I started working in September 2017, after being out of work for several years due to mental health issues. I applied at a gas station/convenience store in my area that had some truly wonderful coworkers. We went through 3 managers, 2 district managers and were typically short staffed. It was great until 3 days before Christmas 2018 when we were robbed at gunpoint(a young coworker and I were working at the time, both of us have anxiety problems). We were open from 5am-12am and the robbery happened right before 8pm. Management and our district manager at the time showed up, along with police, etc. By the time the police left, it was just about 11pm. My younger coworker was really shaken up, to the point they were actually shaking. I hear them doing something with coins in their drawer and figure they're counting out the drawer for the night.
Nope! Management wanted us to 'reopen for that hour', which is a)not cool and b) doesn't say much about how they feel about us as human beings.
My coworker lived a few streets away and his mom(who is my age, at the time, she was 42) was in the parking lot. Our manager was in her late 20's and our District Manager was in her late 40's/early 50's. My coworker's mom comes in and(to my great appreciation and joy) calls both the managers and says “These two are human beings, d*mn it, don't you have a single thought to their well-being?' in full mom mode!(I've never loved her more!) Her son, looking relieved and still really shaken up by all that's happened, barely made it out before getting in the car and bursting into tears. I don't blame him at all, if I had been younger, I would've reacted quite like he did. He quit on the spot and couldn't even go in to that store for several months.
I show up the next day and… it's okay. Until it's time for my coworker(different person) to come in and they don't. I text and call my manager for the next 3½ hours and get no response. Yes, it's right before Christmas and a Sunday, but I had a gun pointed at me the night before and she should've answered. I had a store key and thought to myself 'this is stupid, I'm not doing this and was going to just close and quit.' I called the assistant manager, who was a very decent human being, and (though he worked 4:30-3pm that day) he said 'can you hang on until I uber up there?' and because he was nice and I had respect for him, I did. He called our manager on the way and when he got there, she tried to call and talk with me(I promise this is relevant), but I was done! I quit after saying a few choice words to the District Manager.
My manager was belatedly doing damage control because they have a 3 strike policy for managers. When I tried for over 3½ hours to get in touch with her, that was her 2nd big strike(managers have a work cell provided by corporate and are 100% supposed to answer calls pertaining to work. I didn't know this until she got demoted a few months later.
After a few months, I was ready to work again. I tried going back to the old store. Nope. I apply at one a few more miles from me and get hired. There's a new district manager and obviously a different store manager. In the past 3+ years there, I got written up for attending doctors appointments and therapy, even though I'm part time. My District Manager tells me it's 'against state law to discuss wages' and I caked him out on it. We had no OSHA or Workers Rights posters up in any place we could see them. They don't wash dishes. There's rampant favoritism and nepotism(my former boss hired ALL her coworker friends children, including making one an assistant manager which is actually against company policy. My District Manager tells me another time that “HR is NOT for employees”(his exact words).
Then Covid hits. We had 3 employees come down at different times(which isn't my problem here, it's how they handled it!). The first time, my coworker and I find out when we came in at 6pm that we were getting a deep clean at 9pm. I was mad and it didn't take much to figure out who it was by looking at the schedule. My District Manager yells at me for being mad about it, and I asked 'Why couldn't you let us decide for ourselves if we wanted to risk coming in?'(I live with someone who's got bad asthma and immuno-compromised with psoriatic rheumatoid arthritis and heart issues). My manager didn't give anyone fair raises. We had another coworker get Covid over the holidays(Dec 28th) and he CAME IN WITH NO MASK AND A FRIEND 3 days later!
The past several months, I just hated being there. In October, my only sister died, and my manager wanted me to come in anyway, while my sister was in the hospital dying! She scheduled me on my sister's memorial service day. That really hurt me as a human.
If you're still with me, thank you. I quit almost 3 weeks ago and am so glad! I'm going to wait another few weeks before finding another job because I did my taxes and can live off my rebate and Social Security Disability for the next month or two(I'm very lucky to have SSDI, I live in Maryland and it's pretty expensive in my area).
Don't stay at a job you hate! Don't be me, I was so angry the last few months and quitting was both easy and difficult. I feel like I'm getting an emotional reset and looking back over the past several months, I now wish I had left sooner. Yes, money is nice, but being constantly angry and treating people in your not the best is a great reason to leave and find somewhere better to work.
If anyone has any suggestions as to what I should do next, let me know!
Thanks and stay well!