I have worked in a 20 chair commission salon for 5 years.  I do good work and care about quality.  I'm not the fastest or busiest, but I don't function well at a breakneck speed and I value my sanity and health.  I love most of my coworkers and get along well with everyone.  The owners--I'm less and less happy with.  Over the years they have added more rules and restrictions-many of them petty IMO, reduced benefits, increased service charges.  They continue to live an extravagant lifestyle even though they complain their income has been cut in half from the recession.  I think they must be doing ok, they just aren't making money hand over fist like before.  We have lots of meetings, classes we are "required" to attend during our time off but aren't paid for--I accept this as part of needing to continue education and have never missed a one.  I often do things around the salon others aren't so quick to do--laundry, straightening up, etc, which I am not compensated for either, which I accept also as part of chipping in.

The owners are increasingly expecting more of our free time without compensation, or even a meal.  I work 40+ hrs a week, every Saturday, and frankly, I'm almost 50 and wiped out at the end of the day and the week.   I give it my all while I am scheduled, but  I run my life and I have always had the intention of keeping my private and work life separate.  I feel they just want us to volunteer incessantly for events that don't interest me in the least--they hand out coupons for screaming deals--if people use them they are usually just coupon shoppers that are short lived.  If they don't want to feed these clients to me because I did nothing to attract them, I would be fine with that. The only benefit I get is vacation pay.  A weeks vacation pay now is about what I gross in a day--so I've been reluctant to take a whole week off.  They say we demand a lot of from them so they demand a lot from us.  If expecting to have a reasonably clean salon where equipment works and is maintained and checks that don't bounce, then I guess we are guilty!  We have no health or retirement benefits and I mentioned the measly vacation pay.  Our owner once said he thought his salon was a great place to work because he didn't bounce checks--well that's great but isn't that what a business owner is obligated to do? 

How do I respond to their increasing demands?