Trigger warning: minor physical assault. TLDR at the bottom.
I (F/22) worked at a popular cannabis dispensary in Colorado as a budtender. Not gonna say which, but they originated in the state and have stayed within the state with great success. It was originally supposed to be a short-term job for a few months as I’m still in school for my career, and it was close to my home which was awesome considering the gas prices nowadays. The hiring and training process was smooth, and the team I worked with at that location were all around amazing people. It wasn’t until I noticed that my paystubs said my pay was less than I was promised that my perception of the company changed.
See, I was promised $14 an hour but my paystub clearly said I was being paid $13.50. Both rates are laughable considering the state, amount of work for the job, and my own job experience, but I sucked it up because they promised me hefty tips (spoiler alert, around 50% of people don’t even tip budtenders). I wanted to bring this up with my boss but was putting it off because I had some thoughts of quitting and our company party was coming up.
This is where everything goes downhill. At first I’m excited for the company party, as we got to travel to the mountains to the headquarters where we got to see the grows as well as the production process, etc. Afterwards we headed to a smoke bar for the after-party to mingle and have a good time. During said after-party, I listened to speeches of higher-ups about their success in starting the company, and all throughout I could only think, “budtenders are the backbone of your company, without us we wouldn’t be selling YOUR weed. Why don’t you pay us more since your company is sooooo successful?” Of course I didn’t say this out loud…… or did I?
It was during the smoke bar after-party when I was hanging out with my regional group, having a good time, high out of my mind, when I was approached by what I assumed to be a higher-up. The organizers of the event encouraged us to co-mingle with other teams to get to know each other (ew). Anyways, this higher-up guy comes up to me and I already don’t want to talk to him. I’m high, I just want to relax and talk to the group of people I already know. I try my best to politely show this dude with my body language that I am not wanting a conversation. He persists anyways, and makes me move my chair and lean away from my group.
He then proceeds to ask me how I’m liking the job, what location I work at, and which position. I answer accordingly. “The job is good”. Now, I’m sort of pissed. After the higher-up’s speech earlier, all I can think of is that they aren’t willing to pay budtenders more and the fact I was lied to about MY pay, and my paystub proves it. So my emotions were running high (no pun intended). The dude then asks me if I’m “being treated well”. First of all, what weird wording. I had to ask what he meant because it took me aback. I’m not sure if I was just super relaxed because of the high, so inhibitions were low, but I straight up told this guy that I was being treated well BUT my pay was less than it was promised. I also mentioned that I thought our pay should be at least $15 an hour “plus tips” if he wanted us to be truly content with the work and eager to stay with the company. (It’s just a dollar more, dude!)
He took this the complete wrong way, like I was solely money motivated (but like, who isn’t? It’s a job! I work to make money!). He then clasped the back of my chair aggressively and got really close to my face (again, ew). This is when relaxation quickly turned to fear. He legit told me in a completely different tone than before that “everyone started out as a budtender and worked their way up” which is like, okay, but then he proceeds to tell me if I didn’t have the company in my best interest I need to quit. Yes, he literally told me this. Now on its own this wouldn’t be a huge deal, but he was close to my face with his hand grasping the back of my chair. His demeanor and tone was completely threatening and not appropriate whatsoever ESPECIALLY since I am a female employee and he is a higher-up male. I didn’t respond to this well and instead stared straight ahead. I thought he would leave me alone after this conversation but he proceeds TO SLAP ME HARD ON MY BACK! As someone who has experience with abusive, power hungry men, this is exactly what they do in these public situations. To the outsider it appears as a normal gesture but to me, who is firsthand experiencing the situation, it is aggressive and yet again, threatening. Like don’t put your hands on me dude. My day was inevitably ruined after he finally walked away.
The next day I was scheduled to work and wanted to tell my boss about what happened. I end up having a mental breakdown and leaving about 20 minutes into work because trauma was inevitably unearthed the previous day. I told my boss sorry, that I had no intention of working with a company that did not value my work or me as an individual, and moreover exploit their power over me and put their hands on me without my permission. My wonderful boss was so understanding and felt so bad about what happened, apologizing profusely. I told him that he and his team were great, it was just that one jerk at the party that spoiled everything for me. I quit that day, without notice.
It has taken me awhile to process this. I used to be a regular weed user but this experience has left me sober and disgusted. That higher-up is PART OF THE PROBLEM! Also the fact that this specific cannabis company gives me Amazon vibes and is gentrifying/capitalizing off of this plant is enough to make me never want to work in the industry again. So yeah, don’t get high at a company party filled with power-hungry, lowkey abusive CEO’s. Revolution is coming.
TLDR: worked in cannabis as a budtender, was lied to about my pay, went to a company party where we all got high, then got threatened/ mildly (?) physically assaulted by a higher-up. Quit the next day.