Categories
Antiwork

Vent: I’m So Ridiculously Tired Of The Phrase “Team Player”

Every job I've had has tried to guilt trip me by asking me to be a “team player”, but it is ALWAYS one sided. They want you to be flexible for them, but there is no reciprocation. I just got a job in January that had decent reviews on Indeed and Glassdoor so I was hopeful that I finally got a job with decent management. Nope During the interview, the interviewers handed me an application with stations and hours. I was told to fill it out according to my availability and I signed up for the two stations closest to me (one is 20 minutes away, one is 35 minutes away). By the way, on Indeed they said they were urgently hiring at both of these stations. I go into the interview, everything goes well, and they unofficially hire me. Then, they look at my availability and try to pressure…


Every job I've had has tried to guilt trip me by asking me to be a “team player”, but it is ALWAYS one sided. They want you to be flexible for them, but there is no reciprocation.

I just got a job in January that had decent reviews on Indeed and Glassdoor so I was hopeful that I finally got a job with decent management. Nope

During the interview, the interviewers handed me an application with stations and hours. I was told to fill it out according to my availability and I signed up for the two stations closest to me (one is 20 minutes away, one is 35 minutes away). By the way, on Indeed they said they were urgently hiring at both of these stations.

I go into the interview, everything goes well, and they unofficially hire me. Then, they look at my availability and try to pressure me into signing up for a station (H) 1.5 hours away from me. I give them a firm “sorry, but no” and they pull back their unofficial job offer to try to pressure me into going there. Again, I say no. Then, they say that they like to hire “team players”, again trying to pressure me. (Okay, then compensate me for the gas that it takes to fucking get there and back).

Mistake #1 They ask me if I would be willing to go to station H once a month. I agree but firmly stated that I could not go there more than once a month. They hire me on the spot and make me sign that availability paper that stated I could go to the far station once a month. Unfortunately, I did not get a copy of this paper.

I go through their orientation process (which is 2 weeks and 9 am – 6 pm, which is pretty awesome to have so much training). Then I went through the training process, which is 10 supervised shifts. I got signed off of the training shifts and was able to move onto working on my own.

So, I email the scheduling office and notify them that I am ready to get scheduled. They give me my permanent shifts, and it included 2 shifts at station H *A WEEK*. Okay, I gave them the benefit of the doubt and emailed the scheduler saying that I can not go to station H twice a week. She emails me back saying I signed a paper saying I would do 1-2 shifts there a week. A blatant lie. I read that paper very carefully and it said once a month. I know it did. I email her saying no, I did not there must have been a misunderstanding. She proceeds to ignore me for 5 days despite me emailing her many times asking for an update.

Now the new shift is in 4 days. I email her again saying I will not be going to station H for my shifts. She threatens to contact a supervisor (“if you don't do this, we are going to have to get a supervisor involved). I said I would gladly talk to a supervisor about this. She then calls me and tells me I need to go to this shift because its too soon and they need more notice EVEN THOUGH I EMAILED HER 5 TIMES OVER THE SPAN OF A WEEK BEFORE THIS. I say I will not be going to the shift. She then literally hangs up on me (so professional). I get a call from the supervisor saying that I have to go to the shifts, I am being unprofessional, blah blah blah. I tell them I'm sorry but this was not agreed to at the interview. He then says that because of my bad communication, I need to go to fulfill my shifts for the next 2 weeks while he “figures things out”. He tells me I should have contacted the scheduling office about this sooner, BUT I DID, LIKE 5 FUCKING TIMES. They just never responded to me. He implied that it was my fault and they only like “team players” and I was bad at communication. I professionally implied that he can go suck a dick, and say “it looks like we are unable to reach an understanding over the scheduling. I appreciate your time, but I don't think I am a good fit for this job”. Suddenly he's like “alright, don't quit, let me see what we can do”. They take me off those shifts and proceed to give me one 8 hour shift a week for the next 3 months. :/. Why didn't he just let me quit?? Such a weird power trip.

So now I need to look for a new job.

Being in college and working has been the most frustrating thing ever. Employers ask for my availability but NEVER respect it. They expect me to prioritize low paying jobs over school, and use manipulation tactics and guilt tripping to pressure people. Sadly, when I was younger it worked and my GPA is horrible now because I was too scared to say no or disappoint them. I'm older now and have no fucks to give so their manipulation doesn't work anymore. but I feel so sad for younger me who would skip classes to come into work and then cry because I failed classes to appease a job that didn't give a fuck about me. I'm so angry and tired of being shitted on at every job I've had.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.