working my way into/through 2014

Today is my first day of work for 2014. The fact of this new year being five days old, and me not having to be in attendance, might give the impression of an extended winter vacation, whiling away the days in the sunny tropics, sitting under a palm tree, snoozing in a sand chair with something cool and fruity close at hand. In your dreams.... and mine too!

I have on four shirts, sitting here at the dining table, two pair of pants, wool socks,  ready to head out the door to my little jobette. I am always cold when I am in that store even when I don't spend lots of time in the big walk-in produce cooler, fetching stuff out. So I could probably wear long sleeves when I am going to work all year long. There are people there who spend so much of their time sorting through merchandise/inventory they keep coats at work year round to wear when they are working newly arrived merchandise from warehouse truck into freezers..

Lately - for the past several months, I have only been working two days a week, and not full days at that. For some time, up until back in the fall, I'd been working15-20 hours, enough to keep me busy and solvent. But with the time crunch/pinching back on labor hours, I've gotten to the point that I have lots of other stuff that fills up my days and squares on the calendar. Then, when I looked at the work I was scheduled for this week: and found eight whopping big hours total, I was stunned.

As soon as I got over being speechless, I went to talk to the department manager. Saying not only was it impossible for me to do everything I was expected to do in four hours a day, I could not manage  financially with that.  He seemed remarkably un-sympathetic. I know he has guidelines, limitations on the labor hours for the department. But expecting me to be content with eight hours a week is ....

I've thought for a long time that Publix uses this ploy to reduce their workforce. Possibly deliberately: to motivate workers to quit. So management is not 'laying off' employees, but reducing hours to make the job laughable. They can just cut back a person's hours to diminish labor costs/push people into a untenable situation, where an individual is so under utilized they quit, rather than dangle by a very thin thread/insufficient hours at a job that is not providing enough to live on.

So how am I doing? Should I be reading the handwriting on the wall? Is there something going on here that I am not aware of? Job security?