Woman juggles two jobs to make ends meet until an issue makes her realize her worth

Work-life balance is essential for a healthy lifestyle. While some people are willing to give everything to their jobs, many, especially younger workers, know when to set boundaries. Unfortunately, many companies prioritize profits over employee well-being. A Reddit user, u/turtlesnkits, shared her work struggles, raising questions about how companies value their employees.

According to the post, the employee worked full-time at a deli while also holding a part-time job to make ends meet. Before taking the full-time role, she was upfront with her boss about her other job. "I was honest with them about how I had a second job when I started. They were completely understanding, and scheduled me accordingly at my second job," she wrote.

Previously for four months, the employee had been getting 35 to 37 hours of work each week on average at her full-time job at the deli. That coupled with the 14 hours at her second job which was part-time, left her with enough working hours and wages. Just as things seemed to be going all well and smoothly, something happened at her full-time job that troubled her. She said in her post, "Until a couple of weeks ago, my boss cut my hours down to 20 a week. Which isn’t enough for me to live off of, and my second job doesn’t have any full-time availability but it pays a lot more."

She even tried to talk to her full-time job: "I ended up talking to my FT boss about my hours, and he said his boss was cracking down on him about hours. I completely understand that, it’s food, so it’s not like I’m always guaranteed a solid 40, but more than part-time."

To prioritize herself and earn enough money, she asked for extra hours at her part-time job during the weekdays, and luckily for her, her employer said that she had the hours to give her. And so, she did the next logical thing. "I informed my boss I wouldn’t be able to work certain shifts for the time being, and he was very upset, to say the least. This is a huge turnaround from how he reacted previously when he knew I planned on working FT at my second job eventually. He told me he understood, until he didn’t, apparently," she said in her post.

The boss at the full-time job told her that while he didn’t have a solid time frame on when hours would be back to normal, he was upset that she didn’t inform him of it sooner. In response to this reaction from her boss, the woman wrote: "As if he didn’t inform me he would be taking over 17 hours from me. Or give me a heads up, so then I can adjust my schedule." 

The employee ended the post by opining how workplaces expected loyalty from employees when they had none of their own to hand out. A lot of people commented on this post to show support for the employee. This story just goes to show that people often give more to their jobs in terms of loyalty than their workplace gives them. Nevertheless, she finally did realize her worth and had an interview lined up for a position with better hours and much better pay. All in all, it was an experience to learn the importance of work and life balance and understand just how crucial it is to have a decent work culture. 

Editor's note: This article was originally published on September 15, 2023. It has since been updated.