I ran out, rather. I’ve worked at a family-owned pizza shop as a delivery driver for roughly 6 months now. It certainly wasn’t perfect before the ending incident, but it paid the bills and was pretty easy work.
The final evening ran smoothly until a male Karen (not a customer) followed me back to the shop and attempted to pick a fight, following a warning honk from me as he nearly cut me off down the road. I didn’t argue with him and waited for him to leave so he didn’t try to damage my car. He didn’t leave and decided that calling me derogatory names wasn’t enough so he went to the door demanding to speak to my manager. I listened from the kitchen as he spoke to my boss, adding in several made up details (quite impressive considering I barely spoke to him). I walked to the front and calmly asked the man to leave which immediately caused my boss to pull me to the back and berate me for daring to speak to this person, keep in mind not a customer, in his business. I explained to my boss that l felt threatened by this man and I did not want him near me or my coworkers, which are mostly teenage girls. My boss did not care to hear me out and used this as an excuse to belittle me and tell me I have no power in his business.
At this point he was cornering me and I decided to run to my car as he chased me out. He pulled my car door open and tried grabbing me but I was already speeding away in reverse. Immediately after I received texts that he was going to call the police if I didn’t bring him the delivery money that I owed him. I had no intentions of stealing the money, but I was in flight mode at that point. I texted back that I didn’t feel comfortable near him or near the irate stranger that may have still been there. I also told him that he was welcome to pick up the cash in my mailbox in exchange for my hourly paycheck. He refused and shortly after I got a call from the police (it’s a small town, he’s friends with the police) stating that I would be arrested if I didn’t return the money by tomorrow. I asked the police if an officer could escort me into the building to make the exchange which they agreed to do.
It felt wonderful to walk out on a man that refused to protect his employee which will ultimately leave him even more short staffed. So to make an unnecessarily long story short, leave your workplace as soon as your employer doesn’t provide the protection and respect you deserve.