A little bit of context:
I am a 25 year old man from Wales, UK, currently living in Canada. Specifically Vancouver. I had originally came to Vancouver to try and search for employment related to my degree, and to just explore more of the world.
Since the Covid-19 Pandemic onward, I had (until my temporary suspension) been working at a Liquor Store in Vancouver. This is because I had a background in bartending/liquor service, and as jobs became scare due to restrictions coming in (at the time, 2020) and also to pay ridiculous Vancouver rent-rates. Initially this was a temporary thing just out of desperation, but I haven't had much luck finding other, more gratifying employment.
Onto the “gratifying” part. So not to bitch, moan and feel sorry for myself but generally, I like to think I work hard. Really fucking hard. A part because if I don't work, I don't eat or pay bills/rent/immigration fees- despite the fact this is a job I do not enjoy- whatsoever.
I have because of that been doing some of the shittier shifts no one else does. Aside from the night/evening shifts, one of these includes stocking the store by loading a broken down piece-of-shit 1990s Ford Econoline (which guarantee doesn't start, especially in winter) with 2,000lbs/1000kg/1t pallets laden with beer and liquor. I would like to stress this is done, quite literally, by hand as we use a manual crank pallet jack. A 2 person job, sometimes done by 1- me.
Onto Today/Beginning of the Shift; It was met with frustration, from me, that the manager has been ordering in newer stuff. A lot. Literally no room to stock. This isn't the first time, however, since no one- literally no one- organises the space but me and a colleague who works 1 day a week, this is a bit annoying especially since stuff gets broken, and management made it known stuff was getting broken frequently.
So (admittedly I could have asked this better, since I was annoyed) but I had asked the manager why so much stuff was being ordered, especially as there is no room to put 9-10 flats worth of new items.
This was met with the “it's my job to order items, and your job to stack boxes”. Fair enough.
Fast-forward towards the end of the shift; and the manager pulls me aside and asks me “what is going on”. I can't exactly say “I fucking hate working here. I am miserable, I hate working late evenings and I didn't travel 7,300kms to work in a liquor store.”
Ontop of this, I don't actually have immediate family or support close by, most of my family lives in Wales or Malta (Dad's family).
Anyway, so I state how I felt that the work balance is unequal, vis a vis; the rest of the team actually don't do much to support eachother, such as replenishing and organising the space to make it more navigable and tidier, and how I am always present or the go-to guy to pick up after everyone else's shit. We are all paid pretty much the same wage and have the same duty, with the difference being how many hours done through the week. Despite working 30+ hours, I am classified as “part-time”, as per the detail my manager wrote while I asked for a Proof of Employment letter for immigration.
I'll grossly over simplify the dialogue but essentially the rebuttal was “it is my job to stack boxes”, and how my “attitude is the problem”, and I should “bring my tone back down”. At the conclusion, I was informed that I was suspended for the rest of the week.
Now I do not enjoy working at this place. The pay is terrible, the colleagues are not engaging or supportive, the owner is a fucking dick. However it has unfortunately become a means of survival, as I live paycheque-to-paycheque. So being informed about that was a mixture of anger, frustration, hurt and stress, as I try to digest the current status of employment and figure out what to do.
TL;DR: My manager suspended me because of an outburst I had at the fact I am sick of picking up after everyone's shit, every shift, and doing unequal amounts of labour because people are lazy. What do I do?