Back in February I was laid off from my inside sales position where I made $20/hr plus commission. Prior to working there I had been in the service industry and managed well despite being in a much lower tax bracket. That office job was the first time I'd ever lived comfortably & I was heartbroken that it ended & would have to return back to the service industry until I found something else.
Since returning to the industry, I've noticed a complete change & not at all in a good way. Since being laid off in February, I've gone through about 4 different SI jobs because I'd been both deceived as well as wildly underpaid for my work. I helped open a new restaurant about 2 months ago for a company that owned over 30+ restaurants. During training as well as the interview I was told that the staff would have their income supplemented to offset the lack of business after the initial opening.
Well the place opens and I work there for a couple weeks and I am making HORRIBLE money. For the entire time that I worked there (a month) I made LESS than $300 ($244 in actuality) after working MORE than 40 hours & 6 days a week. I kept waiting for the owner to make good on his promises to supplement our wages, and it never happened! I repeatedly told the manager that I wasn't making ends meet and was having to skip eating for days at a time. If it weren't for me stealing fries & food off of customers' plates (Yes I am aware of how disgusting that is, however when you are literally starving to death it matters little) I would have collapsed on the floor at work multiple times. The manager even saw me nearly pass out and tried to imply that I was on drugs 🤬🤬 when I told him that I couldn't afford to eat anymore & asked when we were getting our supplemental pay, he shrugged and walked off.
I end up no showing not long later for obvious reasons and the manager called me to ask where I was. I told him the truth & that I was livid that they had lied to us about supplementing our wages & that POS hung up on me! I didn't go back, again for obvious reasons.
So I get another job literally the next day and I'm hopeful that I can finally survive with this new opportunity. Fast forward to about 3 weeks later and now I'm making EVEN LESS MONEY. During my interview I was told that I would easily make $500 a week at minimum and I would be given a mixture of day and night shifts. Well that turned out to be a lie as I have only been given about 3 shifts a week and every single one of them has been a day shift- where it's known that you make less $50 a day.
I ask the manager why I am not scheduled any evening shifts, and he tells me he doesn't have any to give me. In restaurant speak means that he has some he can give me, however he is only giving them to those with seniority- which is understandable TO A DEGREE. But not really cause why would just fuck your new staff over to only keep your older ones? Why would you even hire someone for that? And why would you lie to them about it and not tell them the truth- that you're hiring them to make them work all the shifts that no one wants?
Cause no. Fuck that. Having been a manager that helped to create schedules in the past, I would never do that to new employees. You're just going to lose them. I'm livid. He says he's going to try to give me some night shifts but I'm not going to sit the fuck around & work the shitty shifts so everyone else can make money. If I'm doing that and making no money at all- not even minimum FUCKING wage, I'm either dipping out or YOU'RE GOING TO PAY ME TO WORK. I also spend my gas money to get there and back so I'm actively losing my money on this bullshit!
I apologize for all the cursing but as you can see and hopefully understand…. I am beyond pissed. I am done with this. If it weren't for my father helping me out financially I would be on the street panhandling every night and I'd be homeless by the 1st, which is also my birthday. So yeah. I'm mad. I'm fed up. I quite honestly have no other hope but to see other people get tired too because I'm this 🤏 to complete homelessness and disparity.
It's so sad that that is my only hope.. I really need people to get fed up too then we could have a general strike and regardless of the odds, I would have an answer to my own situation. I hate being here.