Very long but I have to get this all off my chest. I moved 2 hours away to pursue a career at an artisanal bakery. I graduated from college last year with a BA in graphic design and studio art (yes yes I know fucking useless but it’s what I’m good at) but COVID cost me several internship opportunities, and my foster mother’s sudden passing derailed me personally. I decided to switch career paths to baking because it was her trade and it was something I was talented at and deeply passionate about. I have worked at several tourist attractions and restaurants with high production rates so I knew what I was getting into when they told me they were a production facility (IMO a little contradictory to being “artisanal” but whatever).
I was a massive fan of said bakery, and I would make pilgrimages out from where I originally lived so that I could take home some of their bread and pastries. I deeply admired the quality of their goods and felt so strongly about wanting to learn their secrets and techniques. I saw that they were hiring and I applied. They took 2 months to call me and offer me a job—$12 an hour, with guaranteed 40 hours/week and a GUARANTEED raise at the 3 month mark. I noted that the starting pay was much lower than I was expecting, but driven by my sincere love and passion for the art and the idea of this job, I decided that my desire to work at this superseded my need for money. I just wanted to do fulfilling work—I wanted to make art, nourish people, do something pure that I could really feel proud of.
Well, fast forward 3 months—I’ve sold some clothes and my furniture, moved from a pretty affordable small town to a slightly more expensive college town (still not bad, with a double income household). My fiancé gets hired by the same bakery at $14/hr since he has 10 years of food and fine dining experience. He is put in charge of prep/delivery for this “small business” (which, unbeknownst to us, has 7 mini like outlet locations somehow) but is tasked with basically every single job under the Sun. This leads to him getting screamed at on a near daily basis by the store owner (people call him a CEO, idk if that’s even remotely correct), who, on our first day of work, has to brag about some custom several thousand dollar bamboo fly fishing pole he had custom made. Okay, I thought, kinda weird that you’re telling me this but sure man, whatever floats your boat. He lets on about his property ownership around town, and it becomes apparent to me that he’s exceptionally well off, and clearly wants to brag about it (he has a habit of driving his employees to see his massive house while ON THE CLOCK just to brag). It’s around this 3 month mark where things started taking a turn.
In order to keep up with production demands, my fiancé ends up working 50-75 hour work weeks. I never see him, and when I do, he’s beaten down and exhausted and a husk of a human. This massive amount of overtime pisses off my wealthy as hell “CEO” and he lays my fiancé off, saying that he’s just too expensive to keep. We’re devastated but attempt to be understanding of the situation. In his stead, boss man hires 3 college kids to replace my fiancé, all at $8/hr. This greatly impacts the bakers’ production as, surprise surprise—these kids aren’t getting paid enough to give a fuck about the BOH staff. Laying off my fiancé made my rent near unpayable, so I have to work every hour I can to make up the difference between us. Not long after this happens, my CEO comes in while I’m attempting to finish my shift, and he spins this 20 min yarn about a cowboy hat he “accidentally” spent $900 on because he was drunk.
I keep ignoring red flags like this, until they hire this assistant manager who is just downright verbally abusive. She’s OBSESSED with currying the favor of said CEO and is just insufferable to deal with. She’s a massive micromanager who cannot help but correct every single person in her path and she’s really big on forcefully ripping stuff out of your hands to make a point on “how slow” you’re being. Granted, she’s shown nicer sides of herself before, but it’s this irritated, irrationally angry side that everyone sees the most. Her presence makes coming to work anxiety-ridden and miserable for me and a few of my other coworkers. She took a lot of what I loved about this job and made it painful, filled with pressure, and un-fun.
So I’m now 6 months in—I have been told I won’t be getting a raise this year because I take too long to finish my shift. Mind you, I’m clocking out at around 6-8.0 hours EXACTLY every single time, even clocking out early in some cases to avoid getting screamed at by the assistant manager for “bleeding the boss dry.” Yesterday I got taken aside by her and she tells me I’m not allowed to work 8 hour shifts anymore, and I have to clock out under 7 hours. What?? I was hired to work FULL TIME. I was told 40 hours a week was not only guaranteed but expected of me. I NEED to work those 40 hours to literally survive in this town. I notice that my pay stubs are capping my hours at 35, which is completely incorrect.
The work itself has become so physically demanding on my small, malnourished body that I am getting hurt at every turn at work. I’m still the lowest paid person in the bakery, and I’m one of two full time employees that can work all aspects of the BOH (pastry and bread have separate sides and I was trained in both which is not extremely common where I work). I haven’t slept in 4 days, and all I can afford to eat is the bread I make—I am allotted 1 loaf for free for every shift I work. I’m angry because the work environment is super toxic and this asshole can just come in and brag about his massive wealth and indiscriminate spending but can’t bring himself to pay me anything close to a living wage. I’m trying to move down to part-time, but they will probably be super pushed and reject my request. If they do, I’m putting in my two weeks and going back to freelancing and going to school for IT. I can’t take it anymore. I’m tired of literally putting my life aside and sacrificing my self, physically and emotionally, for a job that just keeps taking without giving in return.
I am so disappointed in myself because I wanted this to work. I wanted to love my work. I wanted to become a master of this thing that brought me joy and brought me close to the memory of my mother. But the petty behaviors of my superiors and the sheer disregard for the humanity of their staff has finally broken me. I could keep going on but it just gets worse and worse in every single way possible. I know it’s not just me—my coworkers who have been there for 1-2 years talk a lot about how bad the turnover rate is here. In the short time I’ve worked here, I’ve watched 4 people quit. I’m not even surprised. I am so unbelievably heartbroken and sad that everything has turned out this way.