Last summer I was working a job as a steward for my town's yacht club. I was warned that if I was called to work parties, I might have to deal with rich entitled drunk people. Thankfully that didn't happen but every shift I was the only one working there, and I developed isolation issues, especially coming out of a pandemic. All the guests were either way older than me or children (I was 20) and often I found myself just standing around and waiting to help someone once my daily tasks were complete. I should have noticed the red flag that my pay started at $14 an hour, which I paid little notice to since I thought it was close enough to 15. Eventually as the summer went on, more problems occurred. I wasn't getting any help with my mental health issues, not even from my parents who I was still living with at the time. My mom even made me cover for her friend's son one Saturday and I missed out on one of my few chances to go out and socialize. I guess it was my fault, I should have been more honest about how I felt with the job, but I was also afraid to do so because my dad warned me if I vent about how much my job sucks, it'll make me look bad for future jobs. Thankfully I was able to quit and enjoy August to myself.
I got a much better job in October. I was working through my college's work study program as part of the basketball team's behind the scenes operators. Not only was the pay $15 but I was respected and even felt like a part of a team. Overall, fantastic experience. I actually found this subreddit shortly after I was relieved of duty, with the season being over and all. It really is insightful reading the stories you guys have, and it made me more aware of the red flags to watch out for. My experience has typically been applying for a job at retail, then being rejected by a bot. But I guess I dodged a bullet there.