Question About Bosses, Breaks/Lunches, & Work
 

ARGG!

I frickin hate my bosses.

They make me go on break when I JUST came back from lunch (like today, I went to lunch @ 10:30, came back at 11:00 and was told to go back on break at 12:15).

As a dieting bodybuilder I must eat meals every three hours. I wake up at 3:45 AM, cook and eat, then eat again at 7:15AM, 10:30AM, and 2PM.

Any earlier and it's just wasted protein (body can only digest about 30 grams of protein in one setting) and calories since you're still full from the previous meal.

So today what I ended up doing is sneaking out for a "bathroom break" and just scarfing down my meal.

If I get busted doing that, I could be fired (still on my 90 day probation thing).

So I'm wondering if any of you know a "loophole" that makes it so bosses can't tell you when to take your break/lunch (as long as you don't go past the 5 hour mark).

I work with foods so I'm not exactly able to bring my meals with me and scarf 'em quickly....

Any suggestions?

Either tell your boss the truth about being a bodybuilder or whatever and see if the two of you can come to some kind of agreement. OR just tell him that you have some kind of medical condition that requires a tight diet schedule that you must follow. Good luck.

If you are in a place where there must be adequate coverage at all times, good luck on asking for a bump. I've worked in both, and often times my breaks are dictated by the office because they must have X number of warm bodies in the office in order for the operation to float.

I work in the CostCo food court making pizzas and such. This week is "pizza week" so it's busier than usual, but even when we're not busy, they still play dictator and tell me what to do and when to do it.

I'm fine with that, but when you go overboard with it, quite frankly, it starts to piss me off.

Alright, I'll see what the boss says. Hmmph, I'd like to lie and say I'm a diebetic but I betcha the boss would want/require a note from a certified medical doctor. :(

are you a union employee and can you go to the shop steward? or whomever makes the break schedule and ask for it to be changed

You could easily say you are watching your blood sugar levels and need to eat at regular intervals. "Please try to make sure that my breaks coincide with a schedule of every 3 hours."

I assume you are working part time and not a 40 hour work week, so my advice is simple. I'd wait until you hit past the 90 day time period. It's not going to kill you if you are off a few days and are still gainfully employed. So you waste 3 grams of protein on the days you work. BFD, you won't suddenly get deformed or miss your targets by leaps and bounds. The 30 grams is that your body or the average body? I'm assuming that it's the average body and you may or may not be hitting that number already, but you're doing the best regimen you can of eating every 3 hours to keep your metabolism regular which is more important than the EXACT number of grams of protein your body is actually digesting.

You could easily speak now, but then if they so decided to find some reason to not make you pass muster for the 90 days, you'll be able to eat every 3 hours to your hearts content but won't have any $$$.

I think you should go to work, keep your mouth shut, work hard, and take breaks when they tell you to. Maybe someday they'll recognize your effort, possibly even promote you, and then you can start negotiating when your breaks happen.
An aside: Do you intend to spend the rest of your life working in the food court, or do you have other ambitions?

Funny, I've heard all this stuff about CostCo being a great place to work...

By the way: "play dictator" is one pissed off guy's interpretation of things. The ARE your bosses. They DO get to tell you what to do and when to do it. And presumably there's a good reason for what they have you do, whether you know it or not.

As a (former) employer, frankly, if you brought your request to me and discussed it with me, I'd see what I could do to make it work. If I found out you'd been bitching behind my back about how inflexible I am without even checking it out with me first--especially during your probation period--your ass would make skid marks as it bounced down the street. Last thing I need messing up my top-10-employers-in-the-USA company is some musclebound attitude case.

Well, I'm a "boss" with about 500+ people in various capacities so here are things from that perspective.

- everyone should receive at least a 30 minute lunch (off the clock) for every 6+ hours worked and at least a 10 minute break (on the clock) for every 4 hours worked, meaning a break in the orning and aftenoon wit lunc in the middle Hour lunche are fine depending on the nature of the work.
- idiot supervisors don't consider having breaks in the middle of two time periods with lunch in the middle, they just do it whenever.
- if you worked in a factory line type job, you'd get a break after about 2 hours, lunch 2 hours later and another break in another two hours. Unfortunately, you'd never be able to work out a 3 hour cycle in any kind of line setting

Also unfortunately, you work in fast food. Schedules are dictated by the unexpected flow of customers. If your supervisor is any good, they'd have a better idea of how to schedle based on market conditions, seasonality, time of day and the specials they are running. And remember, companies are good or bad based on the individual employees. costco may be fine but you've just gtten stuck with a bad apple.

If you work 8 hours, you might eat something 2 hours into your work day but you may have problems gettig lunch 3 hours later unless you could work that out with someone else in the coverage of duties. That means the next 3 hour meal would be at the end of your shift or close to it.

Right now your job is on the bottom rung of pretty much everything. And that's usually when the worse supervisors manage since they're usually just learning how to manage/supervise. If you want more flexibility you're just going to have to get a better job. it's that simple. You may luck out someplace else but the odds are against you based on what I just said about the lower rung.

Sorry to tell you all this but perhaps it will motivate you onward and upward!!

Nope, California doesn't have unions.

I do go to work. Last time I worked here, I worked 5 months straight with one sick day, and I always went into work when asked to on my off days.

I worked like a goddamn dog and the only thing I got were more hours. I’m back in the same spot, same pay (less benefits) doing the exact same thing (in being so accommodating for the bosses)

I doubt I'll get a promotion. I'm hearing impaired with two hearing aids and supervisors/management tend to treat me as if I were slightly "mentally ill". My supervisor talks to me very loudly while moving her hands as if she knows sign language. :rolleyes: In the deaf culture that is considered very rude.

I plan to work until Febuary and move to Thailand for a year so I can train in Muay Thai boxing and go join the UFC or the Japanese version, PRIDE.

CostCo is a gret place to work... when you're talking about pay and benefits. Bosses are still bosses.

Yes they are my bosses. I do treat them with respect even when they disrespect me (see above).

I don't mess up anything. If anything, I fix other people's mistakes. I'm the guy that does anything when I'm asked. I'm not a "muscle-bound attitude case".

For your information, I thought it was my attitude/problem. So I started to ask other people about their opinions of the boss. It's unanimous... they all hate him. Even the people who don't work with him say, "He's a dick". Even then, I'm probably the one who cuts him the most slack. I see everyone else telling him off on a daily basis, but I have never done that.

EDIT: As an example of how accomidating I am, I stayed 30 minutes past work so the boss could go over my goals and my preformance levels, etc so that he could turn it in tomorrow. He was late in getting this paperwork to me and today is his deadline, so to keep him out of trouble I stayed 30 minutes without pay.

First and foremost, California in fact does have unions, you don't remember the grocery store strike a number of years ago? Or the bus drivers that went on strike? How about the port workers at the docks? Hollywood has many unions from SAG, AFTRA, Writers, Directors...

Most importantly YOUR job isn't a union job, or did you mean that Costco jobs aren't union in California but are union in other states?

The last part, you write about how you talked to OTHER people but you neglected to write about how YOU sat down and spoke with your bosses, especially about the "supervisor talks to me very loudly while moving her hands as if she knows sign language." Have you told them that it is considered rude? While I've not had employees who had this particular disability, some people do not know and cannot know without someone sitting them down and telling them that their behavior is unacceptable.

Again, being assertive here is what you need to be. After that you've done all that you can.

Yup, that's what I meant. Should've been more clear. It made perfect sense in my head! :P

When I talk to people (especially when I'm explaining something to someone), I tend to talk with my hands. I guess it could look like I'm trying to pretend I know sign language. Are you sure that that's not what she's doing too, just using her hands to emphasize her points in a way that makes sense to her? It might not be, but is there a chance that you're just assuming she's being rude about it instead of talking like she always does and not realizing it bothers you? Have you asked her not to do it?