Author: Olivia

Christmas Eve 2021, large hospital. My acting ward manager (a low empathy control freak who had somehow slid into the job without an interview and burrowed in like a tick) had rostered excess staff on. We smashed the workload in half a shift then requested to sign off (using accrued leave). We'd been struggling through covid, we were beat. Nope. She announced she'd deliberately rostered us on, on Christmas Eve, to “give us time to catch up on outstanding mandatory education modules”. The ones that she hadn't given us time to do during the year…. I was seething. Esp as all the senior staff had given themselves leave. Next month I attended a general meeting with the exec as the employee rep. Me, casually “so, when is that acting manager role going to be permanently filled?” Exec “it hasn't been!? Well, we should probably look at a restructure while we're…

I just got hired for a great paying position but my benefits won't kick in for I believe 2 months. My orientation is 05/30. I have flight, rental car, and event tickets to an event from 07/20 to 07/24. I can go back to work the night of the 24th. I would have to miss the 20th, 21st, and 23rd. That is 3 days. This is a union job and I believe I get 40 hours off after those 2 months but they may go by seniority for that as well. Nonetheless I think I miss it by a week. They haven't really given me the entire information yet, I'll find out on my new hire date. How should I go about this? I put a lot of money and planning into this vacation, and I really want to fight to still go to it. What could I say or…

I’ll keep this as brief as I can, but hoping someone thinking of working for a certain large Hobby/Craft store will read this and change their mind. While going back to college online I decided to take a job at a craft store known for their large stores and controversial leadership. I worked in their framing shop because it was something I had done years before with another company and enjoyed seeing the interesting artwork people brought in. Unfortunately I started there shortly before Christmastime, which is their busiest time and when team leads and managers apparently become dictators. Each department was assigned an aisle of Christmas decor that they’re responsible for and members of each department rotated cleaning and restocking the aisles. At the end of your shift you also had to make sure your aisle was fully stocked before you were ALLOWED to leave. This is difficult enough…

My daughter found a really nice new job she’s looking forward to starting. When she gave her two week notice, she was informed that she’s only eligible for a 50% payout of her accrued PTO. If she stays four weeks, she’d be eligible for a 100% payout. She’d also have to train her replacement during this period. This doesn’t seem legal but there seems to be no laws preventing it. Just seems wrong but nothing surprises me anymore.

On Monday I gave four week notice so they have enough time to find a replacement. I work in a private school and they have weird policies. In order to pay you holidays you have to go to work the day before and the day after that holiday. On Friday 26th we have an in service day and they asked me no to go because they don’t need me; which means they won’t be paying me the Memorial Day holiday. I asked my boss and she said “I’m sorry” is that allow? Can I do something? It’s two days that I’ll be missing. I’m so upset that I gave them this amount of notice now, I tried to be nice and they fucked me up anyway.

Started back in kitchens recently (had left to do IT for a bit and then had to stay home with new twins for a couple years) Appreciating the new top pay (19/hr for my decade+ experience as a cook compared to 11/hr at my last position) but other than that, nothing has changed. Management is better about keeping to my availability and request offs than I remember in the industry but other than that, things are still split among gender lines. I’m still expected to be “cool” in the kitchen to keep my hours. It’s still mostly men in the kitchen and women as servers with a few outliers like myself. I still even have women, younger than me, asking “why the kitchen?” just because I’m a woman. I still had my boss ask me “what my husband did” in my interview and feel the need to mention “well we…