I (F18) feel like the title says it all, but I'll go into more detail. I worked at my local Dairy Queen for a year and half, I was employee of the month and up for a promotion. I actually enjoyed it even though it took a heavy toll on my body. (I have bad back issues from birth so standing/walking a lot causes some issues, working there actually made it worse), I had plenty of coworkers I liked a lot, there were only two or three that were unpleasant but the good ones out weighed the bad. Over all I actually looked forward to coming in to make my 10.75.
Now back in late July/ early August I wanna say, our GM was suddenly demoted to employee. This was surprising for a lot of reasons, she was loved so deeply. She was about 50ish and treated us all like her kids and if you spoke to her about an issue it would be fixed the next day. She was very fair with call offs, as long as the reason was good and you had proof you were okay. She gave less hours to the kids during our finals and overall was a very good boss.
A little bit more back story before I talk about the new GM, in may of that year we had two managers hired in. This obviously was not a big deal but some of us who were due for a promotion were a bit upset. So we talk to the GM, she informs us that the owners of the store hired them (this is rare typically the GM did all hires for our store) and that all promotions were on hold until further notice. We were given so many reasons for this, first being that there were people on staff that were demanding promotions so they had to pause or there were managers who were bad influences for new managers and they wanted them gone first. Clearly a string of BS so we didnt all quit. This was also around the time they rolled out the first call off update. Now, if you call off 1 time, no matter the reason you lose your discount for a month, 2nd time is 6 months, 3rd time is termination. This obviously didn't go over well, most of the staff is kids and they went with what there parents did. The most common reason for a call off was a kid having to go with there parents unexpectedly. Either way it was painfully clear something was gonna happen and this was just the beginning.
Fast forward, our new GM, I'll call her K. Tbh she doesn't deserve the title. K was a D1 softball player in college (she told us about it ALLLLL the time) and she went to a good college and had just graduated. She is 22. She,,, oh boy,,. Our uniforms used to be DQ shirt, dq hat, black pants and black shoes. The type of shoe and pant did not matter as long as they were all black. So now you can wear dress pants or Dickies, and they stopped allowing Crocs. which they are really helpful when you realize the amount of ice cream base spilled. She made it were the requests needed to be in TWO WEEKS EARLY, which again most KIDS are not able to do. She did so much more, but overall she was not liked. She felt she was to good to work in the back and would often sit in the office and hide. We ended having people quiting in batches. We went from 50 employees to like 29 in about a month.
Either way through all this I ended getting a second job due need internship hours at my school, I only planned on keeping it a year. It was also could because it has better hours, I was working like 4pm-11pm at DQ and 3pm-6pm at this new place. It did limit my hours at DQ however but I let K know that in the summer she'd have my full attention. The reason the better hours are important bc I go to college full time and my mother is getting open heart surgery in Jan, so I wanted to be there for her. As sad as I was made the choice to go on leave for 6 months at DQ starting on December 11th because I needed just some more time with my family. I told my boss in October but I never was able to tell her why due to her just not responding to me. The week after I told her I got my schedule, my name was not on it. This was how I was fired, just not even told, I found out as I was spending time with my boyfriend and I fucking bawled as I texted her why. She told me I could be done early. I was finally able to explain why I had put in the request to go leave. She immediately told me that I could come back in the summer, and they she would like me too. I am going back as much as I don't want to, I need the money. My cat died in September and the debt is heavy so I need the extra income. The moment my bill is paid though I will not be coming in again. I loved that store until K came into the picture and I was very hurt with the outcome of K. I was actually very nice to her to start and she told me she wanted to promote me even with my limited hours. I honestly just felt betrayed. Now, I'll stop by the dairy queen and I have coworkers who hate because she told them a bunch of lies. She said that quit and talked a bunch of shit. This woman is more childish then most of the kids there and I'm upset by how she's treating these people. Either way this is just me having thinking about this again at 2 am and missing my friends.
TLDR; New GM fires me because I went on leave to take care of my mom who is having open heart surgery.