You don't need a cubicle to have Office Space

[jackofallgeeks]

My God. I'm going to quit. I swear it.

I don't even know where to begin. Mohammed just called me and said, "Hey, can you come in early?" To which I should have responded, "Fuck no." Instead, I asked when he wanted me, and he said as soon as possible.

Here's the thing, though -- I'm already scheduled to work tonight from 5 until close. We close at midnight, but we don't just lock up and leave, we have to clean things and put away the food. I've worked Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday this week already, and we closed at 11 but didn't get out until 11:30, 12:00, and 12:00 respectively. Which means I anticipate working from 5 until 1am for an 8 hour day. I already told Mohammed I don't want to work more than 8 hours a day. Unfortunately, I said that 4:00-12:00 is 8 hours, and when he asked if I could come in at 4, I didn't fight. So I'm working a 9 hour day today. And yeah, his other workers look like they're all working 11 hour days, and that's fine -- I don't want this many hours, and I said as much. Hire more employees, I don't care. Or schedule the ones you have -- neither Gene nor Tyrinda work more than 4 or 5 days a week, if that much. And here I am, scheduled upwards of 6 or 7 hours a day for a week straight!

(As a side note to my friend Sarah and others similarly afflicted -- I've told you that I think 13-day weeks are insane, and this is in no small part because I find 5-day weeks to be taxing. Did you know that at one time France as a nation went to a 6-day work week, and it failed miserably?)

And that's another thing. I told him after the first week that I wanted more than 40 hours a week -- because that's full-time and, frankly, I didn't want a full-time job this summer. Can anyone tell me what six hours a day for seven days is? How about if we up that to seven hours a day, to account for closing time. We're looking at 42 or 49 hours this week. I don't want that. You could schedule me for 36 or, hells, 25 hours and I'd be happy. i'm not fucking trying to live off this; it's play money until I get my *real* job this fall. And my brother, who is trying to get college tuition money, languishes below the 30hrs/week mark.

I think he schedules me so much because I'm a good worker -- I have something of a forceful and charismatic personality, I can deal with people (I'm more patient in practice than I sound in this space), I get work done, and I'm dependable. Fine, that's great, I'm flattered -- I don't want these hours. Hire more people, but I'm not going to work 60-hour weeks for you, and certainly not at $6 an hour.

I'm gonna... burn the building down.

(Nine days...)

Comments

[photoholic62.livejournal.com]

As you may know, I was a professional baker for 20 years. Well, some of that time I was a cook, but that's neither here nor there. The point is, in each and every bakery I ever went to work in, I ended up in some sort of management position. Why? Because I had this horrible and un-heard-of-in-the-industry habit of showing up to work when I was supposed to, and did my job when I got there. For 20 years, I averaged about 90 hours a week at work. No kidding! From Halloween to New Years was the worst! When I finally left one job, they ended up giving me almost 6 months pay when I left ... it was accumulated time off that I never got to take. I don't miss it, and am too old to do it now even if I wanted to. The food service industry isn't for everyone, and it's not for ANYONE that actually wants a life outside of the job.