So, I’m a server in Canada and until October of 2021 I had worked at the same restaurant for over 4 years. This is the only restaurant job I’ve ever had.
In October, I spoke to my department manager about taking a LoA because I was having trouble juggling work and school. He told me he could give me a month off but for any more than that I would have to talk to the general manager, let’s call him Richard. So, I spoke to Richard who told me he can’t give me a LoA, but if I need time off, I can quit and he would be happy to rehire me when I want to come back. Richard is notorious for refusing to rehire people who’ve quit and want to come back, so I was skeptical but he reassured me, “100% we would love to have you back. Take whatever time you need and your job will be here when you get back” (didn’t get it in writing. Stupid, I know).
Fast forward to yesterday, I went in to talk to my department head about getting my job back. The department head, let’s call him Peter, told me that they won’t rehire me because they want “fresh faces” and “want to promote a new culture here,” according to Richard. I was pretty pissed, but kept my cool for the most part.
I told Peter that I’ll be fine, I’ll find a new restaurant to work at. I asked him if I could use him as a reference, and he said that because I tried to get rehired and they said no, that no manager there is allowed to provide a reference for me, since they won’t hire me and deem me “unhireable”. So, I’m now being treated as if I did something wrong to warrant this, when all I was doing was following Richard’s advice.
Now I have no job and am not allowed to use the only references I have from the last four years to get a new one. What do I do?
TL;DR- I quit my job because my manager told me he would hire me back. Now they won’t hire me and refuse to allow me to use them as a reference.