Been employed at my current job (I work for the city of Portland) for 8 months. We have a probationary period of 6 months which I made it through no problem.
I was initially hired to work full time from 3pm-11pm. After a few months my employer asked me if I was interested in working day shift from 10am-6pm. I said I was willing to give it a try. I lasted about a month but couldn’t continue because I’m a night owl and honestly can’t sleep at night. I’ve tried really hard to get myself to sleep at night to no avail. Melatonin, weed, staying off my phone. Nothing works. I only seem to be able to sleep during the day. I communicated this with my employer and they moved me back to my 3pm-11pm shift.
Now all of the sudden the majority of my schedule is 12am-8pm, “to fit company needs.” Which is bullshit, because all of the days I’m scheduled to work 12am-8pm are dark days with no events, and I have been told in the past on those days it doesn’t matter what time I work. There’s also no consistency in my new schedule. They’ll schedule me to work 4pm-12am two days in a row and then schedule me to come in at noon the next day.
They’re saying they can’t accommodate my scheduling needs anymore but honestly this seems more like a power trip. The full time day shifters get to consistently come in at the same time and never have to deviate or come in and work at noon to “fit company needs.” The part timers also get to completely make their own schedule. They also accommodate people with kids and second jobs.
Is there anything I can do about this? We have a Union but I’m not sure if I should even try to fight for this job that I actually like or just go find a new job.