did I handle this right?

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I was doing deliveries for a while at my current job, along with cleaning office buildings at night anf filling in for them whenever they wanted me to. All of a sudden a few weeks ago my boss started giving me a hard time about how 'long' I was taking on deliveries (on two of my worst days, one when I got behind a terrible wreck on the interstate and they made everyone turn around and get off the interstate at the exit ramp, something I have *never* experienced, and I called her when it happend and once when she messed up my deliveries by scheduling impossible times so I had to double back, twice). Then out of the blue a couple days later she tells me I'm taken off deliveries and my only option was to work this job seven nights a week to make up the lost hours. So that's what I'm doing. With two days notice of the schedule change. Turns out she handed my jobs to a friend that works with her that she like better. It was fine because she was making me call in every morning and ask if I had to work that day. Half the time she'd say, 'call back in a half an hour' or 'call back after lunch'...which I HATED, having my time held hostage every single day, amounting to only about ten hours a week, at most, for deliveries.

So a couple days ago she calls me and says 'call me ASAP'. So I deliberately don't call til the next afternoon, and she says she needed me yesterday for deliveries, and she found someone, but from now on just call in every morning like I used to. I told her to take me off the list for deliveries, that I can't do them (in part because thanks to her I am now working til 3 am every morning). I am befuddled. I feel like I was being walked all over, and she gave my job to someone else, so it is now her problem. I just don't feel any confidence at all in my reaction to her. Like, do you *know* on some level when you have handled a situation appropriately? Because I never seem to know, I just watch the other person for their reaction. She really didn't have one, but I am not going back to calling in every morning, mainly because I hate talking on the phone. I just hate not knowing whether I did the right thing or not.

Either she was being stupid or unreasonable with your job, or she was outright evil; applying Hanlon's razor (never attribute to evil what can be attributed to dumbassness), I'd say it was the former, and she gave your job to a friend hoping to find someone willing to put up with her shenanigans.

In any way, I think you dealt fine with it... I for one would tell her off as soon as she said she was hiring her "friend".

If you want to do deliveries or if you must have the pay for doing them, then weigh the matter of calling every morning against what you can get out of doing so. If the phone calls are too much trouble for you in exchange for something you would rather just do without, then make your decision accordingly.



Situations and circumstances can vary greatly, so I just make my best effort to be honest, considerate and fair-minded. Sometimes the other person reacts negatively, but that does not necessarily mean I have done something wrong.



Work situations can be difficult at times, and especially when employers or supervisors have their own problems to solve. I try to be as flexible as possible as long as someone is not being unreasonably demanding. But, sometimes I just have to do whatever is asked in order to have a paycheck at the end of the week.

In my view, she did wrong and if she did that to me I would say calmly 'I'm working till three each night, I'm not able to do deliveries anymore and that it's not my problem'. Stay strong and do what you want to do (as in the best thing for you) and not what she wants you to do.

It sounds to me that you did ok in the situation, she may push at you a bit though. Write this all down in a diary and record any other problems she caused, put the date on it as well. Just to have all the details and to get out stress about it that may linger (sometimes a good calming method for some, worth trying).

While it's foolish to turn away a paycheck you need, I think you did the right thing.

You were basically "fired" so your boss could give your paying job to someone else she liked.

This mandates you working your other job every night so you can get by. You "on call" status with your old boss was for extra money.

Boss is unreasonable about how she expects you to be available. More trouble than she is worth to keep responding to. Great source of stress.

Telling her you will no longer work for her is not a bad call in this case.

I would have told her, nicely but firmly, that since she terminated me so that her friend could have my job, I now work full time elsewhere and doing work for her on an "on call" basis is at my sole discretion. If she doesn't like that, she doesn't have to call.

Sucks to lose a job, but sometimes it's a blessing in disguise.

thanks everyone for the feedback. I am afraid she is going to retaliate by yanking this job I have now out from under me (they have done that in the past). I think I made the right decision...the whole thing about the delivery job was talking on the phone. I just hate it. I hate calling in. If she were willing to give me a set day and time to go to work (at the most it would have been two days a week) I would have no problem with it whatever. But she won't do that...and I despise making that morning call. It is not worth the money to me to have to bring someone into my energy field like that every single day of my life. And sometimes have to call her multiple times because she wasn't organized yet when I called. It's like letting her energy into my home when I have to call her and talk to her in my space. I feel like the weirdest person on the planet the way I am about that. But I hate it.

I don't think you're weird at all about that, the mood of the person on the other end of the phone will effect your own. Try to stay strong, she's not worth the agro. Good luck.

I don't think there is anything weird about your wanting to keep her negative energy out of your life and your space. She seems like an evil, selfish money grubber, moving people around like chess pieces so she can benefit. I think you should try to find another job if that's a possibility. I'll bet she didn't even pay you for the gas you used to make those deliveries. Did you make them in your own vehicle? Do what you have to do to keep the paycheck coming in, but at the same time, keep your eyes and ears open for a job that is less stressful, more predictable, and with a boss that will have more respect for you. You deserve to be respected and appreciated in addition to being payed.