AITA for being disappointed that fiancé is letting work bully him into working Black Friday?
I’m sick about this. This is a new job for my (29F) fiancé (39M). He’s even there less than two months. He’s a a night shift supervisor essentially for some wine manufacturing. The job is absolutely grueling and he literally broke his back last week and couldn’t even go due to the pain.
His schedule is Monday – Thursday 11am to 9:30PM. He is salary. Because he seemed some days last week, they wanted him to do a makeup shift with the day shift tomorrow, Friday. Fine. He asked about clarification on the schedule for next week, Thanksgiving week. Suddenly, they are saying he needs to work next Friday instead of tomorrow. He told them that we already have a family trip to STL to have Thanksgiving with my family and asked if they can adjust the schedule for him. “Unfortunately no” they said. I’m livid.
My thing is, his schedule is M – Th and NO ONE said anything about working Black Friday until after he asked anyway. They are claiming it’s a blackout PTO and that all employees are required to work. We have never been told that until now and I legitimately do NOT believe that to be true. I think his lame ass boss is just making shit up.
Their logic is “since you are off Thursday for Thanksgiving, you will need to makeup on Friday.” Like huh???? Is that normal? I don’t think it’s fair because I HIGHLY doubt they are requiring day shift (8 to 4, M – F) to work an EXTRA day to makeup for not working Thanksgiving. The only way that this is fair is if day shift is being forced to work a SATURDAY. Which there’s no way. I think his boss is bullshitting. Like day shift is there every Friday because that’s their schedule. My fiancé’s schedule is NOT to work Fridays, so we shouldn’t be treated like we are in the wrong for planning a family trip on his off days.
The night shift is brand new to this company and they use a handful of temps and only three or so show up daily. They are unable to speak English, making is challenging. More than likely, the temps won’t show up for night shift next Friday and it’ll just be my fiancé, meaning he should have just come to STL with me.
Here’s why I’m annoyed with my fiancé….
A few years ago, I had a company I worked for tried to force me to work around Thanksgiving suddenly and I told them absolutely not because him and I were going to Tucson to visit his family. I stayed firm and told them “if you need to find a replacement for me permanently go ahead and begin now, because I will be traveling these days.” I knew they wouldn’t fire me and after much pushback, they figured out coverage and it was fine. I’m big on self advocating and not letting these companies just run you over and be assholes.
It’s drives me crazy that my fiancé is unable to stand up for himself and this happens often. He can be very passive and just go with whatever. It feels like he’s missing Thanksgiving with family because of his inability to stand up for himself, and I’m so upset.
AITA???