Hello all, long time lurker, first time poster to this sub. Please excuse any grammar/ spelling errors, on mobile and having trouble using my left hand. This is my quitting story, and it happened today. I apologize for the length of this rant. will do a much more condensed TL;DR at the end.
So I came to Florida to get help from in-laws but after some unfortunate events of the lemony snicket variety, my husband and i found ourselves homeless living out our car for a while. We are staying with a good friend of ours now and doing better and are planning to move out of here very soon.I really don't want to get into details about my living situation.
I work at a theater here, and i have made some really good friends that are higher ups. Now, i have gotten to know some of them on a personal level, like we are friends and hang out outside of work. However I respect them as a person because they are good people. They loaned me money when I needed it, gave me food when my husband and I were in between checks and couldn't even afford beans to eat that night. So I work hard and I was damn good at my job.
Now, and let this be known, I ABSOLUTELY HATED WORKING THERE. But, my coworkers are hard workers as well, they're respectful and awesome and I would consider some of us good friends. So I kinda clown around like a female Kevin Hart at work, just making people happy makes me happy so it's not all bad. But the GM makes it so hard to want to be there.
Prime example:
he likes to flirt with the female coworkers. Hes almost 50. He was under investigation for an incident with a worker that was 17/18 at that time.
He acts like he hates the male co workers. All of my coworkers that work concession and ushering are younger than me. I'm 33, the next oldest is 26 years old.
He tries too hard to fit in and will often make gross and disparaging comments.
So because I don't like to be a downer, I would sometimes talk and joke with him. But some days he gets moody and if he's comfortable enough he will be an ass to those who 'oppose' him. So i started distancing myself from him.
I turned down a promotion at $18/hour because I did not want to work with him and I'm a person that believes that we can all get along, but don't start no shit, and there won't be no shit. I felt that with all that I'm going through, all the shit I have gone through…I feel that at the very least we should be able to respect each other and if not that, we should respect others' decision to leave.
Well, today was my breaking point. So needless to say, i suffer from depression and anxiety, etc from experiencing severe homelessness in Florida along with suddenly losing my dad in another state while im trapped here. And my GM knows my situation and has worked with me sometimes, but….he is a huge asshole….
So, i have a ganglion cyst on my wrist (right). Ive had it for a over 5 years because no doctor would take me seriously for a while and it is my dominant hand and i loved to use colored pencils which anyone who uses colored pencils can be hell on one's wrist. And because of this my hand alternates between being numb, or hurting.
The GM thinks I'm making it up because he's got a small one…on his left hand. He's right handed.
Even though he was being passive aggressive about it and I could hear him talking shit about me to someone else, I kept telling them that I could do ushering because I would be able to move slower and concentrate more on using my left hand to work because I am somewhat ambidextrous. And while I can't make concessions, I can clean with some help. Also I could see him rolling his eyes so hard that ik he couldn't hear me. This was yesterday.
So this was before he made the schedule that we had this conversation (yesterday). I was already scheduled to come back to work today. They have NEVER had a problem switching between concession and ushering and I have had ushering shifts before. As i said i don't like working but that doesn't mean i won't work. But I don't like to feel as though I'm undervalued. I don't like feeling used. And I have a strong disdain for people who knowingly cross a clear boundary that I have in place.
So after we had this discussion, the GM decided to put me on the schedule. For 14. FUCKING. HOURS.
I make $13/ hour.
I was livid. They could have switched my shifts with another person, and matter of fact there is a person on the schedule who couldn't come in this week – and he told them he couldn't come in … and they were scheduled for over 30 fuckung hours. I felt like there was no reason they could not do this or even give me a heads up before coming in to work today that I could take that person's shift if they really did want to help me like they said? The GM is always claiming that they know what it's like to be homeless, but how is this helping, exactly?? I mean it's not like you're going to give me a place to stay if I can't make rent? (friend is letting us stay for$500/mo) Make it make sense.
They actually told me that they were going to call me in during the week, but to me it just felt like the GM was retaliating against me because I was adamant that ik my body and that I am not able to use my hand. And when i told him that, he basically wanted to 'teach me a lesson' – which is something that he has legitimately done to me in the past.
I feel that this is why phrases like “we treat our employees like family” is toxic because usually the ones closest to us are the ones we tend to hurt the most.
TL;DR : i quit my job because my boss continued to make me feel inadequate while also making me feel like an object and i feel they like they purposefully gave me less hours as a way to retaliate against me after i took a week off because I can not use my right hand due to a ganglion cyst and i need surgery to remove it.
To be clear, i wasn't hanging on to the job because they were family, instead moreso out of necessity. I didnt see the point of finding another job here when i have no intention on staying past a month, and if anything i had been looking for remotely working so that when we are able to leave here we can leave while still having income. I just broke down today, and with my partner's support i decided to let it go.