So here's the story, without going into too much detail about my job (because I don't know how many of them actually frequent reddit.) and sorry if this is a wall of text.
I'm in a pseudo middle manager* position where I work. For quite a while I would have a couple of people under me that I would train and help schedule and make sure they got their hours and helped them when needed. I even trained a separate department that I at one point was the head of years back before I got injured (not on the job, I was a dingus and went snowboarding. long story doesn't matter) Basically I have at least 2 departments I help train and organize. But there's an asterisk up there for a reason, Due to our corporate office being in another state, they do not recognize me as a 'manager' and therefore do not get the perks and payrate associated with a position of Manager. (ill go into more detail later) So that blows but okay.
Over the summer, my coworkers started talking about moving away and getting different jobs. Greener pastures and so on. One of them (lets call him Pants) whom was at the same position I'm at, was set to not only change jobs but move across the united states. And my last remaining person with a flexible schedule was also leaving to continue their schooling and stuff. I had just enough time before they left to take one last vacation to see my friends and go to a convention. But when I got back…
Our flexible person had left early, well okay, that's not too bad, hope it goes well for them. So it was literally Pants and myself for about a week more. He went over with me the few things he does. That Friday was his last day. and the beginning of actual hell on earth for me for the next few Months.
I took on the workload of my entire department, and started adjusting to fill the role of another department after barely a week, another manager said screw it and left. taking his employee with him. This department dealt with things away from the office and since I was the only one remaining with previous experience in the department, I had to take on the duties of this department as well. Days were starting to get longer, what was my normal 40 hour a week schedule was now, Every day. Some days surpassing 12 hour work days. I'd be asked to come in at 4am, and run multiple things till easily 7 or 8pm. With zero or barely any instructions other than 'just make sure it runs.'
Now I've been at this office for over 8 years and I know enough of the systems to take the instructions of “make it work” and actually be able to do so with some degree of accuracy. Taking on not only my 2 separate departments but assisting with the other 5. During all this my direct manager (we will call him “B”) and the higher manager (he will be called “P”) were telling me “look we really do appreciate you doing all this, and we promise we are trying not to burn you out” …. that was around day 29 of continuous work.
B and P were of course assuring me that there were people being interviewed for positions to help me. Which was partially true. We took on one for the 'away from office' position and one for the in office position. Credit to them for being absolute troopers these past few months but there are issues, primarily they both only work 2 days a week. great
During this whole slog of work, B and P did push to give me a raise, during most of these past few years I was at $13 an hour, (during covid mainly) where my hours were cut and I had to move out of low income housing and back in with the family because I couldn't afford rent once that took off. Pants and myself had not seen a raise in 5 years. And wasn't till I threatened to leave that we were both pushed up to $15 an hour, and of course the jerk of a general manager at the time (thank god he's gone) played it off like 'it was his plan all along to give us a raise'. Yeah sure man. you go ruin someone else's business. When he took over it went from a decently fun work environment to a workplace of fear. Even going so far as to take us outside off the cameras to threaten us with our jobs. Glad he's gone.
Now bear in mind at this point I've been working continuously for well over 30 days. I met with our new GM and he told me he was going to give me a raise, no problem. Of $1.
I was in shock. Are you actually kidding me?? I went back up to my office and just … zoned out for a few minutes, until P came in and asked me to cover the next three days at 4am. (so he didn't have to) Where I just sunk. What the hell am I doing here? The very next day at 4am I'm in the office, and I emotionally broke. I cried. my direct manager B came in and saw me. I told him and he said he would look into it. Nothing came of it.
The holidays were nearing and a few things did change. More people were hired on by P (Not in my department, that's important) and I was given more work to do because my direct boss B has no idea how to do the job he was given. No joke, aside from like 2 things, I do Most of his job now. And he flat out refuses to learn it to help at all. OKAY FINE ILL DO IT. At least if I do it, I know it's done right. Speaking of doing other people's jobs, P contacts me multiple times to ask me to train his staff for him. Usually with stuff that can be easily taught assuming you have prior knowledge. Yeah about that, P didn't teach them a thing. Just wanted me to do everything. P YOU DO NOT PAY ME TO TRAIN YOUR STAFF. I don't even have time to. I'm already running around so much that I don't have time to eat these days. You want me to do that? Hell no, do it yourself.
So naturally P dodges this and I'm forced to train his staff. I mainly do it to make sure these new folks get off and running. It takes a few days but they get the hang of it. One of them was so confused and 'thrown to the wolves' that I found them crying when trying to just get stuff running. They still come to me instead of P because I actually help them.
Around Thanksgiving I openly volunteered to work thanksgiving to give my couple of employees time with their family. Also because being at the office by yourself is amazing because it's quiet, you can watch YouTube all day no problem. just making sure everything runs. Heck I wore pajamas in and ate microwave mac n cheese. It was a good day. And by some miracle, the following week I was given an actual weekend. (I swear it was by accident)
Now at this time, I had no idea how far down I had emotionally slipped. because one of my best friends contacted me asking if I was okay. I replied back to them “no of course not” before they opened up and told me that a ton of my friends (pants included) was worried about me. They came back in to contact with me and I had to force back tears. I hadn't realized how distant I had gotten. with work sucking my soul out. with what little time I had between shifts and a rare day off, My friends hung out with me, we played games online. I introduced them to another group I had been talking to, and when they were talking about me, one time I broke down crying from a joke I made myself. “This is easily the worst part of my life” …. I cried
We had the Christmas party around the 13th, I brought my best friend as a +1. Hopefully for him to witness them actually showing me some respect and maybe to get that holiday bonus. No, instead he saw them flat out forget I exist, complement the new people I trained, and the other managers. Not even a single thank you to me. The one guy who's been doing damn near everything. Also, no bonus. It was at this point I hit emotionally numb.
Few days before Christmas, I was working out the schedule for my main department and realized I was going to need help and approval from my managers, P coming in to help a couple times. I sent out an email to find that they had gone on Vacation till the 5th of January. Okay fine. So I scheduled everything and did as much as I can. Everything set up to run and actually give me Christmas off. I went back to work on Monday, injured from stuff that happened over the weekend. (my own dumb fault lol, I had a good time don't worry)
so here we are. Before you suggest that I straight up quit, here's the problem. If I quit to go to another company in the same career path, I would take a pay cut. (I checked) I would have to move states, which I don't want to do because of family. The other thing that will happen is my workload will fall to someone else, and it's A Lot. I don't want to do that to another person. and if it doesn't fall to someone else, it Fails outright. I've tried talking to our GM about getting more pay and it's “in the works.” Which as I've learned means “probly not going to happen” This is my dream career path and it's literally the worst. I don't want to give up on it, but it feels like it gave up on me. At least I have my friends whom are supportive of me. Thank you for taking the time to read this. Now I have to pack up and get to the office.