I’m thinking about quitting.
I work with a forklift moving stuff between several warehouses. My manager doesn’t want me to do extra hours. Fine, then I want to go home exactly when my shift ends.
My shift ends at 5 pm. Before going home I need to take the forklift to a garage 10 minutes away and to recharge it. Then 5 minutes to walk back to the office where I clock out.
On my last shift, I received 2 assignments at 16:30, starting at 16:45 because trucks weren’t already there. Obviously, even doing just one of them means extra hours will be made.
I informed my manager sending her a message with our notoriously unreliable smartphones (issue for another day I already complained about). First I asked her if she wants me to log extra hours today. No, she said, then I told her if I have to do even just one of those assignments, extra hours will be logged in. Then she called me, accusing me of bothering her for the last 10 minutes and demanding to know where I was. I was already waiting for the trucks at 16:35, when she called me, but trucks were not there.
She then sent and deleted several other, smaller assignments at a rapid pace. As soon as I was starting one she would delete them. This happened 3 or 4 times.
She settled for a small one and even with this one I logged in 10 extra minutes, leaving my workplace at 5:10 pm.
What I want to tell her:
Are you aware you give me contradictory orders? If my shift ends at 17:00 and I need 15 minutes to take the forklift to the garage, if you give me an order at 16:45 I’m obviously going to do extra hours. You have clearly stated you don’t want to pay me any extra hour, which is fine by me, but then why do you keep me sending orders at exactly that hour? If you don’t want to pay me any extra hours my last assignment has to be finished at 16:45. Otherwise I’m logging in extra hours.
I don’t see how this can end well, but something has to be done. It’s not the first time she’s reacted so emotionally and I’m tired.
Before I quit I’d like to try and see if a rational conversation with her is possible. Then at least I tried.
You wrote it down (what I want to tell her…). Copy-paste into an email. Or first in Copilot “make this sound as constructive as possible”. See below. By mail, you avoid emotional or other reactions. Also finish with a question to get a written answer. If she replies verbally, you can make an email of that, to make sure you understand well what was said.
I wanted to bring something to your attention regarding task timing at the end of my shift. My shift ends at 17:00, and I need about 15 minutes to bring the forklift back to the garage. When new assignments come in at 16:45, it becomes impossible to complete them without working overtime.
I understand and respect that you prefer not to authorize extra hours — that’s perfectly fine for me — but in that case, it would help if my last assignment can be finished no later than 16:45. Otherwise, I will inevitably need to log overtime to finish the tasks safely and properly.
I’m mentioning this so we can align expectations and avoid misunderstandings in the future. Can we agree on how we handle those end-of-day tasks so everything stays within expectations? Thank you for your understanding.
edit : the formatting doesn’t seem to work. removed it.