What I Won't Do...

This past weekend, while at my second job, I came to the realization that I think everyone comes to at some point in the life or career: I placed a dollar value on my free time. And I am happy to say that it is NOT $9.00 an hour.

Not too long ago, I blogged about how serious I have become in my decision to pay down all of my revolving credit card debt before I graduate in the fall. To put more money towards my credit card debt I decided that it was imperative that I get a second job. However, despite what I was told when I was hired, which was that some weekends would be required, I have been scheduled for EVERY Friday, Saturday, AND Sunday since I began working. Most nights I go home well after the chefs and the rest of the waitstaff leave...as in hours later. The job is also not just the dishwasher...it is also being the janitor and prep cook when necessary in addition to our actual job. If all of this wasn't irritating enough, my fellow dishwashers don't pull their weight; in fact, one of them is good friends with the chef and is only scheduled for Sunday evenings and weeknights. The other day he had the audacity to say that he should be able to go home early, READ: while most of the work was still left to be done, because he came in earlier. I looked at him like, "Fool, I have worked ever day this weekend and you think YOU should go home early because you sat around tasting food for a couple of hours before I got here?" Okay, I didn't really say that but it's what I wish I had said. Instead I said something like, "I don't think that it's fair that I get left with most of the work just because you came in earlier...you did get paid for that time." He looked sheepish and stayed till the end.

All of this is to say that this past Saturday night when the chef told me that the schedule would stay the same and that I would have to again work every day next weekend, including the forth of July, not getting time and a half for working a "national holiday," I put in my two weeks notice. When I left that evening the General Manager wanted to talk to me but I pretty much told him my mind was made up. I am a VERY hard worker and I know that I can get a job somewhere else where nepotism doesn't play such a large role in the way in which chores get doled out and how staff are scheduled. And if it does, I might be willing to put up with it...but not for $9.00 an hour.

This job has made me increasingly grateful for my main employer who not only pays me well but has paid holidays. His philosophy is, "I've always thought it was easier to pay well for good help, than to pay poorly for poor help."

My decision to leave will not impact my payoff goals that much as I am scheduled to complete my two weeks notice right before my Sorority's National Convention and when I return, I will return to thirty hours a week at my first job.