This job was kind of a nightmare for the last 3 months. I was running a kitchen in a small cafe on less than minimum wage. I stayed because I liked working there initially. Things started going wrong when my hours were upped from 30 to 45 a week without my prior consultation or permission. At the time I didn’t argue because I wanted the job so badly.
The manager who was there when I started the job was lovely, honestly the best manager I could ask for. When she left we were left with a 19 year old manager who had absolutely no idea what she was doing and was incredibly rude to everyone. When I was overrun on my own in the kitchen she would refuse to help me even if she was doing nothing.
Anyway fast forward a couple of months my sister had a medical emergency so I asked my boss if I could have 2 days off to go and see her. In a message she told me that would be fine and she would find some cover. The next day in work she told me that I can’t have those days off because she can no longer get cover, then said ‘sorry’ to me in a very belittling, jokey way. To me it wasn’t at all a joke and was very close to tears from this.
I was surprised later that day, at the end of my shift, she wanted to sit down with me and have a chat. She told me that she hated that when she told me I couldn’t have the time off I looked sad, and that I was trying to manipulate her. ‘My mother in law does things like that to manipulate me’ I believe were her exact words. She then proceeded to lecture me about how I’m an adult and if I can’t leave my personal problems outside the door when I come to work then I shouldn’t even come through the door in the first place. I apologised to her (stupid I know I hate that I apologised so much) and I think she took that as a moment of weakness and continued to berate me and belittle me for a further few minutes about it.
She then, after calling ME manipulative, went into way too much detail about how she is in so much debt from her business and how she can’t afford to live anymore etc and even said that if she had to close her staff wouldn’t be made redundant but would just be jobless, almost implying that that would be my fault. I had absolutely mentally checked out by this point, and I just never went back to work. I’m lucky enough to live with my boyfriend so he can look after us until I find a new job.
Another thing to note is that this woman did quite a few illegal things and admitted them to me during my time there. I interviewed a non-binary person to work in the kitchen with me, and she said that she doesn’t want to hire a non-binary person, so as good as I thought they were, she simply refused to hire them because of how they identify. She also admitted to watching the camera footage and listening to what we are saying even though in our contracts it says that this would never happen and she isn’t allowed to do that.
There is so much more to say about her and this job it’s insane but I would be writing this post all night. It is nice to vent it here though. All opinions welcome!!