No, it's kind of a ridiculous actually. They say I'm "too slow" and that they feel like they have to do everything themselves when they work with me. But what's stupid is that when I started, there was one other gal who started just a couple of weeks before me. The boss kept saying she hadn't had a good team for 3 years. They couldn't get people who were reliable and get them to stay. The boss had surgery, asked one of the newer guys if he would be available that week and obviously the assistant manager would be there, too, but the boss wouldn't be able to be there for that week. He said no problem, he'd be there that week. She had her surgery and that morning, he called in "sick". He had gone out and partied the night before and then had a hangover and lack of sleep and couldn't make it in. So the boss had to come in right after her surgery just so there was someone there and they could open the store. And this summer, we had a girl who just wouldn't show up and she had any number of excuses....she overslept, she thought she didn't have to work until afternoon, etc. So the person who opened had to do so alone and then call her and get her motivated to come in and she'd always be a couple of hours late. These are the kinds of people they've had for 3 years. So the assistant manager had never wanted a managerial position. She had been a manager at a different chain of stores and left that chain and just wanted a regular store job. Then one day, the then assisstant manager got frustrated about something, handed her the keys and said "That's it. I'm gone." and walked out. So the manager and the regional manager BEGGED her to take on the assisstant manager position, which she really didn't want to do, but they pressured her into it and she agreed to do it temporarily, and then they just weren't worried about looking for a replacement. So she did it for 2 years, and really really didn't want to do it anymore. So when Ramona and I were hired, she stepped down and said she just wasn't going to do it anymore. So Ramona agreed to become the new assisstant manager. But because she was new, she had to learn everything REALLY fast. Suddenly, my training had to take a back seat, because it was most important that she, as a manager, knew how to do everything. So I was always on the register so she could learn all the other stuff, and when we got shipments, I was stuck at the register and couldn't help them with unloading and stocking.
The girl we had in the summer vacation didn't make it through her trial period. Normally, we have 2 weekend/vacation workers and they do the Friday evening shift and the Saturday shifts, and alternate doing the one Sunday a month we're open. But since she was let go, we needed to replace her, and the boss just wasn't really that worried about it because she really likes the other weekend/vacation girl, and she could take those hours. But that girl is 20 and in college and has an internship this semester, through January and she can't do the Friday evenings, because her internship ends at 5 each day and the shift at the store starts at 6. She'd have only an hour to get home, eat something, and get to the store. So the boss said we'd all just take turns doing Friday evenings and we'd each have to work one friday evening a month. Except, there are only 4 of us, and you need 2 people to run the store, and she scheduled me for nearly every Friday evening for 2 months. And then Chantal, the previous assisstant manager was still being relied on to take on responsibilities she was no longer getting paid extra for, and she ended up with a burnout. So she's been out since the first week of September, and I've largely been taking on her hours. My contract is for 20 hours a week. I get paid for 20 hours a week whether I work 10 or 40 hours, and eventually, I'm supposed to take time off so it evens out to an average of 20 hours. So if I work 30 one week, I'm only supposed to do 10 another week, But I've been working 30 hours standard for 2 months, my schedule changes several times a week as they realize not all the hours are covered, or they are getting a shipment and need help, or someone's kid has a day off school they forgot about, etc. Twice I had to come in because the boss had a severe allergic reaction to something and had to go to the doctor. But I've accrued something like 100 overtime hours, which on a 20 hour a week contract is 5 weeks, plus I have 3 or 4 weeks of vacation time as well. But I never get scheduled for fewer hours, so I never get it worked down. So we had an unpaid intern working with us for a couple of months, and she got a contract now....she started just a couple of weeks ago with the paid contract, which means now she's allowed to work the register. A couple of weeks ago, the boss reworks the schedule again, and I end up with this new gal who has only worked there for a week, and I have to be the keyholder for that day, and kind of be in charge....any time there's a return, she's not allowed to do it alone, so I have to stand there with her, etc. I didn't WANT this responsibility....I don't get PAID to do that...that's what managers are for. But it was Ramona's daughter's birthday and the boss was supposed to be there, but then a new store was opening up in a different town and they panicked because they weren't ready, and they asked her to come and help, so the boss, without asking me, decided to go help there and leave me with the new gal to run our store. We weren't supposed to get a shipment that day, and the discount list didn't necessarily have to be done that day...both of these are things I never got trained to do because Ramona had to learn them first. So I had never done them. So of course, the shipment came a day early, and I also had to try to figure out how to do the discount list. I told the boss I was nervous, I didn't really know whether I could handle it, I didn't feel ready. She says I know more than I think I do and it won't be a problem, if she didn't think I could do it, she wouldn't go, bla bla bla. So I do it....I got the discount list halfway done, got the shipment taken care of, but then I apparently started in the wrong section with cleanup at the end of the day and it was such a mess where I started that we didn't get the whole store cleaned up. Ramona came in the next day and was upset that the fitting room rack was full, and that there were a few things not straightened in the mens and plus size sections. I never have the lead....there's ALWAYS a manager with me, and I haven't been taught in what order to do things. I've gotten mixed messages, because one person says to start with one thing, another says to start with something else....anyway, I was told I had to come in early that day to make up for it, which made me angry because 2 weeks before that, when THEY had worked together, they didn't get everything cleaned up either, and rather than coming back the next day, -I- had to clean up after them. So I told them it didn't seem very fair that when THEY leave a mess, it's fine....they attribute it to it being busy or having other priorities, but when -I- don't get it all done, it's because I'm too slow and I have to come back in on my day off, or earlier than I was scheduled to fix it. They had a meeting and told me that if I don't improve my work tempo, they won't renew my contract. I haven't heard anything about my work tempo since the beginning, and now, suddenly when they have a new hire, a week later, I'm too slow again. They put me on register and I can't control the number of customers or how long they take. So I don't get as much done as they do, because I'm doing the register. I've been paying close attention to my work tempo since it was mentioned back in like....July, and I've been doing the best I can. But the boss says, for example, that I only get the kids' section done with cleanup and a small portion of women's and they have to do the rest. But the thing is, I'll get kids done, move on to women's, they'll send me to break and they will finish women's while I'm on break, but then it's my fault that they had to do women's without me. The boss says not to be a perfectionist....it doesn't have to be perfect, but if there's ONE hanger sticking out, she'll point it out and say I didn't do that rack and make me go back and do it again. She once told me I needed to do women's again because there was a bunch of stuff on the floor....I had just finished women's and it was all picked up. She says she still sees "A bunch of stuff on the floor". I went back through, and there was ONE shirt that had fallen off a hanger. That was it. So she's exaggerating massively. And she tells me I need to improve or they can't renew my contract....and this meeting happened right after I complained that it was unfair that THEY can leave it a mess, but I can't. I always should have had plenty of time to do it and was just too slow, even though they weren't there to see that I was stuck at the register the whole time and couldn't step away. And they hired the new gal, who now took over a bunch of the hours, so this is the first week I've NOT worked around 30 hours....and they said we'd meet again in the week of December 2nd to talk about whether I've improved or not. And I have exactly 3 shifts in that time to prove myself. I had asked for the week of Thanksgiving off, and they gave a lot of my hours in this week to the new gal because I have WAY too many overhours and HAVE to take time off. What it feels like to me is they are replacing me with the new gal and they want an excuse not to renew my contract. That's what they did with the unreliable girl in the summer....she would have been fired LONG before, but if they did that, none of them would have been able to take their vacations. So they kept her on through her trial period, just to get through the summer vacation, and then booted her when they didn't need her anymore. So I've been taking all the hours where they didn't have anyone, filling in on the spur of the moment, giving up my days off to come in....they've scheduled me so that I only work a few hours each day, so I work 30 hours, but only get 2 days off in the week. I've rescheduled appointments, come in on days I've specifically asked to have free because they were in a bind....I've bent over backwards to accommodate whatever they need. And then I have one bad moment, that I wasn't even supposed to be on my own for, and I'm out? I haven't been able to turn my head for over a month because I've got so much tension in my neck and shoulders. I've been to the doctor, I've had a massage, I've tried new pillows.....it must be from stress. And I'm sick and have a fever blister, which thank goodness I'm off until Friday. But I think I'm headed for a burnout myself, and it SEEMS like they are setting me up to get me gone. The things they said about me just aren't true. I brought up that I haven't been trained as thoroughly as Ramona....they denied that. I brought up that I'm never in charge, so I have no experience with that and haven't been trained for it. They argued that I am not a manager, so I wasn't really in charge. It still amounts to the same thing....I was the one with the responsibility that day, when I hadn't been trained for it, and don't get paid extra for it. Really, it amounts to them covering their own rears....they never should have left me with that responsibility and they don't like that I stood up for myself and said it wasn't fair, there was a double standard. I've been running myslef ragged filling in all the shifts they don't want to do, but now they have a new gal so they don't need me as much, so they can get rid of me. All this time, the boss has been saying how happy she is with her team now, she finally has a good team after 3 years, and she's glad I'm super flexible, that she can finally relax and take some time off. She had to give up her vacations at Christmas the last two years because there was no one to cover and someone called in sick. So she had to give up her time off to come in so the store could open. Now she can FINALLY take that vacation. And my contract will be up soon after....I think, she's just using me to get her through the holidays and then I'll be gone.
Sorry, that was REALLY long. I'm not in a good place right now.
We would have gotten our deposit back.
The final straw for me for not talking to my mom anymore was my mom and my grandmother's last visit here in 2019. My husband and son took my mom to the store or something and my grandmother told me my mother was hitting her. I did ask her if she wanted to move in with us and she said no. I wasn't surprised, since all of her family and friends were in Illinois. She told me not to tell my mom that I knew. I didn't, but I did report her to the local agency on aging and they opened up a file. Her behavior goes beyond holidays, too. There's too much to list and I've already written too much. lol
