As I write this, I've been up for a little over 24 hours and don't seem to be registering any real signs of falling asleep. I've done everything from turning on a fan, to taking melatonin and NyQuil to force myself asleep, but this last week and a half has put me in such a deep mental rutt, and so much of it is owed to the fact that my previous employers, whom I will explain my departure from later, inability to provide me with proper pay as well as hours sufficient enough to be in a financial situation that would allow me to get out of this hole I find myself in.
The Thursday before last, I was in an automobile accident. Thankfully I was unharmed, the other driver was as well. The crash, however, completely bent my rear axle and cracked my housing, and I am finding it incredibly difficult to find the parts that I need to repair my vehicle. The only outlets I've been able to get any real leads on a replacement have been upwards of $1,000 each, not even counting the cost of replacing the part itself at a mechanic. I currently have a grand total of $183 in my bank account, no means of finding a replacement part, and no foreseeable way of putting myself in a situation where I could even be back on the road.
I've been employed at a certain salad-based restaurant since April, after having worked several seasonal jobs throughout quarantine and through finishing up my last few years of school. I graduated in May, and around that same time I came to find myself working at said salad-based place at the behest and recommendation of an old friend. The work was fairly easy, about what you would expect from any sort of fast food place, and the pay was only minimum wage, but we did get cash tips that made up a little bit of extra money in my pocket. Having just finished school I spent a lot of this last few months searching for a new job, preferably one in my field of the arts, and only really worked there to pay my bills in the meantime. When I first started I was promised full-time hours, and eventually a pay raise. At full time with tips included, I could be bringing in upwards of $600 a week, which isn't bad at all for being here in Jersey, but I was also told I wouldn't be able to get my full-time hours until I was out of school. Congratulation week, I was told I would have to wait about a month to get my full-time hours that I was promised, as the manager was having difficulties balancing the schedule around the schedules of the high school students that worked the store
Following their graduations, and me pulling several extra shifts to cover what they couldn't be there for, I was still only getting about 30 hours a week, and that was on the higher end of average for what I was receiving. Once they came back from their graduation celebrations, I was put down to roughly 20 hours a week. Half of what I have been promised on being hired. Coming to about beginning of June, I got an invitation from some friends a few states away to come down and visit for a long weekend, I cleared it with my manager, and I would only really be missing one day of work on each end of the work weeks as our schedule started on Monday.
The day before I left for my trip, I was hit while crossing an intersection. The damage to my truck that are described earlier occurred, and I've spent the last two weeks now trying to find the part with no real luck. The day of the accident I talked to my manager, and she had told me that she would do what she could to get me extra hours when I came back so I could start to build up a bit more money and be able to pay off the repairs on my truck. Now to this point, I was still only getting on average 15 to 20 hours a week possibly 25 if I was lucky, and this was almost 4 months into working for this place. Every time I brought up the issue of hours, I was told that she would try to work on it next week, and that we would get there sooner rather than later.
Putting my stress and anxieties on hold for just a couple of days I went down and had a very nice time with my partner and my friends. However the Saturday night that I was down there, I received an image of the next week schedule to find that I only had 12 hours scheduled for the entire week. Now to put this in perspective, I typically have Mondays off as it is, and me being away and coming back on a Monday should have had absolutely nothing to do with my scheduling. I texted my manager about it and asked her and she said she had to cut my hours back because there was people that wanted hours and I was gone. I was like okay, but next week can I try to be put on the schedule a bit more because I have a very expensive repair to make on my vehicle, she said I'll let you know.
I go into work for the first two days and on the third day of the week my last day for the scheduled week, I pull her aside and try to talk to her one on one and basically get jerked around in the same exact way that I have been since I started there. I told her right then and there, that I wouldn't be able to continue to work for her if I didn't get the hours that I needed, especially given the circumstance that I was currently under. She looked at me and told me she would see what she could do, but it really wasn't up to her. You know, the woman who makes the schedule, and controls literally everything that has to do with the hours that go on there.
Rolling around to Saturday night, the schedule comes out, and I find that I am scheduled for a grand total of 9 hours for the entire work week. On seeing this I was beyond livid, with the hours that I had been receiving, and the bills that I have to pay, it was next to impossible for me to set aside any kind of money to save any sort of nest egg. At that point I had about $300 to my name, and that's including both my savings and checkings accounts. Monday morning rolls around, and I have a shift scheduled for 3:00 that afternoon, but around 8:30 in the morning I call my manager, getting no answer, so I hang up and call back about a half hour after that. Still no answer, so I leave a voicemail this time basically just saying that I quit and that the hours that she was giving me weren't sufficient enough to keep me there. At this point I had been asking coworkers for rides, and was having to give away most of my tip money to them for gas, as I didn't want them to have to be driving me back and forth from home without any sort of compensation.
I can't say that I regret quitting in the fashion that I did, if anything I regret not leaving sooner and finding something more stable income-wise, but I really just been trying to apply to things that could end up being a career instead of just another job.
Right now though, I'm laying in bed shaking with anxiety because I have absolutely no idea how I'm even going to be able to pay my bills next month, or how I'm ever going to be able to even get my truck back on the road. I feel used, and like the hundreds of hours that I had sunk into that place in the last couple of months that I've been there were stolen away from me in a way that I can't even begin to describe.
I don't expect advice, but if anyone knows any helpful tips to help make it through this mentally, I would really really appreciate it. I'm lucky enough that I'm still living with my parents, as I just finished school and haven't been able to find a place in my own just yet, so homelessness isn't on the horizon just yet, but when that bank account runs dry, which it will very shortly, I don't know what to do.
TLDR: My boss screwed me over on hours for months, and now I'm in a financial hole due to an accident that I can't see a way out of.