This isn't really a big important point and mostly a personal rant. I just need to express somewhere how the job I had before my current one was fucking ass and how it's literally so easy to make your employees tolerate their jobs. I'm gonna go with the bullet point format just bc it's easier.
First we're gonna talk about my old job. Mind you, this was a retail position. Not an important job by any means. Some of these demands would at least be understandable if the job was something of slightly more substance, but I was literally just a fucking sales associate at one of those souvenir shops with the overpriced heat press T-shirts. I'd had a couple jobs before this and they sucked for all the standard reasons a job sucks, but this one was just unbelievable.
- There was no schedule, at all. You'd have to wait until Sunday to get your schedule for the following week (and you'd be assigned a different location every day too so you wouldn't even know where you'd be headed), so fuck planning anything ahead for your week outside work. Shifts were also between 8 and 10 hours- not out of the ordinary by any means, but makes it difficult & usually not worth it to do anything else on work days. And that combined with no set schedule made it so I straight up did not know what days I'd ever be available for anything. I couldn't plan anything in advance all summer, and making appointments of any kind was nigh impossible.
- Calling out was a whole thing. You got a slap on the wrist unless it was weeks or more in advance (and I could otherwise understand this a little, but it's so hypocritical considering mgmt's overwhelming & previously expressed short notice for employees). You could also request to not be scheduled at certain times or days of the week but it was entirely shots in the dark, our boss was notorious for leaving us on read when we asked questions of any kind.
- Extremely typical for retail: pay was shit and you were still expected to be working nonstop. Just reminds me how common this is and how we're supposed to be okay with it. Mgmt would use the store's cameras to spy on you and send you a text if they saw that you were behind the register instead of on the floor waiting for someone to come in. Sincerely did not get paid enough for that kind of effort.
- I once got taken off the schedule for over a week because they were training new people and said “we don't have any use for mid shifts” <-- total bs because they barely assigned me any mid shifts to begin with, 9 times out of 10 it was late night, so they really just pulled that out of their ass. I instead had to be on call the entire time, and had to drop everything & come in whenever they asked (and it was always same-day). Again, let me remind you that this was fucking retail.
- On the topic of training, that was also some bs, since they never taught you how the equipment worked or anything useful. Training was a few days that consisted entirely of teaching us talking points for sales, and I'm not exaggerating. You'd just be assigned shifts after that and have to figure out literally everything from your coworkers. Instead of learning how to do your job in…you know…..training. And then you'd get talked down to for not knowing how to do things, by the same people who neglected to show you how to do those things.
- Multiple locations didn't have free parking & we weren't given passes or anything, nor were we reimbursed for it. Parking cost 1.5x our hourly wage. It really pisses me off that this is legal.
There's probably more I'm forgetting, but you get the idea. This place sucked. I'm very lucky I was able to list my favorite manager as my professional reference on my next application, because all the higher-ups would definitely say I was a shit employee if they were asked. This wasn't my first job, and I know being employed as a whole sucks fundamentally, but I'm just taken aback by the audacity of this one job in particular.
… Especially considering how much better my current job is, immediately after leaving the last one. The comparison here is astounding. Obviously, I wish nobody had to work, and I wouldn't work if I could help it. But with that said, as far as jobs go, I'm genuinely satisfied with this one. These days I just hate the fact that I have to work, not the work itself at all. The bar was extremely fucking low, but here are a few things about the job I have now:
- The pay. You can be both entry level & part-time, and still able to cover day-to-day necessities. I don't need to say anything more.
- The actual work itself is manageable. You're given a task so you know what to expect, you do it, and that's that. Nothing extra is ever asked of you because it's established you'll only be expected to do what you're paid for. I even enjoy most of the tasks, personally. Plus, the shifts are short by default unless you actively request more hours, so you're already coming up on being done for the day as soon as you start to get tired.
- You say need to take five? Do it. No questions asked. Even if you've already taken your scheduled break, no one will have a problem if you need to step away for a second. Need to call out because something came up? Whatever, it happens. Better to miss a little work than neglect something important.
^^ This all seems like the bare minimum… that's because it is. Nobody I work with has ever complained about the job's specifics, only about working in general. And that is all it takes. Employers are actively choosing to ignore what workers want because it's easier for them, then they whine that nobody likes their job or is motivated at work. All I need in order to tolerate work, even like it, is the bare minimum. Your employees aren't lazy, they know their worth. There should be no complaining about their work being as half-assed as the job description will allow if you mistreat them as much as labor laws will allow. You give garbage, you get garbage back. Simple as that.