This is my first time posting here. Kind of confused and annoyed at my current situation.
Background:
I am a graduate student and have wanted to take a step into graduate assistantship to help cover tuition. I go to a state school and the tuition is about 1500 per class. The GA position covers 9 credits a semester and provides an annual stipend of 9k (they specifically don't advertise the hourly rate). This job requires 20 hours a week commitment on paper.
I applied for a democratic engagement GA position at my school because I don't mind talking to kids about voting and politics. I got the job at the beginning of this semester (Fall 2023) and at first, the woman who is my direct supervisor was kind of eccentric. She talked a lot and seemed like a decent person. However, as I began working more and more I found that she kept doing and saying things that just annoyed me.
First off she hardly trained me. She gave me a SharePoint link to the last GA's work and said to read it over. So I read it. and it gave me very little information for a newcomer. Mind you, I have never done any democratic engagement work past discussing politics with friends, reading poli-sci books, and voting. With my minimal knowledge, I didn't understand the material too much. I would ask questions to my boss and instead of answering them like I am a new employee who needs training, she says “You've read the one-drive documents, so you should know what to do”. So she set me loose with random work assignments and I tried to cope the best I could.
Second, she doesn't care too much about my classwork and will often work me past my 20 hours. I am a full-time student and with classes and studying that's 40 hours of my day. If you do the math I make $900 monthly, basically $11.25 an hour. That's a fixed amount since it's a stipend. Yes, I get treated as a salaried employee by my college while making far under my state's minimum wage. I get no overtime pay either, any work that goes over 20 hours is just free labor. I am also a 27-year-old single man who has to support myself independently. My boss has constantly been pushing me to work close to 30 hours a week. I have been pushing back which has made her more annoyed at me.
Third, she doesn't like my work efficiency and has gotten into the habit of micromanaging me and constantly looking over my shoulder. A few weeks ago at our team meeting, she said “some people” aren't being efficient enough and “stealing from the American taxpayer.” She also keeps telling me how long certain tasks should take. For instance, an email should only take 1 minute, a project should only take an hour, etc. I have told her multiple times that I am confused about what she expects of me most of the time.
Fourth, she sets up meetings without asking me, sometimes while I am at home either sleeping or studying. Mind you I live off campus and have told her I can only afford to drive into campus 3 times a week. Last week she set a one-on-one meeting for me right when I came in, on the first day of the week I was supposed to work. She then gave me sh*t for not being prepared for the meeting.
I have also made a list of things she said to me that have pissed me off:
“you have a working-class mindset, we need you to have a middle-class mindset”
“You have the brain, heart, and ethics to have this job you just aren't productive enough”
“The graduate ASSITANT is supposed to run the entirety of the democratic engagement program. I'm going to be hands off”
Suffice it to say, I'm so burnt out. My coworkers just justify her behavior saying “That's just her”. So I have exhausted all my options. On top of all of this, I can't afford to eat enough food, I'm not sleeping enough, I'm mentally drained, and my grades are slipping. The grad program I'm in has also been depressing me.
I recently signed a form to take a 1-year leave of absence from grad school. This means I won't have to deal with this woman anymore since I can't be a GA without being an active student.
Also, for some reason, advisors and peers keep underplaying the fact that I am depressed and have poor finances. As I should be grateful for my sh*tty GA position that pays me like crap. Honestly, f*uck this job and f*ck this school.