I'm 19M who works at a restaurant in central London, part time 3 days a week, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The hours range between 9-10 and sometimes over. It's challenging work but I suck it up because I get along well with the people I work with, I like making money for my travels during my gap year and Covid means they are understaffed so they need all the help they can get.
I see that the people that work there full time have their lives destroyed by this job at the moment. They work 5 days a week, sometimes more, doing major over time due to lack of staff and not even being paid by the hour like me so sometimes its not even worth it. I see this and I think, this shit could be headed my way. I want to take any opportunity to travel while I can.
I've come back from Thailand and have started working at this restaurant, again, since February, and have just asked for a week off to go Iceland for a week with my buddies. Yet I felt awkward asking? Primarily because of our lack of staff and I feel as if I'm obligated (despite being a part time worker who is on a 0 hour contract) to be there and I also want to help out people I've grown to care for.
TL:DR – Invested in difficult job because I don't want to let coworkers down, they took me in and allowed me to make enough money to travel to Thailand and hopefully more. But I'm part-time, overworked, don't get enough break (hospitality without enough staff is a shitshow) and quite frankly don't have good reason to be there when I could be travelling the world. Yet somehow I still feel bad asking for a week off to go to Iceland.