OK I got two new jobs, one of them being a restaurant job. Right now I am not a full server because I am a newbie who is still learning everything about the restaurant, but it is a job that will have a lot of potential once I am fulling serving the food and wine. As a result, the money's been less than stellar lately. I'm sticking with it because over time the money will get better and it will hopefully replace dancing eventually. I have a scheduling conflict with them, though.
Last week, I couldn't dance because I was scheduled seven days in a row at the restaurant. Plus, I had my day job at the insurance office. Plus, I worked every single day the prior week, whether it be at the restaurant, strip club, and/or insurance office. But they needed me for Restaurant Week and I was happy to help out and prove myself to be a reliable worker. And I had Sunday, my one day off in over 2 weeks, to look forward to. Then on Saturday night 20mins before we all leave, one of my coworkers says, "You know you're working tomorrows, right?" I was like, "HUH????" I'd told them that I do not work Sundays(the Sunday prior was an exception because it was during Restaurant Week), because of church, needing at least one day off per week, etc. This was the first time that the schedule for that week was even posted. I asked the GM about it and explained how I'd just worked 7 days in a row and had a 5day/week day job, and he forgot about my day job and felt really bad. So he asked me to do that favor for them just once, and said that if it was really dead on Sunday, I could leave early at 8pm insteada 11pm.
I really did NOT want to go to work on Sunday, because I was totally exhausted and my throat and ear were throbbing. But I spent money on train fare, interrupted a whole day that I'd planned with museum trips and such, and went to work. Just to see that it was totally dead, and the other 3 servers/bussers didn't even NEED me to be there. So I made like no money, stuck around just for the sake of sticking around til 8, felt like more of a pest than a help(since there wasn't enough work for all of us to do, I felt like I kept getting in the way of the others), and went home. Today, I had to go to the doctor because I've developed a nasty recurring strep infection again. I coulda used that day of rest. However, I did it to show them that I was a good worker.
OK here's the issue. I am scheduled on Saturday night, another night that I do not work. The honest reason, is because it is hands-down the best night at the strip club and I desperately need money. I need to work Saturday to make up for all the days that I didn't dance, because I was scheduled at my other job, and as a result made less money than necessary. But I wouldn't use a strip club as my reason, instead I can always say that I have political campaign work scheduled(and yes, our political committee often has events/conventions scheduled on Saturdays). I already worked Sunday for them and it proved to be an unnecessary chore/annoyance. In fact, I was one of the only servers/bussers who worked 8 days straight AND/OR has another job or two or three, so I wonder if I have extra reason to ask for Saturday off?
Should I call tomorrow and ask them to remove me from the schedule for Saturday? Or, would this look bad? I am very very bad at being assertive, but I have been trying to be more assertive lately. If they keep scheduling me Saturdays, I'm not gonna have enough money to make living expenses because I depend on dancing to pay the majority of the bills(hopefully it won't always be this way! :-( That's why I'm "sucking up" lesser paying jobs, in hopes they lead to better things over time). They are a cool bunch and understanding, but at the same time I feel all this pressure to prove myself to be an ambitious worker, esp since the owner seems to like me and he is kinda hard to please. What should I do?


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As far as you saying that taking every shitty shift will make me LESS likely to get promoted...yes, I've DEFINITELY had that happen before. At McDonalds, for example. At 16 yrs old, I was a great worker, worked tons of hours for a high schooler and resultingly saw my grades drop slightly, yet the 14-yr-old boy with no prior work experience got promoted to supervisor and I didn't get shit. In fact, they started me off at min wage($5.15/hr) but they hired the 14-yr-old boy and a few other young 'uns at $5.50-5.75/hr. Then at Friendlys, when I was 20 and in college. They hired me as a waitress, put me on cash register and making sundaes as part of my "training," then left me there at the cash register to rot. I never got trained to be a waitress, yet all these high school kids got hired directly as waiters and never had to train with sundaes or register. I think it's because I was agreeable to cash register, whereas all the high schoolers would bitch about how "shittier" the money was at register, as opposed to collecting tips as a waiter. As a result, I worked a shitty job with shitty hours and I had to drop a college course and retake it for $1600, when I'd only made $1000 the entire summer I'd slaved away at the Friendlys job I detested so much.

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