TLDR: I work at a hotel where I am basically paid to do my online school work (almost completed my bachelor's in psych), however the work environment, guests, owners, even some co-workers are pushing me to my breaking point. I need help.
Ok I have worked at this hotel for 5 years now. I live in a smaaaaall town in Southern Arkansas. The hotel is pretty shitty and we cater to many locals who just like to party. The main owner whom I worked for when I first started stepped down about 2-3 years ago? And 2 new owners came in, and my life has been shit ever since.
My situation is this: I only enrolled in school in the first place bc the job is so laid back and slow sometimes that I taught myself French in like 6 months. I know there are millions of people who work full time AND go to school at the same time. However, I honestly do not think I could get by. Currently I work 3 twelve hour shifts and 2 eight hour shifts for 52 hours a week, and I do get 2 days off. Even with the job being laid back I still sometimes struggle to get my course work done…so I can't even imagine trying to squeeze in school work outside of working hours…
Like I have said the job is laid back. I basically get paid to do whatever I want. Because of this I feel silly in my feelings and complaints sometimes and how badly I want to quit. I know I will never find another opportunity like this. Also I am hoping to continue for my masters with the same online school once I get my bachelor's.
Since I am in school, I also get some school money every few months. Lately though, this extra money has turned into actual bill money and now without my school money even with me working 52 hours a week, I could not get by without it. So dropping out of school or taking a break is a no go.
I have been thinking of moving to Little Rock, downtown close to everything, and getting rid of my car. Moving would obviously entail me quitting my hotel job. However with some crunching, getting rid of my car, I might could survive on my school money. Basically I want to quit my job and focus on school (even tho I don't even know what I will do when I finish, long story short I need a Ph.D for what I want to do but that makes me sick just thinking about it).
Back to the hotel. I was the front desk manager when the 2 new owners took over. I made the schedule for us at the desk (there's only ever 4-6 of us that work the desk). We all wanted more set schedules and I talked with everyone to figure out what days would be best for everyone. Well, as soon as the new owners took over, they took the schedule from me and started breaking up everyone's days off, so no one had 2 days off together. Which I spent a lot of time fixing. I had to go to my new bosses and lie to them and tell them I was in therapy and had to have a set schedule because I drove 2 hours to therapy. Hahaha since that I now really am in therapy and work is something I talk about most.
Another thing, I stepped down as manager and went with my old manager part time at a gas station (while still at the hotel too). When my friend took the front desk manager position they have STILL NOT GIVEN THEM A RAISE. This has been well over a year ago. This goes into another point.
I know this is highly illegal but I do not know any way around it. Obviously I work more than 40 hours a week. They claim we are too slow and the other owners will not honor any overtime. (Lies. We have been sold out for 3 months now…) After fighting, I had to bite my tongue and accept my overtime as cash but without time and a half. I really only need about 6 extra hours a week, but bc of them I must work 12 extra hours!!! So of course this overtime thing is illegal, but there is no other way out of it.
As coworkers we all mostly get along and I have trained every person that is up there. However, everyone else makes tons of mistakes no matter how many times I show them the correct/quicker/better ways, they tell the guests wrong info and I get yelled at for it… And I totally understand not wanting to work or put in extra effort, that's what I am here for!! But I do not know how to deal with this because I am not the manager anymore, NO ONE will listen to me, and I am the one who is up there the most, so yeah I get all the shit from everyone's fuck ups. Our job is really not that hard. But also like i said, my coworkers are the least of my worries.
I've had to up my anxiety meds and my antidepressants because of this job and I literally spend my 2 days off talking myself out of killing myself.
Really I just need some advice on how to keep going….if I do move to Little Rock, it will be next spring. So I just need some help to get through the rest of this year.
I have always been the type of person who didn't want to live to work or spend all my time working…that's why I'm almost 28 and just enrolled in school in 2019, because I didn't want to be stuck somewhere forever. Now I do love school and that's one of the only things keeping me going. But to stay in school I have to stay at this job.
I'm not even sure if I could move to Little Rock and make that work.
Any advice would be appreciated and thank you if you have read all this