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Antiwork

What can I do if my job cuts my hours down to nothing?

A year ago, I got a part-time job working at Bestbuy. I needed money for school, car bills, gas, etc. It was always my dream to work part-time in a tech store because I love technology. It was back-to-school season when I started, so our store was very busy. I averaged around 43 hours a week. I always showed up on time, never called out, and covered other workers shifts/stayed late if necessary. I was the best salesmen in the whole district for three consecutive months (I was SUPPOSED to get awarded for that, but that's another story), and I was one of the only employees that tended to out her responsibilites (cleaning, organizing, closing properly, etc.). Even during the school year (holiday season) I was working about 28 hours a week. After the holiday season ended (January), my manager notified us that they would be cutting down hours till…


A year ago, I got a part-time job working at Bestbuy. I needed money for school, car bills, gas, etc. It was always my dream to work part-time in a tech store because I love technology.

It was back-to-school season when I started, so our store was very busy. I averaged around 43 hours a week. I always showed up on time, never called out, and covered other workers shifts/stayed late if necessary. I was the best salesmen in the whole district for three consecutive months (I was SUPPOSED to get awarded for that, but that's another story), and I was one of the only employees that tended to out her responsibilites (cleaning, organizing, closing properly, etc.). Even during the school year (holiday season) I was working about 28 hours a week.

After the holiday season ended (January), my manager notified us that they would be cutting down hours till March because it would be slower and the store would open later and close sooner. I was disappointed, but I did not realize how bad this would be.

After the cut on hours, I was lucky to work 12 hours a week and averaged about 8. I was furious. I started looking for a new job at this point and looking into partial unemployment (which had unfortunately ended). After no luck with finding a new job, I was hopeful that things would get better in March, but they only got worse.

Once March came around, I was averaging 4 hours a week. It was at this time that I found out what was going on. I admit that my numbers had dropped since the holiday season ended because I was focusing more on school and focusing less on screwing customers over. I had not seen two of my favorite co-workers in a long time, so I questioned another employee on what happened to them. He told me everything.

Basically…if the managers at Bestbuy don't like you (your performance is bad, you're late a lot, you call out a lot, they personally don't like you, etc.), they will cut your hours down to nothing (4 hours a month) with the hopes that you will quit. They do this instead of laying off employees because they don't want to pay severance.

Now it is April, and I haven't been scheduled for two weeks. I already know what is going on, and I am absolutely stooped on what I should do. For the last four months, I have been living off my life savings that I was hoping to conserve for medical school. This whole situation has really stressed me out mentally and emotionally. I don't know what I can do other than quit.

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