Hey boss thanks for listening oh yeah and fuck you too!

The BBQ Pit
1

On the first Friday of every month a bar near my house has reggae night. This consists of a reggae band coming and playing. I’m a huge reggae fan so this is a pretty important night for me. Did I mention it’s only once a month?

I’ve been working at current job since Febuary. I told the boss that I don’t mind working weekends as long as I can have the first Saturday of the month off as to enjoy the activities of reggae night.

Boss didn’t give me any first Fridays off, so I asked him again. And again, and again. I have not had the first Saturday of the month off since I started.(I should explain the the bands don’t go on until between 10 or 11 and on saturdays I have to go in at nine. Not a fun combo.)

I thought maybe since this is going to be my last reggae night this week seeing as how I’m moving soon you might of found it in your heart to give me this one weekend off.

Well you didn’t. No you have me coming in on Saturday morning even though I have asked you several times not to work the first saturday of the month. I told you I don’t care about working other weekends.

No problem I think, I’ll just switch saturdays with the other part-timer and work next weekend. Other part-timer has plans for saturday moring but said he would come in so I would only have to work a half day instead of all day. Hey thats alright with me. We go to the boss to tell him about the switch. He says it’s ok and the schedule will be changed. Cool.

As I’m leaving the office the full-timer I work with on the weekend goes in to talk to the boss about some other schedule stuff. Now in ten minutes I’ve gone from working a few hours on Saturday and having Monday off to “You need to come in at 8 on Saturday and why don’t you go ahead and come in on Monday morning too.”

Well fuck you too boss. I’ve been asking for these Fridays off since Febuary! It’s not rocket science. The other part-timer can’t work this weekend because he worked last weekend? You made the schedule asshole. He doesn’t want to work 2 weekends in a row? Did you forget when I worked for almost 2 months without a weekend off? Fuck you.

I do almost two grand in sales every day I work and this is how you thank me. I take the phone calls you don’t want to deal with and this is what I get? I’ve injured myself and kept working and you won’t even give me the smallest favor in return. You and your fucking corporate bosses can suck a fart outta my ass.

Yeah you know I’m leaving in a month but I hope your ready for a really shitty month because I just don’t give a fuck about the store, the company or you anymore.

2

Poor* baby*, you start a new job all the way back in* February* and expect to be able to have a work schedule adjusted to your liking.

That’s how the real world works pal. I feel sorry for the customers you have to deal with in the coming month, not for you.

3

I’ve been on both sides of this situation, and trust me, it’s a lose-lose proposition.

As an employee I found it astounding that the boss couldn’t process simple requests like “I can’t work on Tuesdays, ever, never, never ever.”

As an employer I found that there is no better way to upset the unwashed masses than to post a schedule, no matter how well thought out. There ain’t no pleasing them.

4

He’s a baby for asking for some time off from his part-time job on a weekend?

5

Baker, what a shithead you are. Even when I change jobs, or start a new project within my current job as a consultant, I’m upfront about time I need off. I won’t necessarily tell a boss/project lead that its for reggae nights, but I have other obligations like coaching my daughter’s volleyball team or classes where I need some flexibility around my schedule. A good boss/project lead will work with you and your schedule, and if your flexible and accomodating (which, based solely on what is written in the OP and nothing else, Al Transom has been), there is no good reason not to honor such a request.

Thanks for lifting your leg and marking this thread, Baker. It’s going to be a bitch getting that stench out of here.

6

Yeah, Baker, I normally enjoy your posts, but you stepped in it with this one. Requesting one night off per month is not unreasonable at all.

7

This sort of thing happened to me when I was 16, my summer job as a cashier at the A&P carried over into the school year. I told them I couldn’t work any school nights, only on the weekend, parents orders. My first week, they scheduled me 3 days after school. I didn’t even bother to show up.

Not exactly the mature way to deal with it, but I WAS only 16.

8

Count me in here, too.

Back in 1984 when I was in school, I had a part-time job at a convenience store. I worked for minimum wage for about 20 hours a week. In January, I had purchased tickets for a tennis tournament my friend I were going to see in April. I tell the manager (who was a fucking bitch) that I would like to have that Sunday off and that I would work any other shift (even the dreaded overnight shift). She tells me to remind her as the date gets closer. I do so. When the schedule came out for that week, guess what? I was scheduled to work! I reminded her that she said to remind her when the date was coming up. She said she forgot (fucking bullshit, you shit-sucking whore!) and that I would have to work.

That Saturday I told her I was not coming in on Sunday. She told if I didn’t for me to not come in anymore. I said, not a problem.

A co-worker ended up switching shifts with me.

The following Friday, I called her from my new job (five minutes before I was to report for my shift - the very busy afternoon shift) and told I wouldn’t be coming back. She ended up having to work until midnight (take that you monkey-felching pig fucker!)!

So the OP has my sympathy.

9

I’m with Al. If his boss couldn’t or wouldn’t give him that time off, he should have told him so at the beginning.

It’s actually pretty cool that you haven’t just gone ahead and taken the time off. Doesn’t sound like your boss appreciates it though.

10

Ok let me explain a little more. By part-time I mean 30-35 hrs. a week 5 or 6 days a week. I usually work a 6-8 hour day that involves mostly lifting and moving very heavy things or dealing with a number of obnoxious customers. When I started said job I was told that they have an “every other weekend” policy so that no one is always stuck working weekends. Well I got the shit end of the stick on that one.
Also I’ve paid my dues. When a former employee stole our delivery van while drunk and crashed it I came in on my day off while also recovering from food poisoning. I’ve worked every holiday since I started, I’ve had to call payroll on multiple occasions just to track down my paycheck , I also worked with a sprained wrist, ankle and with muscles pulled in my back, all work related. I’ve been abused by customers and treated like shit. I think I deserve a saturday off of my choosing.
And Baker who was complaining that I’m a little baby, I guess you had perfect jobs where you could take off anytime you want and your boss always listened to what you had to say. Lucky you, some of us are not so fortunate.

11

I had a similar thing happen in HS. Worked the summer at Baskin-Robbins, and offered to stay during the school year on the condition that they not schedule me for more than 3 hours on weekdays; I had a full load of honors and AP classes, which meant at least 3 - 4 hours of homework a night, and I was defnitely a student first, ice cream professional second (plus labor laws prevented 16-year-olds working more than that during the school year, or as late as he had us working, or alone in the store for that matter, all of which he did frequently, even after a co-worker was robbed at knifepoint - 10:00 plus cleanup, which usually meant 10:30 or 11:00).

He consistently ignored both my request and the labor laws, plus some of the other people I worked with were flakes, so even on the days he had me scheduled to work 4 - 7 or 5 - 8, frequently my replacement would be significantly late.

Finally I got fed up when I was scheduled to work 4 - 7, and at 8:30 my replacement hadn’t shown up, and I had a paper due the next day. I called the store manager at home, told him I was locking up the store for the night and going home, and oh by the way, I quit. I wasn’t going to risk my grades for $3.35 an hour, even though he begged me not to quit, or at leat to stay in the store and keep it open until he could get there (which would have been almost closing time anyway). Sometimes it’s just not worth it.

12

I also think Baker’s post was uncool. First of all, in the world of part-time jobs, “since February” is not such a short time. Second, he’s made his request well in advance and several times.

13

My boss is a complete asshole when it comes to even taking my vacation days. I work alone in a small art store that is open from September to April. If I wanted or needed one of my vacation days, which I’m completely entitled to, during that time, that’s too bad for me because my shithead boss (despite the fact that he’s supposed to be the manager) has no idea how to run the store. I can’t be away, he says, because it will “interfere with the store”.

That means I can only take my vacation days between May and July. August is also a no-no because I spend that month putting together kits for students, and he’s too fucking stupid to do that himself too.

I managed to take my 2 weeks in May. Looks like I get to wait another year before a day off again, fucking whoopee.

14

To come at this from the other direction, trying to schedule employees is an absolute nightmare. There is absolutely no way to make your employees happy with the schedule and still run the business.

I work for a company that I think is pretty fair with schedules. It is a large department so we have about a hundred different schedules available, all over the 24 hours. We base schedules on performance and hire into open schedules. If someone wants to change their schedule or gets a schedule that they can’t work, we will consider the reason and their performance and grant a new schedule.

For some perspective, I did a reasonable job and got the exact schedule I wanted all of the time.

In addition, we allow time off even for temps, but of course it is allotted to them. In emergencies only, we will allow the person to take additional time off unpaid, approved by a manager. Well, by emergency, we mean something significant.

All of this is repeated to the employee before hire twice (by temp agency and then again by us directly) and during training.

Despite this, I have gotten countless complaints that this is completely unfair because they don’t get their way. It is typical for new employees to ask for time off after extended sick time (uh, no; sick time counts, it’s not a freebie. If you wanted to go to that concert so badly, maybe you shouldn’t have called in because of that headache) and quit when we say no. We had one person who wanted us to pay for their guitar lessons which they had scheduled on Saturdays, currently worked Saturdays, and was declined for a schedule change when they asked for Saturdays off. Employees complained that we changed schedules too often, so when we started doing them less often, the same people complained because they don’t like their current schedule. Employees complain when they can’t take unlimited time off (It’s unpaid, so why does it matter?). We ask people to request time off at least 3 days in advance, and people complain when they can’t get vacation time for later that day because of some appointment that they never mentioned.

It’s even typical – it happens every training class – that people quit because they want to change the schedule we gave them the week before and said “this is your schedule, it is set for at least x months” and they had agreed, and now want to change it to have no weekends, no evenings, 8-5 weekday schedule! They are actually SHOCKED when we say no! These are not people who had an emergency come up – they just tell us “I can’t work Sundays because I like going to church and I don’t want to work Saturdays”. Uh, then why did you take the position that you were hired into on that schedule?

In short, no less than allowing people to work whenever they want with no regard to the business will make everyone happy, and I suspect that even then they would complain because it wouldn’t be unlimited PAID time off.

All that being said, there are some right asshole bosses mentioned in this thread. I just see how demanding employees are so I know where the tendency can come from to tune out employees complaining about time off.

15

Everybody is picking on Baker here and maybe that’s deserved.

But what I don’t hear from Al Transom is what the response was from the boss whenever AT made the request.

So did the boss reply OK,OK,OK or NO,NO,NO?
Seems to me that if the boss said he could accomedate your request and then failed to, the boss owed you an explanation. If the boss had told you upfront that he couldn’t accomadate your request then you’re being unrealistic about the power of asking over and over again for something that wasn’t going to happen.

And since schedules come out in advance of the time period that they define it seems to me that you would have additional time to make your point with the boss.

16

This boss’s name wouldn’t happen to be “Lumberg”, would it?

17

That is, in my view, a perfectly acceptable way to deal with it. If they did not want to accept your employment on weekends only, they should not have hired you.

18

One of the things I’ve learned (oh God, I’m actually going to type it), in all my years, (:: sigh :: I’m officially old now) is that you have more power at the time you are hired than you will have after being at the job for a while. Be very clear and forceful when you state, not ask for, the times you will be available for work and any limitations pertaining to that. And do it during the hiring process, don’t wait until after and hope they’ll be accomodating.

eg: - “…and if it’s possible I’d like every first Saturday off so I can go see Reggae” - not so good. Have fun working those Saturdays.

“… and I can’t work the first Saturday of every month” - better.

19

My daughter got a job at a major chain craft store. The staff numbers about 15-20 people. When she was hired she told them she could, and wanted to work as many hours as possible, except she could not work on Sundays. They said they would start her at 20 hours and move her to full-time. Boss #1 was making out the schedules, and had no problem giving her Sundays off, but could never see his way clear to more hours. They made her a department head…all the other department heads got more than 20 hours, but not her.

Then boss #2 started doing the schedules, and couldn’t figure out how to give her Sundays off. Sometimes the schedule wouldn’t get posted until late on Friday for the following week, and she’d be scheduled for Sunday, and when she’d tell them “I’m not available Sundays, you know this” they’d fuss that there wasn’t time to change it. She worked a few Sundays, just to keep the peace, but never got rewarded with extra hours, even though she kept being given more responsibility. They’d tell her “we can’t hire anyone full-time” and then the next week hire someone full-time. If she asked, well in advance, for a certain day off…a day of the week they’d always given her off before…it was a given that that day she would be scheduled to work. And if you dared to ask for a day off, say for a doctor’s appointment, you might get that day off, but then they’d also cut you another day that week as punishment for asking for a certain day off.

Only the one boss (female) seemed to have this problem. And my daughter wasn’t the only one treated this way…if you asked for a day off, your hours got cut, not just rearranged. I work in retail, and occasionally have to do schedules, and let me tell you we bend over backwards to schedule around school schedules, classes, choir rehearsals, church activities, baseball games, tanning sessions and aerobics classes. With a much smaller staff. But we do it because we want to keep our trained part-timers, and our full-time management people have always been flexible in making changes, because they know one day they willneed that flexibility, too. I have a hard time understanding why my daughter’s boss can’t do that, and has to be vindictive in her scheduling.

20

In response to Bubba the boss did say it was cool to take those saturdays off since I would just work the next one. The people I work with are fairly loose and the head boss used to be a musician so he realizes that yes, reggae night is an acceptable reason to take time off.