and gets forgotten about, or they get frustrated because we haven't completed it.
• Work that might be used later, also might not be, is just busy work. We should at least be doing something that actually needs to be done. (This is just work that can be dependent on several factors that can change over the course of time and make this work null. Its often dependent on other companies, price, etc.)
• There is no structure in this. We have everyone doing everything instead of having a set job.
Since these conversations have happened and my supervisors have done nothing, I have grown more frustrated. My main supervisor and I now have a terrible relationship. It's not only because of this, but because of how she treats myself and my coworkers. She talks terribly to us and doesn't give a shit about us. She does not know how to handle a situation and says the worst thing possible, even with advice to do something reasonable. I once was scheduled to work 13 days straight. I went one night without sleep because of how my flights were booked. But, she gets away with it because she's the golden child of the office. She does cutesy things, so everything shitty she does is overlooked. She has the maturity of a 14 year old, lies compulsively, and will tell anyone anything (including friends secrets to why past employees were fired).
I don't know how to even move forward. I'm already looking/interviewing for jobs, but I still want something to change for the my current co workers and whoever else will have to deal with her. But for the work side of things, it's clear no one gives a shit and they don't really care how we feel. For her, the longer she goes unchecked, the worse she will become.
Part of me wants to talk to my department head or hr about her actions, but some of the worst things she has said are to other co workers and that's not my business to give out.
I feel so frustrated and another job can't come soon enough.
Edit: we are company where people “wear many hats.” We are also a family…
Also, titles should be employees, not employers