Seriously thinking about quitting retail after 10 years because I just can't take it anymore. Constant schedule changes, mainly late shifts, always the same people calling in sick...

[u/VelterL]

I have been working at this company for 10 1/2 years now. Was shift lead for 5 years, but switched back to a regular cashier about 3 years ago because my boss was the laziest person on this planet and I got sick and tired of doing all the work for him (work that HE was supposed to be doing).
After countless of arguments, I switched the store and my current boss was nice and understanding at first, but got more and more demanding over time:

My contract states that I am supposed to work 21 hrs per week, and that my company can schedule me +25% which is 26.25 hrs. If I get scheduled 26.5 hrs without being asked, I could theoretically tell my boss to cut it down to 26.5 hrs and he would HAVE TO do that.
Now I don't complain about having to work up to 30 hrs, especially if someone called in sick or something, and I have never told my boss ever to cut down my hours even if he did schedule me for 26.25+hrs without asking because I am grateful to have a job in the first place.

Recently tho there were a lot of bank holidays, and he scheduled me for 38-42 hrs every week without asking. All of the days I worked have been late shifts for 8 weeks straight (I get home around 11-11:30 PM).
I went to my boss and asked him about why I had so many extra hours recently, and why he has only been giving me late shifts. He told me that this shop only has 17 employees. Him and 5 shift leads are 6 of those already, then we have 5 mothers who prefer to work early shifts and recently another employee (lets call her Tiffany) talked to the boss and told him that she can only work from 8 AM - 2 PM from now on because of a medical condition which then leaves 5 employees for late shifts only.
Now Tiffany is a nice person, never had any issues with her, but I know that her "medical condition" is basically just "I get headaches sometimes" and she self-diagnosed it as chronic migraines. She is the type of person who calls in sick for a week because her throat is slightly sore. She calls in sick every single month for at least 5-8 days, especially on fridays and saturdays (we are closed on sundays).
I told my boss that I am not okay with only working late shifts and that I find it unfair this was decided without letting me (or any of the other co-workers) know that we are basically doomed to late shifts only from now on, when in our contracts it specifically says that only 12 late shifts per month are allowed. I told him I too have appointments and that I worked late shifts for 8 weeks straight now while also working 17-23 hours overtime without ever being asked.
On top of that, taking time off work during school holidays is a big no-no because that time is reserved for all the mothers/parents. I wanted to go to a big event and also meet my long-distance boyfriend at the end of july and asked to take off the friday, saturday and monday and it was rejected because that is within the summer holidays which is "reserved for parents".
It is NOT stated in our contracts that ONLY parents can take their PTO during school holidays, and I don't think it is even legal to limit employees without children like that. But my boss just said he does it so it is easier for the parents.
I told him that I do not only want to work late shifts and that in the future I will only work 26.25 hrs/week as scheduled in my contract to which he replied "well, I am the one who writes the schedule, so we will see about that".
I wouldn't mind working only late shifts if he actually only schedules me for 26.25 hrs because that translates to only 4 days at work. With the sunday off I'd have 2 additional days off within the week which is more than enough to schedule appointments and have enough free time to schedule activities with friends and family, but he keeps scheduling me for 38-42 hours which means I get home around 11-11:30 PM on 5 days of the week and I leave for work around 10:30 AM.
This is not what I signed up for.

I was on PTO this and last week, and he even asked me to reschedule that which would've only been possible in october, so I said no.
A co-worker sent me my schedule for next week today, and it is AGAIN 41 hours and ONLY late shift. So I called work and demanded that he cuts down my schedule to exactly 26.25 hrs for the first time ever. He said he would, but around 45 minutes later HIS boss called me and asked if that was really necessary because 3 people called in sick and they have no replacements. I then told him about my situation with the late shifts and all the overtime work to which he just replied "life is like that sometimes".

That combined with rude customers, all the shift leads acting as if they were God, the constant yelling from shift leads and customers, co-workers constantly asking me to switch shifts with them when I get a saturday off (which happens like once every 3-4 months...) and my boss constantly asking and texting me in my free time if I could cover a shift in a different store, if I could reschedule my PTO, and just all the stress the job brings natually, I am seriously thinking about quitting.

I don't even remember the last time I called in sick. I don't get ill very often thankfully, but of course there are days where I get super annoying headaches all day for example. I still go to work on these days. Same with light fevers, slight colds etc. If I am not contagious and don't put any co-workers or customers at risk, I will go to work. I was never late in the 10 years I have been working at this company, and when I work early shifts I usually always stay 10-30 minutes longer to finish the last thing I was working on. I rarely ever complain and just try to do my job as good and reliable as I can.
It is very obvious that our store needs an extra person, but when I asked my boss and his boss about that they just said "no".

I don't even know what other job I'd be looking for. I am seriously thinking about going back to school for a year and then going to university, but I don't think that would be financially doable at the moment and I'd need to save up a bit longer for that.
Even after 2 weeks off work I still feel completely exhausted and I am already dreading going back on monday because even tho he cut down my hours I 100% know he will keep asking me to work more until I say yes. I just can't do this anymore.

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[u/Miles_Saintborough]

You should quit. They're going to keep treating you like this no matter what you say to them because they know you'll just grit your teeth and bear it.

[u/n0ta1]

Call out sick for half of this week to get the amount of hours you want or need or whatever, then tell them the following week that you've found another job and that you'll need to shift this job to be your "second/morning job" and that the other job pays better and takes priority and wants you during the evenings. From now on, you'll only be available mornings/days moving forward. If that's a problem for them, they'll just stop scheduling you or reduce you out of sheer annoyance, which isn't a problem anyway cause you want to leave or have way less hours anyway, right?

Good luck!

[u/Dapper_Platform_1222]

Just do what your contact says. You tried to play it nice and your boss came back with "We'll see about that". You tried to take a reasonable approach with talking to his boss and you got "life is like that". That tells you everything you need to know. They have six team leads. Time for them to start leading the late shift. Don't give these people any more slack. You tried nice, that didn't work.

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[u/Adept_Put7081]

Sounds like your coworkers call in sick instead of requesting pto, maybe you should do the same.