I didn't get benefits, so I wasn't planning to seek professional medical care to treat it. I was in my early 20s, and thought I could sleep off anything. My barback(former EMT) saw it, ditched his shift, and dragged me to the hospital. I coughed up enough blood to fill a tall Starbucks cup in the 15 minute drive. It turned out to be pneumonitis, which is very similar to pneumonia. If it hadn't been for that saint of a man, I probably would have either lived with serious lung damage for the rest of my life, or *fucking died*.
We would have both been fired if that manager hadn't run out of friends to hire.
That manager was also, in my opinion, the reason that the establishment shut down. Bars have a high failure rate, it's true. This bar was lucky enough to start in a high-traffic area. It was surrounded by local sports bars, but it had a large, established, dedicated, and enthusiastic demographic with disposal income *before it even opened*. He ran it into the ground by trying to turn it into yet another sports bar. Despite the fact that the whole block was surrounded by sports-ier sports bars that had been around for years.
He also tried to make a *very* pregnant hostess stand for her whole shift. Her job was to stay at the front desk and occasionally seat guests. There was no reason for her to stand. If the whole FOH staff hadn't threatened to walk out, he probably wouldn't have gotten away with it. There was myriad other bullshit, but these are the things that stand out the most in my memory.
Five years ago, I would have been afraid to post this. He was well-known locally, and I would have been afraid to ruin my job prospects in the city I was in. I'm so grateful for the workers' market that we've entered. I also want to thank you, r/antiwork, for letting me get this off my chest. I can't believe this is still haunting me, I know I may need to seek therapy. Still, this helped. Thank you.
I wasn't always the best employee, but even the worst worker shouldn't face lifelong pain because of a job. This was years ago, but that manager is still probably the only person in the world I genuinely hate. I loved that bar, but I'll never be able to remember it without the stink of him. I'm still friends with that barback, and we will never stop mocking that manager's name. I'm normally a pretty forgiving person, but when alcoholism finally takes him, I hope that selfish asshole rests in piss.