Scheduling Hell: I have a family and a life too
From Former Mchell Manager:
I am so very, very, very, VERY frustrated right now. Frustrated, sad, and lonely. I may get a bit of flack for this, but I am quite honestly done with people who have kids getting priority over me. I am childless. But that does not mean I do not have a family or a life.
I have worked in the Fast Food industry for years. Too many years to admit. And time and time again, I see people who have kids get priority over people who do not. Now, I am not talking about "Oh, you have to work Halloween because Suzy needs to take her kids out for Halloween". I'm talking about people who have fairly older kids and go "I need to be out by X time and can't work weekends because of my child" and then jumps on Facebook every weekend and posts about how they dump their child onto a supposed non-existent babysitter and goes out camping/partying.
I'm talking about the Assistant Manager who never works a closing shift because she has kids, though her oldest is 12 years old, but "I want to be home to see them and to eat dinner with them!" That manager rarely works a closing shift. Last month, she had no closing shifts at all. If she does work a closing shift, it's maybe twice a month.
I have a husband. I have a life (Or so, I wish I did). My husband has a job where he works Mon-Fri 8-430 (the bastard), so when I close (330pm-1am on the weekdays, 5-3am on the weekends), I don't get to see him at all. This week, I saw him on Monday and I will have a few hours with him on Friday evening and then I won't see him all day Saturday because I work a mid shift. I saw him for 7 hours on Monday, I get to see him for 7 hours on Friday, and then I'll see him for 5 hours on Saturday. So I get to see my husband for a grand total of 19 hours in the course of 6 days. All because my uterus has not graced us with a child (3 years and counting of trying).
But heaven forbid if I bring this up at work. Then I'll be looked at like I am the devil because I just want some equality when it comes to scheduling closing shifts. I'm sorry if this doesn't make too much sense. I'm currently crying because I fucking miss my husband. I miss my friends, who I haven't seen in fucking months because "My uterus allowed me to have children" gets priority over the barren one.
--Former McHell Manager
It makes perfect sense to me, and I agree with you, that's just fucked up. Especially when it comes to those with the older spawn who theoretically should be MORE than fine on their own/watching younger spawn - makes you wonder what the hell these idiots would DO if they didn't have someone to pawn their undesired shifts off on? (Actually, on second thought, I don't think I want to know...)
*sympathetic hugs* Wish I could do something more than just sympathize.
Posted by: Kai Lowell | Wednesday, June 06, 2018 at 07:12 PM
It's called "Childlessism", It's kind of related to "Singlism", for that term, here's a huge amount of info on the web, including the lady who invented the term, Bella DePaulo. I'm single, and worked at a well known moving rental equipment company for 5 years, as a retirement job, and I too worked most of the closings, weekends and holidays.
Posted by: oneofthosedays | Wednesday, June 06, 2018 at 07:52 PM
Yeah, unless you have someone who asks "Hey, I really like working the night shift, can I just work night shift?" or when the employees were hired it was made clear that it was for night shift, it's really shitty to have the same people on closing night after night after night.
And if you're not home the same time as your husband, how are you even supposed to have time to work on making that kid? But in all seriousness, I wish you good luck on the baby front. :)
Posted by: Carhop | Thursday, June 07, 2018 at 04:36 AM