Last weekend I got asked to cover 2 overnight shifts at a different store, I gladly took them considering I had just recently gotten over covid and desperately needed the money. Normally, my commute to work takes less than 5 minutes from home to where I work. This other store I went to however was around 35 mins away.
First night goes smooth, however, on the way home my Vehicle was pulling to the left a bit. When I got home I checked the air in my tire and was alarmed to see it was at 22psi which is very low considering I had put air in it a few days before. So the next day, I woke up around 4 (used to going to bed at 8 am) and looked at my tire and noticed a tiny leak.
I'm not a car guy, and I might have been dramatic about it, but I'm broke and I'd rather not risk having my one and only vehicle be damaged further in anyway. I called and called and called my store manager, left voicemails and texts letting them know I'd rather not drive that distance again until I'm able to afford to be able to fix this issue. I had less than $10 in my bank account and was holding onto it for gas.
I get no answer all day. So I end up driving to this other store extremely cautious, and 10 minutes within arriving, I finally get a call back. But here's the kicker, the call wasn't for me, it was for the employee who was getting ready to punch out and leave. My manager asks me to ask them if they can work a double so I can drive all the way back out there to work a shift at my store because our 3rd shifter had called in sick that morning.
Asking me to middleman a conversation with someone I had known for a total of 20 minutes was extremely uncomfortable and awkward. The other day, I get asked to cover that shift again. This time my car is fixed so I agreed. As I got to thinking about it, I'm putting more wear and tear on my car, with no reimbursement for working at another store, which kind of felt like a slap in the face to me considering I'm making a measly $10.50 an hour.
So, remembering last weekend when my manager didn't answer my calls or texts conveniently all day. I cut out the middleman and call the store myself and straightforwardly said “I was ok with working out there, until I realized I would be working 8 days in a row, I have a life outside of work and I'm not being compensated for driving all the way out there”.
The manager at that store didn't blame me whatsoever, and actually agreed with me and didn't blame me for making that decision. Today, I get a write up for no call no show. Could I have handled the situation better? Probably. I shouldn't have agreed again in the first place to work another store. But it just wasn't worth my time considering most of the pay from that night would be going right back into my gas tank and I'd be working for almost nothing.
I refused to sign the write up and left a long note on the back describing how unprofessional it was to call me to reach out to another employee, and that I had indeed called and talked to a manager at that store and let them know a day and a half in advance.
The place I work at has had an extremely high turn over rate, along with the other store, and it's no wonder why. You pay next to nothing and treat employees like dirt and offer no compensation for driving that distance to work a different store so the doors don't get locked at night.
An assistant manager that got let go recently had told me he has been working there for 8 years and was still only making 12.50 an hour. Seriously..?
We get harassed on a daily basis by customers who act like they own the place. These people are rude and violent. One of the guys I work with is in physical therapy because a customer grabbed him and tried pulling him over the counter, just for asking to see his ID to sell alcohol. He's an older, small frail guy who is really nice to everyone.
The unprofessionalism was utterly confounding. At the end of the day, I should've never agreed to filling in, and that part is on me. But how the situation was handled is utterly appalling.