I just need to vent.
Realistically, I have a cake job. I work fully remote, I have a 4/10 schedule, my employer doesn’t have the capacity to monitor my keystrokes or mouse movements, and as long as I do my work and produce results everyone is happy. I do take pride in my work, and I do happily take on extra projects occasionally, and offer my help where I can.
I spend a good amount of time on this sub, and a few other remote work related subs, and am acutely aware of how lucky I am, though the pay is garbage.
As mentioned, since the pay is garbage, I run a business on the days of the week that I don’t work for my employer. It’s been a very busy summer, and I’ve been fully booked since April, and my schedule remains fully booked into November. Since I have a 4/10 schedule with my employer, this frees me up to give three days a week to my business, for the sake of argument let’s say the relevant weekday is a Friday.
We all know, in this day and age, it’s not acceptable to simply do your job, and do it well. You have to also prove your dedication, fake though it may be, by going above and beyond. My employer expects me to go above and beyond, currently in the form of a certification course. I’ve jumped through all the hoops to apply for and be accepted into this course, and only at the very last minute found out the classes were slated to take place on, you guessed it, Fridays.
Again, I work 40 hours a week for my employer, on a schedule that does not include Fridays. My supervisor, bless his soul, has completely downed the kool-aid, so when I brought the issue up with him, he informed me that he had already been to HR to sort this out, and presented my with my options:
A: I can choose a different day of the week to take off, minus Monday, in order to maintain my 4/10 schedule, or
B: I could go back to a 5/8 schedule, in order to be logged in and available to attend the course on Fridays.
My dude. You didn’t even think to ask me if I had any availability on Fridays? I have had the same schedule for a significant amount of time at this point, you don’t think I have things planned around my schedule for months and months in advance?
This class was set to start in three days, when this conversation took place. Dude literally thought I was going to just drop all my plans, in order to accommodate this class schedule, outside of my working hours.
He was absolutely in shock when I told him that no, I had no intention of changing my schedule. If it comes to it, I simply will not be attending this course. It took me breaking it down and explaining that I run an entire business on my days off, and that I have clients who expect me to show up when I’ve told them I would, and the reason I cannot work on Fridays is because I am already working. Because naturally, work is the only acceptable reason to not be available to work. Heaven forbid you have a life outside of your working hours.
The absolute audacity.