back to my old tricks

Remember how I had that job before that I absolutely hated, yet stayed in because I needed the money even though they treated me like crap? Then I found my current job and I thought everything was super because I liked my coworkers and didn't mind working my magic on the customers?

That was when I was hired, and I was under the assumption that my job would include management duties and a pay raise. Why would I assume this? Because they told me when I was hired that I was hired specifically for these things. I was also hired for this position at the store in my neighborhood.

So things are going along great for a while. I still haven't gotten my title and pay raise, and they keep making excuses and putting it off. (The latest was "everything in all the stores is staying exactly the same until after the holidays.") I keep trudging along. Then the news breaks that one of our employees is going to transferred to the other Brooklyn store, further away from my house. As the Store Manager is telling me who they want, he is describing me. "They want someone energetic, and good with the customers, a good reliable worker, etc." Me. And he said it in such a way that he wanted me to know it was me without having to actually come out and say it was me. Not to mention listing all the other employees and the reasons they wouldn't be the ones. Me.

I said no. I was hired for this position and this store and blah blah blah. Then when I came back from xmas, I found out I was working the entire week at the other store. I'm still technically an employee of store #1, I just don't spend any time there. I imagine that soon they'll make it official and take me off the schedule and payroll of my store. I continually let them know that I hate what they're doing, but my complaints fall on deaf ears.

So today was the beginning of my "week" at store #2. When I got my schedule (yesterday!) I lessened my complaining just a bit, because I ended up getting 3 New Year's -era days off in a row. Last minute, I decided to spend my New Years in Detroit because I found a cheap ticket. Unfortunately, the condition of the cheapness was that I had to leave an hour early from work in order to catch the flight. So when I went in today, I let them know this first thing. There were 3 other people there to close, so my missing an hour wouldn't hurt them. If I'd had to miss more than an hour of work, I wouldn't have done it. The store manager seemed ok with it.

She calls my store manager to let him know (not to complain about it!) and he wants to talk to me. He proceeds t give me a lecture on how much work I've missed, and how many days I've asked for off, and how often I leave work early. Then he tells me to just go home now, they don't need me to work.

How much work I've missed? I've never once called in sick or come in more than a few minutes late.

How many days I've asked for off? Do they mean the 3 days I just took for xmas so I could do my once a year trip to see my family, that I told them about when I was hired because I already had my tickets? Or do they mean when I request a certain day of the week off because I'm getting a tattoo or have some other pressing engagement? I admit, I have done that several times, but last time I checked I get 2 days off a week. I'm not requesting any extra days off, I'm just ensuring that one of my days is a day when I have things to do. I was also told that flexible schedules were part of the job here because everyone has other things to do besides work.

How often I leave work early? Most of the time when I leave work early, it's because the store is dead and I am told to go home by the store manager. You can't hold it against me. As for the other times (what, maybe 2?) that I left early, it was because I had appointments or something. So they don't want me to ask for certain days off, and they don't want me to miss even an hour of work on days when I have previous engagements. Good logic they have going there.

If you don't know me, it might sound that I'm asking for a lot. But I really amn't. It's a stupid retail job. I don't have a set schedule like an office job, so I need to ensure that the non-job-related things in my life can happen when I'm not at work. When I am at work, I'm the best customer service person they have. Even the store owner has commented that.

So even though I don't mind the actual work of this job, I hate it. I'm back to daydreaming about a life where I don't have to work for people that treat me like crap. Someday I will find my perfect job, which as I've said, involves me setting my own schedule and making my own rules. People say it can't be done. But I'm different. I am not cut out for this kind of life. Something better this way comes. Or, I end up in a mental institution because I stabbed someone. Either way, I'm running away from the working life.