I lost my job two months ago as a design apprentice at an automotive parts manufacturer. I signed a contract to work there right when I got out of highschool for 3 years. The deal was that they were supposed to pay for all my college (their choice of college) and work an 8 hour shift on the days that I didn't have school. Sounded pretty good at the time
They promised to train me how to be a designer, then COVID hit and they furloughed me for 4 months, which is basically getting laid off but you don't have to re-apply. I was 18 at the time so I had no idea how unemployment worked and it took two months for me to start getting any checks.
I couldn't afford to pay for my car or insurance because of not having any money for like 3 months so my dad had to pay for it because he cosigned. He came to me when I knew I didn't have a job and tried to demand 2000 dollars from me.
When. I returned from my furlough There weren't enough workstations for everyone to remotely sign into so I was stuck sharing a workstation and working 4 hours a day instead of 8 for another 4 months.
After all this, not to mention having a shitty boss who wouldn't answer your texts or emails because he's in fucking teams meetings all day I was of course underperforming at work and in my classes. They tried to make it all my fault but they literally assigned people who already had full time jobs to train kids who knew nothing about design or engineering and made almost no effort to adjust for the setbacks that COVID caused.
That being said, I feel like design engineering is a feild I would excel in because I like working with cad programs. I just need a proper teacher.
I feel like I was forced to quit. I didn't hate my job I hated the people at my job for not doing as much as they should have to make sure I was educated properly. Instead of that they sent me to a community college where all the teachers are 80 year olds who teach part time and make me work under people who don't actually take the time to train me.
I know it's not all my fault but I feel like a complete failure I was counting on it to be a career and it was something that I was excited to do before they were ready to fire me because I wasn't ready for some stupid benchmark test. I would've been making 25+ an hour if I became a designer but since they gave up on me I work at McDonald's part time for 12.50 and hour.
I'm 21 now and I already have 2000+ in medical debt my rent is 600 a month, groceries are 200+ a week, and when I have car insurance that's gonna be another 200 a month plus 275 a month for my phone bill and a couple thousand in credit card debt and I make like $400 on a good week. I have no savings and I have no idea how I'm gonna provide a life for me and my girlfriend in this economy and just being in McDonald's makes me depressed and I've only been working there a week.
My grandfather is a veteran of the Korean war, worked at Chrysler for 30 years after he came back, and retired on a pension, and the government took his entire life savings because that was the only way he could afford to put my frail 85 year old grandmother into a nursing home. If a man who served his country, worked his share, and did everything he was supposed to do it makes me feel like I could never be good enough or smart enough to get ahead enough to be set for life.
I know that if something doesn't change I'll be working 40+ hours a week until I die. I didn't choose to be born into this economy or at all. I don't wanna die but I'm so so sick of living like this. We live in a fucking dystopian capitalist nightmare. I don't wanna do anything but get baked anymore and I low key hate myself and the world I live in.
Somebody send help pls S.O.S