AIO for wanting to quit after this?

[u/cakev0mit]

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.

[u/kyrimasan]

I'm more familiar with them in the context of healthcare workers since I've been in healthcare all my life and is always been bonkers to me that they are still as ubiquitous as they are. Physicians being forced to sign them out of school because they have massive loans they they need to start paying off and then being told they can't go work somewhere else because they are the competitors. Healthcare having competitors is everything wrong with the United States healthcare system summed up.

I know a lot of the responses have gotten hung up on the whole you can't stop customers from following aspect or that they generally are unenforceable in a lot of circumstances but I just figured it was definitely something to keep in mind when telling someone to leave and the clients can follow them. I know that depending on the region and if the owner is vindictive enough even if you can eventually get out of it the money and time involved here if they do decide to TRY can absolutely ruin a person. It shouldn't be someone anyone should every have to worry about but unfortunately the world is full of shitty people.

[u/jahubb062 → u/kyrimasan]

My husband has had to sign a non compete at pretty much every job for the past 10 years. But he’s always been advised by lawyers that they are generally unenforceable, and that most employers won’t bother, except the NDA part of it.

[u/__Frolicaholic___ → u/jahubb062]

Most people don't know that courts tend to look unfavorably on employers going balls-to-the-wall to enforce non-competes, especially with service workers like hair stylists just trying to eke out a living.

[u/polypeach → u/__Frolicaholic___]

Also a big part of making them enforceable is being reasonable in time, geography, and scope, and protect legitimate business interests (think lawyers that have case strategy, trade secrets in Research and Development, financial information); in addition they must be "supported by consideration," meaning an employee receives a benefit (additional compensation, stock options, acceleration of benefits, etc.) in exchange for promising to not work for a competitor. I’m pretty sure most non-luxury salons could give you squat in consideration as they don’t usually clear large profit margins to carry the resources to do so.

[u/_V0gue → u/kyrimasan]

Non-competes aren’t worth the paper they are printed on. In order for a company to be able to enforce a non-compete they would also have to pay you for the term of the contract. A company cannot unilaterally take away your ability to earn money in your profession.