Mind you, overtime is something I should be approving. It’s not a mandatory part of my job. I am a direct support professional and I work in the most challenging house in our companies region. The rest of the houses our company has have self-sufficient and low behavior needs. Basically, I take care of a teenager with autism who tries to beat me up almost every shift. It’s not just me he does that to – it’s everyone. No one wants to work there, and I don’t really blame them. I have a lot of compassion for him, but the job is stressful as fuck. He can be really sweet and funny but he is also very behavioral.
Anyway, I needed a new car so I’ve been agreeing to overtime when they ask. Today was my day off, and the manager called me a bunch of times and texted asking me to call her so she can talk to me about the schedule. That talk consisted of her basically telling me she put me on for longer hours and what days. Before I could even say like hey you didn’t ask me and I can’t, she blurted out to check it when I went in and hung up.
Now I can’t do anything about it without it being considered me calling off because she already placed me on there without checking with me. I want to scream. I already work 6 days a week and I am burnt out. Next schedule, I’m telling her (and Human Resources) that I need my full two days off and that beyond what I approve I cannot work overtime. I’m going to make it clear that when I’m not there I don’t want to be contacted. I’m also going to make it clear that unless I agree to it, no one is to add my name to the schedule for extra hours.
“Why can’t we keep staff”, “why does no one want to work” – maybe because no one wants to be harassed and forced into caretaker burn out. Maybe because you have an inappropriate resident placement for a hands off facility?! No one wants to spend their life at a group home and to be borderline terrorized to boot.