Hey everyone, I hope this is appropriate to post, feel free to remove or let me know if it isn't. I'm F21 and I've been working part time at a hardware store for the past 2 years. At first I liked it a lot, however, our manager was transferred to another location and after that it just started falling apart. Over half the staff quit, including the manager who took over as the general manager. So the company was struggling to find managers and ended up hiring a bunch of them who have all been fired for various reasons. 2 of them were fired within a month of working for drinking on the job, to give you an idea of the level of competency here. I feel like I show up every week and we have a new manager who doesn't know anything and I have to step in and show them how, just for them to be gone the next week.
I've been trying to leave this job for a while now. I've struggled with depression since age 9 and I'm definitely having a rough patch at the moment, especially with work and graduating college. Because every day I have to come in I dread it. Spring is also the busiest season for us, which I am especially dreading because customers at my work are rude and on top of that what little staff we have are mostly new hires who aren't trained on things like how to mix paint or program a car key. Most of them are also high school kids too because there's a high school across the street from us. And even though they do their best, they're not familiar with a lot of customer needs in a hardware store. I don't blame them, even though I've been there 2 years there's a lot even I still don't know.
One thing I like about this job is I can work only 3 days a week, because I'm still in college. However, I'm about to graduate and I really just want to get out because of how depressed this job makes me. So I've been applying to a few other jobs, not very seriously, but I've submitted a few applications to other places who reject me.
Anyway, recently corporate hired a new general manager yet again. I actually like him, he's a good guy, however he kind of just got dropped into a shitshow with little training or support from corporate. Last week when I was working, he called me into the office because he “needed to discuss my termination paperwork”. He was just kidding, but at first I thought sweet, I'm getting fired. Even though I know they wouldn't fire me because I am too valuable and know how to do more than most of the employees there.
When I went into the office, he sat me down and talked about how he knows morale is very low for a number of reasons. He started giving me a speech about all the higher ups at corporate who are doing their best to fill positions right now, and he's sorry for hiring a bunch of high school kids who don't know about hardware but that it's the only people who are applying. He cut to the chase by saying that the HR rep for the store was recruiting on Indeed and found my resume, and that he wanted to check in with me and see if I was feeling supported, let me know that everyone working thinks very highly of me, and basically in a roundabout way was asking me not to quit.
I was kind of caught off guard by the whole thing and didn't even know what to say. I just kind of stammered that college is my top priority right now and that I'm not searching for jobs very actively but I'm keeping my options open. I've been trying to escape this job since before he was even hired, but I really feel bad for the guy because this isn't even his fault, he's a good manager but seems to be struggling. It just made me feel guilty about quitting and even more depressed about my job prospects.
I'm about to graduate this May with a degree in criminal justice and minor in law studies. Originally my idea was to go to law school, but I haven't even applied yet because I don't think I'll get in. And I don't even know if it's what I want to do, I just feel like it's what I had to do because of my parents. So that was what made me choose the criminal justice degree. But I feel like it isn't a marketable degree at all and I won't be able to get a job. I really don't want to work at this store after I graduate and honestly have no idea what I'm going to do.
In January I was given a raise of $14/hr which is roughly $2 more than minimum wage in my state, which is what I was making before. So for this reason I feel like if I ask for a raise they'll be unwilling to give me another one. I hate to ask for a lot since they're already accommodating with my school schedule. I still feel like it is unfair because I worked almost 2 years without a raise and then found out that they were starting new hires at $14 which means there were a few months that the new hires were making more than me. But they only gave the raises after everyone started quitting and the company got scared. The district manager called this “wage conflation” and said it's normal across jobs but I kind of think that was a lie.
Anyways, I'm not necessarily looking for advice but if you have any please feel free to share. I am honestly just very depressed about work and everything and wanted to vent a little bit and also see if any of this is normal. And maybe get some other perspectives to see if I'm overthinking this. I'm seeing a movie shortly but I will respond to comments and messages when I get back.
Thank you very much for reading.