I am a Resident Advisor at my university and the schedule for who will work spring break is causing a fuss in our work chats and team meetings. I didn’t think I was in the wrong before but I am starting to reconsider.
So our spring break schedule is 10 days of 24 hour shifts consolidated between two buildings. I am working six of those days which is over half, yes, but I have not worked a single holiday yet either semester and everyone has to work at least one holiday. When we were deciding who would work what days at the beginning of the semester, I put my name down for most of spring break but I told the other five girls in my building that it was just a temporary hold so people/our bosses could know that I was willing to work spring break. Our scheduling system is just a spreadsheet that anyone can edit for any reason so its not like I had a monopoly on the schedule or wouldn’t let other people sign up. In the two weeks leading up to spring break I started getting Teams Messages from my coworkers and bosses asking why my name was down for 6/10 days but nobody seemed happy with my answer. (which was consistently: I’m an out of state student and I’m not going home so I might as well work, other people can take shifts if they want, I won’t stop them) It got to the point where my boss interrupted a team meeting to ask why I was "the only one working" (not true).
The real kicker to me is during that meeting it took the eight RA’s from the other building 20 minutes of talking to come over to the six of us in my building and ask if one of us could work the one (1) day that was not taken because none of them wanted to. They aren’t working any of the days during spring break. So its not like they want the shifts anyway.
I’ve already gotten a lot of shit for covering for people on their weekly shifts (not because they were supposed to work them/didn’t call out properly, no, just because I "volunteer too much" but nobody else takes the shifts, I specifically wait days before picking up shifts to see if anyone else will take them). I already work double the load of the other RA’s on my staff (there’s fourteen of us) and am the youngest and one of the newest so maybe there is something I am missing.
Should I not have signed up for this? My parents suggested that maybe I am making my team members "look bad"? I genuinely don’t know why they are all upset that I volunteered.
NTA just work what you want to work and not worry about anyone else. If you are starting to have resentment just pull back more. I wouldn’t say anything just show up.
Not sure why exactly your coworkers are mad but YTA to yourself. I was an RA and eventually determined I was working more than 2x as many hours as the person on our team who worked least; we were compensated exactly the same. That is not a good thing. Be kinder to yourself and stop volunteering so much. Other people will have to fill in, it will get done. You haven’t mentioned money as the obvious reason people would be mad so I’m assuming pay is not hourly.
Thank you! Yes we all get payed a flat rate, the only difference is returning RAs get $20 more than new RAs. I don’t want to sit back and do the bare minimum but I think you might be right that that is what I need to do for myself.
I’m confused — what is the conflict here? It sounds like your coworkers don’t want any more shifts than they have — so what’s the problem?
I’m also confused, I think their thing is that I shouldn’t have taken so many shifts without consulting anyone else.
I’m going with NTA… like what? I mean dinosaurs were still roaming the planet when I was an RA but we “out of staters” were ADORED for taking shifts over Thanksgiving or Spring Break.
I often worked both because they were pretty quiet duty weeks anyway and most of my peers in other dorms were equally stoked when out of state students took those weeks?
The only thing I can think of is that some of the crew may not have understood that you were willing to work or not work, but put your name in to make sure it was covered either way? Or, if you have a rule saying you have to take a certain number of duty shifts per semester to keep the job and someone is low on shifts and panicking that they will lose room and board?
In any case, the Resident Director should be the one sorting this out, as they would be the one in the know if someone was short on duty shifts.
Thank you! Our Resident Director is annoyingly vague and doesn’t really have hard rules about things until we “break” those rules. Like the scheduling guide was just “divide it amongst yourselves” but I think my team is now worried we will get backlash for this.
It wasn’t something I had considered but there’s nothing I can do now since its already spring break.
Confused by what the issue is here but you’re NTA. Someone has to work, you want to, other people don’t want to – so they’re annoyed with you why?
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I would understand that if they wanted those shifts for themselves, but you say they don’t.
NAH- is the RA position still some variation of free room and board in exchange for overseeing the dorms? If so, split the weekends/holidays in an even manner and if yours is the 10 days during spring break, so be it. But if that’s your weekend/holiday shifts, don’t pick up for anyone else. It may be that if you pick up all the slack, the others may not work enough hours and may not get their benefits. Work your required amount and let everyone else swap shifts amongst themselves
NTA: nobody’s stopping the other guys from signing up to work too. I mean, you’re putting your name in; doesn’t prevent them from putting their names in, does it? Sensible co-workers would realize that you were doing them a favor or at least offering to. Tell the other counselors to jump in there and volunteer if they are so eager for the hours. You can even volunteer to drop a shift you’d signed up for and see what they do. But honestly, you just shouldn’t worry about them that much. You are not doing anything wrong.