Manager wanting to change work hours on you -- what to do?

So I've worked with this company going on 6 years now. A few months ago they changed their support hours of operation by 2 hours earlier and 2 hours later. They have hired new support staff that agreed to work in either of two shifts.

The guys in our department are a "second tier" level of support. Our primary function is completing a component of projects and our secondary job is assisting with technical support issues that involve our domain. We've stayed primarily at our original work schedule although some guys chose to take the "early" shift since it means they can leave a bit earlier. However, as expected, no one really wants to stay late so that 2 hour evening window does not have "physical support". By that I mean we've been offering support remotely (i.e. the in-building support staff can contact us via cell, Lync, etc.) since, by and large, it israrethat a support issue arise that late in the evening that would require our assistance.

Well the manager suddenly got a bug up her ass and is insisting that someone stay late every evening. I'm flat out refusing to. I've been doing remote-style support for months now and it has been no problem. Hell, the team leader of customer support agrees that we aren't really needed past a certain hour. So, not sure what this bitch's problem is.

Just curious how others would handle this situation. Quite honestly, at this point, I am absolutely confident they need me more than I need them. The division we're in is SO disorganized, dysfunctional, and underwater with the amount of work that needs to get completed there is no way in hell they would let one of their most productive and talented people go (obviously I'm not being modest here but I feel it's the honest-to-God truth).

edit: Oh, and I'd like to add that we all had a meeting about 2 months ago on the issue of support from us. At the time they agreed that any new employees will be told about evening support. Well, two new guys have been hired since. One was told that he could do support remotely in the evening. The other wasn't told anything. So, I feel they pretty much didn't follow through with the agreement we felt we had.

Famm_sl said:

These are all too often famous last words man, heh.EVERYONEis replaceable. This attitude is sure to fuck you in the ass...potentially. You should take stock of how good this job is for you and how much your quality of life may change for better or worse if you find yourself getting something different. Probably including how easily you will find something, and obviously taking pay/benefits/schedule into consideration too.

Click to expand...

EVERYONE who has left this company has easily found jobs paying 15-25% more. We are incredibly underpaid for what we do. The only reason I'm still there is because it's convenient for my class schedule. BUT, I have enough money saved up where I could quit and go back to school full-time to finish up my degree. Which is actually something I've been considering.

Sure, I understand everyone is replaceable and I have no delusions that they would collapse after my departure. But it would certainly aggravate an already turbulent and chaotic environment.

What's frustrating is that the need (the support) isn't there. It's coming off as someone just trying to assert their "authoritah". Even though it's not really something I should be planting flags and drawing lines over -- it's most certainly reaching that "last straw" idiom.

The way our division is set up is kinda weird. In a respect, the person making this demand isn't our direct manager. A few months ago we had a restructuring where our specific department was dissolved and project teams were formed. Each team has a project manager and under each PM are individuals that perform a particular function. So,mymanager is actually the PM (who doesn't even live in the same state), buthismanager is the bitch making the demand. In all actuality she shouldn't even be involved in these discussions because she doesn't have any real visibility on the subject. Understand that her primarily role is coordinating new projects, assignments, and what not so why she hasanyinput into the matters of customer support is aggravating. I mean, it's partly understandable because our job is partly support oriented, but ALL the other people on these teams aren't involved in customer support at all. BUT, the catch is this -- SHE used to be the manager (and a terrible one at that) of the now dissolved department, so I get the feeling it's her way of exerting some control over her former underlings.

I'm not going to threaten to quit but I am simply going to say "no thank you" to staying late. I already put in enough after hours work with all the damn emails needing answering, coding, and database tomfoolery thanks to the developer guys not giving us the proper tools....but I digress.

AND, speaking of female bosses -- a few years ago our company was bought by one of those umbrella corporations -- you know, the ones that buy a bunch of small companies then don't know what the fuck to do with them and just roll in and cause havoc. Well, it became QUITE obvious that if you're a female then you're on the fast track to some high management position. Don't get me wrong, there are some great female leads in our division, but several have no damn business being in the position they are.