I have been working at an office for about a year, and signed a contract with them for 2 years because I basically took out a loan with them and in 2 years I’ll have fully paid it off by then. Before signing this contract, it was a decent job. Good pay, stability, PTO, can take vacation whenever, long lunch break, etc.
Recently they started changing most of the benefits. They started off by making it so that you couldn’t take time off for a vacation, it had to be deemed a good reason. That already made me furious because I’m in a long distance relationship and try to see my partner at least quarterly. It got to the point where I have to start lying about what I’m doing on my time off and say it’s for medical reason or something similar. It didn’t matter if you had PTO to use or coverage, if they didn’t want to approve it they won’t. I know some of you are thinking that I don’t owe them a reason why I’m taking time off, but to them if it’s not urgent enough they won’t approve it.
Then, they took away our PTO and sick time and I’m not sure why. Great. So now if I want to take a vacation or if I get sick or injured I’m fucked. I feel trapped right now. The only way for me to complete my contract is to pay off the debt over the course of 2 years or pay it all at once then leave. But I don’t have that money right now. I feel like I’m going crazy and my job has claimed me as property