I am a health care professional, but I work for a call center (it’s a medical job, but has customer service elements to it). I’m in the process of interviewing for jobs, because my pay is way below the acceptable range for someone with my credentials, and frankly, no one wants to work in a call center.
It has been extremely difficult finagling time to interview. When I am at work I am expected to take calls, I am not allowed to have down time for other things. I have been getting away with things by using my lunch for interviews, but many of my interviews are long, like 1.5 hours, so I can only take them by taking time off. I suspect my employer knows I’m trying to get out, because almost every time I try and take a half day/whole day I get denied. I am required to ask for time off a whole 2 weeks in advance, which isn’t really acceptable when trying to work around someone’s schedule who wants to interview in a week.
We are really short staffed right now, which is an excuse I keep getting to deny me time off. I feel like I am going to miss out on interviews to others who can step away during the day. I ended up calling in sick on a day that I was previously denied because the interviewers had no other time, and I got fucked up for it by management. Is there anything I can do besides quitting so I can get my interviews and move on to something way better than what I currently have? Is denying time off consistently even legal? Kind of at a loss of what to do without getting fired.