A Case Of The Mondays: Vent Your Work Spleen Here

[EtheltoTillie]

@Yeah No your view of HR is correct, and it was already true in the 80s and 90s. 

[Yeah No]

2 hours ago, EtheltoTillie said:

@Yeah No your view of HR is correct, and it was already true in the 80s and 90s. 

Hah, maybe I was lucky enough to work at some of the exceptions. It was still good at all of my companies pretty much until the recession of 2008. It changed at UTC when I was working there. Suddenly after that the atmosphere changed with rumors of a white collar layoff, something unprecedented that they had never done before. People worked their entire work lives at this company and I thought there was no reason why I shouldn't be able to be one of them. But suddenly HR was not your friend anymore and everyone was afraid that heads were going to roll. When I was laid off in 2009 along with over 200 other people the HR woman that gave me the news was so upset she was sobbing. I was in a state of shock and so I was consoling HER, not the other way around! I told her I would be OK and that I hoped she found herself in a better line of work in the future.

Then I was on unemployment for 2 years during the recession when nobody was hiring and got nowhere fast looking for a job. On top of that my 80+ year old father in NY needed triple bypass surgery and my hands were full with that. So I didn't get a job until the Fall of 2011. The HR woman that assisted in my hiring at my new company was well over 50 and had been at the company for quite a while. She was "old school" in just about all the best ways so maybe because of that she saw something in me that others might miss. She and my new boss (who was also old school in the best of ways) had a great working relationship as she helped him with his department hiring so I had a lot to do with her when I worked there. She was one of the people that suddenly disappeared one day with no explanation. It was widely believed that she was let go for her age as the company was systematically getting rid of anyone over the age of 55 and getting away with it. Of course I eventually became one of them. But at least I got even with them with my workers' comp./wrongful termination lawsuit! 

[Cloud9Shopper]

Thanks everyone for your insights. 

I have decided to turn down the offer, and while I’m still disappointed that it wasn’t the right offer for me and will be grieving a little, I know staying put is better than taking the offer and potentially having to keep searching if I get burned out or feel dissatisfied in such a short time.

I also think it may be for the best to start my career exploration from scratch and see if something else that could be a good progression from customer service interests me, and I’ll have to take the job I was laid off from off my resume. It seems to only raise concerns with employers rather them viewing it as out of my control and something I didn’t choose to do. I was only at that job less than six months anyway. 

[Yeah No]

12 minutes ago, Cloud9Shopper said:

Thanks everyone for your insights. 

I have decided to turn down the offer, and while I’m still disappointed that it wasn’t the right offer for me and will be grieving a little, I know staying put is better than taking the offer and potentially having to keep searching if I get burned out or feel dissatisfied in such a short time.

I also think it may be for the best to start my career exploration from scratch and see if something else that could be a good progression from customer service interests me, and I’ll have to take the job I was laid off from off my resume. It seems to only raise concerns with employers rather them viewing it as out of my control and something I didn’t choose to do. I was only at that job less than six months anyway. 

Having been laid off I think what employers worry about is that it was called and might have been handled like a lay off when it was really getting fired. A lot of companies will call your termination a lay off so you can keep certain benefits and get unemployment insurance because they really have no good reason to let you go. But hiring people know that and so they worry you're one of those people, not a truly laid off person. When I went job hunting after my lay off in 2009 I made it clear in interviews that I was let go in a "company-wide workforce reduction of 260 people". It was a big company and that made big news around here when it happened so it was something most of them had heard about. Also this was the recession so being laid off for reasons not your fault was not uncommon back then. I also made sure to tell them that several other people in my department got cut with me and several months later the entire department was cut. 

So anyway my advice is to be up front about the circumstances of your lay off in interviews. Make sure they know it was a genuine lay off and the circumstances surrounding it, such as that there were others laid off with you, the department was shut down, whatever you can throw at them so they know it wasn't because they didn't like YOU in particular but because they were cutting corners or whatever they were doing to trim their budgets.

Anyway I think it's for the best that you turned down that offer. I know it's tough, many hugs!

Edited September 3 by Yeah No

[Yeah No]

Speaking of turning down offers, the last offer I turned down was in early 2022. The position was supposedly as an executive admin. to a few "vice presidents" of a medium sized company at a satellite office in the town next to me. They made this position sound like it was on a very high level and supporting only the highest execs. at that office. It started with phone interviews, then Zoom meetings (this was during the pandemic). They never mentioned salary but I did tell HR what I was making in my former position. They seemed very eager and kept talking about all my great skills and experience like they had never interviewed anyone for that position that was on my level. That was my first clue right there.

Anyway to make a long story short, everyone I interviewed with (which included HR and 3 VPs) had a completely different story about who I would be supporting and what the job responsibilities were, etc., even HR. I asked HR to clarify These things for me as well as what the salary would be (no one would tell me that or even give me a ballpark figure). Some of them made it sound like a glorified clerical position supporting many people in lesser ways, while others made it  sound like I was on a much higher level supporting only two or three VPs. By my last Zoom interview, which was back with the HR rep., she told me they were ready to make me an offer. I told her I was never even told what ballpark the salary was in let alone the actual number. She told me she would get with the dept. heads and get back to me. At that point I sort-of knew it was going to be way under what I needed to make and that I was being misled as to how much of an "executive admin." position this really was. I was getting the feeling I was going to be the one and only admin. to the entire department which included both high and low level tasks - which sounded to me like they were trying to get away cheap by making one person do the job of two or even three people and paying them crap to do it. No thanks.

In the end I was offered almost $20,000 less than I was making in my former position 6 years earlier! I told the HR rep. that there was no way I would go that low and that I doubted that they could meet me anywhere near what I might be willing to accept for the position. I already had figured out that it would have been a nightmare of a job just based on all the conflicting information, etc. let alone the lousy salary. So I turned it down. It sucked because in theory it would have been a perfect position to take me the next several years until I decided to retire. But I trusted my gut and knew there was no way I could take that kind of cut for it. I might have considered the job if the salary were higher but even then my gut was telling me this was not a good situation.

[Cloud9Shopper]

Yeah…I think for me I will know the right offer when I see it. I don’t want to accept an offer anywhere if I don’t feel excited about it or have doubts. Last week I was initially thrilled to get the offer only to feel disappointed as I read the fine print and further details.

Anyway, I’ve decided to pull the plug on my search for now. I was getting tired even before the offer came along, and getting no results or mediocre offers has made it easy for me to decide to just take a break. Hopefully when I’m ready to jump back in I have a clearer head and a better strategy for success. I am still open to a promotion at my current company if that opportunity ever comes up too. 

[Cloud9Shopper]

I’m considering quitting my grocery store job for two reasons:

-My boss never seems to listen to my availability. I told her when I was hired I needed to work Sundays after 12. I was getting put on the schedule on Sunday mornings, reminded her and it stopped for a while. Last week she did it again. So now I’ve had to remind her again. She also put me on next Saturday until 2:30 even though I said I could only work until 2 due to an event. 

-I am now apparently a fall person for the lazy teenagers I work with who don’t want to now work ever or maybe once a week now that school is back in. I’ve been closing every Friday night lately. I feel like they should have to share the load a bit or quit the job if it’s not important to them. I know I was a teenager once but it’s not my responsibility to always work so they can go to football games and be out with their friends. I would like a Friday night off too. It’s not my problem they are irresponsible and immature. I deserve a life too. Maybe after working all week I’d like Friday night to relax and go shopping or out to eat for a meal that isn’t fast food on the way home. 

Fortunately I need a weekend off in a couple weeks because my parents will be away and I’m going to house and dog sit for them. I refuse to go in that Friday night and have already asked for it off. Guess one of these kids will have to give up their social life for a night or meet their friends after work. Oops. And if my boss “forgets” I’m not available that Friday I’ll just go to the store that next week with my notice and then these kids will be screwed and I don’t care. 

 

[Wiendish Fitch]

16 hours ago, Cloud9Shopper said:

I’m considering quitting my grocery store job for two reasons:

-My boss never seems to listen to my availability. I told her when I was hired I needed to work Sundays after 12. I was getting put on the schedule on Sunday mornings, reminded her and it stopped for a while. Last week she did it again. So now I’ve had to remind her again. She also put me on next Saturday until 2:30 even though I said I could only work until 2 due to an event. 

-I am now apparently a fall person for the lazy teenagers I work with who don’t want to now work ever or maybe once a week now that school is back in. I’ve been closing every Friday night lately. I feel like they should have to share the load a bit or quit the job if it’s not important to them. I know I was a teenager once but it’s not my responsibility to always work so they can go to football games and be out with their friends. I would like a Friday night off too. It’s not my problem they are irresponsible and immature. I deserve a life too. Maybe after working all week I’d like Friday night to relax and go shopping or out to eat for a meal that isn’t fast food on the way home. 

Fortunately I need a weekend off in a couple weeks because my parents will be away and I’m going to house and dog sit for them. I refuse to go in that Friday night and have already asked for it off. Guess one of these kids will have to give up their social life for a night or meet their friends after work. Oops. And if my boss “forgets” I’m not available that Friday I’ll just go to the store that next week with my notice and then these kids will be screwed and I don’t care. 

 

I hope it all works out for you. I desperately want to quit my grocery store job... trouble is, people aren't exactly pounding down my door to hire me. Work has been pretty stressful. We are so short-staffed it's tragicomic. The grocery crew and I, we don't even take breaks anymore. 8 or 9 hours is pretty goddamned long to go without even a 30 minute meal, considering all the work we have to do (I also work the closing shift, which suuuuuuuuucks). I also cannot trust my schedule, because I either get called in 2 hours earlier than I'm initially scheduled, or they ask me to work on my day off. I usually say no to the latter, but that means someone else has to give up their day off, and then it's on my conscience. I hate that I can't plan my life, or take my schedule as a given. I've just been a ball of anxiety (moreso than usual) these days, and it's made worse knowing that my managers don't give a tinker's fart about us. 

[Cloud9Shopper]

In my store’s employee Facebook group yesterday one of the supervisors was begging for help and for someone to come in because they had three call-outs. No, sorry, I’ve done enough and it’s *my* day off and I’m having a day to myself for a change. A few years earlier I was more passive and would have helped out even if I didn’t fully want to. But now I’m like, nope sorry; make one of these kids come in. I ignored her message and went about my day, going to a hair appointment and catching up on chores. I decided that I really want to try to shed my people pleaser side, which doesn’t mean, of course, never helping out or becoming rude or mean. But I’m no longer always going to be the fall person or the dependable one. 

One of the teenagers called out yesterday because….she had her driving test. I took mine about 10 years ago (I was a late bloomer on the driving front, which is a separate discussion) and there’s no way hers lasted all 13 hours the store is open. Mine was maybe 30 minutes at most even when you factor in check-in, the instructor asking you the basics about how to operate the car and demonstrating and then the quick drive and getting my picture taken. She could have gone to work later and been a bit more of a team player rather than blowing off the whole day. That’s what I did after mine; told my boss I needed a few hours off and then went to work once I had time to get home and get ready (and I went in with my license in hand, which was pretty cool to show off to my coworkers).

Edited September 8 by Cloud9Shopper