So I work in the unpredictable world of retail and my job is

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So I work in the unpredictable world of retail and my job is how I afford my rent despite it having nothing to do with my degree until I work my way up the ladder to my ideal job. In the meantime, I am stuck here.

While this is bearable, there has been one last straw that has pushed me completely between a rock and a hard place.

With our last manager leaving and this year already being unreliable, fucked up rotas, general retail hell and all the rest, the arrival of the new one has complicated things further. He is very foul tempered and hard to sway, as well as the most sales driven manager you can imagine, robot on the box and all that. Those ones that don't understand personal situations much at all, you get where this is going.

I live hours away from my family. My father may possibly have a very serious illness. We find this out in a few weeks around Christmas time itself.

I tried to finally approach the manager about this today and it completely backfired, I sat down and explained it calmly and asked if I could have a week just to go down and see him. I told him the earliest I could get back was the 28th if I left on the 22nd because there is no public transport on the 27th and my family want me here for Christmas and boxing day.

My mother on the other hand really wants to push it to New Year and is really worried about my father.

I explained this to him and tried to ask for those few days off and ended up getting a mouthful about how while my dad may be ill, retail is important and priority and that he CAN NOT allocate me the holiday unless I know exactly when I'm back (which I don't due to the unpredicability of what news I get about dad when I arrive home)

On top of this he suggested that I transfer to a local branch, which defeats the complete objective of actually spending time with my father while he is unwell. It was like the idea of a few days off when I work a six day week seemed ridiculous but I guess that is retail.