Frustrated Texas restaurant manager

[ljw7]

Good Day,

I am seeking advice concerning a salaried restaurant manager position. I am the newest manager on board and have been there for 9 months. I am also the only minority manager. The GM has been there for 22 years and the other AGM for 6 years. I have not been written up for any reason and never missed a day of work. I am here because I have been treated very unfairly as far as scheduling and I am frequently having to work more with no notice of change of work days/ hours. As of last week I was asked to stay past my shift for 2 additional hours which made my shift 4pm-2am. I agreed, however the work being done was not finished until 6am and I was to return at 8:30am. I ended up working 22 out of 24 hours in a day. There was no additional compensation or time off. This has now happened to me three times. After hours work is not scheduled on any other manager’s shift but mine and I feel that this is very unfair. I have tried speaking with the HR manager and received no support. According to Texas Labor Law, is there anything I can do? This is affecting my personal life and I am finding it very hard to be an effective manager while at work. I appreciate your help!

[cbg]

And what makes you think that this is because of your race and not because you are by far the new kid on the block who has yet to finish paying your dues?

[ljw7]

Thank you so much for your prompt response. I apologize for not being more clear on that issue; I am the only caucasion employee of the locally owned hispanic restuarant and was brought in because of 15 plus years of experience to prepare for multiple establishments and to more streamline processes but as hired for this, getting no support. The turnover for the third manager has been extremely high and I understand the reasoning. I was seeking advice on hours to have something more to help make a more fair and flexible work environment instead of that I feel as if I am being "picked on" or given 20 plus more hours a week than agreed upon in employment contract. This is my first experience regarding anything of this nature and maybe I have made a mistake by coming here. If so I profusely apologize for wasting your time. Again, I appreciate it greatly.

[cbg]

The problem is, we cannot find you a law that does not exist. There isn't any law that says the hours have to be distributed fairly or equally. There isn't any law that says if you have two managers that have worked there for several years and one manager who has worked there less than a year, you can't make the new manager work all the extra hours. The law does not require that you be given notice of extra hours and, quite frankly, it is quite unlikely that what you have is actually a contract.

The ONLY way this is in any way illegal is if you had valid and supportable evidence - not supposition, EVIDENCE - that the sole reason you were being given all the extra hours was due to your race. And since it is neither illegal nor uncommon for the newest manager to have to take the undesirable hours, you're going to have a nearly impossible time doing that unless there is something major you have left out of the story.

You are free to ask upper management if they would be willing to divide the extra hours between the three of you instead of giving them all to you, but the problem is, upper management is free to (a) ignore your request and (b) look at your unwillingness to work the hours they want you to work, however, unreasonable, as not being a team player, insubordination, or whatever other negative spin they want to put on it.

There just isn't anything we can tell you that will force your employer to change the way they are doing things.

[ljw7]

Thank you so much for your time!!