I've been working with a company that does very seasonal tasks, so I got temporarily laid off once winter hit, but they offered one week of work per month so that I can keep my insurance, which is about all that does for me since one week's paycheck doesn't do shit for my bills, and with the pay cycle resetting each time, creating a 3 week gap between each payment, it's just barely helpful. But this upcoming week, they want me to drive an hour each way to get to some bougie training facility to teach me some shit they could do just as easily at the office, and with no mention of per diem payments. Normally this wouldn't bother me, except they expect me to use my own vehicle to drive there, and with unemployment not coming through, no other job opportunities for months, and two previous months only having had a week of income each with 3 weeks in between them, I've been in the shit. I did recently accept a job that's night shift and makes $3/hour less than I did, so I'm at least making something right now, but I'm really considering just dropping the higher paying job for the shit shift at lower pay and part time hours, or at the very least refusing to attend the training and getting screwed out of my insurance. If I did the latter, either they understand and I get no work from them for another month, or they might fire me for refusing. But at this point that's a risk I'm willing to take, and with the cost of gas going up quick it only makes it more difficult for me to actually make these trips without completely emptying my wallet this week, which would not only screw me short term financially, but also long-term with the pay gap. I seriously hate being forced to make these kinds of decisions just because of I NEED MY JOB reasons.
TL;DR They expect me to drive for 2 hours each day (without covering gas) and then stay for 10 hours just so I can get ONE week of work this month… just so I can then wait for another 3 fucking weeks to actually get paid. Fuck this shit.