I got laid off from the tech startup I worked at for over 8 years last fall as they try to prep to IPO. 8 months later my unemployment has run out, and I have an inbox full of rejection emails.
This week I took a job in the bakery of my local grocery store, just for income while I continue my search. On top of generally feeling overwhelmingly frustrated with the job search and that I’m making less than half of what I had been, this has been an absolute shit show.
Day one , no one knows I’m starting, no one can figure out how to assign me a locker, or get me a name tag, and when I get back out to my car at the end of the day, I have a parking ticket. I’ve parked in the store’s lot, it’s their own contract with a company, not the city, that has ticketed me. It takes me two days and two tickets (thankfully I don’t have to pay), before I get a parking pass.
The atmosphere in the bakery itself is decent, but out on the floor and especially in the break room, everyone walks around like their souls have been damaged. There’s every single cliche hand written poster about break lengths and time off requests that we see in this sub every day.
Today I’m at lunch right now, and the store manager is in here eating, and criticizing people’s order of operation of clocking in/out and utilizing their lockers. The managers all exude a white male boomer’s obsession with being workaholics and wanting to save the corporate company every last penny. Makes me happy I chose to use the bathroom before clocking out yesterday. He’s also on the phone talking with someone about their injury report, possibly from a customer, and promising them someones gonna get fired. like isn’t this something you should take in an office?
I cannot wait to quit. Honestly, the pay rate sucks, but the job itself isn’t so bad, I get to decorate cakes and other fun stuff, but I just want to be treated like an adult, and know if there was an issue, managers would be professional and confidential about it.