Oh, how I hate those words. “The needs of the business.” An ever-so-slightly more polite of saying “Screw you peon, your desires don’t matter. Shut up, sit down, and be a good little cog.”

I think of myself as fairly easygoing when it comes to my work schedule. Sure, I ask for the occasional day off, but for the large part I’m there whenever they ask for me. About the only time I’m not available is Wednesday and Thursday evenings because of fighter practices. Those seem like those would be easy enough to get off, right? I mean, sure it’s retail, but those two nights can’t be that common a request, what with people wanting to go out Friday nights or sleep in on the weekends.

So it pisses me right off when I don’t get what little concessions I ask for.

Last week was bad enough. I had to work both Wednesday and Thursday night, thus missing both practices. This week, at least I only have to work Thursday. But I’m starting to get really annoyed with my boss when she’s making me work next Thursday evening as well.

Now having to work Wednesday, I’ll take the blame for that one. When I started working at this job, heavy practice was Thursday night, so I listed only that one as “unavailable.” It’s changed nights since then, and I didn’t bother to update my availability since I’ve been working primarily early mornings. But Thursday? That’s been on record as “unavailable” since the moment I started working there. I’ve had to fight for it in the past, too.

And the salt in the wound, the metaphorical cherry on top of this crap sundae? When I finally take a more hard-line stance with my boss about my availability, I get shot down. Apparently availability becomes nothing more than a guideline when it isn’t done for school. Even better, I’ve apparently sabotaged myself by the few times I’ve taken one for the team and worked even when my availability said I couldn’t.

So I’m more than a little pissed off. My boss at least seemed a bit more apologetic last time, and offered to take it up with the senior manager. Of course, what with me being too nice for my own good, I still have to work next Thursday; she wouldn’t budge. And sure, maybe it’s just a perfect storm of people’s vacation requests and me getting dumped on because I have the least seniority. But that doesn’t make it any less annoying. What little I ask for is apparently still too much.

At least I get to hit things this week.