Hello, I (24m) really want to share my story… I was working as an intern in a big grocery franchise… it was a sort of program where you worked and went to the franchise academy in order to get an education through them and then climb the ranks
The internship started well and I was doing alot of work with alot of hours put in (10 hours a day monday-friday) and I liked it, but then my boss really showet who she was. An absolute piece of shit who has nothing going on in her life other than work (she works there 55 hours a week and is only paid for 37 hours) she believes that if you dont strive to be like her, you Arent doing a good enough job.
She is the most unhealthy human being, she does not eat except breakfast, she just smokes cigarettes to stop the hunger and she is like 45 kilos heavy.. looks like a crack addict..
Anyways fast forward a couple months and I developed inflammation in both soles of my feet due to bad shoes.. she did not think it was a good enough reason for me to stay home so I had to pull through the 10 hour workdays, and It was so horrible that the only thing I could manage after work was sleep cause I was in so much pain, I almost got high from it (it kinda felt like walking outside barefoot on gravel, imagine doing that 10 hours a day)
I cut off all social life and had no friends at the end.. everything i did was just wake up, go to work full of pain and then go to bed, I almost didnt eat and was so depressed.. I lived like that for 5 months, then she did the absolute unthinkable… she did not like me at all and according to her i was “weak”, so she said to my district manager that I wanted to change store, however, she was put in charge to give me grades for my performance. She gave me a D- in everything and Even F in teamwork (this was all done JUST to get me to quit, if there is one thing i believe in its positive syngergy among a team, i am one of the few who even got a diploma from the academy because of my leadership skills)
I could not land an interview with Any of the other franchise store due to those grades which did not reflect on who I really am. After a few weeks i finally landed an interview with a store and they wanted me to start (i had amazing grades at the academy, so that helped my case)
However, remember the district manager who got told i didnt want to continue? Well turns out he has to check if that is true by asking me, he didnt, so what he did could cause him to be fired. So what he did is he called that new franchise store and told them not to hire me, so they didnt. I got put on an invisible black list and was forced to quit as i couldnt find anyone who would accept me due to those false grades.
I ran a case with the union that led to nothing. I got very very sick with stress and after 3 months still battling with my feet which now could be permanent damage.. I worked through hell for a year of my life and I have nothing to show for it, I lost everything, but it made me realise there is much more to life than work, which now is why I belive in this cause.
Thank you for reading