This is a bit of a rant, a bit of a request for advice.
I work at an overstaffed and underfunded clinic that, when I was initially hired and trained back in August, I very specifically and clearly stated my availability as Monday through Thursday. As this is a Monday through Friday job, I didn’t think this would be an issue.
At first, thankfully, it wasn’t an issue. The manager at the time said that they would just process Approved Time Off (ATO) requests for my Fridays off until a more permanent change could be made, which was fine at the time. For the first two months, this is what we did. I would submit ATO and would be off that Friday to work my other job, a charity position at a local school I do out of passion rather than pay.
However, the next two months, leading us to right about now, is a different story. A period of time in November saw a large uptick in clients with little to no increase in staff, leading my manager to tell me that they could not approve my ATO request on some of my other Fridays.
I was a bit frustrated, but understood the compromised position of my manager. However, I couldn’t just ditch my other responsibilities, so I notified them that I wouldn’t make it in and took an attendance point for the Fridays that they didn’t approve.
I requested a meeting to further discuss the long term solution of simply changing my availability so this wouldn’t be an issue, but was notified that my manager wouldn’t be staying at our clinic for much longer, and was told to discuss it with the two assistant managers who would be filling in in their absence.
I brought this to them, detailing the situation of the past four months, to which they said nothing could be done. They stated that no staff in the clinic was able to have specified schedules, and they all used the same ATO request system. I knew this to be false, as we have many staff who have specific days off every week, or only work mornings/afternoons due to other obligations.
They have been accommodating, trying to approve as many of my Fridays as possible, but it’s still gotten to the point that if I have to accept one more attendance point, I will start the process of being spoken to by regional HR. If we were still understaffed for the amount of clients we had, I would get it. But in December, our team has never been bigger and our clientele is at an all time low. We are so over staffed, that every day at least 2 staff are sent home before work even starts. We’ve had multiple staff called out for over a week. Yet every time Friday rolls around, I have to fight for my right to give up money in favor of a charity project.
So, what should I do? I’m considering bringing this up to regional HR before they bring it up to me, though I’m open to suggestions.