I will be very vague with my descriptions and situation as the things I say could easily lead to me losing my job.
I have worked for my company for almost 6 years. I started at the bottom and worked my way up into management and now I run the entire territory. The largest franchise in the nation in this corporation to be more specific. I knew the owner through our casual hobbies that we participated in together. I am eternally grateful for him giving me this opportunity and for helping me get to a level financially that I did not think I would get to, this quickly. With this said, this job has turned into an absolute nightmare…
Every day I wake up and have either an angry owner or an angry customer to deal with and try to handle. It's so draining being bounced back and forth between two negative parties both of whom I am trying to help fix or solve their situations. People are becoming increasingly more irritable and unreasonable and I can't ever satisfy everyone. We sit in our meetings and acknowledge that we can't make everyone happy, hell we even do things we know our customers won't like; but when someone is upset about something I have to fix it and get berated by both parties while doing so.
We used to have a slow point during the summer but now the owner has decided to go full throttle and that meant a 30-40% increase of workload for me. In which when I asked for a raise since my workload was going to be increased. I was met with “I make competitive market value for my position” and “remember that no one is irreplaceable”. This is after we had a meeting discussing how “since the end of the COVID lockdown we have reached levels on revenue never seen before.” I already work 50-60 hour weeks sometimes, where do I find time for this? And when it is a “slow-time” I get handed extra assignments because it's a “slow-time”. I complain about being overworked and I get told it's my fault for not managing my time and work/life balance better. They try to gaslight me and tell me all my work issues are caused or stem from ME.
Remember how I said I manage the largest territory in the nation for our franchise ? Well we won an award for that. Congratulations, right ? Well the owner went on stage and accepted the award at our corporate job conference and did not once cite me or even shout me out while accepting this award. That award was basically all of MY hard work and achievements this past year and I couldn't even get a small smidge of recognition for it.
We also do so many things that go against corporate rules and regulations many of these things I obviously had to ignore or play dumb about at the corporate conference. I am constantly being put in awful spots where I know it's not going to work but I'm forced to try and make it work and when it doesn't I get the blame and the clean up. The owner believes he is doing what is best but his version of the best is these “band-aid” solutions to get everyone to shut up and make the problem go away. Every time this happens it ends in an absolute shit show and guess who the person with the mop is.
It's becoming so taxing but I can't leave because I need the money. I talked with my Grandmother today who is also in management and she has the same concerns and issues at her job. I can't imagine doing this and living like this until her age. She told me she got to work this morning and cried for 15 minutes in the car before cleaning up and putting on the happy face before going into work because she knew what she was walking into today. That just killed me inside. Why do we have to slave away and destroy ourselves mentally and sometimes physically for these individuals who just get to live care free and enjoy the fruits of OUR labor.
I had to get this out in the open. I hope everyone is staying strong and somewhat positive. I am struggling so badly with depression and anxiety. I am getting treatment but I feel like nothing ever changes or will ever change. I literally have no will to live other than my basic financial survival and to not make my family sad without me. I have no passion or drive anymore and don't look forward to anything. Work takes up all of my time and it's always something whether I plan for it or not. I find no enjoyment in things anymore because I'm so tired from work. I can't go do things when I'm not working because I'm recovering from or getting ready for work.
I know I am not alone. I read stories on this sub constantly and it makes me more sad. Why are we doomed to live like this?
Rant over. Thank you if you made it this far. I just had to get it off my chest.