Loyalty vs Convenience, or Should I Stay With This Job?

[sarahj]

As you probably know, I work for a fast food store. I used to love this job, and I'd go in whenever they called me if I had plans I could cancel, and I'd have many shifts (2+ per week during school, 4+ per week during vacation). My ideal number of hours a week is 12-15, though I would never give up any hours above that, it's just how much I need to be comfy.

This year, and I know we're halfway through it already, there's a new rostering manager. Actually, most managers are new, but it's only the rostering guy that bugs me. I get the feeling he doesn't like me. Other managers have told me I'm their favorite employee, or said very nice things about how I work. But I think this guy just doesn't care, and instead of mixing people around so they get different shifts each week, he just has a 'set' roster that he repeats. My only shifts EVER, regardless of my availability, are Friday & Saturday overnight. I don't mind them, but working one or the other EVERY WEEK is really getting me down. I'm living on Red Bull and No-Doze. My doctor told me, if possible, to get day shifts, because I'll just get worse. So I talked to the manager, and he said he'd give me day shifts, and he did for a week, but now I'm back to one overnight shift per week.

Thing is, I feel a lot of loyalty towards the top manager. He's fantastic, and I go in to see him once a week to keep up with promotions we're doing, and if there's any shifts he needs to cover he'll offer them to me (as he would to anyone, this isn't special treatment, he just wants people to show up for these shifts). I feel like he really values the fact that I work hard. But, he doesn't do the rostering, and when he asks if I'm working that week I tell him, "just an overnight, as usual," and he tells me to talk to the rostering guy about it. I did have words with roster guy again, but I guess he just forgot.

My travel time to work is 1 hour. If I transferred to a location closer to me, it would be 10 mins, 15 max. The top manager is great, and there's another manager who's also a really good friend, and they both try to call me in for shifts (while being fair, of course). My question is, ultimately, do I owe them? Should I keep working there even though I could try to work closer to home? It's not guaranteed, of course, I'd probably have to be interviewed, assuming they'd consider my application. Should I try for a transfer?

>Re-reading this post, I realise I have to at least try for that transfer. I'll speak to my manager friends this Saturday overnight, my next shift (and only one for this week, of course).

Please add thoughts; I'd also love to hear about managers you're loyal to. Not just great managers, but ones who you really respect.

[Broomjockey]

In a situation like that, I'd try for the transfer. Especially since you're not getting the number of hours you need, and it's affecting your sleep to such a large degree.

But I completely understand being loyal to your manager. I loved 5 out of 7 of the managers I had at my first job. And the other two I almost never saw, or I'd be likely to have gotten on well with them too. It killed me to quit my first job that I'd been at for over 3 1/2 years, but considering I was moving from a 1 hour commute to a minimum of 1.5 hour, with a necessity of leaving by 11:00 pm to even be able to get home, I had to. And I still didn't quit until the holiday season was over, and simply took a cab home when I had to ($15 a shot. Ouchies), plus they liked me enough that when I closed, they'd give me a ride home even though it was way the heck out of their way.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

I'm going to say something here that will probably get me shouted down.

Loyalty has no place in your professional life.

There. I said it.

I understand having managers and co workers you like. I love my current manager. He's great, the job's great, the coworkers are great. If something better came along, would I quit?

Honey, I'd leave a smoke trail.

Not because I'm unhappy or dissatisfied here. I'm not. But I would certainly improve my lot if the opportunity presented itself. That's just business. It's not personal. I would not leave this place high and dry. I would work with them to make my leaving as painless as possible. But leave I would do.

Believe you me, no matter what kind of worker you are, no matter what kind of relationship you have with your boss, if the time comes to let you go, cut your hours, give you a shitty shift, whatever, it will happen. The boss's job is to run the store. His loyalty to you only goes so far. And that's not personal, either. Again, it's business.

Do what is best for YOU. Bottom line. A good manager will understand that. You are not working for fun or to make it easy on someone else. You are working to take care of your own needs and to pay your bills. You are working to make YOUR life as good as you can. You work x number of hours, boss pays x number of dollars. End of transaction. No, you don't owe them. And they don't owe you.

[Tigress]

When expressing misgivings about leaving Big Box, the tournament organizer I judge for expressed the same exact sentiment.

When it comes time to "downsize", "rightsize", or whatever term corporate wants to use to describe screwing over good, honest, hard-working employees in order to make a handful of stockholders happy, are they going to give you any advance warning? Are they going to give you a chance to get your finances in order and line up another job?

Sometimes they do, but they don't, more often than not. And, of course, it's "nothing personal." It's merely a "business decision."

So make a non-personal, "business decision" of your own. There comes a time when you have to weigh your needs against that of the company's. When that time comes, your needs should win out every time.

For the record, I'm still with the Big Box, but only because I'm using them as a "fall back" should my contract position not work out here.

[Boozy]

Loyalty has no place in your professional life.

You're absolutely right. RK.

Your job is a business arrangement. You trade your labour for money.

Rare is the company these days that has any loyalty to you. I'm sure your boss likes you as a person, but I can assure you that's not why you still have a job there. You keep your job because you are a great employee whose availability meets their needs. They are not being good employers in the sense that they no longer meet your needs.

Its time for you to leave.

[Rapscallion]

Your commute time is an hour there and an hour back. That's a twelfth of your day every time you do a shift, time you cannot get back and time that you are at the mercy of every lunatic on the road.

If it were a mom and pop store, then I would feel loyalty. However, there's only so far friendship can go in a corporate environment.

Rapscallion

[JustADude]

I'm going to say something here that will probably get me shouted down.

Loyalty has no place in your professional life.

I wouldn't say no place, but it should be weighed along with everything else.

Take a look at my current position for example. I'm making enough that no other job in the same type of position is going to pay me significantly more, I've got the shifts I want (if not quite as many as I want), and I've got great coworkers and bosses. The only reason I'm leaving Papa Johns is because I'll be pretty much doubling my hourly and getting a crap-load of benefits to go along with the pay.

As for good managers... a really good manager, one who actually cares about his/her employees, will tell you "I'm not about to hold you back. Good luck!" when you tell them you're moving on to something better for you. I know that because that's what my current manager told me when I put in verbal notice that I might be giving my written notice in the next week or two.

[bean]

As for good managers... a really good manager, one who actually cares about his/her employees, will tell you "I'm not about to hold you back. Good luck!" when you tell them you're moving on to something better for you. I know that because that's what my current manager told me when I put in verbal notice that I might be giving my written notice in the next week or two.

My last manager at Papa John's told me the same... followed by "You'll be back, heehee!". I've been back as a customer a few times. Although, I'm thinking about picking up 1 shift a week from him again... (it's been 7 months since I quit)

[Andara Bledin]

When it comes to health, almost nothing has higher priority.

As for good managers... a really good manager, one who actually cares about his/her employees, will tell you "I'm not about to hold you back. Good luck!" when you tell them you're moving on to something better for you. I know that because that's what my current manager told me when I put in verbal notice that I might be giving my written notice in the next week or two.

That's what the people here do. If you can find something better, and we can't match it (or it's not worth it to match it) then you'll get a glowing recommendation, a farewell party, and good wishes.

This place is pretty good to it's employees. You have to be really incompetent, belligerent, or excessively absent to get fired. And the people who have been here for years get all sorts of little things to make working here just a little less annoying.

^-.-^

[BookstoreEscapee]

RK, I totally agree with you. You don't "owe" your employer anything except to do your job.

I would go for the transfer. And if for some reason that doesn't work out you should talk to the big boss. Tell him that you *have* talked to the rostering manager and he says he will change it and then doesn't. Even if he's really *forgetting* (which I somehow doubt**) it deserves a chat about his scheduling practices. It's really not fair to make people work an undesireable shift (ie, overnights) all the time (unless that was specified when they were hired).

**Not saying he's necessarily scheduling you for nights because he doesn't like you or anything, but it could be that he thinks you won't *really* complain or even that he trusts you on that shift because he knows you're a good worker (which still doesn't make it acceptable).

[TNT]

I'm going to say something here that will probably get me shouted down.

Loyalty has no place in your professional life.

There. I said it.

I'm not going to shout you down, but I'll disagree...

Granted, I know that if the company hits hard times, they're going to lay me off. And the company knows that if a truly astounding offer comes along, I'm going to take it.

And I'm not sure that blind loyalty (unrequited loyalty) is ever a good idea.

But I think the real core of any company is made up of those who are both loyal to the business and to each other. I'm not talking about the people who sleep together, or drink together, of kiss ass together. I'm talking about the people who've learned they can depend on each other.

And they're almost always going to take care of their own. And why not? When it comes time for promotion, there's a certain point where paper qualifications are irrelevant... it's more a matter of, "On paper, Candidate A is hyperqualified, but I don't know them. On the other hand, I've worked with person B. I know person B. I can depend on person B." Guess who's going to get the job?

It's partly a matter of trust... but trust is the substance of real loyalty.

[Tigress]

As for good managers... a really good manager, one who actually cares about his/her employees, will tell you "I'm not about to hold you back. Good luck!" when you tell them you're moving on to something better for you. I know that because that's what my current manager told me when I put in verbal notice that I might be giving my written notice in the next week or two.

My manager at the Big Box was upset that three of us got hired for a full-time position, even though we all decided to stay on. Luckily, our availability falls together really well. But when we find out about shenanigans like, oh, say holding back budgeted labor hours to falsely inflate the profit margin, we're not as inclined to stay on, even for just the paycheck and discount.

[sarahj]

Thanks so much for your support everyone! I just got my schedule for this semester so I'm fixing up my resume and I'm gonna go introduce myself at another store or two this week.

[Crazeyal]

Loyalty is earned, not expected.

The times that employers got loyalty automatically because of the "favor" of a job.. are OVER. What you get from a position sometimes isn't even what you are promised, let alone something that you should be grateful for. You work, you get paid for it, you go home.

In select instances, you have individual (or in even rarer situations the company itself) effort to be fair and/or generous. THAT generates loyalty. Honesty, teamwork, kept promises, THAT generates loyalty.

Knee jerk reactions about "being loyal" is for another age. People get used, abused and thrust aside by small companies, let alone corporations. What's being described is a transfer within the same company, using established doctrines. That's not disloyal to the hierchy, it's PROCEEDURE. The manager in question might very well be ASKED about the transfer.

Loyalty HAS a place in business.

But only a fool gives it without cause.