No, I do not want to work 10 more hours a week for free!

The BBQ Pit
1

I am in entry-level management, and I’m getting completely fed up with my job. Our company has a policy of underpaying anyone who was promoted from within, no matter how well you do at your job, even though we say we’re “pay for performance”. Fine, I appreciate the opportunity of the promotion. It’s a high-stress, pretty much thankless job of struggling to meet unattainable goals and juggling a thousand tasks every week. For all of these reasons and more, I’ve been looking for a job outside the company that will pay me closer to industry standard salary, but due to the closure of several sites in my same industry in the past few months, outside work is hard to comeby.

We’ve struggled for a long time with our overnight shift. We can’t seem to get a supervisor to work it. We hired someone to work that shift some time ago, but he managed to talk his way into an earlier shift. This means that people are unsupervised for about four hours in the middle of the night, and this has caused problems.

Now, the management comes to us Monday and tells us that there is a problem, and that we supervisors need to work out how overnights are going to be covered. We are told that “leadership is not a 40 hour a week job” and that “either you solve this, or we solve it for you”. We are told we have five minutes to work it out. I am pretty insulted by the tone. Quite frankly, we are all working over 40 hours a week, and it is not my problem that you caved to someone who was new to the company. Besides which, these are his employees causing the problem anyway!

We are strongly encouraged to just stay at least 2 hours late every day and just work the extra hours. I am not in favor of this plan, because that would make me stay into the evening. We already work 9 hour shifts. The only time I get to see my friends or talk to family is in the evening - I don’t want to work then, especially not until “at least July”!

We ended up agreeing to each shuffle the overnight for a week. I think this is a better plan, because then at least me staying late is actually affecting the problem.

The next day, this gets brought up again at another meeting. Some of the supervisors decide they don’t want to do that anymore and want to go back to staying 2 hours late. This is because some of the supervisors are already doing this anyway. I can understand that they’re arguing in their best interest, but this plan isn’t going to do anything! The man who is on the latest shift is already known for leaving much earlier than his shift ends (to be fair, he comes in early, but that’s not his shift!) We are given the option of just letting management put people on shifts based on performance. To be blunt, I like this idea, but I am afraid to tell the group this because I don’t want to get a crappy schedule for not being “flexible”.

I have been flexible, goddamnit, and I don’t want to work all these extra hours for free. I’ve worked pretty much any schedule ever – in the last 3 months, I’ve been switch from my day schedule to nights several times for weeks at a time to cover issues in other departments – but I am tired of this. I don’t want to work a minimum of 11 hours every day, especially because me staying late will do nothing to help the problem, and I can’t even use that time because all of my own employees are gone, so I’m going to be twiddling my fucking thumbs!

We finally just decided to leave the discussion until another day. Maybe I am a bad leader just because I don’t want to, you know, be the company’s slave and work at their convenience for the princely salary that they pay me, which is a good 6k minimum less than any outside hire (and that’s the bottom of the pay scale), even though I’ve been performing well for a year and a half at this. All the more reason for me to look elsewhere.

2

My advice to you is to polish up your resume and start some serious job searching. You are being taken advantage of, and shit upon. It comes down to Dollars. Upper management will work you to death, for free, only if you let them. If they were really committed to solving the problem, they would spend the money to do it - hire a night guy FOR the night shift. It’s just easier for them to act like assholes, and treat you like it’s all your fault. With people like this, it never gets better. They get more demanding - “do more with less” and less and less.

Look. If it saved them a few bucks, they’d can you in a heartbeat. You show them exactly the same amount of “loyalty”, especially since you already know they are fucking you on your paycheck right now. Once you get a job offer, I guess 5 minutes notice is cool, just to see the look on their faces. Just don’t let them know you are looking - you will be marked as “disloyal”.

Best of luck.

3

And/or fired on the spot, if they’re anything like where I work.

4

Yes, take SteveG1’s advice.

Before i went back to college (at the advanced age of 24) i was working in the banquet department of a large hotel. It was a good interim job, because i had applied to college and was waiting to hear if i got accepted. I also figured that i could work a shift or two a week once i started classes.

Anyway, about a month before i was due to find out whether or not i got in, the managers made an announcement that they were looking to promote a few people to supervisory positions to replace a few supervisors who had moved on or up. The manager told me that they wanted me to apply for one of the jobs. I was a few years older than most of the other waiters and bartenders in the department, and i’d been working in hospitality-related jobs for about six years.

I thought about accepting, just in case the college thing didn’t come through. But then i looked at what the supervisors actually did. For the most part, they did the same sort of crappy work as everyone else (although they also got to yell at people), they made duty rosters and did other administrative stuff, and they got to wear nice jackets instead of waitcoats. And for all that, they got the privilege of working an indetermined number of hours, which could be anything up to 80 in a busy week, and got paid a salary so low that, in most weeks, they were making less money per hour than us peons.

More responsibility, longer hours, less money, and fancy jacket? No thankyou!

Of course, the shitty conditions under which they worked turned most of the supervisors into complete assholes. A couple of guys who i had been very friendly with got promoted, and within a few weeks they were yelling at people for doing exactly the same shit they had been doing two weeks before. They seemed to realise that the only thing that differentiated them from the rest of the staff was that they got to give orders, and so they seemed determined to make the most of their limited authority.

About six months later, on a night when we were already short-staffed and each waiter was covering more tables than he or she could handle, one of the supervisors and the manger were both being complete assholes. Despite the fact that it was their own rostering fuck-up that had caused the short-staffed situation, they took it out on everyone else. After hearing them yell at people one too many times, i got up and walked out in the middle of my shift, and never went back.

5

For upper management to come in and tell you all that YOU must work it out is also passing the buck. They can and should ask for your thoughts, but they should not be making this type of thing your (collectively) decision. It’s a copout. I mean, this is why they, presumably, get paid the better bucks.

The whole thing boils down to “what are you willing to do”. Looking for work elsewhere is your best bet, but while you are looking, you still should come to some terms with where you are.

While jobs are tight like this, I’ve seen many companies that ask for additional hours with no additional pay. One company I interviewed with wanted to pay an hourly rate for 40 hours, but told me that putting in 50 was “mandatory”. When I asked if I would be allowed to do only 40 if I got my work done within those 40, I was told, “No. Because then it would look bad for our department”. WTF! I mean, isn’t the point to get the job done, not to just punch a clock? And this was a contract job. I also loved it when they told me “Nobody else has a problem with working these hours” “Good. Then you shouldn’t have a problem finding someone else to fill the position” sigh

They can and will get away with it. You just need to make the decision on if the job and anxst is worth it. And only you can answer that for yourself.

I wish you luck!

6

Well, we received an update today. The Powers That Be decided to just bump everyone’s schedule either an hour later or earlier. I got later, of course, which I can’t say I’m thrilled about, but at least it’s not the end of the world. It’s workable, at least.

See, I don’t really mind putting in extra hours – if necessary and helpful for my team. I mind twiddling my thumbs for 2 hours because my whole team has gone home and so I can’t get more work done – my work is focused primarily on coaching and feedback. All for the sake of “everyone working together”… whatever. At least only an hour later won’t be terrible, but still, most of my people already leave an hour before I do; it’s actually to the deteriment of my team’s work to work later. I’m glad at least this only takes me to leaving at about 6:30. If I can’t be home by at least 7 some days, I get cranky. But now I have to miss The Simpsons every day… :wink:

I am seriously job searching though, well before this happened. As I mentioned, massive layoffs recently in my industry have made it difficult to find acceptable employment. I accepted an interview with one company only to find it was temp-to-hire – I can’t leave a permanent job, with which, for all its flaws, at least I have job security, for a temporary position. People out of work, though, of course can, and that’s who I’m competing against – at least for the moment.

I’m working on it, though; I’ve been sending out lots of resumes and networking, so we’ll see. I don’t intend to stop searching unless I get a sizeable raise and these working conditions improve, which is not likely to happen.

Thanks for the feedback, everyone.

7

My dad (bless his soul) used to say that the synonym for “salaried” was “sucker”. Of course, that means no one in my family (who’ve all inherited that attitude) is going to get rich.

It also means we don’t work 80-hour weeks, though.

8

Well, apparently ‘the management’ decided that all of our new schedules are effective until August 1. This is a month longer than we were originally told. Exactly what I predicted.

It especially irritates me because I was assured that my schedule was not changing, just last Monday.

Good thing the weekend is soon. Gives me time to get some more resumes out… though I’ll do some tonight. Making me work later? Great, now I have time to interview with other companies. Fuckers.

9

Maybe you’re just not being proactive enough?

Maybe take a new approach to how you work?

Work life balance?

:dubious:

10

Someone may have already asked this but…

Does it HAVE to be “in your industry”? It sounds as if you are articulate and have good management skills. Why not take those skills to a similar industry, or even a different one?

11

Firstly, thank you! Secondly, no, it doesn’t, but it would be hard for me to get a management-level position except in certain fields. Retail is one, but I refuse. Office management is another, which I am applying for, but seems to be heavily temp-to-perm; I went for one ‘interview’, only to find out that it was an interview for a staffing firm who would send me to various positions! The advertisement was only an “example” position. grumble

My goal is to get into a financial area, but many areas ask for certifications I simply don’t have, so I was hoping to get my foot in the door through managing people on the phone for a lender or bank. We have several in the area, though one of them was a major recent lay-off offender.

Fortunately, my workplace (though not the company) doesn’t have time for buzzwords and jargon. Thank god!

12

Oh ugh, don’t you hate that? Truth in advertising PLEASE!!

Well, if you don’t mind a boring personal story (I’ll try to make it short, really). I left my home state (heartbreak) on a 9 month long sabbatical. When I got back, though I did do some projects for my former (and hope to be again soon) company, I didn’t go right back to work in my field.

I’ve worked for about 8 years as a PE instructor at a local University just for fun (though it does pay pretty well, a few more classes a semester and that would do pretty well actually, sorry I’m distracting myself).

ANYWAY. My “primary” job is one I consider a definite imterim job, I am a shift manager at a big chain gym. Totally outside of my experience, or even my skills really (I hate stupid people and have to bite my tongue and channel QVC hostesses quite often :)), but for the most part it’s fun, very low stress no brain power required, and I get a free membership.

I’m being totally lazy, and kind of loyal. I could apply for other jobs in my industry (enviro), but I really want to go back to work for my former company, and besides, I’m kind of liking the no responsibility laziness of this “menial” type job.

It doesn’t engage my brain or give me the “attaboy income” that my other job did, but it does pay the bills while I sort of find my balance and get back on my feet after my little adventure.

What if you tried something like that? Oh yeah, and I do the temp thing and teach other dance classes other than just at the Uni. The temp thing works out pretty well. Again, all this stuff together pays the bills while I polish up my resume or wait for a “real” job.

At any rate, a bunch of us have been through the “stuck in a horrible job” situation. Maybe you’re not as stuck as you think? Best of luck.

13

Well, as much as I am irritated with the situation, I don’t want to give up the tasty benefits I get for a temp job. I’m happy to put up with the job for a few months, although not much longer than that. I would like to find a permanent position before August (the next time my schedule would change again).

The sad part is that, in many ways, I do like my job. I am just tired of the management bullshit with the pay disparity, scheduling, punishing high performers by asking too much of them, not doing anything about poor performing managers, etc. My job duties themselves are actually very rewarding.

I pretty much intend to keep my head down and do my best for my actual direct reports, and management be damned.