Intro: I recently read a post about an amazing employee who had to quit her job because her manager wouldn't give her time off. It made me realize that I've been wrongfully fired from half the jobs I've had. I was always commended for my work ethic, the jobs usually treated employees like shit, and they still managed to let me go without a second thought. Just because I have nothing else to do, I've decided to write a series of my previous work experiences to highlight the nightmare of employment in America.
I was eager to work as soon as I was old enough. I got my first job at a grocery store a month after my 16th birthday. I worked as a stockboy. It was boring, but I was excited to finally be able to make my own money. My mom would sometimes warn me to be careful about what I did. She was always wary of racism (and homophobia), something I was too naive to have taken seriously back then. I was the gay, black kid in a predominantly white, small, Southern town.
Most of the other employees during my shifts were also high school students. I believe I was the only black person employed by the store. The stock boys would regularly take things without paying for them – boxes of cookies, bags of chips, meat from the deli, etc. I decided to do the same one day when I was working behind the deli. I carved myself a thin slice of turkey and immediately reprimanded. I was given a warning by one of the managers that if I was caught stealing again, I'd be fired.
First off, I thought that was pretty drastic. It was my first offense and, quite frankly, I could have stolen a slice of turkey every day and the cost still wouldn't be enough to make a dent in my meager check. But it's still stealing, so I'm not making excuses for myself. It was also at that point that I realized that this particular manager was watching me like a hawk. He was looking for reasons to let me go. He always had a problem with everything I did even though I was a decent employee. I was the one who would cover shifts for others and volunteer to stay a little later when the store was closing. I was the one to go out into the rain to bring the carts back inside and run around the store when a customer couldn't find what they were looking for. I was always asked to work my days off at the sister store across the street and I obliged. All this even though I was the newest employee.
I had been working there for exactly one month on the day that I was fired. It was a Saturday afternoon, the only day I worked a full shift and had a lunch break, and I was just told that I could leave. It was the busiest time of day in the store and I wanted to help calm things down before going. I had already grabbed a bag of chips that would serve as my lunch, so I put it behind a cash register and started helping customers bag their groceries. When things died down, I went to the back of the line and allowed customers to check out before me.
While I waited, I decided to tidy up the soda fridge directly in front of the aisle where I intended to check out. I grabbed the bag of chips from behind the register and took out a bottle of soda for myself. I opened them as I continued working and while there was only one customer left waiting to check out. The same manager who reprimanded me before fired me on the spot for stealing. He didn't pull me aside, he did it in front of my co-workers (who were also friends and fellow students) and customers. It was so unprofessional. It still baffles me that someone could be so miserable to fire a teenager for opening a bag of chips and a soda immediately before paying. It was humiliating. I was in disbelief that I was being fired from my first job after only a month of working there. Fired for something that I saw as being completely innocent while the manager knew the other employees stole all the time. The cashier vouched for me, as I had the conversation with her that I was going to be eating my chips while I was waiting to check out. The manager didn't care.
This is the lightest of my work horror stories, but it was still jarring because it was my first experience in the working world. It's nothing compared to the other stories I've read or gone through, but I wanted to make a comprehensive list of all my bullshit jobs.