A Convenience Store Forced Her to Work 24 Hours Straight—So She Called HR and Her Manager’s Retaliation Got Him Instantly Fired
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There’s only so much an employee should be expected to put up with before management has to answer for it.
One convenience store worker found that out after nobody showed up to relieve her at the end of her eight-hour shift.
When she called her manager for help, she was asked to stay for another shift, before the manager hung up and went back to bed.
The next morning came, and she was still stuck at the store with no one there to take over.
So, after working 24 hours straight, she finally called human resources and complained about what happened.
Read on to see her manager ended up getting fired.
Dear Fired Manager, you’re still fired.
I was once a younger person. A younger person watching George W. Bush tell a woman working three jobs that she was living the American dream.
Flash forward to 2011. I am working at a convenience store. I am on the 15th hour of a 24-hour shift. I am having a hard time staying awake despite the fact that I’m walking around and staying busy.
I’m alone in the store beyond a customer coming in every so often.
She tried calling the manager, but that didn’t work.
This was not something I requested or agreed to when I came into my initial shift. I expected to be relieved after my eighth hour at work.
Nobody came. Calls went out, and no response.
I call my manager, and I’m begged to do them the biggest favor ever and stay for a second shift.
She couldn’t get out of it.
I told them I couldn’t, that I was scheduled for eight and had already worked that shift! That it was not my responsibility to cover another shift!
They tell me they’re going back to bed and hang up.
I work the night shift. I expect my manager in the morning. I forget that it’s a Sunday.
7 AM comes and goes. I look at the schedule, and I was scheduled to come in this morning at 7 AM.
Desperate, she tried asking for help again.
My manager’s cellphone is off.
I ask my co-workers to do me a favor and come in, but I’m only promised that someone will be in at 3 PM to relieve me.
I worked the shift, and I went home, called human resources, and told them I was not at all happy with being stuck at my store for 24 hours, that it was illegal to force me to do that, and that my manager disregarded their responsibility to cover shifts that were missed by their employees.
It took some time, but the manager was eventually fired.
I hear from district management about it, and they apologize and speak to my manager.
My manager then pulls me into the backroom on the next shift I worked, hands me a write-up slip, and tells me not to mess with them again.
That manager was fired before the end of January 2012.
So here’s some advice for all you would-be retail dictators: Don’t mess with your employees, or you will get paid back. Some of us actually have spines.
Yikes. The manager is lucky the employee even stayed overnight.
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Let’s check out what the readers over at Reddit think about what happened.
This person thinks she handled it well.
Here’s what this person would’ve done.
That was a really nice thing to say.
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a customer who tried to skip the checkout line but didn’t get their way.
According to this comment, they would’ve been done after the double shift.
No one should ever work 24 hours straight.
The manager had plenty of chances to step in, but instead left the employee to deal with everything alone.
Then, rather than apologizing after HR got involved, the manager tried to intimidate her with a write-up.
It’s hard to feel bad knowing that attitude eventually cost them the job.
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