(Long post). I’m in my second year of university and I decided to look for a part time job through the campus job board at the end of August.
I found out that the after school care program I went to in elementary school is still under operation and I knew the boss and a few of the staff from back then, so I decided to apply. The interview went very well and the boss and supervisor were very excited to see me again after so long and I was hired after volunteering for a shift.
One important thing to note is that the job posting said a MAXIMUM of 15 hours. Under my assumption, this would mean there would be times where I would work less than this, which is beneficial since I have a full course load in university. I let them know that my schedule would be changing and I can’t work the full 15 in a few months due to my schedule, which seemed to be fine.
The job was not easy by any means, I enjoyed looking after the kids but there were many rules that seemed more like petty authority than actually helpful. For example, other staff aren’t allowed to help you find where things go among the countless storages throughout the centre, so if you couldn’t find where something belonged, you have to search for ages. Furthermore, there were instances where the supervisors would be extremely nit picky and get mad at you over things like what direction you’re facing while working. One time a supervisor was extremely sick and seemed miserable, and took it out on me. It was a little awkward trying to play with kids and talk to parents while trying to hide my tears.
I wanted to take a day off a month in advance for personal reasons, but it got rejected since the centre is so understaffed, which I guess makes sense. I brought up my scheduling changing as well only to be told that 15 hours is actually the MINIMUM, and nobody thought to inform me about this until now.
This with the addition of school stress and no free time resulted in me crying in my supervisors office, and I was ultimatiumed, being made to choose between work or school. My supervisor was quite condescending during our conversation, with her saying things like “you’re doing this for fun, if I don’t work I don’t eat” and telling me to pick up some hobbies (that I don’t have the time to at all).
I realized that there’s no way this is going to work for me since they’re actually increasing my hours instead of decreasing them (and refusing to compromise), so I gave them my 2 weeks notice despite not needing to because I am still in my probationary period.
This because they just fired a different new girl for having a “bad attitude”, and I was aware they were even more understaffed at that point. However, in my final week, I was scheduled for 19 hours during the height of midterms. I brought this up to the supervisor (saying I can’t go above what is agree for me) and she told me she can’t take any time off and nothing could be done about it.
I emailed her and the boss later about it, saying I can work 15 hours for the final week but not the extra 4 hours, especially since they were all split shifts. They ultimatumed me AGAIN, saying if I cannot work the full 19, I’m fired. Which was fine for me because I didn’t really need to in the first place.
The only thing I feel bad about is I didn’t realize they already paid me for the month of October and I emailed them in a slightly passive aggressive manner which I regret (“I’m sorry you couldn’t accommodate my hours”) and asked when I could pick up my pay check. They replied that they actually overpaid me since I didn’t come in to the last shift since I was fired, and it’s clear they are disappointed with me. I’m going to pay it back to them but I’m a bit embarrassed about it.
Did I handle things super poorly and am I just being sensitive or were they actually bad? This was my first “”real”” job and I can’t help but be a little ashamed I only lasted 2 months and left on bad terms with the higher ups. Should I even bother putting this on my resume? There are other things like them not adhering to the 3 hours minimum pay rule among other things, but this covers enough!