I posted this story in r/maliciouscompliance, but I was told to post it here instead so.. here you go!
To give some backstory, I’m now 19M who had worked at a golf course throughout the spring, summer and fall for the past 4 years. I worked in what’s called the “bagshop”, cleaning golf clubs, golf carts, and taking care of the driving range by picking up all the balls and such. After my first three years, I had made good connections with my coworkers and even some of the members who have gotten close to me and on a first name basis (it’s rare because we are supposed to call them by the last names with the title of Mr. or Mrs.). I thoroughly enjoyed this job, I worked with three of my cousins and many of my friends who I recommended for the job after a year of working there, honestly one of the best jobs to have growing up. Flexible hours, being outside all day and driving golf carts around. There was one guy I never got along with, let’s call him Dave. Dave was a 32 year old man who lived with his parents, drove his parents cars, didn’t have a social life whatsoever and worked a minimum wage job along with 14-20 year olds. After my third year of working there a new head golf pro came in, replacing my old boss who was always super nice. This new head pro was a complete douche, literally every single little thing we did he stood over our shoulders watching us, I was understanding of his methods because he didn’t know us well yet, but even then there should be a little bit of trust for the people who have been working there a while. This guy was breathing down our necks, rushing us, reprimanding us for a small mistake as being 30 seconds late to work, keep in mind he would yell at the younger staff too. Although with all of his impatience and incompetence he ruled in a pretty smart system, so he didn’t have to watch over us, he would assign the title of supervisors to four of the older staff. Understandably, Dave got the position, as well as my older cousin and his friend, and another kid who was there for the same amount of time I was. This position came with a raise, from 13$ to 19$ and hour. Nearing the end of July my cousin and his friend got better jobs at a different course paying more and having even better titles, this meant that there would only be two supervisors.
This wasn’t a problem for the head pro at first, nor was it a problem with the rest of the bagshop staff, but it meant I had to take on a little more responsibility. Being supervisor meant you were supposed to keep an eye on everyone, make sure they stay on task but as well as opening up the bagshop and cartshack in the morning and closing it at night, needing a special key only supervisors had. A lot of the staff were younger guys, primarily 14-16 year olds, and they were all stupid, even my younger cousins weren’t the brightest mixed with the rest of them. When my older cousin and his friend left, this meant that Dave and the other supervisor had to cover their shifts, but often couldn’t because of other things. Me being the next runner up in seniority, the head pro told me I had the same responsibilities and duties as a supervisor but he wouldn’t pay me a supervisors salary. I agreed for the first two weeks, thinking if I prove myself he’ll reconsider. I was stuck working long hours, from 5:30am all the way to 6pm, or 9am to about 10:30pm. I was carrying the entire bagshop on my back, busting my ass trying to keep things in order for A MONTH. Still, the head pro ignored my cries for help and didn’t hire any other supervisor or give me a raise. Dave and the other supervisor worked maybe 2-3 days a week each, while I was stuck working 6-7 days a week, being paid overtime was nice but I had to fight for it, because the head pro would often “forget” to pay me overtime.
Fast forward another month, still busting my ass, it was a long hot day, around 38°C, Dave was in the back washing carts with the pressure washer, he had been there since 5:30am and it was now 4pm so I had asked him if he wanted to switch, he ignored me and proceeds to continue his work, I catch his attention and he turns around and just sprays me with an industrial pressure washer pushing 5000psi from less than a foot away. He sprayed my neck first then my face, my neck was all ready from the pressure and only reason I wasn’t bleeding was because I was wearing a hoodie. I was furious, I told him off and all the man child could say was “it’s only water, you’ll dry off in this heat”. This was intentional, it wasn’t the first time he’s done this, and it’s not like it was just a quick spray, this was a good 5-10 seconds of spraying me with the pressure washer. I go to tell the head pro what happened and I say I want to write up a complaint, the head pro just sits at his desk and laughs in my face, calling me soft and even some swear words. I asked for the day off, he said no, started making fun of me again. I stood there and took it for a good 5 minutes before I just told him I quit, his face went from laughing his ass off to a subtle “oh shit”.
Here’s the best part, what the head pro had forgotten to notice was I was doing all the little jobs, making sure all the carts had gas in them every morning and night, making sure the range picker had diesel in it at all times, reorganizing the bags in their cubbies to make sure they were in the right place, just small things that weren’t noticeable but made a big difference. I was also babysitting teenagers, constantly keeping them in line 24/7. When I left, it left Dave and the other supervisor to deal with all of this. I got word from my other two cousins who still worked there that it had gone to shit, nothing was getting done, carts were out of gas, bags were misplaced, the range picker ran out of diesel multiples and they had to call the mechanic to come out and bleed the engine because it’s a diesel, meaning they had to pick up the hundreds of golf balls on the range by hand. After a week of this the other supervisor quit, leaving Dave and the 14-16 year olds. The head pro was panicking, calling me almost daily asking me to reconsider and he’d give me the raise, it was so nice after all the shit he put me through to hear him basically cry for help.
Basically after a month of utter chaos and disorder and multiplie complaints about the bagshop being disorganized and slow the head pro got his head out of his ass and hired new employees, Dave is still working the minimum wage job and is still very childish. My cousins quit a month after I left and left the head pro in even bigger struggles, and I heard a couple other guys left after them as well. I think for a good week there was only 2 people working everyday in the bagshop, where minimally requires at least 4 people at all time to keep everything running smoothly.
I’m working a higher paying assistant manager job at a sport store now and I’m thoroughly enjoying it, it was so much fun listening to my bosses frantic calls of help, I still have his voice messages he left me.