Wow, I can actually see light in that toil-riddled tunnel I am trudging through!
A while back, I posted a pit thread about how a co-worker whined about how we were supposed to get breaks on 4 hour shifts, and how I was livid about this because the boss ‘abolished’ 4 hour shifts, screwing me over in terms of hours. The only reason I didn’t go completely ballistic is because I knew we would have a meeting where this would get brought up.
Well, I just got back from the meeting, and I am pleased. The boss was extremely diplomatic about the whole thing- she knew that everyone was supposed to have breaks, and worked out a policy to ensure people used breaks responsibly and under reasonable circumstances. At the same time, she understood my desire to work as long as possible during the days I am scheduled to work, because of limited availability (I can only work there four days a week, so I try to get the most out of the days I am available). Thus, my hours will not be screwed over, and I will gladly take a coworker’s shift if they are huffy about having to work for (in their mind) an exhorbitant amount of time.
So all in all, I’m pretty pleased. I could care less about the whole break thing if it didn’t jeopardize my hours, and since the impact it will have on me has been minimized, I’m fairly satisfied about the result.
Amazingly enough, the guy that brought this up had the gall to insist that the staff should be paid ‘retroactively’ for all the time we didn’t have breaks I explained to him that since WE ALREADY GET PAID while on break, the employers don’t ‘owe’ us anything- there’s not much they can do retroactively. I was surprised he brought that up, because he’s only just started working there- I guess he thought he’d make himself to be some saint on behalf of those of us that have been there for years (like me) but I really feel he was just grasping at straws and pissing off the managers. The boss also gave a good rebuttal to his complaint, mentioning that she often rounds hours up for us if we have to leave at an odd time, and always pays us an hour’s wage for the meeting, even if we finish early. Added up, that more than makes up for the error about the breaks