Tw: sexual assault
I’m 38 and have had a ton of jobs in my life, because I often get bored around the 1 year mark. But the worst job I’ve ever had, and the most insane reason for being fired is one of those stories that even 20 years later it pisses me off.
I was about 16 years old and got hired as a front end cashier at a small local pharmacy. My training consisted of “stand here and ring people up, and keep stuff stocked.” I taught myself everything, and would often get yelled at for not keeping all of the items stocked, simply because I had no idea where the rest of the stock was kept.
I’d been there about a week, when we had a family emergency. We got a call that my sister was unresponsive at her boyfriend’s house. We called EMS on the way over. When we got there, it was my sister and my ex-girlfriend (we’d recently broken up because she had been getting into heavier drugs, and I wasn’t about that life). They had both been drugged and raped, and were passed out naked on his bed.
EMS showed up, they were taken to the hospital. My sister was completely out of it and I stayed at the hospital overnight because I was worried about her.
While in the hospital, my work called my parents and told them I would need to work the next day (I was supposed to be off). My father called to tell me about the message but it really wasn’t my priority.
I ended up getting home late the next morning and fell onto my bed in pure exhaustion. I passed out instantly and woke up a few hours later, now late for the shift I’d been assigned without my consent. Called the manager to let him know what had happened, and he fired me over the phone for a NCNS.
This is after explaining to him that my sister and girlfriend had been RAPED and were in the HOSPITAL, and I’d spent the night there with my sister. I was holding my girlfriend’s hand while they did the rape kit. I had to fill out police reports and talk to the “sexual assault” cop, who didn’t even know what klonopin was or that it can be used as a date rape drug. I slept in a chair for about 30 minutes and hadn’t eaten in almost 24 hours. I had to argue with hospital staff to keep the rapist out of the hospital room, got into a physical altercation with him, and got kicked out of the hospital for it.
After all that, I got fired for not showing up for a shift I wasn’t even scheduled for.