I’m sitting here, at my WFH tech support call centre job, completely alone and unable to leave to so much as take a shit in my own bathroom two meters away from me. On a Saturday afternoon which is infamous for being busy around here. AGAIN. The other person who was supposed to be on shift called in sick last night, which let me be clear is 100% not his fault and I do not blame him, and the previous team signed out to leave me alone during the time with the most Karens and people who have no idea what they’re calling me about (also not the previous team’s fault, they have a schedule and weekend plans too). But what absolutely pisses me off is that no one from management said a word about someone being absent, it took me half an hour of being alone to figure that out. And of fucking course they didn’t find anyone to cover for me, and they’re not even here on the weekends so I’m totally alone when I totally didn’t expect to be, at a time of day where even with the usual two people it can get busy. Not even an email saying “hey, you’ll be alone from 3 PM to 6 PM so you might want to take your breaks before then.”

The thing is, I’m usually the one covering shifts. 4 out of 5 times I’m asked to cover or switch shifts or anything, I say yes, and the only times I didn’t was once when I had classes and once when I was literally two hours from home, and I like to think I have a reputation for being agreeable and nice to people and wiling to change my schedule to help a colleague out. Like, I know employers take advantage of workers, everyone knows that, but this is the first real time in my career that I have seriously felt that the taking advantage was intentional and not just just “I have to work and sometimes it’s harder work than usual.”

This has been happening for a while too, if this was the first time maybe I’d feel less pissed off. No, I was left alone for a long stretch of time on Thursday afternoon and Monday night shift too (thank fucking god that was Monday night shift and not Monday morning), and that’s just this week, every week this month has had me by myself, against company policy which says two people are required at all times. Actually, funny story, I wrote an entire vent piece fiction/short story in a worldbuilding community about my characters going through an exaggerated version this because this is happening to me and I’m so goddamn frustrated. And of fucking course the day after I post that I get stuck with being alone on the worst possible timing yet.

What’s more, on Monday, I scrolled up in our company chat thread and what the fuck did I see? Someone informs my supervisor that my partner for the night is sick, which, again, she is very nice and I’m certain she really was sick and deserved time off, but then what the fuck does my manager reply? “Oh, that’s fine, I’m sure (Fennekin) can handle it for a few hours!” Yeah fuck you, no really, I hate you. You’re not even going to TRY to find someone else to cover for me?

So you know what? Company, management, fuck all of you. I will NEVER cover a shift or switch shifts again. I will never skip breaks or stay late to help a customer again. You give me that email with my schedule every day and I will follow it to the second, and I don’t give a shit what happens, I’m logged off and my notifications silenced the instant I’m off shift. And don’t try to guilt me with the “think about your coworkers” line either, if I the mere fact that I am doing my job as you specified it in the schedule/contract makes them miserable enough to quit and leave you with no staff, that would be a dream come true for me and probably be massively beneficial to them in the long run by not having to deal with your exploitation!