I (18 M) have recently started working extra (12h/week) at McDonald's in Sweden (Stockholm). My boss assigned me three night shift before going on holiday, and thereby making herself unreachable. When I complained, the boss's replacement couldn't change anything, so I was forced to work from 22:00 to 3:15 last Friday (the boss had wanted me to work until 4:00, but no bus home was available at that time).
Here's my conversation with my boss after she came home from her holiday:
Me:
“Hello
Last week's Friday-Saturday night shift got itself solved (since I got to go 45 minutes earlier), but I don't think I can handle two night shifts more. It isn't possible to change this so that the shifts are removed/replaced with other shifts, now that you [she and the her co-boss, Christopher] are back?
I would appriciate if you can call me so that we can solve this.”
Her:
“Hi, when you had your job interview with Christopher you had no problems working at night, so as it looks now I will not be able to remove your shifts. You can check with your co-workers if they want to take your shifts, or if they want to change shifts with you.”
Me:
“Hmm. I'm incredibly sorry if there has been some sort of misunderstanding, but according to my clear recollection, Christopher asked if he was open to working during evenings and not at night.
I don't otherwise think that it is reasonable that you assign me shifts without checking that I am available, especially since I'm working part time. After all, it's not my responsibility to organise a schedule.”
Her:
“Hi, you could please think of how you express yourself when you write. We will have a meeting with you tomorrow, both I and Cristopher.”
Me:
“I am just trying to put forward pragmatic considerations, my intention has never been to sound discourteous.
It is in any case good if we can discuss this tomorrow, so that we hopefully can reach some sort of reasonable solution.”
She's terrifying me. This is my first job and this has happened almost immidieatly.