I got pulled aside (on my day off) for a meeting with my boss. I've worked there for three years, and have been a star employee. I make the most tips out of every employee, I receive compliments on my chipper and cheerful attitude often and on my good customer service. I make 50 cents above minimum wage right now (wages went up in my state, luckily my employer kept my original 50 cents above minimum), and it's hard. Customers are brutal sometimes, I'm going through a million life changes at once, and my manager sort of treats me like his dog.
So during this meeting my boss told me that he heard that I was moving 30 minutes away with my friend (a coworker at this same place) and would be looking for a new job. He said he needed to know exactly when it would be that I would find a new job and leave my current one. And he was very upset that I didn't tell him.
I explained, there is no timetable for a new job right now. I got the “move in dates” two days ago, and most likely won't be meeting them, so the dates that my friend moves in and I move in will be different. He started pressing, well is it going to be two months? Three months? More than that? Less than that? I insisted I didn't know. I had to help my current roommate find a place as well for after I leave since our lease depends on both of us living there. He pretty much told me, “well, get on that so you can let me know”.
Then he starts to tell me my work s lacking. I'm snippy, I'm impatient, I sat down once in front of him the day before, without telling him why. I asked if there's been any complaints, to which he spent 5 minutes skirting around before saying no. I don't word things correctly over the phone, apparently. Our delivery drivers don't carry change, so I tell them, “Our drivers cannot give any change back”, which apparently is wrong and I need to word it “Our drivers are currently unable to carry change right now”. He says I have too much downtime, and if I'm doing nothing, there's always something to do. I don't get paid to stand.
I work 6 out of 7 days a week, and work mostly closing shifts. This means that I do closing cleanup and restock the store for the next day at the end of my shift. I disperse the work throughout the shift to keep busy, but there's still downtime, of course. I'm definitely not the only employee doing “nothing” sometimes. It isn't very busy on a Wednesday night. He started bringing up issues I didn't think were issues because nobody said anything to me. Apparently he would cone in and tables would not be wiped down. Wiping the tables for the 5th time that night is the last thing I do before locking up. The door wouldn't be clean. I go over my cleaning at least three times a night if it's slow. I check with other employees and they say it looks good.
I really, genuinely used to like my job. It's just gotten so exhausting to come into work and do my best and then some and get nothing for it. We're understaffed and during the busiest time of the year for us (10x the Super Bowl, we're a restaurant) I was doing the work of 2, sometimes 3 people. It was exhausting, and brutal. I approached my boss the month after asking for a small raise since I had been there 3 years and was making 50 cents above minimum, to which me told me “you don't answer the phones fast enough” (I let them ring twice instead of once, and it's hard to answer phones when you have to manage 6 other jobs). It was soul crushing.
Now I have to go in for another closing shift and pretend that this whole conversation didn't happen, like I'm not freaking out and stressed beyond belief because “I shouldn't be taking that to work with me”. I have to smile more than I already do and be more cheerful than I already am and bust my ass more than I already do. I'm starting to look into other jobs and already have multiple applications lined up. Most likely I'll be getting a comfy work from home job paying me 2 bucks more than I already make an hour.
I was originally going to wait until I moved to get this new job, but now it's off the table and I'm going to be getting it as soon as possible. I'll be giving my boss two weeks and a day's notice (I don't want to sour relations with this family, it's the only reason I'm not giving them just one days notice).