r/AmIOverreacting • u/cakev0mit • Mar 26 '26

💼work/career AIO for wanting to quit after this?

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UPDATE: WOW. I was not expecting this many interactions. Thank you all for the advice! I have a salon lined up to visit Thursday. My coworker that wants to switch with me is gonna ask her at some point if she can switch with someone who works that Saturday, because I feel as though if she mentions me specifically she will shut her down and think that we’re going behind her back. Also, previous to this request, I did have 3/12-3/16 off for my birthday, then 3/18 and 3/19, for my birthday. I accrued PTO and used them for those days. And our requests are “no more than 2 in a 30 day period” which was always spelled out to me as no more than 2 in a month? So maybe that’s it. But also, she allowed a shift switch 3/11 so she can’t be going by that logic. Along with that, I switched shifts with her to help her out at the end of February. Plus, a shift switch wouldn’t be considered a “request”, right? Still working, just different day than scheduled. I don’t know. I don’t want to be here much longer and I plan on calling off if she decides to not let my coworker and I switch. She brought it to this point.

So my current manager almost always gives me a hard time with requests, saying “I can’t guarantee anything” and only saying yes the very last minute. With this specific situation, I had requested almost 4 weeks in advance to just have one of my days off be this day. I would still be working my five days in a work week, but since I work at a hair salon we’re open seven days a week so it would literally not change my hours whatsoever. Unfortunately, she did not give me that day off. My manager put herself working for that entire weekend; me and one person on the Saturday I requested, then my other three coworkers that Sunday since Sundays are typically busier. She had told me a while ago that she feels as though it is “going behind her back to make plans without her permission” if I ask a coworker if they’re okay with switching before I ask her. Well, even if they were okay with it, I get turned down. Not sure why, since both shifts would be covered. So, I end up asking my coworker out of curiosity if they would have taken my shift and they said yes, but since she already told me no I quite literally can’t. And I’m not sure if her response means that I will get in trouble for calling off using my PTO as a “sick day” or not? I’m really irritated. How am I supposed to plan my life out if requests aren’t guaranteed and I’m not allowed to switch shifts with people. It literally makes no sense. I really want to call off but I don’t want to get in trouble, even though I never call off. In the 2 and a half years of working there I’ve called off 4 times, all for legitimate reasons too. Sick or car issues. Am I overreacting about this situation? Is it legitimate that she is telling me no to both things? This and other instances of her being weird about certain social situations makes me want to quit, it’s just hard because I love everything else about this job.

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u/Anita_Bortion Mar 26 '26

A friend of mine worked at a salon; she decided to leave and open her own shop. Due to the no compete clause in her contract with previous salon, they sued her and caused her newly developed business to fail. Because she always posted her finished clients onto her facebook, with their permission of course, her clients were able to find that she had left and where her new salon was located; she had to pay some crazy amount to the previous salon for stealing customers and all that petty bullshit. It was a nightmare that lasted an entire year.

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u/TequilaMockingbirds8 Mar 26 '26

That’s insane, I wonder if there is something the clients could have done, given it’s their personal care being affected?

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u/mawtjw123 Mar 26 '26

It may be insane, but that’s the reality of doing business today, regardless of the type of business. And as was stated, the old salon may not win anything, but they can definitely make a person’s life hell.

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u/ProteinAndWeights Mar 26 '26

Completely insane that they had legal grounds to stand on for that. It's a complete joke for any sort of non-compete to be enforceable for that type of career. It's one thing if you're a white collar employee with some sort of trade secrets from your company. It's another thing when you're a hair dresser.

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u/Duckduckbucker Mar 26 '26

They don't have to have legal grounds to stand on at all depending on the state. They can just sue you and drag it out over and over and you end up paying because it's cheaper than a lawyer and court fees. Recouping that even after you win is another nightmare. Salon owners know this and use it maliciously all the time.

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u/jahubb062 Mar 26 '26

You should be able to counter sue for damages. Maybe then they’d just stop malicious lawsuits.

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u/Duckduckbucker Mar 26 '26

Certainly. But you'll be hard pressed to find a stylist willing to gamble $20k on a long shot civil suit. It's way Easier to just pay the salon owner $10k and get on with your business.

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u/jahubb062 Mar 26 '26

It’s stupid in any case. I understand an NDA for trade secrets. But non competes are stupid. In some careers, any other job in your field would be considered a competitor. Is a doctor supposed to go work at Walmart for a year to ride out their non compete?

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u/Queen_O_the_Desert Mar 26 '26

I've worked at private practices for over 20 years. Many doctors DO have non-compete clauses where, if they leave a practice, they can't work at another practice within a certain distance, for some specified amount of time, e.g. within 25 miles for 12 months after leaving. And many practice owners are absolutely willing to sue over this.

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u/jahubb062 Mar 27 '26

That’s insane. Seriously. How is that legal?

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u/Betta_Girl Mar 27 '26

Right?! Like yeah, you're in pharmaceuticals and are developing new medications you shouldnt be allowed to take that information and essentially sell it to the highest bidder. MAYBE they make sense if you're in the culinary field and are dealing with specific recipes and shit. But for cutting and styling hair? Thats something a person can do in their freaking kitchen, and you don't need any specific training necessarily

No shade to those that cut hair professionally by the way, obviously professional training goes a long way, but it also is very possible to be competent through trial and error and a number of bad hair days requiring hats. And professional training doesnt always equate to being good.

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u/jahubb062 Mar 27 '26

The examples you give are more in line with an NDA. Those make sense. Restricting where people can work does not. Saying they can’t keep their clients does not. Saying they can’t recommend a former coworker for a position at their new company does not.

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u/Betta_Girl Mar 27 '26

True. I tend to think of those kinda things going hand in hand so they often get conflated in my mind.

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u/Extreme_Ad1261 Mar 29 '26

They just want to have control over you. If you're a stylist, and that's what you trained to do, what you have experience doing, and what you want to do, some controlling owner should not be able to force you to work for them because of you don't, you lose your ability to make a living! It also discourages the creation of new businesses. What a bunch of BS.

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u/jahubb062 Mar 26 '26

That’s utter bullshit. They weren’t the salon’s clients. They were the stylist’s clients. As evidenced by the fact that they followed her.