Hello all. I (20F) quit my job at JoAnn Fabrics about two weeks ago because I got a better paying job for a lower position at a grocery store. The TL;DR of it all is that COVID was not taken seriously at my workplace and the general manager was on a bit of a power trip.
With that out of the way, let me get started. This might be a lot.
I was hired at JoAnn Fabrics in October of 2020 to the tune of $10/hr, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic being in full-swing at the time, or rather, what we thought was full swing at the time, I got an extra $2 of premium pay, so I was making $12 an hour as a part-time cashier. The premium pay went away in January of 2021. I stayed in this position for six months until they mentioned that one of the keyholders was leaving, and the position would be full-time, with benefits, so I applied. I knew it would be more responsibility, but I was willing to take that on for something that would look good on a resume. They chose me to promote, and I was making… drum roll please… $11.50 as a full-time keyholder. Mind you, keyholder positions were considered middle management at JoAnn. They would leave me in charge of the store alone after like 5 PM and I was responsible for everything that went on in those walls. What's funny is I was making more as a cashier when we were getting premium pay than I was as a literal manager. That's neither here nor there, though, and honestly, it's the least of my concerns about that place.
Management at my location were notorious for how they treated COVID. I found out pretty recently actually that back in October of 2020, right around the time I started, an employee was trying to take leave because her husband (who she lived with, likely shared the same bed with) tested positive for COVID and she was awaiting test results. She was advised to come to work anyway, and worked for four days with a positive test. A few of my coworkers were rightfully concerned, but my manager told them they shouldn't worry unless they were unmasked in a room with her, within six feet of her, for more than 15 minutes. Another instance was also in October of 2020 when a 17-year-old employee who was just as new as I was had a family member who they were recently in close contact with test positive, so they got tested and were quarantining and could not come in until they got the “all clear”. My manager told this employee that they needed to find their own coverage for their shifts. Another of my coworkers lives with her mom. In November-December (?) of 2020, her mom tested positive, so she had to take a leave of absence, not only to help care for her mother, but because she was exposed. Management gave her the leave, but gave her a really hard time about it. I was also forced into management a bit earlier than I was hoping to because the closing manager who was supposed to train with me, you guessed it, got COVID, and neither of the store managers could be bothered to stay with me or find another manager to close with me that night. I did fine (thankfully), but it was still nerve-wracking, because any screw-ups, and I know I would have gotten in trouble. Also, I only found out that the closing manager got COVID because she was responsible enough to tell me herself.
I made mistakes as a closing manager. Never anything major. Maybe I'd forget to recover an aisle or something, really nothing world-ending. My manager had an interesting approach to situations like this.
“Oh, so was everything okay last night?”
“Yeah, why?”
“Just wondering. Who recovered?”
“Oh, [employee] did!”
“Did they recover, or not really?”
“I double checked a few of their aisles, they definitely recovered.”
“Huh. Because I found something out of place in one of the floral aisles.”
Like… really? You're gonna come at me with a passive-aggressive attitude over one aisle not being 100% perfect? This started happening more and more often to the point that I stopped forcing myself to care. Store isn't recovered well? Not my fault. I'm only scheduled until 9:30. If you wanted me to stay until 10, then you should have scheduled me until 10. It was always on nights when they threw me with people who were brand new and needed to be trained that they'd complain about the condition of the store, too. Like, I'm training someone. I cannot be hyperfocused on cleaning the store when I am training new employees.
I approached management regarding concerns about my mental health around November of 2021. I asked if I could be moved to a part-time keyholder position because my mental health was suffering and I couldn't handle the stress of being full-time anymore. My manager was incredibly cold when discussing this with me, it was like she didn't even care that I was struggling emotionally. She told me that she and the assistant manager wanted to talk to me anyway because “We've noticed a really big change in your performance.” They also told me that there were no part-time keyholder positions available (Despite the fact they were working one of the “part-time” keyholders to death and he sometimes worked more hours than I did, so they easily could have made him full-time and moved me down to part-time) and said they wanted to demote me. Around this time, the other part-time keyholder left for another job, so I ended up getting her position.
I work through Black Friday, Christmas rush, etcetera etcetera, and on New Years Eve… oh shit. COVID symptoms. I start looking online for COVID tests, whether they be PCRs or rapids… nothing. Rapids sold out at every drug store within a 50 mile radius. No PCRs until the end of the following week. I texted my manager to explain to her that I was experiencing symptoms of COVID and I could not find a test anywhere but did not want to come to work and spread it. Her response was that I'm vaccinated, so it's fine for me to come in, even though I'm symptomatic, and I can continue to wear my mask if it makes me more comfortable. I tried like hell to get my shift covered the next day. No one could. So I begrudgingly came to work on New Years Day. Tried my best to hide from everyone, got us out of there as quickly as I could. The next day, I was able to leave work after 2 hours, so I tried to hit up Urgent Care to get an appointment as soon as I left work. However due to the sheer volume of COVID cases in my area during early January, they weren't accepting any new patients. At this point I was groggy and tired and I just wanted to go home, so I skipped trying any other Urgent Cares and just went home and set up a video visit with my regular doctor for the following day.
She tells me to take off work, she gave me a note, and gets me a script for a COVID test. I send my manager the note.
“I need a return to work date.”
I explained to her that they could not give me a return to work date because they didn't know when I would get results back.
“Did you find someone to cover your shift?”
Not exactly my main priority right now. I'm also not in charge of scheduling; that's your job.
“Why are you just now going to the doctor if you've had symptoms since New Years Eve? I wasn't aware that you left work early yesterday.”
You made me work. I would have gone to the doctor sooner, but you forced me to work even though I expressed days ago that I had symptoms.
After this point, I just muted her texts and went into my own little world. This event was what prompted me to start looking for other jobs. I refused to come back into work until I was either cleared as being negative or I finished my ten-day quarantine. Which, by the way…
“Corporate updated their policy regarding COVID, so you can come back after 5 days!”
…even though my note from Urgent Care pretty explicitly said to quarantine for 10 days if the test came back positive.
Thankfully, my test came back negative, but I was pretty peeved off at the whole situation. To make matters worse, my manager was really sick, like, really sick, to the point she started wearing a mask again for the first time since May of 2020. She also seemed much colder towards me.
I got the 100% confirmation that I was hired at my new job, so I put my two weeks in. My managers didn't even say goodbye to me. Not even through text. Meanwhile I've watched them beg head in hands for other employees to stay. They even convinced one girl to stay on the payroll and just come in as extra help whenever they need it.
I still have friends who work there and from what I understand, shit's only gotten worse.
Sorry this post is so long, by the way. I needed to get this out of my system and this was the only safe place I could think of.