When the rules get in the way....

So I was all set to post about something completly different today, and then my 'store director' pulls the most asanine stunt possible which has me fuming mad. First off to understand whats going on, a little backstory. In most companies, breaks are given to give the employees a bit of a rest period. Something to refresh themselves and go back to work. Where I work, however, breaks are designed strictly to extend the amount of time a worker is at the workplace in such a way that the company does not have to pay any money out of pocket. They don't exist for the benifit of the worker, they exist for the benifit of the employer.

Here's how the system works. You're scheduled to 'work' 37.5 hours, however, they schedule you for hour breaks every day. You work 6 days a week, so despite being scheduled for 37.5 hours, and being at work that long, you end up being paid for only 31.5. Thus screwing you out of 6 hours you were at the place for. The upper managers then profit off this scheme in two ways.

First off, employees who complain about not being scheduled for enough hours are given more days to work. On paper this looks because they get a few more hours, but once you figure in the breaks, they often wind up losing hours, or barely getting ahead.

Second, upper level managers recieve bonuses for keeping employee hours down below their scheduled alotment every month. To make this entire situation even more aggrivating, people on break are routinly pulled off and forced to go back to work if things get busy. Because of the way the system rounds hours down to the nearest 15 minutes most employees get screwed out of even more time.

Now I've worked at a few places in my life that have had similar policies, however, in every faceless corporation, there's always a few good apples who are understanding to the workers plight. In each of these places, and even at my current job until recently, I was able to just skip my 'breaks' and work through the day. Unfortunatly all good things come to an end. Our third replacement store director apparently learned that I didn't take any breaks and approached me about it a month ago. He gave some long song and dance about corporate responsibility, and treating employees with respect, and how its state law that I take a break. Now I've been through this before, its not mandatory that I take a break, its mandatory that it be offered. I had to sign a waiver at my last job, and everything was fine so I know he's full of shit. The upshot is that I'm now required to take at least one 30 minute break every day I worked.

Enter today. I schedule all my work so I can take a break at 2:30. I go on break, and part way through the store director bursts in.

'Ben there's a woman by your desk, go out there and help her.'
Ahhh, no, I'm on break.
'Fine you can punch in and help her.'
Ahh, no, I'm still on break. Besides, if I do that it won't count anyways, the system rounds to the nearest fifteen.
'Look man, you need to go out there and help her, I don't have anyone else on the floor.'
Hey, you're the one who ordered me to take mandatory 30 minute breaks every day.
'Fine, I'm also the one ordering you to go out there to go take care of this woman right now. I'm the store director, you don't argue with me.'

So apparently despite the fact that these are supposedly 'mandatory' breaks, I'm 'required' to take because of 'Indiana law', if the Store Director demands it none of this matters. Fairly idiotic, and the whole reason I never took breaks to begin with.

Between getting a customer attacked over an Xbox 360 because he allowed a manager to hold one, the 15 minute lecture on how even if I waited in line I couldn't buy one because corporate policy forbids any employee (himself and the district manager included he claimed) from purchasing the item, forcing me to make 100 copies of a copyrighted CD for 'store use', and this the guys really starting to get on my nerves.