Oh, my job...
I've been working at the restaurant for almost four years, which is a kind of strange but also somewhat awesome that I've been able to hold a job for that long. A lot of stuff has occurred in that time frame, but I'm slowly getting to the point where I wonder what my alternatives are.
I try my best to have an every-other-week schedule of when I work and when I don't, so I can stay at campus and work on things more efficiently. But this semester has just been one thing after the other, and there've been a few times when I went two weeks between shifts. I felt pretty bad, but at the same time not, because I have the right to my education and it's getting more and more time consuming the further I get into it.
There was a sign-up sheet for New Years Eve posted a few weeks ago, and I, of course, put my name down. New Years Eve is a great holiday to work, because it's really not that bad and you earn great money. I was like, the third person on that list, after two waitresses, and seeing as how I've bussed the past three times, I assumed I'd bus this year too. I wield seniority and, well, I got my name down early.
Then I come to work last night, and I see roles have been assigned. And I'm...salad bar? Wait, what? The other two competent bus kids are assigned to bus, and I verbally express this confusion. Of course, the manager overhears and goes "Well yes, of course, because they do so much for me and I owe them".
Ahh...hmm.
This does not sit well with me, and I know something's up. At the end of the night, me and the sous chef (who basically knows everything that's going on) are eating our dinners and chatting when he explains what was really going on. The week before, one of the bus kids asked what was going on with New Years. Manager asked what she wanted to do. She says "bus, of course", so she gets to bus. Dishwasher, who is also a bus kid, overhears this and says he wants to bus. So ding, he gets to bus. Who's left? Me. Where am I? Not at work.
Last year was a bit of a debacle. I showed up thinking I was going to bus because that's what I had been told for the whole month of December. But I show up and - nope! Salad bar! Why? One of the waitresses was mad at me and thought I wouldn't work, so her complaints apparently carried enough weight to have the manager change my job without telling me prior to the day. I pleaded my case, said I was sorry (even if I wasn't sure what for), and got put back to busing. I've been walking on eggshells since around that waitress. Things are okay but still a bit testy.
Last night and tonight I was asking people what I should do, if I should cross my name off the New Years list or not. One waitress (who I quite like and she likes me) had done it, because she put her name up but wasn't assigned a job, so she assumed they didn't need the help and she wasn't going to offer it.
Yet another waitress and I chatted, and she was like, "Oh, well, [dishwasher/bus kid] was supposed to bus last year and he got taken off, he wasn't too happy about that." No. No he wasn't supposed to bus. He got put on bussing only because I was temporarily kicked off it. I'm sorry he "wasn't happy about that", but that's how I felt when I showed up to work and had my job changed on me with no prior warning. I felt like an idiot, and I didn't appreciate the method used to tell me what was going on.
Finally, though, I mustered up the courage and crossed my name off. I don't appreciate getting the shaft because I wasn't there because I was at school. Why does other-girl get what she wants? You could argue seniority for her, but I have seniority over the dishwasher/bus boy.
This all seems like a hissy fit, at least when I read it. But I figure...I can't be fired. I can't. It's not that I think I can't be replaced, it's just that the manager cannot afford to fire me. I'm one of three people who can actually do their job with speed, efficiency, and thoroughness, and the other three? They kinda suck. Two of them suck really bad, to the point where it's almost worse to have them there. Losing me not only means only having five workers, but having a majority of crappy ones.
I also have people there who like me and insist I work more (when I'd like to but can't due to school). I can't be fired. And if I face repercussions, like having fewer days? Go ahead. I've been given the clear to quit this job if needed.
Blargh.
