TLDR Management acting ugly because I didnt respond to a coworker asking to cover a shift last minute.
I need to rant about this and I couldn't think of a better place to do it. I work a small retail gig. No corporate, family owned type deal. If I must work making other people money this is the best case scenario for me. Recently they've rolled back our hours cause the company is under performing. This has resulted in them keeping us “on call” (uncompensated) this was explained to us as if it becomes busy and they need more hands, they'll call us. Nothing in my work contract mentions being on call and certainly not at the behest of my peers.
Today one of my co workers texted me and my other co workers in a group chat asking to take her shift. Only one of my co workers responded (saying no). The rest of us just left it on read. I figured if it was that serious, she would call out my managers would call if they couldn't handle it without her. But I'm not flocking to work over a last minute “can you work for me” text. I am not captain save a ho and while we're encouraged to cover each others shifts it's not required.
Said co worker goes to work since no one took her shift (also not required she could have called out if she had to which obviously she didn't) and cried about it. I then receive yet another group text, this time with Managers in it, saying that we're required to respond to text messages from our peers.
It's a no for me.
I've seen employers get touchy over not responding to them/management but I've never been reprimanded for not responding to a co worker, someone on the same level as me with zero authority. And really, bottom line, I don't have to do anything I'm not getting paid to do. Maybe it makes me an a-hole but i don't feel I need to be at the beck and call of my peers.
Just for jests, I still haven't responded to the group chat saying we're required to respond.