I need to vent, and I need some advice or suggestions from those with more experience than I on other “pro-worker” actions I could take as I leave. I feel like this is an AITA? but for work. This is also a warning to my fellow corporate/professional level/career employees who have “good” direct bosses who take good care of you: Corporate will, eventually, screw you over. Organize now, before it comes to that.
I have a good-enough job with a decent company. Corporate is corporate, but my regional boss and direct boss are good people who keep their lowliest workers in mind all the time. I felt secure knowing they were on my team. My job is WFH, I have very little oversight, and am trusted with quite a lot of responsibility. I have work to get done on deadline so occasionally things get stressful, but by and large I only have 4 or 5 hours of work in an 8 hour shift. I work it because I like the job, and because the benefits are better than marketplace– pay isn't very good, but it covers necessities and retirement.
This past week more than 1/3 of the workforce was laid off statewide. They laid off my counterpart at a couple of other offices, so now there are 3 of us statewide to do the job of 6 people. Ok, so each of us have to do 2x the work, right? No. State boss (between Regional boss and Direct boss) dictates this schedule:
Worker #1: works their job, and no others.
Worker #2: works their job 2 days a week, takes on one additional job 3 days a week
Worker #3, Me, the least-paid and LONGEST serving employee on the list: supposed to take on FOUR people's positions one day a week, and THREE people's positions the rest.
My direct boss recognizes the disparity and tries to rearrange the schedule with the other county-level bosses. No luck. (State boss is unavailable until next week to even discuss.) Also, he's not allowed to tell me how long this will last, “but it won't be all summer.” Yes, there are raises coming in the short-term future, but I am not being offered anything to compensate for this particular extra workload (also, all 3 of us will be getting raises, meaning I'm sure I'll continue to be the lowest paid employee in this position). Also, this schedule goes into effect immediately, so I'm shorted a day off (oh, but overtime pay is ok during this period! yay! /s).
So I do some chatting around. Turns out Worker #1 was “asked” if they could take on additional duties, and said “No.” Why were Worker #2 and I not asked if we could take on more duties? Corporate chose these layoffs– why did they not plan for proper coverage of these shifts? Why is this my emergency? I feel totally betrayed by the state boss. Why am I being asked to “take one for the team” when literally no one else on the team is being asked to cover anything like the workload I've been given?
Luckily, I'm in a position where I can walk. I've gone back and forth on whether there's anything they could offer me that would make me stay, but I just feel so betrayed by the actions of the state boss that I don't think there is. Am I justified in feeling like I'm getting shafted? Or am I taking this too personally? What would you do? Are there any further arguments I should make in pointing out how badly corporate has f'd this up, OR how badly State boss has overplayed his hand? Help me not feel guilty for leaving my regional boss and direct boss up a creek with no paddle? Any way for one little peon's actions to kick corporate in the dick as I leave, without wounding my fellow workers?
Finally, I do plan on leaving union info throughout the building on the day I leave, as well as copy of the schedule I was asked to perform on my co-workers desk, including my salary. It's probably pointless, as we're down to a bare-bones staff, but another office in the state is union. I am majorly pro-union, but I falsely thought that with an excellent, people-oriented regional manager who always fought for me, I didn't need to worry about going union. (For ex: gave me a 14% raise out of nowhere last yr to combat inflation and ensure the lowest paid workers were making a living wage.) Anyway what else? Are there any other worker empowering actions you would suggest I take as I leave? Sadly I don't have access to everyone's salaries or similar useful information to spread about the building. (If you made it this far, congrats, you're a real friend! Thanks for letting me vent!)