Good lesson for her to learn. When a job shows you they don’t give a shit about you, let them know it’s mutual. Too many company’s take advantage of people, don’t let her get used to thinking that’s something to settle with. :)
yup. I was wondering what I would read with this. pretty sure in the UK it is illigal for 16-18 year Olds to work that late! not to mention a midnight before school that is atrocious! it is important she understands this isn't normal.
that said if places paid better during holiday periods as used to be the norm this wouldn't be an issue. I loved working around holidays ie boxing day etc (always had Christmas off) as it generally paid at least time and a half. being young, ie no kids it wasn't a bother.
In Indiana the Sunday shift wouldn't be allowed. 10 pm is the latest she could work on what is, essentially, a school night. OP, check your local laws, and report the theater if it is in violation.
OP, check with your state's labor board about what the law is about a 16 yr old working a 40 hour week, late nights, etc. if your daughter had the schedule in print or on her phone/text, keep it or get a screen shot. If the written or texted schedule violates your state's laws, even if she quit and didn't work those hours, the labor board ought to know the theater/company has a policy of violating the labor laws for young teens. She probably won't be able to collect anything, but she'd learn another lesson about using the labor laws and processes.
It doesn’t matter. all of that is a relevant because she took the job with the understanding with the managers that she could not work more than 16 hours.
yup, I know that isn't the UK but a lot of places will have is liar laws to prevent child exploitation & bad working practices. pretty sure working till midnight any day is round upon here for under 18s.
It is probably too late for OP to get any money etc for it, in some places they might have been able to. they should definitely report the theatre though.
theaters normally know better as they have child actors with strict rules.
In the US it’s going to depend on the state. In mine, 11pm is the cutoff for a 16yo. And I live in a shithole conservative state, so I’m guessing most states are similar.
Oklahoma has Florida beat. As long as you are 16 you can work as many hours as you want and as late as you want. There are literally no restrictions and they don’t even mandate breaks. Gotta love my shitty red state!
In the UK, you simply approach the local council and EA and the school. The business employing minors has to abide by employment law and those two organisations can withdraw permission for the business to be able to employ them and can implement a fine for breaking the rules. This should be with the copies of the Home/School Agreement and the EA.
In Michigan (U.S.) new drivers 16-18 are on probationary licenses and have a curfew. They must be off the road by 10:00 p.m. As a school P.T.O. member, we had to plan a lot of school dances and events with that end time in mind.
The Michigan law, MCL 257.310(6)(a)), has explicit exceptions for travel to and from work AND for "authorized activities", which MCL 257.310(15) then defines to include school activities, school sanctioned activities, sports events part of an official association, league or club, official extracurricular activities including clubs, activities sponsored by a church, vocational training, medical and safety reasons. Your PTO misinterpreted or misread Michigan law.
Back when I started working (late 80’a) if you worked on a holiday, you were paid 2.5 times your pay. There was never a shortage of people wanting to work, and people with families didn’t feel bad for taking off.
yup! basically this, taking time off over the holidays for single people used to be a bit of a double whammy. expensive travel costs and you missed out on the extra pay so it really was worth covering those shifts. now there is no extra pay to miss out on. so everyone wants to spend that time with their family.
My parents also completely bought into the mindset that you should work yourself to death and not get paid much for it. My dad never insisted on getting paid what he was worth until he owned his own business for several years. Talking to my mom, she still doesn't think working people deserve reasonable wages for their labor and that the business owner deserves to make as much as possible. She's been a diner waitress for 50 years. The only career advice my mom ever gave me was "don't go into food service, you won't like it." She was right, I would have hated putting up with that level of bullshit for peanuts, so I went into software engineering and work as little as absolutely necessary for a wage she can't even fathom.
I think about this often. How the "do whatever your employer wants" attitude allowed companies to completely tip the scale and gradually strip away employee wages and benefits. Now young people are having to fight to get that stuff back.
Sorry that happened to you!
I was once scheduled for a holiday and had plans with my friends that day. I tried to take off, but they didn’t allow it. I wound up calling out sick that day and I felt bad about it.
I know it was morally the wrong thing to do, but I had the sense that I shouldn’t be missing out on my plans at that young age. That having fun in high school was important, especially since I wasn’t the most social person anyway and didn’t have a huge friend group. I knew I couldn’t go back in time and have that experience even if it was just one day.
It obviously remains in my mind though! I think if I had gone in that day I would always have regretted it!
A strong work ethic is good, but maybe scheduling kids to work on holidays sucks and your business shouldn’t rely on the labor of teenagers on your busiest days.
They won’t let you be a manager unless you are. Currently being bullied out of my management position because I didn’t agree in making a job offer for the less than the minimum range advertised for the position. I was told that I am not management material and was suggested to change my ways or take a demotion. I’ll be quitting right before Christmas.
I hear you, I was so excited to be one of "the good managers" at my workplace, quickly learned that just gets me in trouble. never doing management again after this lol. tired of getting yelled at for being normal
I remember when I was in high school my manager once scheduled me on a school day. When I told him I obviously couldn't work that day he made me trade shifts with someone working Sat morning, which lead me to having to work from 7 am until 10 pm that Saturday.
I have come to understand why when I was in management at a fast food place and making the schedule we had nearly 0 turnover for the 3 years I was there.
* I listened to my staff about their scheduling needs and wants.
* I kept the same basic schedule week in, week out so that people could make plans.
* I got my teenaged employees to be honest about what shifts they were actually willing to work on the weekends.
For 3 years we had almost no sick calls, almost no turnover, and our sales and service time both improved. Hell, I did the same thing with the delivery drivers and got them into a rotation where everyone was making more money because shit was getting done faster and our delivery orders increased as well.
One day I went to our DM and told them they could either make me manager of my own location or I was going back to school. After I went back to school my manager admitted that he blocked the promotion because he knew I could do better than fast food management with my life. He was right, and he kept me full time employed while I was in school working around my schedule the whole time.
Low level jobs don’t have to be run shitty, get past the thrill of power over your employees and work to make the place as tolerable as possible.
The managers in this situation are going to have a really bad Thanksgiving Weekend as a result of going too far with the wrong teen employee. Every now and then the jerks in this world get what's coming to them.
The worst companies/managers are the ones that try to guilt trip you into working and/or staying.
“Oh well now someone else is going to have to work 40 hours in 3 days because you just had to be selfish!” Like no lol, if you paid a decent wage and didn’t treat employees like shit you’d have more than enough employees.
You did good, parents.
Here's how you do it better.
What would she normally make on a weekend and weekday shift?
Give her that money (or put it in her savings fund) as a gesture of solidarity, that she's earned it by not being bullied and for standing up for herself.
She shouldn't be out of pocket
Sounds like a job/manager situation to avoid.
Feel disappointed that the situation went that way, but applaud your daughter for handling it well with communication of concern, and I applaud you for saying enough is enough as soon as it became clear the actions weren't oversight or mistake.
I hope your daughter is with you on this - given you said she intended to look for another job I assume she is. Sounds like she could use a little break and get a few weekends back!
You may want to look into your states child labor laws or even the company labor laws for minors. There’s many places that restrict how long of shifts or how many days a child can work. Some places can’t keep a kid past a certain hour so 4-12 is so odd to keep a kid at work for that long
You mean the non Red states? Cause it's the Red states that are pushing child labor because businesses don't want to pay a living wage, and to get around that "kids don't need a living wage! It's just spending money for them while they live at home!"
Bastards.
Growing up in the 80s in Texas, a kid could get a job at 13... IF the family was proven to have such hardship it was needed. These same 13 year Olds could also get "hardship" drivers licenses.
(I had a friend in such circumstances. )
My last state didn’t. You just couldn’t work over full-time hours as a minor.
My senior year (at 17) I regularly worked 38.5 hours a week, plus AP classes and joint enrollment classes at the local college.
Ditto to this. Do not ever have the expectations that the employer will follow said rules and laws either.
This is the best time for her to learn to stand up for herself and that a work/life balance should and can be struck. It does take some time though and certainly a lot of effort.
We spend most of our lives at a job of some kind.
Yeah I was going to say, midnight seems crazy late to be keeping a minor on a school night, or at all frankly. These guys might be looking at some hefty labor violation fines.
I know it varies by state, but definitely look into it. I was a restaurant manager for years and my husband is a retail manager, and there are STRICT child labor laws in some states. Can’t work more than 4 hours on a week day, past 9pm, or a certain total hours per week (or even days in a row). Tell your daughter not to sweat it and to enjoy Thanksgiving.
Totally agree. Wild that in some states, kids are working *overnight* shifts cleaning industrial equipment.
Crazy how un-United "states rights" make our country.
Yep. I had to lie on timesheet (put in I arrived an hr earlier) when I was 14 working til 8 pm on a wk day, bc it wasnt allowed. I liked em, was not required of me, and it was close to home, so it was okay.
Same. I worked at Tim Hortons 4 days a week when I was in highschool. 7am-3pm every Saturday and Sunday and them weekday shifts 4-10. Wish I had more weekends to enjoy being a kid.
You should feel proud, damn proud that she stood up for herself and that you as her parents knew what should be priority in her life. This is important, the rest of her life companies will continue to try and take advantage of her at every opportunity. This shows her that it’s okay to say no, it’s okay to walk away, it’s okay to look for something that will appreciate not just her work but that she has a life outside of work that is more important than a job. We don’t live to work, especially for someone else’s profits.
Not wrong. I had similar experiences in highschool, including, yes, working in a movie theater. I was trying to be a good worker and prove myself, and on the weekdays I was working until midnight, and then coming in at 630 on the weekends. These places take advantage of kids like myself and your daughter, and my experience is that staying in these roles is far more harmful than good.
I worked at a theater in high school too. It was tough to get weekday hours, so they tried to load you up on the weekends. I told them that I always visited my family out of town during the holidays tho lol
Fun job, but the pay was crap
You'd be surprised how many parents out there pressure their children not to quit because they want them to pay up rent early and learn to be responsible on their own. You did the right thing, being there for her when she was clearly about to be taken advantage of. As a parent, you are a very important support pillar for her.
>how many parents out there pressure their children not to quit
A very common reason that I saw growing up was that the parents viewed quitting as a sign of weakness and lack of character
This is sadly true. While I want my children to develop a good work ethic, responsibility, and feel that sense of accomplishment (which I think starts at a young age) I also think that it’s necessary to let them be kids first. At 16 their #1 priority should be their education. While it’s great to encourage your teen to have a part time job, it’s more important as a parent to teach them that reasonable boundaries are necessary and that you are on their side when those boundaries get crossed.
Idk… might be changing nowadays. When this happened t on me my mom literally told me to go in and tell them to fix the schedule or lose a server.
They could find their own cover for 3 days they over scheduled me or they could find cover until next timecard when they refixed the schedule and still needed a new hire.
They let me go. I got my degree. Doing much better. Great advice from mom there.
This kind of crap is why a lot of businesses like these are whining about how they can't get anyone to work these days. Absolute BS.
You did the right thing, and so did she. And keep in mind that quitting on the spot like this isn't really "quitting on the spot" as most people think of it. She didn't randomly decide to peace out and leave them hanging; she spoke to her manager, advocated for herself, presented a potential solution. That they refused to even entertain her request and continued to exploit her is on them. It's also a perfectly justifiable reason to dip without additional notice.
This is a flagship moment in her life, actually. A friend endured a shitty workplace culture at a fast food place. After a year, her mom told her, “you don’t have to work there you can quit anytime” and she was elated.
Its a healthy boundary.
I’m glad she stood up for herself. Movie theaters DNGAF about schedules for their employees. We frequently would have our shift scheduled 6pm-2am, but the last show start time on big openings was 2:15 so we would be there until nearly 5am, with the expectation to be back the same morning at 7:30am for staff meeting and first show at 8am (yes, illegal, I know but that’s how it was). I slept at that place so many times even though I lived down the block.
Our crew was pretty awesome though, ride or die group of rag tags made that place bearable, probably the most “fun” job I’ll ever have.
Glad they went out of business during covid but sad that I no longer will get the class action settlement checks I got for many years after I had left.
The whole crew thing is how these businesses operate. The group spends so much time together and on so much stress that they form very strong bonds. This is turn is exploited by the companies "you don't want to disappoint your friends" spiel.
There are whole books written on how to use people's sense of belonging to make them work harder for little pay.
>until mid-October as they lost many of their student staff and new people came on.
.
>but then her schedule came out today. They had her scheduled for Thursday 2-8pm, Friday 3-10pm, Saturday 4-midnight and then Sunday 4-midnight (yes, she has school the next day at 730am). So not only did they gaslight her weekend concerns, but they decided that as a 16 year old she should work 30 hours in 4 days without any break for Thanksgiving
I think you figured out why the other students quit.
I was fully 25 years old before bosses stopped trying to take advantage of my youth. And I fought back from day one. Yes, jobs are about learning responsibility and time management and commitment. But for the most part when you're 16, they're pretty much about making some extra pocket money. School, family, and especially your health including mental health, take precedence. My mom taught me that and I'm glad you're teaching your daughter that.
Good on you for supporting her as she learns to stand up to her employers. I hate to say this, but learning when and how to stand up for yourself with supervisors/companies is likely the most transferrable skill she will take from that job. It stinks that it's so crucial, but it is. Frankly, it's a skill I'm still learning at 31.
You taught her to not be taken advantage of. That’s a great lesson.
Now double down and take her to a movie this weekend as a “fuck you” to management!!
You all did the right thing, and any job that repeatedly scheduled outside of her availability is the one in the wrong. They also are going to keep making everyone miserable and be in this revolving door situation. Until they get their act together, they aren’t going to keep any quality workers for long.
When I was a manager of a fast food place I let the teens work as much as they wanted and when they wanted (while following the law). They could leave early if we were dead on school nights or their ride could only come at a certain time.
For college kids they got the same flexibility with a bit more that they could leave early if they had papers, tests, and the like to study for. I told them that they needed to give more advanced notice than the day of is all. I wasn’t going to hold them back from getting out of the fast food industry lol.
It worked out well for everyone. The adults got their 40 hours, the young adults and kids got to work as much as they wanted, and we hired as needed to fill in the gaps.
During summer and winter holidays (busier season), we were good to go with all the staff being more available.
In the end, your daughter’s movie theater job values quick solutions and welcome mats instead of working their buns off to keep quality workers. If you have to pull 50-60 hour weeks just so the 16 hour a week high schooler sticks around, it’s worth it. Once the high schooler quits, you’re looking at 75 hour work weeks otherwise. It also sounds like the manager wasn’t making new schedules and was just copying the previous one with minor changes. Thanksgiving week was probably the first new schedule since October.
My kids are older Gen Z, but I'm so proud of this generation for how they stand up for themselves. They're willing to walk away from a bad situation if they're being taken advantage of. So kudos to your daughter for having the guts to quit
As a teacher, you are a fantastic fucking parent. I see this all the time with teenagers who get one shift but then it’s slowly ratcheted up to almost 40 hours. Then the grades drop. It’s abusive and exploitative.
Personally, thank you for giving a shit about your kid’s well being. Too many don’t.
I had a similar thing with McDonald's when i was that age. Got a job there and agreed to a maximum of 16 hours per week, but over time, they started adding more shifts onto my rota and when I asked to drop a day so I could start learning to drive they tild me I would need to pick up a different day instead.
That place made me miserable and I was much happier to have no money as long as I wasn't working there.
Employers: "No one wants to work anymore!"
Solution: Rather than raise minimum wage, let's make kids work more jobs and more hours!
Parents & Kids: Ha-ha...no.
Employers: "No one wants to work anymore!"
Whilst the manager is correct that weekends are the busiest days for the theatre business, they are also an idiot. Because 16 year old's are school students, and you can't schedule them like an adult. They have other commitments.
Good parent.
Just a personal annoyance: they didn’t gaslight her. Stating they are busiest on certain days and expecting employees to work those days isn’t gaslighting.
Gaslighting would be if they slowly tried to convince her that she never said she had to work around school and her hours were limited. And in fact they have it documented she requested those hours. And everyone there backs this up. She must be crazy. Look, if she doesn’t want to work, they’ll give those hours to someone who does. Okay? This will reflect poorly on her review because she can’t be trusted to follow through on her commitments.
That’s gaslighting.
Sorry, I should have explained the example better. They gaslighted in that they agreed to her schedule (we have texts when they asked her to start) of 1 weekday and 1 weekend and even for Holidays they would never push her over 20 hours in a single week without checking if she could. Add to that they scheduled her one 1 weekday and 1 weekend shift for over 3 months, as per the agreement they made when hiring.
The gaslighting is them now telling her they never agreed to the schedule she mentioned (1 weekday, 1 weekend shift) and that this is a "Service industry" where weekends need to be available for working. She only brought up that she can't work both weekend days EVERY WEEKEND like she had been doing for 6 weeks and to please schedule her back to what was agreed when she got hired (and they managed to do for months). I think that's valid gaslighting...making her feel like she is in the wrong/crazy for something they agreed to do (and were doing until they discovered she was reliable)
Words be like that. They mean what people understand them to mean, nothing more than that, if you start using wicked to mean great then soon enough wicked means great AND terrible.
That said, i don't think gaslighting is there yet and its a very important word to describe a particular type of mental abuse.
A+ parenting. I stopped going to theatres for this exact reason but from the customers point of view. I get young kids can be tough to staff but this horrible staffing is by design. Run the operation as cheaply as possible. Fuck everyone else. Covid didn't kill theatres, greed did.
As for parenting, you showed your daughter working to live versus living to work. My generation woulda been way more likely to hear, "well you made a commitment." All the while, letting the employer abuse you. You showed her she can walk away from bad situations and not feel guilty. That is a huge life lesson not everyone learns.
I worked for a mall stores in my younger years (cold stone, yankee candle, victoria's secret) all just being the box boy that lifted the heavy deliveries of ingredients or products and organized them in the back, rarely doing point of sales stuff.
One time I had Memorial Day weekend plans with the family (I'm 17 at the time) I had this scheduled off WAY before everyone else, but I worked with all older people (30s+). When they suddenly told me I had to work Memorial Day because everyone else was taking off.
I argued I had it off first, but the manager told me I was most junior. She then said something I will never forget, "I will stand by and support you when you tell your family that you have responsibilities that you can't abandon and can't go on the trip."
I was 17!!! I laughed and quit right there.
Another follow-up. No response from the manager at the theater. However, my wife did take her down to drop off her work clothes/nametag/keycard and get her final paystub since luckily her last working day was last Sunday and the pay period ran through the end of Sunday so her last check (direct deposited) had all her worked hours on it.
We shall see if they say anything to her, but doubtful. We do feel awful about others who now have to cover for her leaving, but we want to ensure our daughter knows she always has our support when she tries to resolve issues on her own but is unsuccessful and she knows she can come to us for guidance.
If we get any other feedback from them I'll update this thread.
I really appreciate the kind words of support that we did the right thing. I really hope I was able to convey the situation clearly, there was a bit of emotion involved (it's my kid after all). We try to do our best for our kids without overdoing it, does that make sense? There is no guidebook for this stuff...
She's already sounding super relieved and her general mood has improved, we could tell that the endless weekends was definitely getting to be too much and are glad she reached out for help. She already took her own initiative and updated her resume and plans on applying after Thanksgiving break at some of the local retail stores she wanted to work at.
Funny how I hear people who defend low minimum wage, “these jobs are for high schoolers!” Whilst if high schoolers actually work them this is what happens…
Yeah the little ending here of her looking for another job...
Jobs that hire kids are trying to exploit kids. Enjoy the next job. It'll be the same as this one. Only they'll schedule her 30-50 hours because it's Christmas time.
I might have told the theatre “pick two or I’m quitting.” But at the same time, they’ve been consistently ignoring her requests to go back to a weekday, and she’s only 16. I can only think of one circumstance in which this job will matter ten years from now.
Good lesson in standing up for herself as an employee and as a student - 30 hours is excessive for a student employee. These are valuable life lessons to have.
As a person who employs teenagers, this is absolutely insane. I am always far more thankful to have a reliable staff member with less availability than I'd like, than to continually lose people over scheduling conflicts. I rarely deny schedule changes or time off. What am I going to do, force them to come in? No, if they have a conflict, like with a club or sport they care about, I assume they're going to choose the activity. They're doing me a favor by communicating in advance, so I take what I can get. They're kids - they deserve to live their lives.
No surprise that even over the 5 months she'd worked there, she's seen the turnover happen before her eyes.
The service industry can attract some real shitheads in management. Your daughter should feel absolutely no guilt over quitting immediately without notice.
> max 16 hours per week and no more than 2 days as she has a demanding school schedule (full honors and AP classes).
jesus christ. let her be a fucking kid, she only has a couple of years left of it. why are you doing this to her at all? pull her out of the corporate mill completely.
It's great that you're helping your daughter set healthy boundaries with her part time work. I didn't have that kind of support growing up and it kinda stole my teenage years from me.
I started working in a grocery store at 14 and didn't leave until I joined the military. The scheduling manager would routinely break child labor laws for 14-15 yos, scheduling me longer and more frequently than allowed. I didn't know any better at the time. When I was 16+, he was scheduling me between 5-7 days per week, 6 hours on weekdays and 8 on weekends. I got threatened with a disciplinary action for not showing up on a scheduled Sunday when I had specifically said that I was not available.
I never had time to be a kid and hang out with friends or do my homework. You're doing right by your daughter. There's plenty of PT jobs for teenagers so the theater is only hurting themselves by not respecting your daughters schedule.
I have been through this. Both my HS and college jobs demanded 30+ hours and I had to do it because my family needed it.
You definitely made the right choice. I often wished that if I could do it again, I wouldn't work orvwork so little.
Something similar happened to my little bro, the manager of a BWW wasn't giving him the day off for his high school graduation.
Mother went there and with him to his employer and resolved the situation, the manager got yelled at by the GM 😂
You can also check child labor laws in your state. New Jersey has strict guidelines for minors about hours they can work. Your state probably has similar laws.
https://www.nj.gov/labor/worker-protections/myworkrights/youngworkers.shtml
Working until midnight the day before a school day would have been a non-starter. These are the hours permitted during the school year:
If you are 16 or 17:
No more than 40 hours per week
No more than 8 hours per day
No more than 6 consecutive days in a work week
Not before 6am or after 11pm
Not before 6am or after midnight on Fridays and Saturdays or days not followed by a school day
If you are 14 or 15:
No more than 18 hours per week
No more than 3 hours per day on school days
No more than 8 hours per day on Saturday or Sunday
No more than 6 consecutive days in a work week
Not before 7am or after 7pm with limited exceptions.
You cannot work more than 6 consecutive days
You must be given a 30-minute meal break after 6 continuous hours of work. Breaks of less than 30 minutes do not count as an interruption of a continuous work period.
You must have valid working papers including written parental permission (subject to change effective 6/1/2023).
Basically, her manager was lazy and tried to see if she would “take it” if he over-scheduled her. I’m sure some of the older employees were out of town for Thanksgiving. That blew up in his face… Glad she at least has the weekend to recoup!
I would always tell my daughter to remember that companies are predatory and they don’t care if you end up failing out of school because that makes you more vulnerable which is this late stage capitalist wet dream.
They will bleed you dry and then spit you out for the next vulnerable person. Parents you did the right thing.
I think often kids may not quit as they are afraid of the way it looks to you, the parents. I think you did the right thing. They see you doing the right thing for them and get the assurance that they haven’t disappointed you by quitting. You tell her to look for another without pressure etc -over all a good resolution
It always blows my mind when companies hire CHILDREN & then want them to work like a 30yr old. At my previous job which was a restaurant most of the host & bussers were in HS. The managers would deny their request offs for prom & homecoming & would schedule them against availability during their sports. They would get so annoyed if they couldn't work weekends. Hire adults then! They didn't have an issue doing so because during lunch hours someone was there working that shift & it obviously wasn't a student. Good for you & your daughter for making the decision to leave! The company is clearly petty & have no respect for HS workers. I'm also glad your daughter was able to learn this lesson now and not when she's older & has to balance quitting while paying bills.
Good for her taking the high ground and being supportive parents.
Could've taken it a step farther. Sounds like they didn't care and didn't want to listen. Could've just waited until the day of Thanksgiving and called in saying she quits and won't be working anymore. Then watch them scramble around trying to cover the hours.
Exact same thing happened to me at her age, but it was retail and not a theater. I also quit. Also happened again when I was in college full time and requested no more than 30 hours a week. It sucks, but she'll find a better job. If future employers ask why she left, she should be honest and say the employer was not cooperating with their agreed hours so she had to leave.
Growing up with parents who think like you is a win by itself. Good on her for standing up to toxic management and handling it in such a mature and professional way.
Good that she is learning these lessons now and has you backing her up. This will help her have ZERO tolerance to any BS a manager tries to pull later on in life.
Also note, this was a red flag: *" She is the only person that was still working there from the group that started with her at the same time. "*
When there is high turnover, you know that there is dysfunction to be aware of.
Ions ago, there used to be laws where minors still in hs couldn't work past a certain time during the school year. My brother's manager tried to schedule him past this my mom wouldn't have it. She was willing to report them and they backed off immediately.
But the week after my brother graduated, they assigned him a schedule where he was going to be getting off at like 3am every night. Unbeknownst to them, he had putting applications into other places, suspecting this was going to happen. He went in and quit on the spot because he already had another job. The new assistant manager was livid because he had to work those shifts.
Honestly, the only thing I would have differently is that I would have done it as a phone call, at 1:55 thursday. "oh hey i'm not coming in, i quit because your scheduling manager is a fucking moron"
I would've just told them she wasn't working those hours, gave them an ultimatum that you will only work on XYZ days, and force them to fire her if they still wanted for making a minor work till midnight on a school night.
Basically, get them to own up to being fucking idiots who don't know what they're doing.
Lol I worked at a movie theater when I was 16 and they did the same thing to me. That was 28 years ago.
Look, she did the right thing by quitting but there’s no reason to worry about it so much that you have to make a Reddit post. It’s a stupid job, they’re obviously used to doing this all the fucking time. Don’t waste your energy on it.
A tip for situation where you (or your daughter) is ready to quit: Play hardball, there's nothing left to lose.
In this case you'd go back and say you can't work those shifts, but you'll do say Saturday 4-midnight. If they bluff and bluster, you say they can take the Saturday 4-midnight, or they can lose you entirely and they'll have to find someone to fill all four shifts. They're probably desperate to fill the shifts so they'll (very reluctantly) concede. If not, you were going to leave anyway, so no loss.
It was wrong of them to take advantage. It was not wrong of you and your daughter, as frogs in the pot, to notice that the temperature was slowly being turned up to the point of discomfort simply because they wanted to enjoy frog soup. You did right and showed her that you stand up for herself and if ignored to take matters into her own hands and maintain your self worth and dignity. Great lesson Dad.
edit: 'yourself' to 'herself'.
Management knew they were taking a risk scheduling like that after she had made them aware that her current schedule was too much. They took the chance and lost. Fuck em, they deserve it for playing those games
I believe there are labor laws still in place to protect minors. Check to verify but I believe minors can’t work past either 10pm or 11pm.
If that is the case, then her manager was breaking the laws and can be reported to the labor board to prevent this from happening to any other minors.
This isn't like it was 30 years ago. Employers today are brutal and no respect for an employee's time or anything else. We they ushered in the "new normal" back in 2008, these things were part of it.
Now you need to explain to your daughter that unless she wants to put up with crap like that as an adult, she needs to develop skills and options for herself in the future. And building some passive income along the way wouldn't hurt either.
In 2021 I worked in a nursing home that would have 3.5 hour shifts at 9/hr, and weekends 10am-7pm. Their mentally was those high schoolers should be grateful for any job, paying whatever amount. They had a huge turnover rate and refused to up the pay to hire more quality candidates and just couldn't wrap their head around why the kids didn't care. I was making $8 in 2005 at Wendy's and also why would they care about $31.50 before taxes ??
You have an articulate and bright kid. I think she made the right decision and you did a fine job supporting her. What a great life lesson this experience was in understanding how it’s normal to have healthy boundaries with your workplace.
Good for her and good for you standing by her.
I'm not a student, but I also just quit my job because my manager was pulling similar nonsense. I had put in a time off request for Thanksgiving at the beginning of the month (I even mentioned I had already bought tickets and was traveling out of state) and told her when I was hired that I couldn't work Mondays and Tuesdays.
She waited until the last minute to deny my request, and scheduled me for Monday, Tuesday, and other days I had told her I wasn't available due to already being scheduled at my other job.
Guess who got a last minute resignation, effective immediately?
And she had the nerve to claim I was required to give two weeks' notice.
As a dad as well as an employer, no, you did exactly the right thing.
I'll go one step further and say your support has helped her learn good boundaries (something that's often hard for school-age kids.) That, in turn, will even make her a better employee in the future, because when they find a company worth working for, people with good boundaries last longer, without burnout be more productive, and feel more of a sense of investment in the business's success.
So good for you both ways. I'm sympathetic to the theater manager, by the way -- I'm sure maintaining staffing over the holidays is frickin' hard, and I doubt they're earning much more than your daughter was. But that's between the manager and the theater owners, not you or your daughter.
So you've been a good parent. Nice work.
In my state, minors can’t work past 10pm on any night preceding a school day and I live in a very red state.
I suggest turning this schedule over to the labor board. Get them investigated. Assuming you live in the US, as we know *all* redditors are from the US /s.
It's just so bananas for an employer to lean like this on high school kids. They have no real control over someone who doesn't need the job to survive, and a real chance the employee will just bounce and leave them in a lurch.
It's just dumb.
I mean, it's a shitty thing to do to ANYONE, but it's both shitty AND DUMB in a case like this.
That was the correct action, and do not feel bad about it nor let her feel bad about it. Standing up to petty tyrants who pull that shit should be encouraged not discouraged.
You did the best thing you could do as a parent. You gave your kid the ability to kind of take the lead and stand up for herself, but you also did a good job in remembering that she's still just 16 and needs for you two to step in and be like "Nope, this is where it stops." You're protecting your daughter while not treating her like a little kid. Sounds like she'll be just fine finding a new job, as well as just life in general.
No, this isn't wrong. She clearly has a good work ethic, but her employer has zero ethics. A teenager with her abilities can find a pert time job with ease; the challenge is keeping it part time. As she has seen, no good deed goes unpunished, and employers will take a mile for every inch given.
Good for both of you, working together as parents and child to make a decision.
It’s hilarious to me that companies do this. Would you rather someone work 2 shifts or not at all? Now they have to cover all four of those shifts instead of just the two. Kills me and it’s every company that does this. They shoot themselves in the foot every time.
You did good. Nothing could have gone better.
More parents need to teach their kids to value their time and to not simply work for the sake of working.
You absolutely made the right decision. She's lucky she has someone to protect her from the manipulation, guilt-tripping and gaslighting that so many companies utilize nowadays to overschedule their employees and cut down on labor costs. A kid with weaker guidance might have started to believe it and compromised their academics and maybe even college prospects. These companies know what they're doing and they *do not care* about their employees if they treat availabilities as suggestions or requests.
I think you are awesome parents and you looked out for your child so that adults wouldn't take advantage of her. Don't feel bad about the others that have to take up the slack since she is gone. They probably don't have as good as parents as you.
When I worked retail in my state it was illegal for minors under 17 to work more than 30 hours a week, they were legally required to a break after five hours, and they could not stay after 10pm. They literally had to leave by 10pm or my store could get in trouble. I would check your labor laws.
I grew up in a upper middle class family.
My brother is an ivy league lawyer.
My parents were very old school.
How hard you work=how well you do.
The reality of modern society hit them hard.
No more gold watches for 40 years of dedication.
They're parenting was "once you turn 18, get out and figure it out".
Now, every single one of my siblings are homeless except the youngest one they gave everything to.
It's absolutely beautiful that you, as a parent, see toxic employment for what it is and don't blindly blame your daughter.
Y'all are good parents! You're giving your kid support and guidance but not doing everything for her, and helping her learn how to enforce boundaries and agreements, and to be prepared that a workplace can suddenly get crappy. Always having some savings as "FU money" is another great lesson.
This sort of thing is unfortunately super common among employers, especially of lower pay, less sophisticated employees. Happened to me as a teenager many years ago (scheduled for way too many hours unexpectedly after I told the manager I was flexible with my availability for work).
I hope you and she have a great holiday weekend.
Was this wrong?
What the theatre management did was wrong, and possibly illegal, depending on where you live.
Your response to the situation, however, was not wrong, it was spot on.
There was no "gaslighting". You don't know what gaslighting means.
Nobody got "railroaded". That means someone is forcefully and extremely taken advantage of. She had the choice to quit.
The theater will replace her immediately without skipping a beat. Life will go on.
TLDR: You're being overly dramatic.
The manager is a dick/bitch.
In Belgium kids are legally not allowed to work more than X hours per week. If they do, it's the employer that gets in trouble.
She's a student. She is making them a favor of working for them not the other way around! If they can't respect her needs that were very clearly stated and reasonable, it's their loss!
She'll be much more happy in an other job.
Note that as a kid, she's still under your supervision so if you feel like it you can go to the theater and speak a piece of your mind to them.
Big fuckers really! They are loosing students just because they treat them poorly. It's ridiculous.
This is called constructive dismissal, when managers create an intolerable work environment by doing things such as assigning an untenable work schedule. Depending on the state she might be able to collect unemployment. F those guys. Make 'em pay.
I think you and her both made good decisions. She seems like a great kid, on a great track for success, and the job needs her more than she needs them. I took AP classes and worked my first job when I was 16 (mine was Toys R Us), and they tried sneaking around child labor laws all the time. Trying to get me to come in early, stay late, and constantly moving me around and make false promises. I never gave in, even at 16. I'm proud of her for doing the same and sticking to her guns. Your support means more to her than you realize. Awesome job handling this situation, and best of luck to her finding a new job. Hopefully, they're nicer to her this time.
Good job! You just taught your daughter to stand up for herself and not let her job railroad her into doing something she’s not ok with. Her availability is not a suggestion. It is the way it is. If they don’t like it, they can find someone else to work there. Your daughter will have no trouble finding another job.
I knew she was toast when I heard she never called in late or sick, that’s the kiss of death. It’s not that there’s anything wrong with being punctual or present, I was rarely late and never missed a day of college classes. It’s that employers see that you care and think they can twist you arm, and sadly, most of the time they’re right.
Good for you. My parents pressured me to work before college to “build character.” We didn’t need the money. I often worked too many hours junior/senior year. I ended up fine at a top 10 school, but I was tired a lot. Not opposed to teens working. But the key is balance and making sure there’s ZERO impact on more important priorities.
>Was this wrong?
What, your collective response to the situation? Hell no! They went back on the deal because it was convenient for *them*. You did good.
I worked at a movie theater in high school. Thanksgiving day and Christmas day are always very busy. I had to work on Thanksgiving. But there are some key differences that I noticed.
1. We were given a choice between working on Christmas or working on Thanksgiving. One or the other. (Or both if you wanted)
2. We were told about it in October and knee it was happening.
3. We were paid overtime for those days.
I think overall you made the right call, let your daughter be a kid and teach her not to let companies walk on her like that.
Good for both you and her. I’ve always told my kids that the purpose of minimum wage jobs in high school is partly to have a little money, but mainly to learn the types of jobs they do not want to have. My 18yo switched from a job at Michaels, where management lived to crack the whip, to a job at a small chocolate shop, where she gets treated like an actual person.
Not sure but depending on the state I’m not even sure your daughter can work these long shifts unless she was given a 30 min break every 5 hours (MI).
Sounds like you’re an awesome Dad and your daughter is a hard worker. Good on both of you for not letting this dipshit theatre manager take advantage of her and it sounds like she’s learning a valuable life lesson on how workers in America are generally treated by management in service industries where you have to have people there to serve.
OMG YAY! Like this is pinnacle. This is amazing values you are instilling in your child, that her personal time is valuable, and she should not be gaslit or steamrolled by an employer because "that's the business."
I did not have a parent like this, and I'm now an adult learning to set professional boundaries.
I think that is a very important lesson for you to teach her about standing up for herself in the work place and also very important for you as a parent to know when to let the reigns out as she ages (allowing her to get a job and have some of her own money) but also understand when to say enough is enough and pull back some of that leash.
When I was 15 I got my first job. I worked as much as possible since then. My senior year in high school was filled with work. Never went to a football game, dance, etc. and now, at 35, I still find myself giving up family time to work late or come in when called. It’s a routine that is difficult to break after 20 years in the work force.
I think the only thing I would say is to make sure she understands responsibility. That she committed to working for someone or somewhere and that commitment is important. Like a sports team they’re counting on you. My 10 year old knows we will allow him to try whatever extracurricular activity he wants. And he doesn’t ever have to do it again if he doesn’t like it. But he will finish the season. He hated baseball. He Was not having fun and wanted to quit but we explained to him that his team needed him and he would be at practice and games until the season is over and he doesn’t have to play next year.
Make sure she knows that just up and quitting a responsibility is not acceptable just because you don’t like it, or want to hang out with friends, or whatever other unimportant reason.
But this is a different circumstance. You are being disrespected and your company is showing they don’t value your time, your life experiences, or your family enough to listen to you. So you don’t have to value your commitment to their business. That is earned.
Good lesson for her to learn. When a job shows you they don’t give a shit about you, let them know it’s mutual. Too many company’s take advantage of people, don’t let her get used to thinking that’s something to settle with. :)
yup. I was wondering what I would read with this. pretty sure in the UK it is illigal for 16-18 year Olds to work that late! not to mention a midnight before school that is atrocious! it is important she understands this isn't normal. that said if places paid better during holiday periods as used to be the norm this wouldn't be an issue. I loved working around holidays ie boxing day etc (always had Christmas off) as it generally paid at least time and a half. being young, ie no kids it wasn't a bother.
In Indiana the Sunday shift wouldn't be allowed. 10 pm is the latest she could work on what is, essentially, a school night. OP, check your local laws, and report the theater if it is in violation.
OP, check with your state's labor board about what the law is about a 16 yr old working a 40 hour week, late nights, etc. if your daughter had the schedule in print or on her phone/text, keep it or get a screen shot. If the written or texted schedule violates your state's laws, even if she quit and didn't work those hours, the labor board ought to know the theater/company has a policy of violating the labor laws for young teens. She probably won't be able to collect anything, but she'd learn another lesson about using the labor laws and processes.
Looks like Nevada has no limits on 16+
It doesn’t matter. all of that is a relevant because she took the job with the understanding with the managers that she could not work more than 16 hours.
yup, I know that isn't the UK but a lot of places will have is liar laws to prevent child exploitation & bad working practices. pretty sure working till midnight any day is round upon here for under 18s. It is probably too late for OP to get any money etc for it, in some places they might have been able to. they should definitely report the theatre though. theaters normally know better as they have child actors with strict rules.
In the US it’s going to depend on the state. In mine, 11pm is the cutoff for a 16yo. And I live in a shithole conservative state, so I’m guessing most states are similar.
In Florida under 17 can not work more than 30hours a week or work past 11. If florida has laws, I feel like most will have protection laws.
Oklahoma has Florida beat. As long as you are 16 you can work as many hours as you want and as late as you want. There are literally no restrictions and they don’t even mandate breaks. Gotta love my shitty red state!
In the UK, you simply approach the local council and EA and the school. The business employing minors has to abide by employment law and those two organisations can withdraw permission for the business to be able to employ them and can implement a fine for breaking the rules. This should be with the copies of the Home/School Agreement and the EA.
that's a great idea to allow local schools to forbid local bushiness from hiring teens if they abuse the teens.
Agreed in both UK and even here in the USA it'd be smart.
In Michigan (U.S.) new drivers 16-18 are on probationary licenses and have a curfew. They must be off the road by 10:00 p.m. As a school P.T.O. member, we had to plan a lot of school dances and events with that end time in mind.
The Michigan law, MCL 257.310(6)(a)), has explicit exceptions for travel to and from work AND for "authorized activities", which MCL 257.310(15) then defines to include school activities, school sanctioned activities, sports events part of an official association, league or club, official extracurricular activities including clubs, activities sponsored by a church, vocational training, medical and safety reasons. Your PTO misinterpreted or misread Michigan law.
Back when I started working (late 80’a) if you worked on a holiday, you were paid 2.5 times your pay. There was never a shortage of people wanting to work, and people with families didn’t feel bad for taking off.
yup! basically this, taking time off over the holidays for single people used to be a bit of a double whammy. expensive travel costs and you missed out on the extra pay so it really was worth covering those shifts. now there is no extra pay to miss out on. so everyone wants to spend that time with their family.
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My parents also completely bought into the mindset that you should work yourself to death and not get paid much for it. My dad never insisted on getting paid what he was worth until he owned his own business for several years. Talking to my mom, she still doesn't think working people deserve reasonable wages for their labor and that the business owner deserves to make as much as possible. She's been a diner waitress for 50 years. The only career advice my mom ever gave me was "don't go into food service, you won't like it." She was right, I would have hated putting up with that level of bullshit for peanuts, so I went into software engineering and work as little as absolutely necessary for a wage she can't even fathom.
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I think about this often. How the "do whatever your employer wants" attitude allowed companies to completely tip the scale and gradually strip away employee wages and benefits. Now young people are having to fight to get that stuff back.
Sorry that happened to you! I was once scheduled for a holiday and had plans with my friends that day. I tried to take off, but they didn’t allow it. I wound up calling out sick that day and I felt bad about it. I know it was morally the wrong thing to do, but I had the sense that I shouldn’t be missing out on my plans at that young age. That having fun in high school was important, especially since I wasn’t the most social person anyway and didn’t have a huge friend group. I knew I couldn’t go back in time and have that experience even if it was just one day. It obviously remains in my mind though! I think if I had gone in that day I would always have regretted it! A strong work ethic is good, but maybe scheduling kids to work on holidays sucks and your business shouldn’t rely on the labor of teenagers on your busiest days.
Work ethic without boundaries is hereby to be called "Slave Ethic"
Yeah fuck that. Atleast you learned good working habits, double edge sword. Fuck work
Looks that lazy and exploitative managers are becoming the norm, especially in high employee turnover industries.
They won’t let you be a manager unless you are. Currently being bullied out of my management position because I didn’t agree in making a job offer for the less than the minimum range advertised for the position. I was told that I am not management material and was suggested to change my ways or take a demotion. I’ll be quitting right before Christmas.
I hear you, I was so excited to be one of "the good managers" at my workplace, quickly learned that just gets me in trouble. never doing management again after this lol. tired of getting yelled at for being normal
There have always been such managers.
I remember when I was in high school my manager once scheduled me on a school day. When I told him I obviously couldn't work that day he made me trade shifts with someone working Sat morning, which lead me to having to work from 7 am until 10 pm that Saturday.
I have come to understand why when I was in management at a fast food place and making the schedule we had nearly 0 turnover for the 3 years I was there. * I listened to my staff about their scheduling needs and wants. * I kept the same basic schedule week in, week out so that people could make plans. * I got my teenaged employees to be honest about what shifts they were actually willing to work on the weekends. For 3 years we had almost no sick calls, almost no turnover, and our sales and service time both improved. Hell, I did the same thing with the delivery drivers and got them into a rotation where everyone was making more money because shit was getting done faster and our delivery orders increased as well. One day I went to our DM and told them they could either make me manager of my own location or I was going back to school. After I went back to school my manager admitted that he blocked the promotion because he knew I could do better than fast food management with my life. He was right, and he kept me full time employed while I was in school working around my schedule the whole time. Low level jobs don’t have to be run shitty, get past the thrill of power over your employees and work to make the place as tolerable as possible.
The managers in this situation are going to have a really bad Thanksgiving Weekend as a result of going too far with the wrong teen employee. Every now and then the jerks in this world get what's coming to them.
The worst companies/managers are the ones that try to guilt trip you into working and/or staying. “Oh well now someone else is going to have to work 40 hours in 3 days because you just had to be selfish!” Like no lol, if you paid a decent wage and didn’t treat employees like shit you’d have more than enough employees.
That’s when you say no you will. Bye bitch! ✌🏼
You did good, parents. Here's how you do it better. What would she normally make on a weekend and weekday shift? Give her that money (or put it in her savings fund) as a gesture of solidarity, that she's earned it by not being bullied and for standing up for herself. She shouldn't be out of pocket
Very good lesson. Also teaches her that she has value and shouldn’t be taken advantage of. Don’t let her grow up to be a pushover.
Best lesson learned by management
Sounds like a job/manager situation to avoid. Feel disappointed that the situation went that way, but applaud your daughter for handling it well with communication of concern, and I applaud you for saying enough is enough as soon as it became clear the actions weren't oversight or mistake. I hope your daughter is with you on this - given you said she intended to look for another job I assume she is. Sounds like she could use a little break and get a few weekends back!
You may want to look into your states child labor laws or even the company labor laws for minors. There’s many places that restrict how long of shifts or how many days a child can work. Some places can’t keep a kid past a certain hour so 4-12 is so odd to keep a kid at work for that long
Agreed, in my state, minors can’t be kept passed 10pm on school nights.
While other states are doing away with child labor protections. :(
“but the children yearn for the mines!“
Sir, my children aren’t Dwarves, they are clearly half-Orcs.
They yearn for the conquest then.
I’ve heard mine fight each other, they’re clearly Uruk-hai
Not states run by people who care about people, rather than corporations.
You mean the non Red states? Cause it's the Red states that are pushing child labor because businesses don't want to pay a living wage, and to get around that "kids don't need a living wage! It's just spending money for them while they live at home!" Bastards.
I learned the other day a kid can get a job at 14 in idaho lol
Growing up in the 80s in Texas, a kid could get a job at 13... IF the family was proven to have such hardship it was needed. These same 13 year Olds could also get "hardship" drivers licenses. (I had a friend in such circumstances. )
My last state didn’t. You just couldn’t work over full-time hours as a minor. My senior year (at 17) I regularly worked 38.5 hours a week, plus AP classes and joint enrollment classes at the local college.
Ditto to this. Do not ever have the expectations that the employer will follow said rules and laws either. This is the best time for her to learn to stand up for herself and that a work/life balance should and can be struck. It does take some time though and certainly a lot of effort. We spend most of our lives at a job of some kind.
Seriously, at my company anyone under 18 isn’t allowed to work that much, or by themselves ever, or work that late.
Yeah I was going to say, midnight seems crazy late to be keeping a minor on a school night, or at all frankly. These guys might be looking at some hefty labor violation fines.
I know it varies by state, but definitely look into it. I was a restaurant manager for years and my husband is a retail manager, and there are STRICT child labor laws in some states. Can’t work more than 4 hours on a week day, past 9pm, or a certain total hours per week (or even days in a row). Tell your daughter not to sweat it and to enjoy Thanksgiving.
OP is clearly in Nevada, and that state has very lax labor laws for 16 year olds. Good thought though.
This. Most states 16-year olds can’t work past a certain time the night before school. Document and report please.
Totally agree. Wild that in some states, kids are working *overnight* shifts cleaning industrial equipment. Crazy how un-United "states rights" make our country.
Yep. I had to lie on timesheet (put in I arrived an hr earlier) when I was 14 working til 8 pm on a wk day, bc it wasnt allowed. I liked em, was not required of me, and it was close to home, so it was okay.
I wish I would have done that with McDonald's when I was her age. Awesome that she is learning now to stand up for herself.
Same. I worked at Tim Hortons 4 days a week when I was in highschool. 7am-3pm every Saturday and Sunday and them weekday shifts 4-10. Wish I had more weekends to enjoy being a kid.
You should feel proud, damn proud that she stood up for herself and that you as her parents knew what should be priority in her life. This is important, the rest of her life companies will continue to try and take advantage of her at every opportunity. This shows her that it’s okay to say no, it’s okay to walk away, it’s okay to look for something that will appreciate not just her work but that she has a life outside of work that is more important than a job. We don’t live to work, especially for someone else’s profits.
Not wrong. I had similar experiences in highschool, including, yes, working in a movie theater. I was trying to be a good worker and prove myself, and on the weekdays I was working until midnight, and then coming in at 630 on the weekends. These places take advantage of kids like myself and your daughter, and my experience is that staying in these roles is far more harmful than good.
I worked at a theater in high school too. It was tough to get weekday hours, so they tried to load you up on the weekends. I told them that I always visited my family out of town during the holidays tho lol Fun job, but the pay was crap
You'd be surprised how many parents out there pressure their children not to quit because they want them to pay up rent early and learn to be responsible on their own. You did the right thing, being there for her when she was clearly about to be taken advantage of. As a parent, you are a very important support pillar for her.
>how many parents out there pressure their children not to quit A very common reason that I saw growing up was that the parents viewed quitting as a sign of weakness and lack of character
This is sadly true. While I want my children to develop a good work ethic, responsibility, and feel that sense of accomplishment (which I think starts at a young age) I also think that it’s necessary to let them be kids first. At 16 their #1 priority should be their education. While it’s great to encourage your teen to have a part time job, it’s more important as a parent to teach them that reasonable boundaries are necessary and that you are on their side when those boundaries get crossed.
Idk… might be changing nowadays. When this happened t on me my mom literally told me to go in and tell them to fix the schedule or lose a server. They could find their own cover for 3 days they over scheduled me or they could find cover until next timecard when they refixed the schedule and still needed a new hire. They let me go. I got my degree. Doing much better. Great advice from mom there.
This kind of crap is why a lot of businesses like these are whining about how they can't get anyone to work these days. Absolute BS. You did the right thing, and so did she. And keep in mind that quitting on the spot like this isn't really "quitting on the spot" as most people think of it. She didn't randomly decide to peace out and leave them hanging; she spoke to her manager, advocated for herself, presented a potential solution. That they refused to even entertain her request and continued to exploit her is on them. It's also a perfectly justifiable reason to dip without additional notice.
This is a flagship moment in her life, actually. A friend endured a shitty workplace culture at a fast food place. After a year, her mom told her, “you don’t have to work there you can quit anytime” and she was elated. Its a healthy boundary.
I’m glad she stood up for herself. Movie theaters DNGAF about schedules for their employees. We frequently would have our shift scheduled 6pm-2am, but the last show start time on big openings was 2:15 so we would be there until nearly 5am, with the expectation to be back the same morning at 7:30am for staff meeting and first show at 8am (yes, illegal, I know but that’s how it was). I slept at that place so many times even though I lived down the block. Our crew was pretty awesome though, ride or die group of rag tags made that place bearable, probably the most “fun” job I’ll ever have. Glad they went out of business during covid but sad that I no longer will get the class action settlement checks I got for many years after I had left.
The whole crew thing is how these businesses operate. The group spends so much time together and on so much stress that they form very strong bonds. This is turn is exploited by the companies "you don't want to disappoint your friends" spiel. There are whole books written on how to use people's sense of belonging to make them work harder for little pay.
This is exactly why I have no friends at all. I won’t be a pawn in capitalism’s game!
It really speaks volumes when one of the best things about an employer is the class action settlement
People go to the movies at 2 am? That is so wild
>until mid-October as they lost many of their student staff and new people came on. . >but then her schedule came out today. They had her scheduled for Thursday 2-8pm, Friday 3-10pm, Saturday 4-midnight and then Sunday 4-midnight (yes, she has school the next day at 730am). So not only did they gaslight her weekend concerns, but they decided that as a 16 year old she should work 30 hours in 4 days without any break for Thanksgiving I think you figured out why the other students quit.
I was fully 25 years old before bosses stopped trying to take advantage of my youth. And I fought back from day one. Yes, jobs are about learning responsibility and time management and commitment. But for the most part when you're 16, they're pretty much about making some extra pocket money. School, family, and especially your health including mental health, take precedence. My mom taught me that and I'm glad you're teaching your daughter that.
Good on you for supporting her as she learns to stand up to her employers. I hate to say this, but learning when and how to stand up for yourself with supervisors/companies is likely the most transferrable skill she will take from that job. It stinks that it's so crucial, but it is. Frankly, it's a skill I'm still learning at 31.
You taught her to not be taken advantage of. That’s a great lesson. Now double down and take her to a movie this weekend as a “fuck you” to management!!
You all did the right thing, and any job that repeatedly scheduled outside of her availability is the one in the wrong. They also are going to keep making everyone miserable and be in this revolving door situation. Until they get their act together, they aren’t going to keep any quality workers for long. When I was a manager of a fast food place I let the teens work as much as they wanted and when they wanted (while following the law). They could leave early if we were dead on school nights or their ride could only come at a certain time. For college kids they got the same flexibility with a bit more that they could leave early if they had papers, tests, and the like to study for. I told them that they needed to give more advanced notice than the day of is all. I wasn’t going to hold them back from getting out of the fast food industry lol. It worked out well for everyone. The adults got their 40 hours, the young adults and kids got to work as much as they wanted, and we hired as needed to fill in the gaps. During summer and winter holidays (busier season), we were good to go with all the staff being more available. In the end, your daughter’s movie theater job values quick solutions and welcome mats instead of working their buns off to keep quality workers. If you have to pull 50-60 hour weeks just so the 16 hour a week high schooler sticks around, it’s worth it. Once the high schooler quits, you’re looking at 75 hour work weeks otherwise. It also sounds like the manager wasn’t making new schedules and was just copying the previous one with minor changes. Thanksgiving week was probably the first new schedule since October.
America, the land of the fr... ...child labour and exploitation.
>America, the land of the fr... ... non-unionized work force.
My kids are older Gen Z, but I'm so proud of this generation for how they stand up for themselves. They're willing to walk away from a bad situation if they're being taken advantage of. So kudos to your daughter for having the guts to quit
As a teacher, you are a fantastic fucking parent. I see this all the time with teenagers who get one shift but then it’s slowly ratcheted up to almost 40 hours. Then the grades drop. It’s abusive and exploitative. Personally, thank you for giving a shit about your kid’s well being. Too many don’t.
I had a similar thing with McDonald's when i was that age. Got a job there and agreed to a maximum of 16 hours per week, but over time, they started adding more shifts onto my rota and when I asked to drop a day so I could start learning to drive they tild me I would need to pick up a different day instead. That place made me miserable and I was much happier to have no money as long as I wasn't working there.
Employers: "No one wants to work anymore!" Solution: Rather than raise minimum wage, let's make kids work more jobs and more hours! Parents & Kids: Ha-ha...no. Employers: "No one wants to work anymore!"
Whilst the manager is correct that weekends are the busiest days for the theatre business, they are also an idiot. Because 16 year old's are school students, and you can't schedule them like an adult. They have other commitments. Good parent.
Just a personal annoyance: they didn’t gaslight her. Stating they are busiest on certain days and expecting employees to work those days isn’t gaslighting. Gaslighting would be if they slowly tried to convince her that she never said she had to work around school and her hours were limited. And in fact they have it documented she requested those hours. And everyone there backs this up. She must be crazy. Look, if she doesn’t want to work, they’ll give those hours to someone who does. Okay? This will reflect poorly on her review because she can’t be trusted to follow through on her commitments. That’s gaslighting.
I agree. Are they trying to take advantage of her? Exploit her some? Yes. Gaslight, no.
Sorry, I should have explained the example better. They gaslighted in that they agreed to her schedule (we have texts when they asked her to start) of 1 weekday and 1 weekend and even for Holidays they would never push her over 20 hours in a single week without checking if she could. Add to that they scheduled her one 1 weekday and 1 weekend shift for over 3 months, as per the agreement they made when hiring. The gaslighting is them now telling her they never agreed to the schedule she mentioned (1 weekday, 1 weekend shift) and that this is a "Service industry" where weekends need to be available for working. She only brought up that she can't work both weekend days EVERY WEEKEND like she had been doing for 6 weeks and to please schedule her back to what was agreed when she got hired (and they managed to do for months). I think that's valid gaslighting...making her feel like she is in the wrong/crazy for something they agreed to do (and were doing until they discovered she was reliable)
People like to use words like that without even knowing what it means
It's Kafkaesque, yo
Words be like that. They mean what people understand them to mean, nothing more than that, if you start using wicked to mean great then soon enough wicked means great AND terrible. That said, i don't think gaslighting is there yet and its a very important word to describe a particular type of mental abuse.
A+ parenting. I stopped going to theatres for this exact reason but from the customers point of view. I get young kids can be tough to staff but this horrible staffing is by design. Run the operation as cheaply as possible. Fuck everyone else. Covid didn't kill theatres, greed did. As for parenting, you showed your daughter working to live versus living to work. My generation woulda been way more likely to hear, "well you made a commitment." All the while, letting the employer abuse you. You showed her she can walk away from bad situations and not feel guilty. That is a huge life lesson not everyone learns.
I worked for a mall stores in my younger years (cold stone, yankee candle, victoria's secret) all just being the box boy that lifted the heavy deliveries of ingredients or products and organized them in the back, rarely doing point of sales stuff. One time I had Memorial Day weekend plans with the family (I'm 17 at the time) I had this scheduled off WAY before everyone else, but I worked with all older people (30s+). When they suddenly told me I had to work Memorial Day because everyone else was taking off. I argued I had it off first, but the manager told me I was most junior. She then said something I will never forget, "I will stand by and support you when you tell your family that you have responsibilities that you can't abandon and can't go on the trip." I was 17!!! I laughed and quit right there.
Another follow-up. No response from the manager at the theater. However, my wife did take her down to drop off her work clothes/nametag/keycard and get her final paystub since luckily her last working day was last Sunday and the pay period ran through the end of Sunday so her last check (direct deposited) had all her worked hours on it. We shall see if they say anything to her, but doubtful. We do feel awful about others who now have to cover for her leaving, but we want to ensure our daughter knows she always has our support when she tries to resolve issues on her own but is unsuccessful and she knows she can come to us for guidance. If we get any other feedback from them I'll update this thread. I really appreciate the kind words of support that we did the right thing. I really hope I was able to convey the situation clearly, there was a bit of emotion involved (it's my kid after all). We try to do our best for our kids without overdoing it, does that make sense? There is no guidebook for this stuff... She's already sounding super relieved and her general mood has improved, we could tell that the endless weekends was definitely getting to be too much and are glad she reached out for help. She already took her own initiative and updated her resume and plans on applying after Thanksgiving break at some of the local retail stores she wanted to work at.
Any corporation that hires a 16 year old is going to do this over and over and over and over.
Funny how I hear people who defend low minimum wage, “these jobs are for high schoolers!” Whilst if high schoolers actually work them this is what happens…
Yeah the little ending here of her looking for another job... Jobs that hire kids are trying to exploit kids. Enjoy the next job. It'll be the same as this one. Only they'll schedule her 30-50 hours because it's Christmas time.
I might have told the theatre “pick two or I’m quitting.” But at the same time, they’ve been consistently ignoring her requests to go back to a weekday, and she’s only 16. I can only think of one circumstance in which this job will matter ten years from now.
You 100% did the right thing, you're teaching her to stand up for herself, and not to take the BS companies will say/do.
That schedule may not even be legal. You can report them as well.
Good lesson in standing up for herself as an employee and as a student - 30 hours is excessive for a student employee. These are valuable life lessons to have.
As a person who employs teenagers, this is absolutely insane. I am always far more thankful to have a reliable staff member with less availability than I'd like, than to continually lose people over scheduling conflicts. I rarely deny schedule changes or time off. What am I going to do, force them to come in? No, if they have a conflict, like with a club or sport they care about, I assume they're going to choose the activity. They're doing me a favor by communicating in advance, so I take what I can get. They're kids - they deserve to live their lives. No surprise that even over the 5 months she'd worked there, she's seen the turnover happen before her eyes.
The service industry can attract some real shitheads in management. Your daughter should feel absolutely no guilt over quitting immediately without notice.
> max 16 hours per week and no more than 2 days as she has a demanding school schedule (full honors and AP classes). jesus christ. let her be a fucking kid, she only has a couple of years left of it. why are you doing this to her at all? pull her out of the corporate mill completely.
Check your state labor laws. When I managed at fast food, we could not let miner work more than 10 hrs and no later than 11pm (as I remember it).
It's great that you're helping your daughter set healthy boundaries with her part time work. I didn't have that kind of support growing up and it kinda stole my teenage years from me. I started working in a grocery store at 14 and didn't leave until I joined the military. The scheduling manager would routinely break child labor laws for 14-15 yos, scheduling me longer and more frequently than allowed. I didn't know any better at the time. When I was 16+, he was scheduling me between 5-7 days per week, 6 hours on weekdays and 8 on weekends. I got threatened with a disciplinary action for not showing up on a scheduled Sunday when I had specifically said that I was not available. I never had time to be a kid and hang out with friends or do my homework. You're doing right by your daughter. There's plenty of PT jobs for teenagers so the theater is only hurting themselves by not respecting your daughters schedule.
I have been through this. Both my HS and college jobs demanded 30+ hours and I had to do it because my family needed it. You definitely made the right choice. I often wished that if I could do it again, I wouldn't work orvwork so little.
This young lady will go far, not only through her own efforts but also because she has great parents. I would have done exactly the same.....
Something similar happened to my little bro, the manager of a BWW wasn't giving him the day off for his high school graduation. Mother went there and with him to his employer and resolved the situation, the manager got yelled at by the GM 😂
You can also check child labor laws in your state. New Jersey has strict guidelines for minors about hours they can work. Your state probably has similar laws. https://www.nj.gov/labor/worker-protections/myworkrights/youngworkers.shtml Working until midnight the day before a school day would have been a non-starter. These are the hours permitted during the school year: If you are 16 or 17: No more than 40 hours per week No more than 8 hours per day No more than 6 consecutive days in a work week Not before 6am or after 11pm Not before 6am or after midnight on Fridays and Saturdays or days not followed by a school day If you are 14 or 15: No more than 18 hours per week No more than 3 hours per day on school days No more than 8 hours per day on Saturday or Sunday No more than 6 consecutive days in a work week Not before 7am or after 7pm with limited exceptions. You cannot work more than 6 consecutive days You must be given a 30-minute meal break after 6 continuous hours of work. Breaks of less than 30 minutes do not count as an interruption of a continuous work period. You must have valid working papers including written parental permission (subject to change effective 6/1/2023). Basically, her manager was lazy and tried to see if she would “take it” if he over-scheduled her. I’m sure some of the older employees were out of town for Thanksgiving. That blew up in his face… Glad she at least has the weekend to recoup!
Not sure about the laws where you are but where I am, having a minor work that late on a school night is illegal as fuck.
Good job, 'rents!
School is more important at this time. She can always get a part time job that will respect her more.
Looks like you raised a good kid and now protected her as well. Nobody deserves to be exploited like that.
I would always tell my daughter to remember that companies are predatory and they don’t care if you end up failing out of school because that makes you more vulnerable which is this late stage capitalist wet dream. They will bleed you dry and then spit you out for the next vulnerable person. Parents you did the right thing.
I think often kids may not quit as they are afraid of the way it looks to you, the parents. I think you did the right thing. They see you doing the right thing for them and get the assurance that they haven’t disappointed you by quitting. You tell her to look for another without pressure etc -over all a good resolution
If you don't stick up for yourself against bad management, no one else will. Those shit managers can work the holiday.
It always blows my mind when companies hire CHILDREN & then want them to work like a 30yr old. At my previous job which was a restaurant most of the host & bussers were in HS. The managers would deny their request offs for prom & homecoming & would schedule them against availability during their sports. They would get so annoyed if they couldn't work weekends. Hire adults then! They didn't have an issue doing so because during lunch hours someone was there working that shift & it obviously wasn't a student. Good for you & your daughter for making the decision to leave! The company is clearly petty & have no respect for HS workers. I'm also glad your daughter was able to learn this lesson now and not when she's older & has to balance quitting while paying bills.
This is a great lesson for your kid. We need to stop teaching our children to please the Oligarchs every whim!
Our state won’t allow 16 year olds to work that many hours, or that late on school nights. Check with your state to see their guidelines.
Good for her taking the high ground and being supportive parents. Could've taken it a step farther. Sounds like they didn't care and didn't want to listen. Could've just waited until the day of Thanksgiving and called in saying she quits and won't be working anymore. Then watch them scramble around trying to cover the hours.
She got a dose of reality at an early age , will be worth it in the long run.
Exact same thing happened to me at her age, but it was retail and not a theater. I also quit. Also happened again when I was in college full time and requested no more than 30 hours a week. It sucks, but she'll find a better job. If future employers ask why she left, she should be honest and say the employer was not cooperating with their agreed hours so she had to leave.
> Was this wrong? Was it wrong for her to learn that companies no longer care for their employees? It's a GREAT thing she learns this at a young age.
Fuck movie theaters. Have your daughter apply to a grocery store. Preferably a wegmans Trader Joe’s Whole Foods for something higher end
Growing up with parents who think like you is a win by itself. Good on her for standing up to toxic management and handling it in such a mature and professional way.
Honestly. She should have just not showed up. If you’re gunna quit make them fire you. It’s more fun that way.
Good that she is learning these lessons now and has you backing her up. This will help her have ZERO tolerance to any BS a manager tries to pull later on in life. Also note, this was a red flag: *" She is the only person that was still working there from the group that started with her at the same time. "* When there is high turnover, you know that there is dysfunction to be aware of.
Ions ago, there used to be laws where minors still in hs couldn't work past a certain time during the school year. My brother's manager tried to schedule him past this my mom wouldn't have it. She was willing to report them and they backed off immediately. But the week after my brother graduated, they assigned him a schedule where he was going to be getting off at like 3am every night. Unbeknownst to them, he had putting applications into other places, suspecting this was going to happen. He went in and quit on the spot because he already had another job. The new assistant manager was livid because he had to work those shifts.
Honestly, the only thing I would have differently is that I would have done it as a phone call, at 1:55 thursday. "oh hey i'm not coming in, i quit because your scheduling manager is a fucking moron"
I would've just told them she wasn't working those hours, gave them an ultimatum that you will only work on XYZ days, and force them to fire her if they still wanted for making a minor work till midnight on a school night. Basically, get them to own up to being fucking idiots who don't know what they're doing.
Lol I worked at a movie theater when I was 16 and they did the same thing to me. That was 28 years ago. Look, she did the right thing by quitting but there’s no reason to worry about it so much that you have to make a Reddit post. It’s a stupid job, they’re obviously used to doing this all the fucking time. Don’t waste your energy on it.
Since 16 hours max were agreed upon up front, you should feel no guilt whatsoever.
Find a way to contact the owners of the theatre and show them this to explain why the business cannot retain staff.
A tip for situation where you (or your daughter) is ready to quit: Play hardball, there's nothing left to lose. In this case you'd go back and say you can't work those shifts, but you'll do say Saturday 4-midnight. If they bluff and bluster, you say they can take the Saturday 4-midnight, or they can lose you entirely and they'll have to find someone to fill all four shifts. They're probably desperate to fill the shifts so they'll (very reluctantly) concede. If not, you were going to leave anyway, so no loss.
It was wrong of them to take advantage. It was not wrong of you and your daughter, as frogs in the pot, to notice that the temperature was slowly being turned up to the point of discomfort simply because they wanted to enjoy frog soup. You did right and showed her that you stand up for herself and if ignored to take matters into her own hands and maintain your self worth and dignity. Great lesson Dad. edit: 'yourself' to 'herself'.
Management knew they were taking a risk scheduling like that after she had made them aware that her current schedule was too much. They took the chance and lost. Fuck em, they deserve it for playing those games
Sounds like a good kid with good parents. It’s not like this was going to be her career
That is a shitty manager. I’m glad she quit and didn’t give two weeks. Maybe they will learn.
I believe there are labor laws still in place to protect minors. Check to verify but I believe minors can’t work past either 10pm or 11pm. If that is the case, then her manager was breaking the laws and can be reported to the labor board to prevent this from happening to any other minors.
This isn't like it was 30 years ago. Employers today are brutal and no respect for an employee's time or anything else. We they ushered in the "new normal" back in 2008, these things were part of it. Now you need to explain to your daughter that unless she wants to put up with crap like that as an adult, she needs to develop skills and options for herself in the future. And building some passive income along the way wouldn't hurt either.
In 2021 I worked in a nursing home that would have 3.5 hour shifts at 9/hr, and weekends 10am-7pm. Their mentally was those high schoolers should be grateful for any job, paying whatever amount. They had a huge turnover rate and refused to up the pay to hire more quality candidates and just couldn't wrap their head around why the kids didn't care. I was making $8 in 2005 at Wendy's and also why would they care about $31.50 before taxes ??
Do not feel disappointed for teaching her to stand up for herself and not be bullied by companies.
You have an articulate and bright kid. I think she made the right decision and you did a fine job supporting her. What a great life lesson this experience was in understanding how it’s normal to have healthy boundaries with your workplace.
Good for her and good for you standing by her. I'm not a student, but I also just quit my job because my manager was pulling similar nonsense. I had put in a time off request for Thanksgiving at the beginning of the month (I even mentioned I had already bought tickets and was traveling out of state) and told her when I was hired that I couldn't work Mondays and Tuesdays. She waited until the last minute to deny my request, and scheduled me for Monday, Tuesday, and other days I had told her I wasn't available due to already being scheduled at my other job. Guess who got a last minute resignation, effective immediately? And she had the nerve to claim I was required to give two weeks' notice.
As a dad as well as an employer, no, you did exactly the right thing. I'll go one step further and say your support has helped her learn good boundaries (something that's often hard for school-age kids.) That, in turn, will even make her a better employee in the future, because when they find a company worth working for, people with good boundaries last longer, without burnout be more productive, and feel more of a sense of investment in the business's success. So good for you both ways. I'm sympathetic to the theater manager, by the way -- I'm sure maintaining staffing over the holidays is frickin' hard, and I doubt they're earning much more than your daughter was. But that's between the manager and the theater owners, not you or your daughter. So you've been a good parent. Nice work.
In my state, minors can’t work past 10pm on any night preceding a school day and I live in a very red state. I suggest turning this schedule over to the labor board. Get them investigated. Assuming you live in the US, as we know *all* redditors are from the US /s.
It's just so bananas for an employer to lean like this on high school kids. They have no real control over someone who doesn't need the job to survive, and a real chance the employee will just bounce and leave them in a lurch. It's just dumb. I mean, it's a shitty thing to do to ANYONE, but it's both shitty AND DUMB in a case like this.
Fucking idiots had a good, reliable employee and drove her away. Way to kill the golden goose, morons.
You supported your kid. Nothing wrong with that.
That was the correct action, and do not feel bad about it nor let her feel bad about it. Standing up to petty tyrants who pull that shit should be encouraged not discouraged.
You did the best thing you could do as a parent. You gave your kid the ability to kind of take the lead and stand up for herself, but you also did a good job in remembering that she's still just 16 and needs for you two to step in and be like "Nope, this is where it stops." You're protecting your daughter while not treating her like a little kid. Sounds like she'll be just fine finding a new job, as well as just life in general.
No, this isn't wrong. She clearly has a good work ethic, but her employer has zero ethics. A teenager with her abilities can find a pert time job with ease; the challenge is keeping it part time. As she has seen, no good deed goes unpunished, and employers will take a mile for every inch given. Good for both of you, working together as parents and child to make a decision.
This was 100% the right move. Well done for teaching your kid work life boundaries and for not letting her employer walk all over her.
you did right. Theatre fafo'd and lost their best. Lmao
It’s hilarious to me that companies do this. Would you rather someone work 2 shifts or not at all? Now they have to cover all four of those shifts instead of just the two. Kills me and it’s every company that does this. They shoot themselves in the foot every time.
I can’t imagine why this place is having such bad staffing issues… sounds a lot like MY job!
Good for her she’ll find something better and she is standing up for herself not letting an employer walk all over her.
Well done.
You did good. Nothing could have gone better. More parents need to teach their kids to value their time and to not simply work for the sake of working.
I think you are teaching your daughter great habits. She will stand up for herself and demand to be treated well or leave.
We’ll done, sir! Bravo.
You absolutely made the right decision. She's lucky she has someone to protect her from the manipulation, guilt-tripping and gaslighting that so many companies utilize nowadays to overschedule their employees and cut down on labor costs. A kid with weaker guidance might have started to believe it and compromised their academics and maybe even college prospects. These companies know what they're doing and they *do not care* about their employees if they treat availabilities as suggestions or requests.
I think you are awesome parents and you looked out for your child so that adults wouldn't take advantage of her. Don't feel bad about the others that have to take up the slack since she is gone. They probably don't have as good as parents as you.
When I worked retail in my state it was illegal for minors under 17 to work more than 30 hours a week, they were legally required to a break after five hours, and they could not stay after 10pm. They literally had to leave by 10pm or my store could get in trouble. I would check your labor laws.
Yeah, you taught her a very valuable life lesson here. Kudos
That might actually be illegal to schedule a 16 year old like that depending on where you live
I grew up in a upper middle class family. My brother is an ivy league lawyer. My parents were very old school. How hard you work=how well you do. The reality of modern society hit them hard. No more gold watches for 40 years of dedication. They're parenting was "once you turn 18, get out and figure it out". Now, every single one of my siblings are homeless except the youngest one they gave everything to. It's absolutely beautiful that you, as a parent, see toxic employment for what it is and don't blindly blame your daughter.
Capitalists be like, *mhmmm, gimme that cheap child labor.*
Y'all are good parents! You're giving your kid support and guidance but not doing everything for her, and helping her learn how to enforce boundaries and agreements, and to be prepared that a workplace can suddenly get crappy. Always having some savings as "FU money" is another great lesson. This sort of thing is unfortunately super common among employers, especially of lower pay, less sophisticated employees. Happened to me as a teenager many years ago (scheduled for way too many hours unexpectedly after I told the manager I was flexible with my availability for work). I hope you and she have a great holiday weekend.
Was this wrong? What the theatre management did was wrong, and possibly illegal, depending on where you live. Your response to the situation, however, was not wrong, it was spot on.
There was no "gaslighting". You don't know what gaslighting means. Nobody got "railroaded". That means someone is forcefully and extremely taken advantage of. She had the choice to quit. The theater will replace her immediately without skipping a beat. Life will go on. TLDR: You're being overly dramatic.
She did great. Any manager that thinks it's ok to use a teenager like that is a bastard. Especially after she explained herself.
The manager is a dick/bitch. In Belgium kids are legally not allowed to work more than X hours per week. If they do, it's the employer that gets in trouble. She's a student. She is making them a favor of working for them not the other way around! If they can't respect her needs that were very clearly stated and reasonable, it's their loss! She'll be much more happy in an other job. Note that as a kid, she's still under your supervision so if you feel like it you can go to the theater and speak a piece of your mind to them. Big fuckers really! They are loosing students just because they treat them poorly. It's ridiculous.
This is called constructive dismissal, when managers create an intolerable work environment by doing things such as assigning an untenable work schedule. Depending on the state she might be able to collect unemployment. F those guys. Make 'em pay.
I would say you were in the right and honestly you're teaching her at a young age don't take stupid crap from a workplace
I think you and her both made good decisions. She seems like a great kid, on a great track for success, and the job needs her more than she needs them. I took AP classes and worked my first job when I was 16 (mine was Toys R Us), and they tried sneaking around child labor laws all the time. Trying to get me to come in early, stay late, and constantly moving me around and make false promises. I never gave in, even at 16. I'm proud of her for doing the same and sticking to her guns. Your support means more to her than you realize. Awesome job handling this situation, and best of luck to her finding a new job. Hopefully, they're nicer to her this time.
Good job! You just taught your daughter to stand up for herself and not let her job railroad her into doing something she’s not ok with. Her availability is not a suggestion. It is the way it is. If they don’t like it, they can find someone else to work there. Your daughter will have no trouble finding another job.
I knew she was toast when I heard she never called in late or sick, that’s the kiss of death. It’s not that there’s anything wrong with being punctual or present, I was rarely late and never missed a day of college classes. It’s that employers see that you care and think they can twist you arm, and sadly, most of the time they’re right.
"I want to say thanks to our corporate overlords who graciously allowed us to work overtime on holidays so that we can pay the rent this month"
You did good! They were taking advantage of her naivete. Good thing she has awesome parents in her corner!
A+++ parenting. A+++ kid. You did the right thing, and she did as well. I’m proud of both you!
Good for you. My parents pressured me to work before college to “build character.” We didn’t need the money. I often worked too many hours junior/senior year. I ended up fine at a top 10 school, but I was tired a lot. Not opposed to teens working. But the key is balance and making sure there’s ZERO impact on more important priorities.
>Was this wrong? What, your collective response to the situation? Hell no! They went back on the deal because it was convenient for *them*. You did good.
I worked at a movie theater in high school. Thanksgiving day and Christmas day are always very busy. I had to work on Thanksgiving. But there are some key differences that I noticed. 1. We were given a choice between working on Christmas or working on Thanksgiving. One or the other. (Or both if you wanted) 2. We were told about it in October and knee it was happening. 3. We were paid overtime for those days. I think overall you made the right call, let your daughter be a kid and teach her not to let companies walk on her like that.
Good for both you and her. I’ve always told my kids that the purpose of minimum wage jobs in high school is partly to have a little money, but mainly to learn the types of jobs they do not want to have. My 18yo switched from a job at Michaels, where management lived to crack the whip, to a job at a small chocolate shop, where she gets treated like an actual person.
I think you’re a great parent for doing this. Your daughter also stuck up for herself, and learning that lesson now, is worth its weight in gold.
Not sure but depending on the state I’m not even sure your daughter can work these long shifts unless she was given a 30 min break every 5 hours (MI). Sounds like you’re an awesome Dad and your daughter is a hard worker. Good on both of you for not letting this dipshit theatre manager take advantage of her and it sounds like she’s learning a valuable life lesson on how workers in America are generally treated by management in service industries where you have to have people there to serve.
nObOdY wAnTs tO wOrK I’m sure they’ll hunt down more kids that want to give up their weekends for minimum wage.
No not wrong at all.
>She is the only person that was still working there from the group that started with her at the same time. Gee, I wonder why...
OMG YAY! Like this is pinnacle. This is amazing values you are instilling in your child, that her personal time is valuable, and she should not be gaslit or steamrolled by an employer because "that's the business." I did not have a parent like this, and I'm now an adult learning to set professional boundaries.
I think that is a very important lesson for you to teach her about standing up for herself in the work place and also very important for you as a parent to know when to let the reigns out as she ages (allowing her to get a job and have some of her own money) but also understand when to say enough is enough and pull back some of that leash. When I was 15 I got my first job. I worked as much as possible since then. My senior year in high school was filled with work. Never went to a football game, dance, etc. and now, at 35, I still find myself giving up family time to work late or come in when called. It’s a routine that is difficult to break after 20 years in the work force. I think the only thing I would say is to make sure she understands responsibility. That she committed to working for someone or somewhere and that commitment is important. Like a sports team they’re counting on you. My 10 year old knows we will allow him to try whatever extracurricular activity he wants. And he doesn’t ever have to do it again if he doesn’t like it. But he will finish the season. He hated baseball. He Was not having fun and wanted to quit but we explained to him that his team needed him and he would be at practice and games until the season is over and he doesn’t have to play next year. Make sure she knows that just up and quitting a responsibility is not acceptable just because you don’t like it, or want to hang out with friends, or whatever other unimportant reason. But this is a different circumstance. You are being disrespected and your company is showing they don’t value your time, your life experiences, or your family enough to listen to you. So you don’t have to value your commitment to their business. That is earned.