Manager from crappy job calling me non-stop on days off (degrees, average)

[Me 82]

I have 2 degrees and have worked in the corporate world and I am now certified to teach. I had a child and have been home with her and not working full time for about 2 1/2 years. Most likely sometime next year, I'll look for full time work again. My husband suggested I try getting a seasonal part-time job at a local department store to help out for money for gifts. Financially, we are making it, but in our state to be on one income you have to budget, but we are fine without me working. I really was not too keen on the idea at first, but took the job anyway since I knew it was temporary and obviously was not a career for me. After the holidays they asked me to stay and I said yes, with my husband and I coming to the agreement that I would quit the end of May before the summer starts. I am pregnant again (job doesn't know), so working this type of job is of no interest to me and we want to actually spend time with each other as a family, since I never see my husband since he gets home late during the week and I work Sat and Sunday while he watches our child.

I got moved from a different department into this one and at FIRST I thought my boss was nice and nomal. I mean she always has been nice to me, telling me what a great job I do, but then I saw how she talked smack about every co-worker to me and probably talks about me too, very professional, including making fun of the way others talk, etc. and this lady has got to be pushing close to 60. She walks around with this smug look on her face like she is an ER Dr. or something, makes up her own rules that "she doesn't want outsiders from other departments picking up shifts in her department", yet it's company policy that she has to allow this. She does not leave the floor, watches everyone like a hawk, corrects you in front of customers, yet has 0 clue how to even use the register. I live in reality and retail is a job that any person off the street can do. You just have to be able to bite your tongue to not tell off the rude and psycho customers that come it. She will even tell us that you must let her know where you are at all times and will literally run around the floor screaming out your name or running up to even others in different departments asking people if they saw you. It's like come on lady. Sorry, if I have to go to the bathroom, I'm going. I dread the days that she is in.

I was hired as part-time 12 or more hours a week and filled out a computer application stating the days I could come in which is Sat/Sun and one week day. The computer system assigns me shifts based on that. I had to find a sitter for my child for the weekday and loose 2 hours pay bc I have to pay her. After they switched me over to part-time permanent, I never got a hand book or such, but it's in writing what I was hired for. I am not On-Call. It's impossible for me to be on-call with a kid at home, nor do I have a desire to be on call. The first few weeks there, and this is when the department was dead and everything was done, my manager started asking me to stay late, or questioning me why I was on the schedule for only 2 days. Once or twice I agreed to stay, then I started saying no. And me personally, I have no problem saying no to people. As long as I have in my required hours, why should it matter that the scheduling system gave me 2 days instead of 3? On another 2 separate occasions, she asked me what additional days I could come in during the week. I informed her that I have a child at home, so the days I can come in, are the days the I put down as my available days. I then hear her telling co-workers in conversation that me and 2 other workers are "on-call", and I'm thinking, ok maybe in her head, but no, I was not hired as on-call. If someone calls out and she wants to offer me the day, fine, but I would have to decline since when you have a family at home you can't just pick up and leave and I really don't have any desire to work additional hours.

So now here we were, and the past 3 weeks - month, she has called me, on average at least 3-4 times a week, now even calling from different numbers, private numbers, asking for me to come in. Thank god I did not give her my cell, she only has my house, and the majority of the time during the day, I go out, bc I am not on-call, nor am I sitting around waiting for her phone calls. Out of all the calls, my husband answered once and said I was sleeping and I wouldn't be able to come in the next day anyway. I mean, the kicker is, my company actually hires on-call people specifically, so she should be calling them. I also think after telling her 2x already that the only days I am available are my assigned days should be enough. She has called close to 10 pm. at night, which again, IMO is rude and I feel like she has no boundaries in regards to her calls. I know I could technically just not answer or return her Vms like I've been doing, but I've never dealt with this as any other job, then again, this is my first and last shift type job. I can see maybe calling once, leaving a VM, and if the person doesn't call assuming they don't want the hours, but she just wants people there, to be there. I think it's like some sort of power trip. Last weekend she asked me to come in 2 hours early to do stuff that could have gotten done during normal company hours, and I said yes, then the following day, she's calling from home asking me to stay late and I told her no I had other family obligations. When I came into work one week, when she was calling me from private and strange phone numbers lol, she asked me "Where have I been?" Um, maybe not at work where I was not supposed to be bc they are not my assigned days.

So, would you just put up with the non-stop calls for another month? Just quit now? Do I have to give any reason why I am leaving? And also is it customary in a place like this, I'm not including it on my resume and will never work in retail again, to give 2 weeks notice. I had only planned on giving one week. This place hires people non-stop bc people quit left and right, so they won't have a problem replacing me.

[Squirl]

If your manager requires that you inform her when you leave the floor you really should obey the rules and let her know you are going to the rest room. You should respect the rules and anticipate that you want your manager to comply with your schedule rules and you comply with her on the job work rules. Simply ignore and don't engage in gossip. You are above that!

If you clearly stated your availability and do not wish to work beyond the original schedule, firmly advise your manager that you are not able to be flexible at this time and ask if she would prefer that you resign. If not, then work until you want to stop and do not answer your telephone after 10 pm any night. If she phones you again requesting you work after you tell her you won't be working beyond the 3 x week, go to HR and let them know about this issue. give proper notice when you leave this job, just because the environment is unprofessional there is no reason that you have to let it take you there.

[Me 82]

Good advice, but I've told her 2x already about my availability. I don't think telling her again is really going to stop her from calling. She's new too. She started a month before I moved into her department.

[Stickytoffee]

Originally Posted by Me 82

Good advice, but I've told her 2x already about my availability. I don't think telling her again is really going to stop her from calling. She's new too. She started a month before I moved into her department.

This is standard in these kinds of jobs. They want 24 hour availability no matter what you put as your hours available to work. They call you mostly for the evening/weekend shifts because that's when the younger people call out or don't show up at all.

[beera]

Agree with the above. My brother works in retail and even though he's in college and has given his schedule, they STILL call him in when they know he's going to be in class! If he's not busy he does go, but when they call him before he's leaving for school he ALWAYS says he has class. And he's given his schedule MULTIPLE times.

If you don't need the money and it's causing you stress, quit. You don't need that stress!

[LOL_Whut]

I was in almost the exact same situation with a minimum wage job I took for fun. When I politely complained about the rude calls late at night on my days off, they wrote me up for "insubordination"!!

I requested a meeting go over my email, which wasn't insubordinate at all. He said "we can write you up for whatever we want" then started to obnoxiously lecture me about "the real world" even though I'd worked in a corporate job for a decade making more than he made.

Needless to say, I quit immediately. Turns out the low-wage "fun" job isn't so fun when the manager is paranoid and slightly crazy.

In my case, I think the manager was intimidated by working with someone who wasn't a teenager or an illiterate high school dropout. There was lots of weird tension that I couldn't break through no matter how polite I was.

I'd quit if I were you. Be polite, but stay emotionally detached and don't let her upset you.

[packer43064]

I just never answered the phone when I worked retail. I'm off work....no need to get a call about coming in. Im off for a reason.

[Osito]

She sounds nutso. I can understand her wanting to know where you are at work, isn't that what a paging system is for? Don't answer her calls on your days off unless you want to work. If this becomes a problem then it's better to look for something else.

[Nell Plotts]

Caller ID is your friend, don't answer her calls.

[ChargerMatt]

It isn't management's responsibility to know your schedule outside of work, they have enough to worry about and remember. It is their responsibility to have any empty spots filled to make sure the job gets done.