WARNING: LONG READ!
This is my old job. As you can see in this video, I’m behind the owner’s girlfriend Allie Chamberlain. The owner (cutting the ribbon and speaking) is Chanse Meylan. This video was part of the grand opening ceremony on January 3rd covered by local Public Access cable and the Monroe Evening News. The Chamber of Commerce was also present as well as people from Frenchtown Township. https://facebook.com/watch/?v=296437619114996&_rdr
Here’s another angle where I’m much more visible …
https://facebook.com/watch/?v=521089112356617&_rdr
Chanse also owns a State Farm insurance agency in Lansing …
https://www.statefarm.com/agent/us/mi/lansing/chanse-meylan-z06kd6mjfak
Others in attendance were owners and operators of other Culver’s restaurants such as Ross Fernandez and Alex Witkowski on the far right. They operate two Culver’s stores in Flint and Owosso under the company name “Owosso Burgers” and are possibly part owners/financiers in Chanse's “Monroe Burgers” here. In the video, Chanse says he hounded Ross for 3 years, “Are we gonna do that Culver's thing?” while racing dirt bikes so if Ross has no skin in the game, why would Chanse hound him for 3 years?!? They do. Chanse often referred to Ross, Jason, Alex, and “Bob” as being from corporate, so both “Monroe Burgers” and “Owosso Burgers” are indeed connected in various ways. Other than that, Ross and Alex were my main trainers in the kitchen along with ASM James (on the far end holding the ribbon) and ASM Layne (not pictured). James didn't last long but I got along great with him … https://www.mlive.com/news/flint/2020/10/from-dirt-biker-to-business-owner-man-opens-culvers-restaurant-in-flint-area.html
Now, onto a condensed version of my timeline. It's a similar version of my detailed timeline that I'm using as a base for my MDCR/EEOC complaint (filed June 3rd) and further litigation. The documentation I have is fairly exhaustive – much like anyone in HR or Loss Prevention would keep on employees or shoplifters — but way beyond the scope of this thread. I'm gonna try to keep this pithy even though my employment lasted just 6 months and 2 days. So here we go …
December 27st, 2021 – I'm hired as Head Porter by Chanse's girlfriend and Hiring Manager Allie Chamberlain. Chanse Meylan enters my name into the company's HR software known as Teamworx in his office while I'm watching training videos in dining room. This app listed me as the only Porter from December 27st, 2021 until around April 17th, 2021 when Chanse removed the “Porter” section from the software presumably to make scheduling easier. I have screenshots proving that by sorting the employee list by position and choosing “Porter”, only my name would show up.
January 3rd, 2022 — Culver's Grand Opening. Photo and videos taken for local newspaper and social media. I'm obscured in some of these by Allie. At the end of my shift, Chanse along with Ross Fernandez and Alex Witkowski shakes my hand and congratulates me on landing the Porter position which is a full-time, 50-hour a week, position that requires having a key to the restaurant, the alarm disable code, and working 6am to 4pm 5 days a week and sometimes 5am on truck days. Chance invites me to take a photo of the Porter Task Check List to familiarize myself with the work flow. I have a photo of the exact place inside the restaurant where this conversation took place.
January 4th, 2022 — Allie messages me on GroupMe asking me if I could help the Support Team on the grill from 4pm to 11pm instead of my Porter shifts for the following week. I have a screenshot of this conversation. My Porter shifts were 6AM to 4PM for 5 days of the week totaling 50 hours – 40 hours at $13 an hour and 10 hours at $19.50 an hour – for a grand total of $715 for the week. A screenshot of my schedule was uploaded to MCDHS along with an “Verification of Employment” that Allie signed listing me as a full time employee. I agree and offer to help close at a considerable loss of income as well as the loss of SNAP benefits on February 1st because I was under eviction and seeking help from the CERA program. If CERA had declined my claim, the $715 a week would have made it possible for me to dig myself out of eviction which (at this time) totaled only around $1,700. I didn't know at the time that this was a secret “demotion” from the Porter position.
January 11th, 2022 thru February 17th, 2021 — Chanse continually refuses to schedule me for the Porter position let alone the promised 50 hours a week citing various excuses such as “the Support Team never gave back their Porter keys” or “Once I find those Porter keys, I'll get back with you,” or “I've got 70 other employees, so bear with me.” On February 1st, MCDHS terminated my SNAP benefits of $360 a month citing the bogus 50 hour work week and Porter position submitted to them as proofs of income and employment verification. Once a week between this period, I would confront Chanse about these issues, and he offered the same excuses. At one point, he approached me and said, “You still got that Porter key I gave you,” and after I responded that he never gave me the Porter key in the first place, he said, “Seriously?!? Okay then.” He then left for Lowe's. I stuck around after my shift thinking he went there to make extra Porter keys (I used to work at Lowe's overnight stocking Hardware/Tools). He came back 30 minutes later and never approached me. I have since accurately concluded that there was only 1 Porter key in existence the entire time and the chain of possession involved just 3 people over the course of 5 months …
February 18th, 2021 to March 3rd, 2021 — Chanse continues to schedule me as a part timer despite full time designation of the MCDHS Verification form Allie signed. He schedules me to work 4 to 6 hour shifts from 10am to 4pm or so, and I learned from other co-workers that he hired up to 5 or 6 other Porters behind my back up to this period giving each of them 40 hours their first week. In other words, every time I confronted Chanse, he retaliated by hiring another Porter behind my back. All of these Porters quit except for Stephen Whiting – he got fired by Chanse for stealing. Stephen would come into the store at 3AM to cook himself food on the grill. His girlfriend Angelica Parks is an Assistant Manager so if he didn't possess a Porter key, he was using her Manager keys to enter the facility. Around this same time, I overheard Chanse remark to Shift Leader/Co-Porter Melvin Martin, “So I guess Stephen is gonna be our head Porter,” and I was gutted. Wanted to blow my brains out all over Chanse's shiny grill using a gun wheedled out of a Shift Leader named Seth. Instead, I resorted to alcohol poisoning later that night as its one of the cheapest and easiest ways for a Type 2 Diabetics to die by accident let alone on purpose. Went home, sat on my couch, and slammed four Natty Daddy's in a mask of tears. My dead body would found a few days later. Obviously, I failed. I would later tell two managers — Ashley Snyder and Darian Dykstra — that I was feeling dizzy due to a condition known as BPPV. It was partially true: I was recovering from a botched suicide attempt. I had instantly concluded that Chanse never intended to give me the Porter position and Porter key but gaslit and breadcrumbed me to no end. The replacement “Porters” were all 20+ years younger than me and 100 pounds lighter in weight. Once again, let me reiterate: I was hired and “demoted” from the Porter position within 24 hours of each other, and continued to be “demoted” from the position every single time Chanse hired another Porter out of spite/retaliation for every week I confronted him about owning up to his word. The only blessing here: Chanse doesn't do write ups. No disciplinary action. Nothing of the sort. He's like Donald Trump and Vince McMahon: fires them. All of this came to a head in late February when Melvin had a death in his family and resigned while on leave, turning in his Porter key and uniform. Chanse's response to this was promoting Dakota Roof to Porter and giving him the Porter key. Melvin had previously told me, “There's only one Porter key and I have it. No other Porter keys exist.” When I learned of this around March 3rd or so, Dakota and I had a brief verbal exchange by the grill where he told me a series of lies such as having Portered for Culver's for 3 years, and that it's a position you work up to (never mind the various other Porters didn't “work up to the position” anymore than I did). After this exchange, I walked over to the employee break table to try to stop myself from breaking down and rage-quitting on the spot (which would've rendered me homeless) while Dakota walked 50 feet away to have a conversation with General Manager Ashley Snyder. Moments later. Ms. Snyder approached me and asked, “Are you gonna be okay?” and I replied, “Maybe, I don't know.” And then Ashley asked me a question she had no legal or professional basis to ask in the first place: “Are you even sure you can handle the Porter position?”
https://i.imgur.com/6rB7qzh.jpg
I already landed the position. That's like asking a woman, “Are you planning a family anytime soon?” before deciding on hiring her or promoting her. In an instant, she violated my rights, and it led me to believe that my employer seen me as disabled in such a way that they were willing to weaponize my age, weight, and medical disabilities in order to deny me the Porter position I had already landed on December 27th, and they did this amongst themselves to play favorites with Angelica's boyfriend/company thief Stephen. They were also under eviction and seeking help from CERA. I did not realize this at the time because I was reeling from the hurt and sadness of having learned that Dakota had gotten in one week EVERYTHING that was promised to me on January 3rd, so my reply to her Ashley was, “Not at this time because my doctor just prescribed me with Lipitor which raises the risk of rhabdomyolysis”, but I only took Lipitor for 20 days due to unacceptable symptoms. Later that night when I researched legal avenues, I learned from the EEOC's website that Ashley's question was improper and illegal, and when combined with the knowledge of Chanse hiring Dakota and giving him the Porter key, I contacted Fieger Law about potential representation. Fieger Law responded to me by mail on March 9th stating that I was being referred to Morgan & Morgan out of Southfield. After roughly two weeks of consultation, Morgan & Morgan declined to take my case and I believe the primary reason is because every Employment law firm in Michigan is on a 7 to 10 year backlog in claims against the Michigan State Unemployment Insurance Agency. Billable hours on the taxpayers dole vs. a 5 to 6 figure contingency fee. I don't have 7 to 10 years to fight Chanse. Diabetes and hypertension will kill me sooner if suicide doesn't.
March 4th, 2022 thru May 30th, 2022 — Angelica hires my nephew Joshua Rigsby and Chanse hires my niece Jessica Gilmore. Josh was the overnight Porter for McDonald's and is looking to move up to Management. Jessica managed Marco's Pizza for over 6 years and managed Pizza Hut for about 6 months, and she's looking to becoming Management as well. Upon being hired, Josh thought he'd be working mostly mids and closing shifts but he was being trained on Porter by Dakota while Jaden Craig and I trained him on Grill. Jessica works front of the house on cashier and drive thru. Then on April 11th, all hell broke loose when Dakota clocked in for his 6AM Porter shift and proceeded to have a meltdown that got himself terminated by 8AM when opening management alerted Chanse that he was out of control screaming obscenities. Chanse's reponse to firing Dakatoa was to give the Porter key and position to …………….. my nephew Josh!
A move that didn't surprise me in the least and I, in fact, predicted it by telling him privately to be prepared for it. On April 17th or so, that happened. And by April 20th or so, Chanse “fixed” the TEAMWORX HR software by removing the “Porter” position, and dumping all employees as “Front” as a means of “make scheduling people easier”. Good thing I got my screenshots early! Nevertheless, I still don't have the Porter key and position I was recruited and hired for and I surmised (or perhaps “deluded myself” is more apt here) that Management had other plans for me and those plans pretty much boiled down to two things: (1) Grill Bitch (2) Grill Bitch In A Tie w/Shift Leader/Assistant Manager tag. I would remark to Josh that I'd have my “answer” within a month or so. Then on April 29th, I was about to lose my apartment via a default judgement against me for my eviction. I had the money to pay this in mid April but since I was being evicted, I was banned from making electronic payments. On this day during my 4PM lunch break, I got a voicemail from my landlord saying that if I don't pay the balance by 5pm, I'm homeless. I had an instant nervous breakdown and Chanse said to me, “Hurry up and run back home to catch them and if you're too late, we'll figure something out. I'll ensure you that.” This is the same man who refused to “ensure” my Porter position! And because of that, he put me in this position. Had he granted me everything he had promised me in terms of the Porter/Key/50 hours a week, I would've had between $3,000 and $5,000 saved up in my Checking account in case CERA denied me on my Eviction Diversion Claim. I made it in time and paid the $960 to avoid the default judgement but my lease is for $735 a month so after making this payment, when payday rolls around, I'm $100 short on my rent, and would need a $200 to cover that plus have $100 for 2 weeks worth of groceries (read: baloney and PB&J). I ask Chanse for a $200 advance on my next check. He declines. Instead, he offers to loan me $200 out of his own pocket and I can just pay it back. On one side, that's even better. But on the other side, he put me in this position. In no way, shape, or form should I have EVER been put into a position to BEG for help – especially HIM! Of all people. Chanse didn't do this for my benefit. He did it because having a fat man pushing 50 crying and hyperventilating in his dining room with every female trying to calm me down was bad optics. He felt pressured to redeem himself in their eyes. So Chanse loans me the cash (presumably out of the store safe), and I take care of rent, pay him back 2 weeks later, and come May 1st, I'm rocketed by another blow in $100 in legal fees on top of my $735 rent, making my rent out to be $835! Once again, I'm $100 short. I explain this Chanse and Allie and he says, “We'll figure something out by the end of your shift.” At the end of my shift, Chanse starts to leave … notices me … raises his finger, goes back into the office, and moments later motions me to follow him to just outside the utility room. He then proceeds to insult my very intelligence, my values, everything I believe in. He says, “I'm gonna do this on one condition: this is the last time. It can't happen again. I don't know what or how you're spending your money on, Jason, but you need to start saving some of it. You make good money here!” He pretty much insinuated that I'm a drunk or dope addict. All I could manage through my clenched jaw was, “Child support garnishments.” He grins and nods with an “Ahhh!” and leaves. Two weeks later, I pay him back on time. Despite me being a good faith actor the entire time, Chanse insists on trafficking in bad faith. Confirmation biases. Prejudices. Assumptions. Favoritism. Cronyism. Five months worth of it all. Also during the first week of May, our parking lot was being replaced and resurfaced because the contractors originally laid the asphalt in December when it was too cold. This forced the store to close for 3 days. Unpaid days. At least, for me and most the crew. Josh however told me that Chanse paid him and Stephen for the 3 days. Most of the crew did not. Chanse selectively chose who got paid on those 3 days and he based it on favoritism/cronyism or illegal criteria (i.e paying employees with families/children; not paying “deadbeats”, minors, retirees, widows/widowers). The truth behind this won't be known until the discovery phase … if there even is a discovery phase.
On May 23rd, my doctor puts me on a 6 week restriction from operating the grill due to an injury it caused in the form of developing two trigger fingers on my right hand – the pinky and ring finger – and a referral to see a surgeon. Upon giving the medical notice to Chanse later that day, he replied, “Where are we gonna put you?” Never mind the failure to cross train and rotate people in the kitchen causes these injuries. My doctor told me that 80% of patients are Amazon workers on FMLA and he wanted to avoid that kind of paperwork with me. Very understandable. Fast forward to May 24th, 2021 – I walk in to my 12pm to 8pm shift and notice on the name tag wall some new name tags. New name tags because people got promoted – once of which I trained – Jaden Craig! Somehow he became a Team Leader before ME! Does he deserve it? I lean towards “Yes” because he's a closer and since most people want to work days instead of mids and closes like he does, he'll be doing the majority of the grill training along just by onboarding and turnover rates. But not after everything I've been through. And certainly not after everyone in that kitchen — even Shift Leaders, Training Managers, and ASMs — come to me for answers, clarification, advice. For example, our commercial can opener broke on ASM Bill and he didn't know how to fix it. He showed me the blade that came out of it and said, “Something has to hold that in there and broke off and fell somewhere,” and 5 minutes later I fixed it because there was no missing piece at all. Just needed to be re-assembled in a certain way. Looking back, the rate by which people came to me for answers in that kitchen probably made Chanse jealous because they weren't coming to him. He saw it as a threat. A craven jealous boss will find any excuse not to promote the very object of his or her ire. The opposite is true. The “answer” I had predicted to my own nephew also came true: they only want me as a “grill bitch” and nothing else. To make matters worse, Jaden and Ricky Pierce are the ONLY males in this promotion sweep — 80% of all the people promoted were females between 18 and 28 working front the house who have been with Culver's barely 90 days. Before they were promoted, they were “love bombed” with high praise, employee of the month awards, and performative gestures. Akin to what they do in Kindergarten. Or better yet: how a “player” scores on Zoosk, POF, and Tinder. My concern was simple: if these ladies were validation junkies prone to being played like fiddles in a Geico commercial, they will be shattered if the Narcissistic pattern emerges where they're idealized, then devalued, and ultimately discarded. I confront Chanse about this, my history, my inclusion in grand opening, the Porter situation, and his responses and excuses are exactly the same ones he trafficked in before but with a twist. He first said, “I didn't think titles meant all that much to you, Jason.” Translation: be thankful I keep you around. Titles is how one advances up the leadership chain, with perks and pay raises to go along with it. I motion to a sign on the wall detailing the chain of promotion and ask, “What is with this poster and their reference to ServeSafe verifications?” Chanse replied quite plainly, “That's nothing for you to worry about. It just for Managers,” and that said it all: none of perks, privileges, and titles in this poster would ever apply to me. Chanse secretly had no intention of ever promoting me. So I pressed him further and he did the unthinkable: literally proceeded to list all the things I do for him and his store: “You help Porter and Open when people are late or call off. You help with Prep. You make sure all prep is done. You make sure the meat cart, bun line, and freezers are stocked up. You sharpen the spatulas.” Translation: “You are the cheapest and most gullible Assistant Manager I have, so why would I make it official with the proper name tag, proper title, proper wages, and other benefits?”. I was flabbergasted. Here he was outlining all the reasons why I should be promoted while simultaneously stopping short of doing so. There was absolutely NOTHING stopping him from promoting me ON THE SPOT! Nothing. Except himself. Was he jealous? Was he intimidated by me?!? Whatever it is, it's not my fault nor problem. Chanse then goes on to try and guilt trip me over the money he lent me to avoid eviction saying, “I wouldn't have done it to anyone else. I've done it for you. And I make sure whoever is making the schedule to find 40 hours for you. I got 70 other employees to think about here, too.” Never mind that I'm one of those employees – an employee from day one that he never prioritized because he was too busy playing favorites, discriminating, engaging in unfair hiring practices, etc. and retaliating against me for demanding proper and respectable treatment as a 48 year old Diabetic and high functioning Autist. While I had suspected Chanse operated from malignant narcissism, it didn't dawn on me until then that he probably suffers from Imposter Syndrome, and the toxic narcissistic Trump/McMahon veneer he projects insulates people from realizing just how badly the emperor here has no clothes. Hence why he'd rather fire people and be rid of them than document things with write ups and keep those people around: he doesn't expect to be sued and having to present his own documented evidence! That's not leadership. That's being lazy, and I was learning that lazy toxic bosses with Imposter Syndrome Can't. Put. A. Porter. Key. In. My. Hand.
June 16th, 2022 — Chanse and his managers order a double truck because they couldn't find anything despite the Culver's store having a smaller stock room, freezer, and walk-in than other fast food restaurants. He expected Josh to get it done by 10am despite the fact that Stephen was supposed to help him put the truck away and never showed up. He texted me at 8:50am venting about various working conditions and said if Chanse gives him any attitude, he'd turn in his key and walk out. At 11:45am, Josh video calls me over Facebook Messenger stating that he and Chanse had an argument and during which he did as he promised: he turned in his Porter key and walked off the job. Chanse apparently chases after Josh and their argument ensues but it's a weird argument: while my nephew is pissed and hurt, Chanse thinks its funny. Josh would then confess to me that Chanse was paying him and Stephen $17 an hour! Same Porter position Chanse only intended to pay me $13 an hour for and move me up to $14 later. Add wage discrimination to the mix. Josh said that Chanse agreed to pay him and Stephen this $17 an hour figure on 4 conditions: that they would be there on time, they would not call off, they would get his store open ready by 10am, and “don't tell anyone because I'm paying you more than some of my Managers”. Since I'm both a Diabetic and have Asperger's, it had become clear that Chanse never intended to give me the Porter position because of unfair and discriminatory assumptions, biases, and prejudices about my age, weight, speed, and my disabilities interfering with my job duties to the point that he wanted to avoid having to make modifications and reasonable accommodations in compliance with the ADA had I ever needed or requested one or if a health episode required me to call off. His “demoting” me from the Porter position and subsequent obstruction and obfuscation is speaks volumes. Chanse has broken the law. Various laws, in fact. And that whole “I'm paying you more than my Managers” flies in the face of Federal Law that allows all workers to openly discuss their hours and pay at any time to anyone they so choose without retaliation in order to expose and address wage discrepancies and discrimination like these. Chalk one up for the NRLB …
June 20th, 2022 thru June 29, 2022 — As the kitchen falls apart with crew and managers quitting or getting fired, my injury and impending surgery and our short staffing forces Chanse and his managers to do something they should've done from day one: cross training. Between this period, I learn fryers, and middle. Middle is typically a position for managers but since we're down a few managers (Chanse fired two Black managers – Darius & Kiara), Managers will ask Shift Leaders to cover middle. The problem here is self-evident: if Chanse is segregating the Middle position to only Managers and Shift Leaders, forbidding Crew Members from that position, then the Middle position becomes discriminatory to Crew Members over 40 years old who have ZERO hope or chance of being promoted to Shift Leader because the boss/owner paints them with prejudices, biases, and assumptions. The policy itself isn't discriminatory, but it can become discriminatory under certain circumstances because the EEOC prohibits discrimination in the assignment of duties and workstations. Having a policy that only Shift Leaders & Managers are allowed to work Middle and Set is a policy that serves no business necessity – it's just there to keep the chain of accountability low otherwise you'd have every Tom, Dick, and Harry grabbing items out of the chute. But if your injured, it's the perfect accommodation because it has low physicality, low lifting, but high in mental stress. I fit the latter description to a T — I'm the ONLY person in the kitchen that's over 40 with disabilities on the payroll without a promotion after 6 months of employment. All because Chanse goes through such great lengths to prevent it exactly like the Porter position I was hired at let alone the Shift Leader/Assistant Manager position he stopped short of granting me on the spot at the exact same moment his mouth was arguing for it. So imagine my surprise on July 21st when General Manager Darian Dykstra (Ashley stepped down – I don't think she was liking the “Ashley” that Chanse expected her to become) and asks me to cover Middle for a while. A while that lasted over 2 hours. At the end of which Ms. Dykstra said to me, “Good job on Middle, Jason. I'm soooo proud of you.” Idealize. Hoo boy. Where's the Devalue? Where's the Discard? Later on that night, I mention in our GroupMe chat how fun it was to cover Middle for over 2 hours, and by the next day, it was “liked” by every Manager and Shift Leader. Except Chanse. I had a feeling he'd hate it. Moreso if it became a habit. Over the course of the next few days, that's exactly what happened. Darian, Angelica, and ASM Elijah Furtaw asks me to cover Middle at various points. This gave me the impression that I'm going to be promoted to at least Shift Leader very soon. Those hopes were dashed on June 25th, 2022. We got hit with a $2000 hour and Darian proceeds to move me to dish out only fries. When the fry bin was empty, she'd yell, “Keep dishing out more fries, Jason! Just stay where you are!” At one point, Elijah was so busy on Fryers next to me dropping Cod, Shrimp, you name it, that he couldn't drop more fries in the Fryer. So I go to fill and drop 3 baskets of fries, and Darian is looking at me if I've committed insubordination. Filling and dropping fries is a defacto part of the job description. Helping our team is part of the job description! I've ONE-MANNED that kitchen before. Now I suddenly go from having a supportive team to having overbearing “Helicopter Parents” actively prevent my grown expansion as if I were livestock. It was absolutely positively demeaning and horrible treatment. It got worse on June 28th. Between 4pm and 5pm, I was on Fryers and moved over the Middle to take order tickets out of the machine. Something I've done countless times over 6 months and 2 days, you feel me?!? Darian immediately yells at me, “I got Middle, Jason. Go back to fryers. You got things to drop on your screen.” It was all fries though. Nothing to drop. Not even 3 minutes later, Crew member Tony (last name unknown) was on Grill and he walked over to Middle to do Darian's job of a putting a double deluxe in a 4×4 while she stood behind him and congratulated him. Why was I singled out to be yelled at while another crew member some 20+ years my junior was congratulated and encouraged?!? I'm so upset with this treatment that I couldn't think straight the rest of the night, and before I left at 8pm, I talked with Elijah in the office about it. During this 10 minute conversation, Elijah appeared to be on my side and that's when I mentioned to him that I filed a complaint against Chanse with the Michigan Department of Civil Rights back on June 3rd, and had been trying to hire a lawyer since Early March but they're buried in UIA caseload. My exact words to him were: “I've been a whistleblower for some time now,” and Elijah replied, “Oh, I can understand why. Believe me. And honestly, Chanse's doing this because he truly believes he can get away with it.” Then he mentioned, “I could try to talk to Chanse again to see where his head is at regarding promotion,” and I demurred. I explained to Elijah that Chanse's long trail of abuses and excuses have made it crystal clear that the only way I'll ever get promoted is in the event the EEOC makes him do it. Because the only way I was EVER getting the Porter position was if the EEOC made him do it. Logical conclusion. Instead, I asked Elijah to keep Chanse out of the loop and keep this between us three. He agreed and said that he would talk to Darian about her treatment of me later. The very next day — June 29th, 2022 — I lasted just 90 minutes into my shift. Insomnia kept me up most of the night, my blood pressure is up, and it was my late Mother's birthday. She would've been 81 today. All of which made me depressed to the point where I didn't want to be alive because when Walmart injured me in the Deli and required a 3 day stint in ICU for kidney failure brought on my rhabdomyolysis (translation: I blew my left elbow on the fry baskets and diabetes blocked the intensity of the nerve and muscle pain), I had swore on her grave that I'd never EVER let someone mistreat me to the point of hospitalization or suicide, and I failed. I often see living and existing as a cruelty on the same level as Purgatory or a prison sentence. As soon as I walked in at Noon, Darian chippered, “Morning Jason! How are you today.” I replied, “Don't know yet.” Her reply was foreboding: “Well, let's see if we can turn that around.” In the most over the top attitude that people on the Autism spectrum find unsettling. That sense only got stronger when Chanse said to me, “No late buns today, Jason. I'm gonna be a beast upfront on Set today, too. Just warning everybody.” Prep was NOT done. The Buns station was not restocked. I had NO extra lettuce, no Pecans, and easily got behind because I had to go fetch everything that should've been stocked inside the bun cooler by 10am opening time, and here's it's 12:15pm. And hour later, Chanse comes back to me at the Buns station and said in the most patronizing way, “What I've noticed with you, Jason, is you're using one hand instead of two, and that's slowing you down.” I look at him as if he was born yesterday and said, “I'm injured, by the way. I'm having surgery and in pain.” Chanse said, “What about if we just keep you on Fryers?,” and I said, “Even then, I'm still using this injured hand.” Chanse's targeted harassment continues with, “Well, how about we just have you drop buns or scoop fries?” and I'm instantly reminded of the way Darian treated me less than 12 hours previous and I replied, “That's ridiculous, Chanse! It sounds like you're all of sudden saying that I'm too slow to work here”, and he instantly retorted, “That's EXACTLY what I'm saying. I'm trying to run a business here,” and that's when he caught himself, altered his tone (because female employees were listening and taking notes), and continued, “and I wouldn't be doing this, you know, coming over here and trying to coach you and mentor you if I didn't care.” I start rolling my eyes and tuning him out because this is the first time he did this and it's leaving me to think, “Where was this version of you on January 3rd when we were outside trying to salt the property before customer's blew the doors open and you told me to go inside instead of doing my Porter job.” And then I came back to Earth long enough to hear Chanse say, “or I'll just find somebody who will,” and laughs to himself like its some kind of joke. Laughing the same way Brock Lesnar laughs that just triggers instant “go away” heat.
“You do that,” I respond, remove my hat, my apron, punch out, and walk out the door.
July 20th, 2022 — Chanse Meylan demanded more from me than he ever did of himself … and I've got the stitches and scars to prove it.
48 hours after trigger finger release surgery
My final check was for $300. I pay my eclectic and internet, feed myself with the rest, and wonder what I'm going to do to pay my $735 rent by August 5th.
My stitches come out August 3rd, but the surgeon could say I need another 4 weeks to heal. I now keep a living will in my wallet stating that if my body is found, suicide is most likely the cause as I struggle to accept and deal with everything Chanse Meylan did to me and fight to stay sheltered, fed, and alive to see his sorry ass sued off for it. It also states that everything I own goes to my 21 year old daughter Gwendolyn I've not seen since my Mother's funeral. Because the day I turn up dead is the same day she'll never get a Chanse at reconciliation, and whose fault it was.
–Jay–