To quit or not to quit?

GodfatherGodfather Registered User regular
edited December 2007 in Help / Advice Forum
Alright, so i've been working at this restaurant since the beginning of October of this year as a server (so roughly about two months). The pay is good, but there's a lot of crap you have to put up with at times (Comes with the territory I guess). I don't really have any complaints regarding this restaurant (mainly because this is the first real server job i've had and haven't work at another place to compare it to) but I think i've run into a bit of a hiccup of sorts.

You see, starting next semester my schedule is going to get a bit hectic. It's not so much of a heavy classload but more of distance/time issue. So far I manage to get my tuesday, thursday and wednesday mornings off so I could attend my classes. However, next semester one of the classes is at Sam Houston college, easily a 45 minute to hour and ten minute drive going to and from the school. Since the class is smack in the middle of the day working is out of the question due to the class time eating away into both work shift time frames. This isn't the problem though. The problem is with the other class, which can only be taken on mondays and wednesdays.

Now the way I see it, if I want to keep working at this restaurant i'd only be able to work weekends and a couple of night shifts. Getting those night shifts is usually a rite-of-passage sort of ordeal (i.e. you work 6 months until management starts bumping your schedule to evenings) because people usually tip better at night. Since i've only worked there for a couple of months, forcing them to make a decision could easily backfire and lower the number of hours I could work, or they could just drop me altogether (unlikely, but it happens).

I'm wondering if I should find another temporary job in the meantime with more flexible hours in order to work and go to school at the same time. I was thinking of working in this neat little art store during this semester so I could learn more about the materials i'd have to work with (i'm an art major you see). It could be a lot of fun, but I definitely wouldn't be doing it for the money, since the pay is crap compared to my current job. However, this might be the better choice to do since trying to play hard ball at this restaurant could end up in my termination.

Recently i've seen a lot of "new" people show up at our location, where they took a leave of absence due to school/work/etc and started working again a few months later down the road. This is what I think I should do next semester, and then come back after my class schedule ends before the summer officially lets out. I'm wondering if i'd be eligible to do this despite the fact that i've only been there a couple of months. I talked to my cousin about this, and he said that some places won't let you do this unless you've worked X # of months or something.

I dunno, i'm just really confused with what to do here. This probably isn't that big of a deal, but I could sure use some input on my situation.

Godfather on

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  • blanknogoblanknogo Registered User regular
    edited December 2007
    The best thing for you to do is just go and have a talk with your employer. They hired you as a student and they should be used to these types of situations arising as a result. Let them know your hours and see what they can do for you. Let them know you like working with them and would like to continue to do so.

    Then they have a choice - they can adjust hours to something more flexible, keep you on for less hours but with the expectation that you'll resume more normal hours after the semester, or let you go. Really if they don't do the first two you'll have to leave anyways, so I don't really see what the concern about playing hard ball is.

    blanknogo on
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