In honour of me moving out of a shitty retail job and starting my career tomorrow with an amazing employer, I wanted to share one of my 'favourite' stories I have of super shitty management. This happened circa 2018 so I was 17
I had to get some time off because we were going away for a weekend for my sister's birthday and I asked for it three weeks in advanced, it got approved with no issue. Then a few days later, my manager asked us all to put in our availability for the school term and I put mine in copy paste blanketed for the whole term. Again, no issues. Jump ahead to the week of my sister's birthday and I was rostered on for the days I had asked off.
I immediately emailed my manager and luckily the approved leave still showed up in the system so I attached a screenshot. She explained that when I put in my availability for the school term, it overrode my original request for my sister's birthday (which fell over the school term). I told her I didn't know this and asked if I could still get it off.
She asked if I could just work it and she'd make it up another time so I said “no, this is your mistake and besides, I don't have to work the shift either way” (in Australia casual employees have the right to decline any rostered shift without repercussions) and so SHE ACTED LIKE SHE WAS DOING ME A FAVOUR and said that she would cover it for me but that in exchange I would have to work the next shift I was asked to cover no questions asked.
The whole ordeal really left a bad taste in my mouth, and as I move into a contracted part time position tomorrow with an awesome company starting the career I'm currently at uni for, I am very glad to be out of that working environment and working weekdays so asking for weekends off isn't even a concern.