Agreeing to something only to find that the terms of that deal have changed is an altogether disappointing experience. And why wouldn’t it be? An expectation has been set that hasn’t been met, and usually not in your favor. While sometimes you might fight and argue to reach the terms of the original deal… Sometimes, all you can do is pray that the deal isn’t altered any further.
Even though the terms of employment shouldn’t be like making a deal with Star Wars Darth Vader—well… sometimes it is; with the agreed terms of your employment shifting under your feet like sand at the edges of a sarlacc pit.
This is what happened to this new supervisor at a manufacturing plant who was hired for an 8-hour shift, only finding once he reported for his first day that the shift was actually 8.5 hours. This would have been well and fine if the lazy second shift supervisor wasn’t frequently absent, leaving the new supervisor to cover his shifts too, unwilling and unable to leave the plant unattended—other times needing to come in early for shifts where the other supervisor would leave inexplicably early.
Needless to say, this made for some long shifts and even longer weeks, racking up overtime like it was hotcakes on the shelf of a bakery that was making hotcakes at a rate that far outpaced the demands of its clientele.
SARAH enters stage left
A new boss named Sarah started, bringing with her all the things that a terrible new boss brings—namely, changes to things that she didn’t fully understand. Sarah wanted him to work even longer scheduled hours, stretching the now not-so-new supervisor’s hours out to lengths that would make it completely unmanageable for him to cover both shifts when the lazy second-shift supervisor was absent. All the supervisor could do was comply with her new demands.
This meant that the employer would now have to hire last-second cover in the form of contractors who charged obscene rates for their services, making Sarah’s little change more costly than it was ever intended to be. This led to Sarah’s eventual removal from her position.
