Its important to note that this happened a few years ago. I've been married almost five years now. I just got reminded of this situation and wanted to share.
So, back in 2017, I was engaged to my then fiance, now husband. I also worked at a Verizon store, where we sold phones, tablets, and did some basic troubleshooting and bill pay. I worked there for a few months before putting in a request to take 3 unpaid days off for my wedding that would be happening in about 6 months from my request. It was approved. I was paid $9 an hour and there were absolutely no benefits in sight, so it's not like I requested to be paid for that time as we were not given vacation days whatsoever. Just 3 days was all I asked for. One for before the wedding for last minute planning, one for the day of the wedding, and one for the day after the wedding to spend with my new husband.
The date starts creeping closer. When our wedding was a month away, my boss came in after his vacation in Italy to tell me he has changed his mind about my request. He said 3 days off was unreasonable for a wedding and that he would now only allow the day of the wedding. I was upset, but we needed the money, so I stayed at my job.
It was now two weeks before my wedding. My boss at the time didn't stop by the store often, normally just once a month or if something was wrong. The store was ran by us young adults and some teenagers. There was a period of months where we didn't even have a manager. He came in again, which was unusual, to announce that he was expecting the busiest week of the year with the release of the newest iPhone. It might be important to note that he probably knew about this release for a while, but didn't inform us until two weeks prior. We were never given any resources to stay up to date and a lot of our phone information came from Google searches on our own time.
Back to the story. He then started writing our schedule on the whiteboard of what we were all expected to work that week. All of us were scheduled open to close for most of the week. We were closed on Sundays and Monday he was going to let be a half day, or something like that. I don't fully remember, but we were all expected to work over 40 hours. Yes, it was the week of my wedding. It was that Saturday, and I was scheduled, along with everyone else, as working open to close.
I quietly spoke up and said that was the day of my wedding. He looked at me and coldly said, “That can be rescheduled, this cannot be”. He knew how important this was to me. I always talked with my coworkers about the wedding and would sometimes request unpaid hours off to go talk to the caterer or make other arrangements months in advance. This wasn't something I could reschedule with the shortest amount of notice. We had saved for this for over a year and had already paid for a lot of it. Some family also contributed.
Anyway, I went home that day, and texted him that night saying I quit. I dropped off my uniform the next day. Another girl quit because she was a college student and she was only part-time, but was scheduled full-time for that week and basically told to suck it up and miss class that week. All so this douchebag could maximize profits as much as possible.
I later heard from a former coworker that he didn't even place his order correctly or something like that, so he didn't have nearly enough iPhones to sell upon release and it ended up being a disaster. He blamed the employees.
The store now has different management and is apparently run far better now. I went to college shortly after I got married and now work a much, much better job. I was worried about the money when I quit, but I prioritized my mental health and we actually ended up being just fine since I found a different job shortly after.
I don't know how bosses get off treating people like this. It is disgusting and I will never forget it. Thanks, Verizon.