Here’s a story I interrupted from a *while* ago (and left in the drafts folder). How about we get back to it? 🙂
Picking up from last time –
So, I’d asked my bosses for the day off. They emphatically said no. Absolutely not. They wouldn’t even entertain the idea.
I tried to reason with them. I said I wanted to come to them now instead of calling in the morning of and making them scramble to find someone. I said that I was aware that purely by virtue of not doing something bad (such as lying and calling out sick) doesn’t mean I’m doing something good. But still, can we at least talk about the possibility?
But they weren’t having it. They said they didn’t have to let me go to a game show, as that wasn’t a provision in the Equity contract I was working under. And that was true.
But then I think my stubbornness came out, as the contract also stated I was free to leave the show, as long as I gave two weeks notice. (That’s why I couldn’t wait any longer than that – in case they did react to this news this way.)
I said I really didn’t want to quit over a game show, especially when there’d only be one week left in the run after the day I was missing… but I also felt I had to take this opportunity as it’s not often people are invited on game shows.
They said, “if you quit, you will never work at this theater again.”
Okay, then. Stubborn Aurora came out and decided to call their bluff.
It was going to be a lot(!) more expensive for them to hire someone to replace me (since under the rules they would’ve had to pay that person for two full weeks to replace me for the final week) than it would be to bring a sub in and let me pay for the sub.
I gave my two weeks in writing, and by the end of our lunch break, my bosses were down at my rehearsal room door telling me I could have the week off.
Then, more drama unfolded as the week went on, because the theater started to tell me they were going to prorate my check for the day I wasn’t there (which meant pro-rating kind of a lot as we were getting extra performances pay).
That was totally fine. But then they also weren’t going to count that money toward the money I said I’d pay for the sub… So, basically, they wanted me to pay twice – have part of my check withheld since I wasn’t going to be there, but then pay for a sub out of the part I actually got to keep (when they could be using the money they were already taking from me).
Anyway, blah blah blah. There’s talking back and forth. There are unimportant details that are too time consuming to get into. Eventually, we set up the sub. She gets trained. She does get paid out of my paycheck – but the money they’re prorating does go toward her salary. So, ultimately, everything is kind of fine in the end.
I felt there was a lot of unnecessary drama, and power playing, and all that (from me included). And what I find funny about it is that if I felt I’d actually been heard, if my bosses had talked it out with me, and we just couldn’t come up with a solution to get a sub, I probably would’ve said, “Okay, I won’t go.”
But when I was backed into a corner, the situation got messy… And I’m sure they will most likely hold firm to their original threat – that I’ll never work at that theater again. Hopefully I didn’t make a humongous mistake over just being in the audience of a game show. You can never really see the future from where you are. So… *shrugs* I guess we’ll see what happens in my life.
But for now, let’s just talk about the zonk redemption episode, which is where I’ll pick up next time.