TLDR at the bottom
Yesterday ended the saga of my first job away from food service and into administration. Accepting their job offer was the decision I ever made, and I wish I had prior knowledge of the red flags these people were practically waving in my face.
They brought me in to cover for their office manager while she was on maternity leave. They liked that I had no prior experience because it meant they could assimilate me into their way of doing things. What followed was three months of half-assed training where the office manager was only in three days of the week and spent half of that time training someone else as well.
Fair to say that when she left to have her baby, I barely knew what I was doing and there was still a large portion of the job I had no knowledge of. I was invited to text the office manager if I had questions, but obviously I didn't want to disturb someone taking care of a newborn too much.
The boss of the company didn't make things any better. He would ask me questions and if I said I didn't know, or I'd go look it up, he acted like I just set the place on fire. He was a stubborn older man, constantly spoke down to people and wouldn't hear any opinion that didn't match his own. He'd rudely cut me off while giving an explanation and if said explanation wasn't good enough for him, he'd keep asking questions that he surely knew I couldn't answer.
Over the course of 5 months, I did in fact pick up a lot of things on my own terms and did them quite well. I was even able to develop a routine. The biggest issue were the tasks that would pop up out of nowhere that had never even been mentioned before.
For example, the boss would come out of his office demanding to know why a type of insurance hasn't been paid. What insurance? Why didn't anyone let me know about this well before it was due? I can't read minds! Why are you having a go at me for something I didn't even know existed?
Stuff like this kept happening, which left me constantly stressed and I ended up making mistakes because I was far too worried about when I was going to be snapped at next. In hindsight, I should have just quit. Yeah, it would have left that company scrambling for an administrator, but that wouldn't have been my problem, would it? I didn't leave because I liked the other staff members and didn't want to leave them in the lurch.
It all culminated one day when it was clear both the boss and I were at the end of our rope with each other, and it was mutually agreed that I would move on once the office manager returned from maternity leave. Luckily, I found a new position to be started in Jan 2023.
I was supposed to quietly finish out the year at this job until next week, but I decided to use my leftover annual leave and left yesterday. I couldn't spend another week with that asshole of a boss. He had clearly checked-out of our professional relationship early and treated my presence like a burden. I was hoping to have a chilled out last day and just leave quietly, but he just had to berate me about a minor issue one last time.
I didn't even finish the workday. Why the fuck would I?
The only thing I don't regret from this experience is gaining the ability to recognize what a toxic work environment looks and feels like. Also, to put myself first and simply leave a situation that is clearly doomed to fail.
The job interview for my new position felt so different and positive. The fact that I was astonished my new manager didn't talk down to me like I was stupid speaks volumes to just how low I had set the bar.
TLDR: Ignored the asshole vibes my boss was giving off during the job interview because I was too eager to leave food service. Three months of lackluster training led to several of the worst, most stressful months of my life. Couldn't be happier to have left.