Not being able to work a second job

by Will
(Dade City, FL)

At my place of employment, my store manager screamed out in front of customers and associates "You cannot manage people." After he said this, I stepped down from my management position to a position my manager offered me that supervises more people.

Now the supervisor in this position will not let me work a second job as a substitute teacher to earn extra income. She claims (which was backed up with store management) that I must have open availability. When I had an opportunity to teach an entire week for a school, I switched hours only one day out of the week with someone, and got reprimanded for not working my shift. I met with both the manager and the store manager and asked for two week days at the least, so I could teach. They never guaranteed it, but said they will try to accommodate it. For the last three months, my employer has only scheduled me off on school holidays or weekends, where there is no school, so I cannot teach. I want to quit and just substitute, but losing the benefits and not getting paid for summer vacation is a financial risk for me. Is my only option to quit, or is there a more civilized way to deal with this?

Response from Carl: Thanks Will. It sounds like you have quite the dilemma and might be dealing with a vindictive person to boot based on what you mention. Short of speaking with your manager and store manager again to try to resolve this issue I'm not sure what else there is to do other than explore teaching options (if possible) that might somehow allow you to work both jobs where there is little or no chance the hours will conflict. Since you work in retail, I understand this could be difficult.

The jobs themselves seem to be totally independent of each other so I can't believe they'd consider it a conflict of interest. Looking for a new job that would allow you to have flexible hours (and benefits) is also another option as you mention.

Mind you, it's possible that remaining in retail even with another company would cause you the same grief. In that regard, I wonder if you'd look outside the retail industry if you end up looking for a new job to try to avoid this issue again?

Carl