Manager tells $14/hr employee that 'your personal life shouldn't interfere with your availability' after they decline a last-minute Saturday shift

Should you keep your schedule clear just in case you get called in?

Our personal lives and our work lives can be tough to balance. Odds are, we spend much more time at work than we do anywhere else, except maybe our beds. Don't think about that too hard, or else you'll get upset. But the point stands. You sacrifice so much of your time for your work, you probably don't want to give more than is necessary. Because you know if the tables were turned, they probably wouldn't drop everything to help you. So why should you do that for them? Sure, you want to pitch in where you can, but you don't want to end up in a situation where you're giving your time to something that doesn't benefit you.

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My manager actually said "your personal life shouldn't interfere with your availability" after I declined a last minute Saturday shift.

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Commenters gave their advice and perspective.

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Sometimes it hurts to set boundaries, but you need to do so in order to protect yourself. Maybe that means not answering your work phone after a certain hour, even if that means purposefully missing work messages. Maybe it means notifying your manager about your schedule ahead of time so they know not to bother you outside of that. But in the working world, things come up, and you might be asked to drop everything and cover a shift. But as the saying goes, “poor planning on your end does not constitute an emergency on mine.” So just because someone else can't make it to work doesn't mean that you have to go out of your way to ameliorate that. You're allowed to say no whenever you want, and you don't need a good reason for it. Because your life is important, and you are allowed to keep plans that make you happy. You are allowed to prioritize time with family and friends over work. It may have some ramifications in your work life, but the best managers know how to keep their employees living balanced, healthy lives that aren't completely dedicated to work. It's not how you get the best output out of people anyway. Keep reading this story, though, to see what happened and see what commenters had to say.
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