I just got fired a few days ago from a tea shop that I'd only been working for since last weekend.
This job was a rebound from my previous workplace, which had been going through so much restructuring that it was quickly becoming a frustrating place to be. I'd moved to this on the recommendation of the shop's manager, who assured me that it would be a casual gig for me to do on the weekends while self-studying for a job in data science.
That was certainly not the case.
During the first weekend working there, it was an absolute scramble to learn everything. I'd be chastised and threatened with losing my job for beginner mistakes and was constantly told that I might not have the heart to sell at the volume they required. Despite writing down as much as I could, it still felt like I was constantly missing things.
On top of that, the pay and benefits were abysmal. They advertised $22/hour outside of their shop, but the reality was that it was $16/hour plus tips (I am in an area with high rent. Even $25/hour is considered low). The only other benefit was the option to have one of their cheapest teas during a shift.
As much as I started to resent the manager, I began to realize that the owners were putting an extreme amount of pressure on them. Not only were the owners happy to fire people (they bragged about firing entire groups of employees on Slack channels), but they were also too cheap to have multiple people work at the store at the same time.
Additionally, the owner couple was recording everything. They had cameras all over the store, which I had first assumed were to deter theft. In the getting started materials, however, it was quite clear that they were reviewing employees in real time to weed them out.
The manager was the only person to make it past this fire-happy couple and gain enough experience to perform within their expectations. Even customers mentioned that the store seemed like a rotating door of people during the weekends.
Now, I'd just gotten out of an underpaid, high-pressure retail environment with demanding managers. It was upsetting to find that this place was worse, but I held out a bit of hope that I could do my own thing when I had the store to myself. There was a Monday where things did feel that way too! I got into some interesting conversations with people, sold a decent amount of tea, and spent a lot of my free time planning ways to serve tea faster and increase the shop's Google reviews. I even made a tea shop playlist.
It gave me a bit of hope that things would be well, until one of the owners came in the following week. I said hello, but he did little to acknowledge me. He eventually approached me halfway through the day and asked me what music was playing, saying that it was incorrect. He had the manager mention a study to me that said Lo-fi increased sales and made me change it.
By the time I was locking up the shop for the end of the day, he was waiting outside the door for me. Citing the music slip-up, my low sales numbers (on a rainy day), and a few mistakes they'd recorded, he told me that “we could not continue.”
I pressed him about that, asking if he was firing me, to which he repeated “we cannot continue” and gesturing to the door.
I can't help but be glad I dodged a bullet working for them. I wish the manager the best, and hope they get out of that place too.
TL;DR – Got fired on my fourth day at a tea shop for playing the wrong music. Glad about it; the owners were strict, cheap, and fired people at the drop of a hat.