I’m (m36, Canada) posting from my NSFW account for extra anonymity as I’m pursuing labour standards and human rights complaints against my former employer. Please don’t judge if you look at my comment history
Until a week ago I worked at a store in a small regional grocery chain. I’d worked in community organizations for most of my life until a few years ago when my mental health started to decline. I started treatment for ADHD and this year I was diagnosed with PTSD related to childhood neglect and psychological/sexual abuse. I wanted a low-stress, low-responsibility job that I could do while addressing my past trauma. Also I love to cook and I’m knowledgeable about international cuisine so this seemed perfect for me.
Even though it was a crappy minimum wage job I took it seriously and went above and beyond what I was told to do. I was assigned to work with a senior employee who I later found out had a history of bullying and harassing his co-workers. He quickly started doing the same to me: extreme micromanaging, attempting to isolate me from other co-workers, excessive unfair criticism and generally trying to control and demean me. It took months before I realized what was happening because I tend to be understanding and compassionate to a fault. I just assumed this guy was feeling stressed and under-appreciated and showing it in unfortunate ways.
In the midst of all this, I learned my manager is a homophobe. He told jokes about anal sex with his bro friends constantly and showed a lot of bias towards me (example: cutting my hours even though I had seniority over 5 other employees). I went to the store manager and was told they could do nothing. I attempted to confront him and deal with it on my own. Then a week ago I get pulled into HR to be told I was harassing and threatening him and that I was being terminated. I thankfully have a paper trail showing this is not true and will be pursuing labour standards and human rights complaints.
If I can’t survive working in a grocery store then am I going to end up on welfare? I missed time due to stress, my hours were unstable and the wages low so I have no savings. I barely even have any food and my transit pass expires in two days.
I’ve also yet to receive my record of employment so I can apply for unemployment.
A friend/comrade who left the same workplace set up a GoFundMe to cover my expenses until I get unemployment insurance straightened away (could be 6-8 weeks since they seem to be withholding my record of employment) but I don’t really know how to make that work (most of my friends are broke and the ones that aren’t already support me financially when they can).
I’m feeling a little hopeless. Has anyone ever been in a situation like mine? How did you survive?