Hey yall. Ex college athlete here with no prior work experience having some trouble at my first job. I honestly just want to know if this is a valid reason to feel this way and want to quit or if im just being too optimistic about the labor force. Hoping this isn’t too long. Just want to get important details in.
Getting a major in business currently, specifically marketing. Have my senior year of college left for me as I took a step away from my sport to focus on myself. Wanted to get a Job mainly get some experience in before I started looking for jobs related to my major as well as the extra income. Cashier was a solid option for the time being. So I ended up getting a job at a restaurant as one.
First 2 months go by good. Deal with occasional bad customers but I see it as some good experience. Eventually, the General manager at the time chooses to relocate stores to be by family. He was the only bilingual GM we had, so another manager and good portion of our production team left with him. Leaving us understaffed off the bat with a new GM and manager.
Im immediately relocated to dish duty. At the time, I understood and was ok (obviously I wasn’t ecstatic) with taking the position till we got some more people. Almost 3 months have now gone by and I’ve worked almost everyday doing that. The GM now labels me as the “dishwasher”. Understatement when I say my blood boils when I hear those words.
Attempted to bring up my concerns but im always met with the excuse of being understaffed and how I’ve been doing such a good job. Meanwhile, He replaced me with new cashiers so we don’t even need anymore. I wasn’t trained in production and they don’t have time to train me, which leaves nothing else to do except dishes. Old dish washer got moved to production, and I talked to him about how much I hate it and how I wanted to quit (lesson learned, keep that stuff to myself, even though he would tell me the same things when he was there). He then made me feel really shitty about it because it would mean he would have to go back and he didn’t want to.
No where in the application did it say possible complete position change, nor did the old GM who hired me say it could even happen. He mentioned that on busier days we would possibly need to help them out, but nothing to the extent of this. The day before old GM left, he was showing the new GM around the store. He saw me on dish, and wondered why I was there, asking the new GM if they knew I was a cashier. He responded with “he’s just helping us out today.” I wish.
last few months have been pretty rough. Washing dishes 5-6 days a week for 6-7 hours alone in the back, praying that eventually I’ll be put back on cash has become just mind numbing. Feel like its affecting my entire mood. Doesn’t help the GM is a control freak that never lets us go on break (thanks Indiana) or responds to questions in annoyance.
I’m utterly miserable there. I just want to know if my thoughts about this situation are valid or if I should expect stuff like that to happen. Just doesn’t make sense in my brain, how I can apply for a specific job, only to be at the mercy of my GM on whether or not I stay there or do something completely different. Feels like I got demoted. Honestly don’t know what to do or say and don’t want other employees there to hate me or to be attacked by my managers.
I Want to make it clear that I understand being a team player and helping out, especially when we were understaffed. Im always willing to help out anyway I can. But when its been so long, they call me the dishwasher, and I see my old position being filled in, its hard to still see it as just helping out. If anything I have no clue what to expect when I walk in. Will I be on dish? will they possibly put me on cash? will they try to train me in production? Sorry for the word vomit post. Been on my mind for a while. Any advice on ways to go about this would help a lot. Thanks.