Tuesday, May 20, 2014

The News

G-man has been having alot of problems at his part-time job.  His manager, and the next up manager have been gunning for him since before Christmas.  They are very accusatory about things they can't prove, have been threatening (both verbally, and most recently in a more "physical" sense).  Most recently, they "demoted" him, and then when other management is there....they put him back where he was.  No, you can't have it both ways.

Our theory is that he has been there for 10+ years, so his hourly rate is higher than the new people hired (about $2/hr) and they might be trying to save money by getting rid of him.  They can't fire him, as he has union "backing" and they don't have a fire-able offense they can pin on him.

He called the union representative multiple times and the union more or less said if he pursues "official" channels, they will just continue to take it out on him 3-fold. I am so glad that he has paid roughly $4,000 in union dues for that sage information.

So started talking about him quitting.  We still need the income, so another job would have to be in the picture.  Of course, his second shift and weekend main job make his availability harder.  But we would have to work around this.

Then we revisited an option that we "thought" was off the table...overtime at his main job.  Overtime more or less dried up a few years ago.  It was there, but it was not being doled out as freely as it once was. But we figured out that (3) overtime shifts at his main job would cover the income he is earning now at the store.  24 hrs of office vs 80 hrs of store.....um, yeah!

He talked to his office boss, and as of right now, he is guaranteed 2 shifts at the office.  He will be taking over one responsibility, which is 1 shift per month, and his monthly training (that he would have to take off from the store to attend) will be the other.  In the past, these would be "comp" time, but he now will be allowed to work them as overtime (basically he will work a double shift on those days).

That leaves 1 more shift to cover.  Office Boss said that when she is looking to fill a shift (usually because the regular person requested time off), she give preference to the night staff, since they lose out in other areas of the office.  There are 2 people in particular who take ALOT of time off (I don't think they have more than a few hours banked at any time....where G-man usually is forced to take time off because he gets into a "use or lose" situation).   He will have a 1 in 4 shot of getting these shifts when they are offered....and in a typical month...at least 4 or five of these opportunities pop up.  That should cover that!

Additionally....if he chooses to cover any more shifts during the month, that is just pure "extra" to be put toward debt, upcoming expenses, or whatever.

So, as of mid-June (possibly late June), G-man is quitting his second job.   He started it back in January 2003.  The kids were almost 5 months old.....and they will be 12 in August.  They have never known Daddy to only have one job.

He will be gaining back roughly 55 hours of time per month, saving 160 miles of wear and tear (and gas) on his car, and most importantly....getting the mental break from the non-sense he has been dealing with at the store. 

His main job will remain the same....so an added bonus of him being home during the day (his shift starts at 3pm during the week), will be having him home if a kid gets sick or if an errand needs to be run during business hours.  He will be able to have some "me" time, AND be able to take care of home stuff.

We will have to see if the 3 shifts results in any "extra" money in itself.  We had to account for differences in taxes (his part time job didn't take out state tax, so we had to adjust in other ways), and a few other things that are taken out of his main job. 

We will also have to adjust our home finances a little (which is why his quit date is a few weeks away).  We are used to having an "infusion" of money on a weekly basis.  With this new system, we won't be able to totally control when he works the extra shifts (some are date based, and the rest are random).  That will impact when it will hit his paycheck, so we need to adjust things here.

I mentioned that we had $1000 more that will go to the car but I was holding it.  This is why.  We need that cushion to get started.  For example, 2 of his shifts in June won't actually be paid out until his first July paycheck.  Once we get a better feel for the rhythm of things, then we can put the money towards the car.    Also up in the air is if his 2 weeks of unused vacation time from the store will be paid out.  He is trying to find out without calling attention to himself.

So there is our news!  There is a job I am applying for as well, so maybe we will have more news in the coming months!!!

16 comments:

  1. Sounds like it will give your husband some of his life back. That being said, it is never good to rely on overtime. I have seen people do it and when cuts came overtime was the first thing to go. Those that rely on it to pay their bills are left scrambling to make up the lost income.

    I hope it works out for you. I would consider scaling back at the other job and see how the overtime plays out. If it is indeed available 3 days a month, then quit.

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    1. Normally I would totally agree with you to not rely on OT, but 1 shift is GUARANTEED, as the doings from that shift is already an OT position by the nature of it. Always has been...for years and years.

      Shift 2 is a mandatory training. While they COULD make him comp time it, because his actual position is second shift, they would then leave themselves with an unmanned shift, and have to pay someone OT anyway to fill it.

      Shift 3 is the wild card. If shift 3 doesn't materialize, we can scrape by, but it would be much harder.

      He can't scale back at his current part time job. He is required to work a minimum of 20 hrs due to Union laws.

      Our plan is to have him quit...and worst case scenario if the plan isn't working is that he has to find another part time job. Ideally I will have a new job that would be bringing in more money, but if that doesn't happen, we do have a back-up.

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  2. What if he uses his vacation time up and then quits shortly after that? Then it's no lost money if they don't pay it out.

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    1. That is an idea, but I am doubtful they would approve it. They approve vacation in week blocks of time, and he is using one week right now while he is on travel (the other 2 are approved for future times...one in August and one in Sept I think....they made him randomly pick 2 weeks with no notice).

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  3. Random comment.. but man I miss OT. Some of our departments get a guaranteed 6 hours/week, my department gets ZILCH.

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    1. He used to get 100+ hrs of OT a year, on top of his part time job. And that dried up. He had 50 hrs last year, but that was because of the Boston Marathon bombing.

      I would love for him to have OT that we can actually use as "gravy" but one step at a time.

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  4. Nice!!! ugh I'm salaried and we used to get overtime but they took it away so now if I work 20 hours a week or 60, it doesn't matter, it's the same pay. I do get 5 weeks of paid vacation per year so that makes up for it and if I find roles that are laid back I can usually get away w. the 20 hour work weeks...

    HS

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    1. Yeah, salaried gets paid to do a JOB, no matter how many hours that job takes. G-man isn't in that kind of position.

      He does get a little over 5 weeks vacation a year (roughly 8 hrs per pay period), plus 4 hrs of sick leave per pay period. He has something like 900+ sick hours banked! Vacation is capped at 240 hrs a year to carry over, and he usually HAS to take some leave or he loses it.

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  5. That's what I think is going on at my PT job... I am "overpaid" by almost $4/hr (though come on, I am REALLY part time with less than 12hrs a week), so getting rid of me and getting someone cheaper that can work better hours makes sense... anyway, I think that just the mental health aspect of things is worth it. If the current job is toxic, unionized or not, any equivalent alternative is just great.

    As far as vacation is concerned, he can always refer to the employee handbook (if any). Most employers pay unused accrued vacation if the person gives at least 2 weeks' notice. He could also take 2 weeks of vacation and THEN quit. That's an immense amount of sick time... wow. We dont even get sick time at all, so I'm jealous!

    Hope there are also good news for you as far as jobs go!

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    1. Just to be clear. ..The sick time and 5 weeks of vacation are from his office job.

      I am sure there is a manual....gotta figure out where to access it. Thanks!

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  6. Its too bad that his union won't help him out of this toxic situation. In my opinion, unions are only for political purpose and not for the workers they represent.

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    1. Of course I gave the short hand version of the story. The Union said he could go talk to the managers in question, but it will become a he said/he said. G-man could have had a Union rep go with him, but as soon as the rep would leave, they would come at him 3-fold.

      He just needs to get out of there.

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  7. I can absolutely tell where his weekend job is as I have a family member who works for that corporation here in Tx.
    I'm mostly happy to hear that he will be home more! I don't know how y'all did that for ten years!

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    1. It isn't exactly a weekend job. He works M, W, Th on 2nd shift, then Sat and Sun on 1st shift....and that is his set schedule for his office job. The part time job was the OPPOSITE....mornings during the week, and nights on the weekends.

      If we go even further back....both G-man and I worked 2 jobs when we first moved to CT, AND I was in graduate school. We never saw each other! We were down to one job a piece by mid-2001, and then the kids were born August 2002...and he went back to 2 jobs in Jan 2003.

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  8. Shows how much debt equals slavery. He's been working a second job for eleven years to pay bills/debt. Yet you both remain in debt. when you finally get out of debt, he'll have the option to not work those extra hours and choose how to spend his time instead of being a slave to the debt.

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    1. We have discussed what will happen when all of this debt is paid off. One of the first things we decided is that we are going to take a few months (probably 2-3), and just enjoy it!!

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