kka34

This whole scenario embarasses me terribly (not sure why) but it makes me not want to discuss it with anybody I actually know. So here I am asking for advice from random people on the internet.

Here is the background, I have been admitted to a PHD program beginning this fall (yay!) which requires me to move. I have been out of school for the past two years just working and living like a "regular" person. I am currently working two part time jobs and had planned on working both until the beginning of August when I move and start graduate school again. One of my jobs, I am an administrative assistant at a college (fairly irrelevant) and the other I work as a personal trainer at a gym. I have been working at the gym for the past two years and for the most part I have enjoyed it.

I had already told a number of my regular clients that I was planning on leaving to attend graduate school. I had not told anybody in "management" about my plans yet. I did not feel obligated to give more than a two week notice, as it is not difficult to hire another trainer, albeit they will not be as awesome as me . Also, our company is virtually a revolving door when it comes to "management" positions. I could make you a page long list of the number of managers I had seen come and go over the past two years of employment. We recently got a new guy in our location last week.

This week I started feeling sick on Sunday but kept going to work through Tuesday afternoon. On Wednesday morning I felt much worse and decided to go to a walk-in clinic. I let all of my clients I had scheduled that morning know that I could not make the session because of being sick and I received confirmation that they understood and there was no problem. I got checked out, I had strep throat, highly contagious, was not recommended to return to work until Friday. I made sure to get into contact with everybody I had scheduled for those two days, whether through text or strained phone call (I had lost my voice entirely) to say I couldn't make it and reschedule for a better time. It is very rare I have to reschedule sessions on my behalf because I hardly ever get sick or have anything major happen, it wasn't a big deal.

I was at home Thursday night recovering when I get a call from this new manager guy. He asks me why I haven't been showing up for my sessions. I tell him "I rescheduled all my sessions today I am at home with strep, I am not supposed to be at work." He told me that "no, you did not reschedule." I mentioned I had talked to everybody and worked out the schedule. We went back and forth and he said I was not allowed to reschedule clients without telling him first. In all of the years I had been working there, nobody ever said I had to do that and I never had done that. I was told I had to tell him that I was sick first before contacting my clients. That does not make logical sense to me, since I was meeting my clients when he was not even working. What was he going to do?

In conclusion, the misunderstanding ended in him handing me termination papers that listed the reason of "absenteeism." I never actually missed anything. I feel like the real reason is that we had conflicting personalities and every time we get a new manager they fire somebody to show their power. You may ask me, why does it matter if you were going to quit your job in four weeks anyway?

Well, here is why:

1). What happened was unjust. It was a misunderstanding. He did not even ask the people who I was scheduled with whether I contacted them or not, he said he would do that later, after he fired me. I was accused of something I didn't do. It makes me upset.

2). I feel bad for my clients. I had told them I would train them up until I left. Now, I look like a big fat liar. They got the short end of the stick with this one, abruptly having to change their whole program with no warning.

3). I could use the extra money. I only had two part time jobs. I will not starve or end up in a cardboard box without it but it was going to help cover some things I needed to do. I.E. replaces the blown out shocks on my car, moving expenses, etc.

So what should I do? I know it is not worth throwing a fit over since I am moving in a month but it just feels wrong. Furthermore, what can I do to earn extra income in that time frame? I am trying in mind to think of what I can do for a few weeks that will help with these expenses? Work at a summer camp or something? I don't know. I am kind of put in a bind here.

I think the polite way to handle this would have been to remind your prof a week before the deadline. Sometimes people forget, and there is nothing wrong with reminding them. Just do it nicely. I had something similar happen during my application procedure (prof forgot to upload the letter to some universities).

As for now, you should probably just let him know. Although you might choose to dress up the email. Write something along the lines of "Hi, I noticed you haven't sent the letter to the program. I thought you were very busy at the time, so I asked someone else to do it. I hope it isn't an inconvenience."

In my defence, I just wrote the first words that came to mind. The OP wasn't supposed to copy+paste them.

I think the polite way to handle this would have been to remind your prof a week before the deadline. Sometimes people forget, and there is nothing wrong with reminding them. Just do it nicely. I had something similar happen during my application procedure (prof forgot to upload the letter to some universities).

As for now, you should probably just let him know. Although you might choose to dress up the email. Write something along the lines of "Hi, I noticed you haven't sent the letter to the program. I thought you were very busy at the time, so I asked someone else to do it. I hope it isn't an inconvenience."