Getting written up for things that are out of my control.
I'm in my 30's and have been working since I was in my teens, and I've never been written up or fired from a job.... until recently. I started a job a few months ago and due to state law(California) I have to take my 30 minute meal break before a certain time or the company has to pay me for an additional hour of work so if you don't go on break on time you get written up. Well I'm pretty much the only person that shows up to work on time most of my coworkers are regularly 10+ minutes late and some of them insist on taking their lunch first despite being late. Well in addition to being late most of them take 45+ minute lunch breaks meaning that by the time they get back from break I'm going on break late and getting written up (for some reason there's no write ups for being late or taking a long break and management leaves early afternoon so there's no management to regulate breaks....). It happened again the other day and I got written up and told my next write up will mean termination from the job. I explained to my boss that I can't go on break until the next person comes back unless they want me to leave the store unattended until someone decides to come back and he told me that doesn't make sense? I explained to him if only two people are working and one of them goes on lunch break the other one can't go on break until someone relieves them or the store will have no employees in it to help customers (not sure why this had to be explained...) he said he would talk to people about making sure they are going to break on time and coming back on time (never happened). I am looking for employment elsewhere for obvious reasons (there's a lot more like the air conditioner not working,constant drama/retaliation, management sleeping with employees, ect.. over all a bad work environment) but I am not finding a new opportunity and am afraid I will be fired before I can find a new job. Is there anything I can do to keep my job??? I tried taking things into my own hands and gently explaining to my coworkers I keep getting written up because they are keeping me from going on my lunch on time by taking an extended lunch after showing up late and as expected no one gives a fuck.