[quote]TrainerinDC wrote:
OK here is my issue, I would like some opinions on it. I decided last weekend that I would take this one off and go to the beach for 4 days. Now I work 7 days a week, totalling about 60 hours in the week, and my last full day off was over a month ago. I train people in the morning monday thru friday, and I manage the club on weekends. I told the boss last weekend that I would need Sunday and Monday off, he said Monday is no problem but I had to find someone to cover Sunday. Nobody wants to work Sunday, and now he said since I can’t find someone to cover it, I have to work. I have already paid for a hotel room and activities at the beach. What should my recourse be?
My health/dental is private, so the company has no influence. I have my own IRA, so the company has no influence there either. I have two other offers from other companies that are standing offers, I can show up on Tuesday and begin working the following Monday. I do like the job, and the people, but I believe that I am entitled 1 day off if I ask. Any advice/opinions welcome. [/quote]
I take it you are on salary? If you are hourly, they don’t have a leg to stand on; by federal law, you cannot be forced to work overtime. I know the last thing you probably want to do is go to extremes like this, but sometimes it’s all you have.
I used to work for a large health club chain in the early 90’s and worked the 60 hour, 7-day week you describe. The problem is once you prove you are a reliable, always-there employee, they come to expect it of you, and they make you feel like you owe them when you want to take a day off once in a GREAT while. Meanwhile, you see others you work with doing just enough to get by and bitch and moan and get their way. I hate to think that nice guys really do finish last, but this isn’t helping disprove the cliche.
Factor this in with a boss who 1)doesn’t have the backbone to make another employee take up the slack for your 1 freakin day off (and thus, it suddenly becomes your job to find someone to cover; bullshit! he gets paid the big bucks for a reason!), and/or 2) refuses to come in and work it himself. Even if your boss is on salary, a good boss should be willing eat 1 extra day in a blue moon to retain and keep happy a reliable employee (which I always did when I had to manage people) that works every single weekend so he doesn’t have to.
Plus, this is the thanks you get for being honest and genuine enough to alert your employer ahead of time (1 week should be plenty of time to cover 1 day, I don’t care what anybody says). You could have just as easily called in sick those two days and given them NO notice (and gotten paid, too if you had sick days coming), but you took the high road, so here you are. I would bring this point up to your boss when you gently, but firmly tell him you are taking Sunday off. If he starts threatening your job, tell him you are going to miss working with him, shake his hand, and walk.
I wish I had had the courage to do this when I was a 19 year old punk who thought working at a health club was the best thing since sliced bread. I was quite the doormat back then; don’t make the same mistake.