This happened 3 months ago.
I graduated from uni. this year and am waiting to go to my military duty, which is mandatory in my country. I was unemployed with no money and 8 months to kill. I have no liabilities but I also didnt want to depend on allowance. And my father is a workaholic who thinks you could solve any problem by working harder.
So I went to a fast food place to apply for a job. They asked for my name and phone number, saying they would call me. My country is suffering from hyper inflation so it’s nearly impossible to find a job. So I wasn’t expecting anything.
Two days later they called me and asked me if I could start the next day.
I would work 12 hours a day, 6 days a week and get paid 160 (less than $9) daily. Also they didn’t ask for any papers whatsoever, just my name an phone number. Not even my last name.
I know it already smells bad, employer not asking for any documents can’t be a good sign. Also they pay you daily so they could fire you whenever they please. But – as you can assume – I was quite desperate for money so I started working there.
The place is owned by some fat nobody who was born into a rich family and clearly never had to work at all. He treats his employees so badly I even wondered if French royalty treated peasants this bad right before the revolution. So I thought I would just work there until I found somewhere better.
On day 1, I sliced tomatoes, potatoes , pickles and many others.
Carried around 11 cases of supplies.
Rationed hamburger meat, also found out they cut costs on it. For example 80 grams of meat if actually 70 grams. 120 g is 110, 150 is 130. They didn’t provide gloves or even soap so they handle your meat by bare hands and they don’t even completely sanitize their hands. If they drop something on the floor, they just go ‘oopsies’, pick it up and put it in burgers. And I can list all the things they do wrong all day.
I’m quite an adapting person so I thought I would just work for two months & quit. Now here’s the thing about working 12-hour shifts. Time just doesn’t pass. And if you’re not working on a desk, may god help you. Not to mention the back pain and swollen feet from standing up for 12 hours. After first shift I decided I would just quit after one month.
During my first shift I asked the chef if I could come in an hour earlier and leave an hour earlier. SHE SAID YES, so the next day I started an hour earlier.
Because of things like fear of being broke & unemployed, desperation or need of your parents affirmation, sometimes it takes a while for you to figure out what’s going on. And I realized on day two, that this place was heavily understaffed.
And also, one of my coworkers went out to buy some extra vegetables during the busy hours and disappeared for 3 hours. And of course, as the new guy, I had to cover all the work for him. And later, the same b*stard lost a bag of corn, it quickly became a huge deal, owner yelled at him, he later found the corn, and yelled at ME for not knowing where he put it.
I’m not born into a rich family, and I’m probably not gonna build a fortune in this country. Of course our economy is a mess, I basically have no value as a 23 years old male, I’m desperate for a job, I know that, but I’m NOT gonna sit down and take it while an 18 year old yells at me for something HE did.
And this is just day two. I came in an hour early, so I went to the chef and told her I was heading out. And of course, she goes “WHERE THE F*CK YOU THINK YOU’RE GOING, CANT YOU SEE WE HAVE A LOT TO DO, GODDAMN IDIOT!”. But I did come in an hour earlier, I did ask her if I could leave earlier, and she DID say yes!
So the second day I worked for 14 hours. And the owner told us it was gonna be that busy for an another week. And he proceeds to tell me that I can’t take a day off for two weeks, bc they needed me so badly. And that idiot was so incompetent, he couldn’t think of hiring more people. So me quitting that day would literally paralyze the whole place.
I was still dedicated to working there for a month so I could really use some money. Right before closing, I went to the guy in register, asked him about the money and get this:
They start paying you on day 8, simply they hold your first weeks salary in, and pay it to you after you quit.
And the cherry on top ; turns out they also lied to me about the pay, they only pay you 110 ($6,35), not 160.
At that moment my past 48 hours flashed through my mind. I thought how I worked there 27 hours total in two days, just for $12,70. How I got yelled at by everyone in there. How they touch the meat with bare hands and don’t even wash their hands. I realized I wouldn’t even work there for an another hour, not even for a million bucks. I asked the guy to hand me my two day salary, thankfully he was a decent person, he went by it and didn’t tell anyone I was quitting.
I took the money that was way under what I deserved, walked out, blocked all of their numbers and never went back there.
I wasn’t sure how I would tell my father about it, bc I quit on day two and he’s still working at age 57. And he’s outright a scary guy. I made coffee for us, talked to him about everything i mentioned here, and he told me that I did the right thing.
And sadly, my story, to one degree or another, is every young persons story in my country. Inflation ruins everything.
Now I’m working 8 hours a day in a job I really like, with lots of sitting down, and I make almost thrice what I made at my old job.