my new job is making me work far more weekends than I was told when I was hired — Ask a Manager

A reader writes:

In August of 2024, I left behind TV news reporting to become a social media manager for museums in my city. My career in TV news was full of manipulation, toxicity, long hours, and missed holidays. My new job was a standard 9-5, with occasional weekend events for a few hours. It was the boring job I needed.

The local theater and museum (they are combined and owned by the same company) took an interest in me, and the CEO offered me a job with them. I was told I would need to work weekends about once a month for shows, and I was okay with that. After looking at the schedule posted to the theater’s website, I decided I was okay with working a few weekends. So, I accepted, excited for the opportunity to grow in this company. I emailed my soon-to-be boss a list of dates I was unavailable that I knew shows were on. I asked for a schedule of all events, but was told, “We’ll talk about it when you start here.”

Well, I started in January and they gave me the event schedule, and I see why they waited to do it until after I started. There is something every. single. weekend. This schedule is DOUBLE the amount on the website. Everyone failed to mention that we host private events, some two weeks long. There were things like my baby sister’s birthday party that I didn’t ask off for and family weekends because I thought we were closed! I feel betrayed and lied to. And when I brought it up, I got the stereotypical “we are an events venue and you are expected to be at these events.” It felt very reminiscent of my job in TV news, where we were expected to devote our life’s to our jobs.

If I had known about the private events (some of which are 12- to 16-hour days), I would have never accepted this position. My new boss told me I would only work two shows a month on my first day, but when I asked for additional days off after receiving the schedule, I was told, “Aside from the days you previously sent me, I would expect to work every other event day.” I didn’t leave TV news to still be unable to see my family.

I can’t tell if I’ve been fooled or if I should have expected this, and I don’t know what to say to anyone that won’t result in me being fired.

I don’t see why you should have expected it when you were told you would need to work one weekend a month.

You took them at their word.

The problem is they apparently lied to you.

The question now is: if these schedule requirements aren’t going to change, do you still want the job? What you should do depends on that answer.

If you’re willing to leave over it, you can be extremely assertive about it. Sit down with your boss and say: “When I was being hired, I was told I’d need to work one weekend a month and I accepted the job on that basis. I couldn’t have accepted if I’d been told I would be expected to work every other weekend. Since that’s not possible for me with my commitments outside of work, how should we proceed?” If she says it’s not flexible and you’ll need to work every other weekend regardless of what you were promised, then you should say, “If there’s no flexibility on that, it’s not a position I can stay in. What is your preference on how we proceed from here?”

A big caveat: even if your boss says she’ll let you off the hook for some of these events, you should still proceed with a lot of caution. Unless her attitude is “this was a terrible miscommunication and I’m so sorry it happened and we want to work this out,” it’s highly likely that you’ll end up being pressured to work more weekends than you want to, regardless of what she says now.

If you’re not willing to leave over it … well, first, I think you should be! They lured you into this job under false pretenses, so even if you’re not in a position to leave tomorrow, you should be actively looking for another job so you can get out. But if you need to stay meanwhile, you’d do a softer version of the above, which would mean something like: “When I was being hired, I was told I’d need to work one weekend a month and I accepted the job on that basis. I couldn’t have accepted if I’d been told I’d be working every other weekend. What’s the best way to resolve this?” If she says there’s no changing it now, you could say, “I can try to find some flexibility in my schedule, but since I was brought on with the promise of one weekend a month, are you able to give me some flexibility in return? Can we work out a schedule that is closer to what I was told would be required?”

Maybe that will cut down on some of your weekend scheduling while you’re stuck there, maybe it won’t, but it’s worth a try.

Also! Who told you originally that you’d only be working one weekend a month? If that was a different person than your current boss, and if they are higher up than your current boss is, it’s worth going back to them, explaining what’s happened, and asking if they can intervene on your behalf, as the person who promised you that. They may or may not be willing/able to, but it’s worth a try given their role in what happened.