Scheduling and other nonsense at my job

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vividgroovy
Deinonychus
Deinonychus

Joined: 20 Dec 2018
Gender: Male
Posts: 330
Location: Santa Maria, CA

19 Mar 2021, 5:30 am

I work retail. Leading up to our annual Inventory, my store was scheduling me for stretches of 8 days in a row followed by 2 days off. When I asked to get a day off in the middle to break up the multiple days, I was told the "needs of the business" wouldn't allow for it. I mentioned that this had never happened in the past and I was told that was because our store is so bad, we usually get help from other stores to prepare for Inventory but this year, we weren't getting any.

During one of these long stretches, management took away the chairs and tables from our break room on the idea that some people weren't social distancing. (I knew it wasn't me, because I feel no need to be near other people even if I'm talking to them. Most of the time, I watch a video on my phone while I'm on my lunch.) While I was eating my lunch standing up, a manager came in to ask us if we knew why this was happening and I wound up having a big argument with him, which is very out-of-character for me. He claimed we had a "communal responsibility" to call people out on not following the rules and that if I wanted to sit down on lunch, I could go outside and sit on a bench. The whole attitude was that we had all been bad whether we followed the rules or not and not being able to sit down was our deserved punishment. Fortunately, the store manager made them put the tables and chairs back after this scene. (Really, most of the managers are nice. They are very stressed and I don't envy their jobs.)

Inventory finally happened and my schedule appeared to go back to normal. Then came a gap where I was NOT scheduled to work for 10 days in a row. After having worked so much last month, I told them I would be glad to keep this schedule and just take the days off as my annual vacation, but I wanted to know if THEY were going to change it. The Personnel guy said he couldn't do the schedule until a certain manager was there. The next day, that manager said he couldn't do it because the Personnel guy wasn't there. Finally today, one day before the 10 days off was to begin, at 10PM, I was given a schedule for next week. They put me on a 10AM shift for that week, when I have worked closing shifts for ages. (Most employees prefer morning shifts. I'm a night person.) I asked who's closing my department and they said departments don't exist anymore and we are all just Apparel associates now. However, I still seem to have all the same duties of my former job that doesn't exist. But now with more "teamwork." (Doing other people's jobs too.)