Been reading a lot of these stories and thought I wouldn't relate because I currently have a good job with benefits at a great company. But they did remind me of some of the really shit and abusive jobs I had in the past. One in particular at a well known hotel chain I thought id share.
So, it was about 7-8 years ago during the summer when I was in college. My mom worked as a special events caterer, and said they needed a dishwasher and suggested I should work part time for beer money. Get the job easy enough, and am initially scheduled for a few 4 hours shifts a week, great!
Immediately things start to go off the rail. My shift schedule quickly becomes 6am-?? like what the fuck is “6am-??”. ill tell you. Its when you're the only person cleaning the entire restaurant and when everyone else finishes cooking/serving, they just leave at noon and you have 3+ hours of cleaning to do. So already part time work is full time work. Go to my boss about it and basically says “you're young and should want to work, so whats the problem?” Not. The. Point. He also probably did cocaine and said he worked double shifts on no sleep and was 15 years older than me, so I should be fine.
Next, they begin adding to my responsibilities without pay increases. Suddenly I'm a prep cook to the line cook, as well as potentially expected to fill in for the severs if too many people come in, but for some reason those same severs/cooks are not at all expected to help me clean afterward or during if they have a spare moment. Then for some bizarre reason, I'm asked to make coffee for the cleaning ladies who come in, even though all they do is sit around for 20 mins before their shift doing nothing.
I put up with it, I have a little spending cash for the first time in my life.
One weird side story: I was the only permanent dishwasher. One morning with copious amounts of advance notice, I took off to do something and told them I would be a bit late and to have someone cover. They said “sure”. When I come in finally, not a single dish has been washed, and for the rest of the morning service, basically we only had clean plates to serve food on if I was washing the ones that came in practically instantly. I got through it, but what did I get for my efforts? Everyone left at noon like usual with a kitchen that would take 8 hours to clean by myself. I cleaned the major stuff but just left after two hours with lots unfinished, no one even stuck around long enough to supervise me so why should I give a damn?
Final point: They almost didn't let me quit.
It was a summer job, so when the summer ended I had to go back to school full time, and the job wasn't even remotely close, so I couldn't even continue on a part-time basis. I told them weeks in advance, but kept seeing I had hours scheduled past the drop dead date. I told them, but nothing changed. On my last shift I said my goodbyes to the staff and told them I wouldn't be coming back. They were dumbfounded. They said alright but they would call and see if I could work occasionally. I told them they could call but my availability would not change. I never got a call thankfully.
Not a horror story compared to those on here, but probably the worst job I ever had. Thankfully so far my jobs have only gotten better. But for those with less opportunities, I think if I had to work like that for the last 10 years, I would be stridently anti-work as well.