I apologize if this ends up being long. And I’m sorry if the paragraphs are badly written, I’m on phone and still upset/emotional.
Today I am finally done being passive and kind to my workplace. They have bitten the hand that feeds them too many times and I can’t handle it anymore.
To preface this, I have worked here for around 4 years sans a few months I was off for school. I always worked part-time, 2 days a week because I was in school. Recently, after the months off for school I returned to work 3 nights a week. I was only supposed to work two nights at one brand (my work is a plaza and we have 4 brands, I work for two brands), but they asked me if I could work at the second brand because they needed someone, and had to close on these nights because they did not have a single person. I agreed on agreement I could study during the nightshift of the two nights with the other brand. They completely agreed and were super grateful.
I have seen countless coworkers, bosses, etc who have come and gone. I’d estimate around 14 bosses who have all quit or been fired. Possibly more. There have always been management issues. Miscommunication, general rudeness and distrust amongst staff.
How we are structured is employee -> shift lead/supervisor (specific to 1 brand) -> manager (controls 2 brands) -> Boss. I am an employee, bottom of the chain. We had 3 managers, two quit, one transferred. Two supervisors stepped up to take the positions. S and M. M is the problem. After taking over, she has introduced countless rules that make absolutely no sense. For one, she has outlawed sitting down. We have always been allowed to sit down because overnight tasks take maximum 2 hours. So we have 6 hours of absolutely nothing but babysitting. We get maybe 4 customers a night. She has written about 5 very aggressive notes saying we need permission to sit. Not necessarily awful except recall she gave me permission to study. Am I expected to study standing up? Secondly, she has created about 5 different checklists of tasks to complete. I like checklists, but I can’t keep track of which ones are valid and which ones aren’t. Thirdly, we always wasted and tossed expired products. It’s how we always did it. She wrote a very aggressive note demanding we leave all product for her to review. She puts it back on the shelf. And it’s food that shouldn’t be served after expiration. Chips a month old for example.
That’s just general stuff. Today, a coworker (supervisor of a brand I dont work for) pulled me aside as I was leaving nightshift and informed me that M told her I was sleeping on the job. Which really upsets me for multiple reasons. One being she is lying. I wouldn’t lie because I have no reason to, you guys aren’t my mothers. I have never once slept on the job. I drink redbull every night and I’m never even sleepy. Secondly, now I know that M is talking shit about employees to other employees. Which is so unprofessional. I cried the entire way home on the phone with my dad because I have worked so hard for this job only to be treated like this.
I am 20 years old working a minimum wage job crying my eyes out. This finally burnt me. I used to look at people who said things like “min wage min effort” and people who complained that work expects too much, but now I finally understand. I will not be helping them out a single inch. I am not available unless I’ve been booked for the shift.