I wouldn't say I have a particularly terrible job. I work from home and answer calls for my company's clients. It's an Answering Service and while there's a lot of shitty things I have to deal with, 90% of it is directly the cause of terrible and extremely petty (and self-important) management. The type of management and owners who, upon hearing that an employee is upset their schedule has been changed, will blast out a company wide email, in the same petty and childish was as one does a subtweet, demanding that those who wish to not work certain shifts or days have to have “a legitimate and well-documented excuse such as school scheduling, and if you're in online school you can deal with it and work around your assigned times”. So shitty place even if it is the best and highest paying job I've had.
There's a lot of things I could dive into about how awful the leadership is here, not to mention some of the callers, but this isn't about that.
Sometime near the start of my employment just over a year ago, I was able to get myself onto an overnight shift, working from 10PM-6AM, and I have never been happier with a working schedule. I expressed just how much better I felt in my day to day life because of this change and just how miserable I was on 2nd shift and they agreed that it was a much better fit for me and the company alike.
Cut to today where I've gotten an email stating that I'm being permanently moved back to 2nd shift after expressing a medical issue I had (only happened 2x in my life, and the 1st was over a decade ago) where I was seated and working just fine, and out of nowhere I'm getting up from off the floor and 40 minutes has passed. “This is not a punishment”, they insist, knowing full well that I'd even be better off with 1st shift mentally than I would on 2nd. This feels like they're trying to get me to quit because that's easier than firing me, especially as doing so for medical reasons is easy lawsuit grounds.
Here's the thing though, they're about to make a gigantic fucking mistake and fire me anyways.
Sometime after my employment, they added a new software to the entire onboarding setup for our personal computers that involves installing what is essentially corporate owned and operated spyware that cannot be disabled or blocked without the need for a reinstall, meaning it's always active, even outside of work hours. Zoho Manage Engine, for those who know of it. (Sidenote: Absolutely fuck Zoho). They do not provide literally any equipment at all so all of this is done to our own personally owned devices. Which is fine, as long as they're getting consent to do so and aren't forcing it under the threat of action taken against the employee
Guess who just got an email saying it has to be installed by 5PM on Thursday the 25th
The same person who absolutely will not be doing that to my personally owned computer.
I was so SO very close to quitting on the spot with the news of the shift change. They could have had their way. But they had to try to dig deeper, and now I've got my ex-coworker's lawyer's number saved (who is currently in the process of a suit for wrongful termination) and ready to dial the moment they toss me out.
And in the meantime I'm gathering screenshots of all the break pay violations they've been recklessly tossing around even though they were hit with a class action lawsuit in 2020 and LOST for that exact reason, and now they're violating it even worse than they were before.
It's probably not great mentally that the happiest I've ever been working here is directly because of the threat of termination. I'm nervous, obviously. But I'm certain I'm doing the right thing and am in the right here.
I'll be okay, I have enough money put away to coast for a year or two but I've been getting ready to renew all my IT certs anyways so I definitely don't plan on being out of work THAT long.
Thanks for reading my ramble.