For context, I work part time at a grocery store in the middle of the downtown core. Lots of traffic, it’s the only large-ish supermarket in the area, and it’s one of the best performing stores in the chain despite being relatively smaller than most. I don’t hate it, but if I could quit, it would be the first thing I do. I earn minimum wage ($15 an hour, Canadian), we have a union, and overall, it is barely tolerable, just cause it’s retail. I work part time, about 12-15 hours a week, because I have a life to attend to, and a lot of stuff to sort out, mentally. Mental health aside, I don’t believe life should be wasted stacking milk crates or restocking the eggs constantly to make very little. I may use a lot of my free time to browse Reddit, but overall, it’s better than working a job I dislike earning peanuts, anyways.
Today, I was scheduled 4-8. Pretty standard short shift, nothing special about it. We got our very important milk delivery in, after all the supply shortages, and I’m the main milk part timer. My manager, whom is actually better than most managers I see here, asks me to come in early, and I’m somewhat alright with that, so I head in 2 hours early, to get stuff done.
10 minutes before my shift starts, she asks me in the break room if I can close tonight, meaning, a 2-10 shift, pretty standard for a work day, 8 hours is nothing I’m not used to, but I switched specifically to this store so I could just do part time. Apparently, the other guy in milk called in. I said I’ll do what I can, and she pushes quite hard for me to stay till 10, despite the fact I’m already here early, and now down to half the team. She said something very particular to me afterwards
“I don’t know what’s in the water, but…”
I sort of lost myself and didn’t hear her after that. The guy who called in, a partner I’m sort of new with, has some issues, and she felt that it was okay trivializing them, essentially boiling them down to “it’s weird that no one wants to work anymore.” Managers today don’t seem to understand that it is better to stay home than work a job you hate, because, at the end of the day, you’re not earning much anyways working, and most of us who are seriously depressed aren’t looking at things like retirement or a year in advance. Most of us are just trying to make it to the next month, hell, some of us are just trying to ride out the week, or make it through the day.
The world today is simply too messed up to care about bootlicking, and I’d say it’s plain wrong to expect bootlicking from someone you’re paying the absolute government mandated minimum to. I consider my manager to be alright, I’ve had way worse, and still, the mindset they have is so productivity focused that it ignores the human part of the equation. We’re not robots, we have lives and some of those lives suck. To say “Gosh, it’s weird people are having issues and don’t want to do menial labor for little to no reward” is just demeaning.
I’m not angry for my sake, I ended up working 2-8, in which I got out the entire order, but today has really shown me two things. One, the world today is changing, and very few people in management positions accept that change, and Two, mental health is still seen as a joke by a slightly older generation.
If nothing else, please take away from this story that your feelings and opinions are important, and your mental health is no laughing matter. It’s okay to feel, we’re only human. Feel free to reach out if you need help