This is absolutely ridiculous. I am sorry this job has driven you to see a doctor and a therapist. I had no idea you were a contracted worker. Your boss sounds like a piece of work--she wasn't going to renew your contract, but she's happy to use you in the interim. I can't believe she spams you with texts on your days off. Maybe you could block her on the days you're off, so can't even see bits of her texts. That's madness. Does she have a lot of employee turnover? I hope you get this resolved soon. I hope you're feeling better soon, too. This whole thing is just...wow.
Well, when I was hired, she and the coworker who is out with a burnout both said they were really happy to have 2 new people who were reliable. Apparently they haven't had that for the last 3 years. They had a large turnover and the people they had weren't good. I don't know if no one made it through the 2 month probationary period or that people just quit, but they hadn't had a steady team. Chantal (burnout coworker) had been a store manager at a different chain store for years and didn't want to be a manager anymore, so she applied at this chain as just a regular worker. She was hired and was doing well, when the assisstant manager handed her the keys one evening and walked out. The store manager and the regional manager then pressured Chantal to please take the assisstant manager position over, at least temporarily. She didn't want to, but they pressured her and she caved, but with concessions. She said she could only work 1 Saturday a month, for example....usually the store manager and assisstant would take turns, but she has a kid and her husband is a truck driver and is usually not home on the weekends, so she could only arrange 1 Saturday a month. They agreed to that and a few other things. But it was not ideal and Chantal still didn't want to be assisstant, but she was stuck until they found someone else. I was hired a couple of weeks after this other gal, Ramona. As soon as it appeared that we were both reliable, good workers, Chantal stepped down and Ramona and I were both asked if we'd like to be assisstant. I said no, for several reasons. One, I had a 20 hour a week contract and didn't really want to work more than that. I still have my home and family to take care of and I do pretty much ALL the housework, cooking, grocery shopping, etc....I can't be working anywhere near fulltime in the store and also fulltime at home. Also, I don't want that responsibility. I don't want to have to call around trying to find someone to fill in if someone is sick, or give up my vacation to come in because there's no one else. I don't want to have to dictate to everyone else what tasks to do and how to do them. I don't want to be the one responsible for things going wrong. I have too much in my private life to worry about that at work....If I wanted to do that, I'd start my own business. So I said no, but Ramona said yes. But since she was also new, she had SOOOOOO much to learn in a short period of time, so her training was obviously prioritized, and rightly so, but now they are denying that I haven't had as much training. I should know this and that and the next thing that I've never even been shown how to do. Mostly I'm a scapegoat....something doesn't get done, they blame it on me. I was working too slowly, or I should have prioritized this other thing, even though I didn't KNOW that. But I'm a handy excuse for them, well, mostly for the store manager, if she doesn't get the to do list done. That's why she's mad that I quit, I think. Because who will she blame now? But because I'm super flexible with my schedule, I was ideal for her, especially when Chantal went out with a burnout. All Chantal's hours had to be redistributed, and I had the fewest hours scheduled and I'm the most flexible because my kids are pretty much grown. Ramona has a 9 year old that she still has to be home for sometimes. So when the boss had a severe allergy attack and had to go to urgent care, I was the one who came in so she could go. And when Ramona forgot that her daughter had a day off of school, I was the one who took her shift so she could be home with her daughter. And these things were happening several times a week that I'd be called and asked if I could come in on my day off. I was working around 30 hours a week instead of 20, but I only get paid for 20 because at some point, I'm supposed to have fewer hours scheduled so it averages out. But I was never getting scheduled for fewer....always more more more. And instead of scheduling me for a full day a couple times a week, she was scheduling me for 4-6 hours 5 days a week. Sometimes I wasn't even getting 2 days off in a row....I'd be scheduled 3 days on, one day off. So I never had a "weekend" where I could go somewhere or do something, and I was having to use my few hours off each week to try to keep up with laundry and cleaning the house. And she might have me scheduled starting at noon, and then call me and ask if I could start at opening, because she was expecting a large shipment, or because we hadn't gotten everything done the night before. One time in the summer, before Chantal was sick, I was working with Chantal and Bissan (who didn't make it through her probationary period because she would just not show up when she was scheduled, and when she DID show up, she didn't work) and there was a markdown list we had to do I think? And it was pretty busy that day and we were working really hard. Well, Chantal and I were. The boss had told Chantal that if we didn't get everything done, we'd have to come in the next day to finish (which I've since found out she can not make you do) I was supposed to cleanup in the kids and womens sections and Bissan was supposed to empty the fitting room rack, which was overflowing. She was also supposed to sweep the floor and vacuum the mat by the door. I was almost done with my work when Bissan came and asked me if I was good at doing the fitting room rack. I said no, because I could see what she was trying to do...I was almost done, so if I switched with her, she'd be done and I'd have to do the entire fitting room rack which she had barely touched. So Chantal and I both continued what were were doing and at the end of the day, we were walking to the back to get our stuff and Chantal looked and gasped. All the clothing from the fitting room rack was just in a big pile on the floor. Rather than put the stuff away, Bissan had just dumped it. Of course she wouldn't own to it, but there's no other explanation. But it was too late to fix it, and the sweeping and vacuuming hadn't been done either. So Chantal told us we could expect a phonecall in the morning to come in on our day off. And sure enough, it was made clear that it was "unacceptable" how "WE" left the store, and we were expected at the store to finish up. Bissan didn't answer her phone, so it was just me, cleaning up the mess SHE made on MY day off, and my boss kept me there not just until those things were done, but for SIX HOURS of my day off, so that SHE could do other things she wanted to get done but hadn't had time for. And it was made clear that if I DIDN'T come in and do this, I would not keep my job. They finally got ahold of Bissan and she came in a few hours late. But really, I should never have had to come in to do HER job, and if I had done it anyway, I should have been allowed to go home as soon as the pile was cleaned up and the sweeping and vacuuming was done. She just completely USED me for whatever she didn't want to do herself, and because I was trying so hard to prove myself, I was easy to take advantage of, and she just never stopped. She continued to manipulate me with the threat that if I didn't do all this, my contract might not be renewed. So every time she needed someone, I said yes, hoping my work ethic would make her see the value. In the end, I pretty much got burned out myself, never getting enough time off, never being able to trust my schedule because it was CONSTANTLY changing, and yet I was still constantly being criticized because I didn't work fast enough and people "didn't like working with me because they feel like they have to do three times the work." And that doesn't even make sense. I'm ALWAYS on the register and whoever I work with is on floor. I CAN'T do a bunch on the floor if I'm always working the register. They only work the register while I'm on break, but I'm expected to do the register then for 7 hours out of the day and still do half the work on the floor, while the OTHER person does register for ONE hour of the day and does the other half on the floor...but they feel like THEY are doing three times the work? I think they've just gotten used to me busting my rear to do everything, so when I'm stuck at the register and can't do half the floor, they notice what I haven't been able to do. But I think they don't realize how much I'm actually doing. Anyway, it's just become untenable. And since the boss is very confrontational, it's kind of toxic. She doesn't just say "Oh, hey, I noticed this was done like this and it needs to be done like that." OR 'let me show you how to do this" she says "Do you ALWAYS only do half the work??" or "This needs to be done over before your break". Or "This is unacceptable! Why did you do this like this?" And then when I have a day off, I come in the next day to the store being a mess that -I- have to clean up because they "didn't have time to do it" the night before because they prioritized something else. If -I- leave the store like that, I get a message saying they were "shocked" at the state of the store and telling me I need to come in early, or on my day off, to do what I didn't get done the night before. But THEY never have to come back in when THEY don't get it done....it's just "Oh, Susan can do that tomorrow morning." And when I call them out on that because it's unfair, they deny it ever happened, or have some excuse for why it's ok that THEY didn't get it done. No excuse was good enough when -I- couldn't get it done, but of course it's no big deal if they don't. So I'm tired of cleaning up their messes and fixing their scheduling issues, and not getting anything in return, running myself into the ground and still being told it's not enough. It's not a healthy situation...there's already one person out with a burnout and when I said I was starting to get symptoms of a burnout too, rather than empathy, the boss asked whether she "could count on me"? She was ticked that I wanted to call the work doctor about my symptoms. That was the last straw. She obviously doesn't value my contribution and she's just taking advantage of me. So I quit. And that made her even more mad. She doesn't even CARE that I said I was quitting for health reasons. She's not concerned at ALL that my health isn't good. She's mad that she won't be able to take advantage of me. I've already started ignoring her texts on my days off, and then she sends increasingly angry texts demanding that I respond before the workday is over, series of question marks to imply her anger that I'm not responding, etc. But what can she do? Fire me? I already quit, and the contract says I'm not required to communicate on my days off. So she can throw her little temper tantrums all she likes....it's not working anymore.
