Advice needed
Hello everyone,
I really need everyone’s else perspective. I had a talk with mom boss yesterday regarding my hours for Friday, I have noticed (completely my fault) I was not keeping track of hours for Fridays and realized I was working past my GH, I am “guaranteed” 35hr a week and Fridays are suppose to be 3 hr days. I was looking back at my payments and it doesn’t add up I was only getting payed 30 minutes extra and I know for a fact I was not leaving by 11:45-12:00 on Fridays. I know dumb of me for not keeping track, I was just so use to actually working a set amount of hours weekly and anything past that was payed extra. So with this family I am working for, to me it feels that mom boss is not understanding but I also do understand her. I explained to her that Fridays my pay wasn’t accurate and that I also would like to know what time I would be off Fridays.
Yesterday it was mid day and I didn’t know what time I would be off. She didn’t give me any heads up and since I’ve started she won’t tell me what time I would be getting dismissed on Fridays. I had stayed quiet until yesterday I was struggling with my own daughter and I had thought, well mom boss is not working (she was home) I will be dismissed early and be home on time. It was 2:30 and I had to text her and ask till what time I would be needed. I had the talk about my pay for Fridays and GH, they had just gotten back from their vacation Wednesday, so I did not work Monday and Tuesday and yesterday Friday I strongly felt she wanted to keep me for a full 8hr shift but she was not going to pay those extra hours since I didn’t work Monday and Tuesday (because they were gone). She has done this one other time where she swaps the hours and will extend another day because she excused me one day earlier than usual and I have explained to her already that I do not work that way. Any hours worked outside my standard schedule is extra even if I was dismissed earlier or wasn’t needed and she agreed on that. Fast forward yesterday since I had suspected she was going to do this again, I thought it would be great opportunity to talk in person and well it didn’t go so well, definitely felt alot of tension and she was confused saying that she was paying me for GH, then I said yes but I am working past the usual hours I normally work on Fridays and that I do not bank hours. Just because I didn’t work Monday or Tuesday that I don’t want to be “making up” hours the following day? I also brought up about wanting to be given a heads up of what time I would be off on Fridays and she said oh well you had said you were flexible (during the interview) I had said I needed about 36hrs a week but that I was flexible! I meant if they needed 38-40hrs of childcare that we can do that but whatever hours they needed would be my GH, so it would be on the contract. They decided to guarantee 35 hrs but realistically they need more than 35hrs of childcare, I just now come to conclusion that it’s more convenient for them to have on the contract 35GH, (but not understanding what GH even means in my opinion) correct me if I am in the wrong.
Long story short, I told her yes I said I was flexible but I meant if you need 38hrs of childcare (which they do) that I wanted those hours guaranteed so on my contract. She responded with “she didn’t know everything had to be so rigid”. That kind of threw me off and made me overthink things and feel that I am asking for a lot. I’m not trying to be greedy or ask for things that are uncommon, I have worked like this for years and this is how I’ve done it with past employers? She also had said that going forward we can document exact hours and I had said, this is why I would like a set amount of hours clearly they need more than 35hrs but they don’t want to guarantee the extra amount of hours they need, seems like they want for me to just work those extra hours without having it be guaranteed hours, so when they leave for vacation the extra hours I have been working Fridays will not be guaranteed if I make sense. I am feeling very stressed with the explaining and I am also now feeling discouraged since I only have about 3 months with them and everything was going fine but I do see we cannot come to an agreement when it comes to GH.
All advice welcomed, please give me some insights.