A bit of a backstory: I've been working in this cafe for 2 years now. I started there with a little bit of experience and developed skills with time. Ever since I started there, my boss (the owner) would yell at me and threaten to fire me. With time, I learned to “fight back” and that stopped for a bit.
We had a team of 6 people and we all became friends. We all got along great and it was the best people I've ever worked with. Due to travelling reasons plus feeling unappreciated/unmotivated/overworked, they all left. And I was the only one who stayed. I asked for a raise and to be a supervisor since by then I already had great barista skills and was management and training the whole new team. He gave me the raise.
Earlier this year, I got pneumonia, for the third time in my life. I was hospitalised once and I got really scared it would happen again. I cured myself, but ever since then, I've been getting colds on and off. I eat well, I go to the gym 4-5 times/week but I don't get enough rest for the long hours I work.
So last night I spent the whole night coughing and could not sleep. I fell asleep and woke up 20 minutes late to open the cafe. I called him and said I'd be there quickly and rushed to the café. He asked why I didn't ask him to cover me. I told him one of the reasons why I didn't do that, is because the times I've told him I'm sick, he'd get angry at me. One time I was in the hospital getting an IV because I had a really bad UTI and he kept calling me over and over and yelling at me and saying how irresponsible I am even though I told him I was really sick BEFORE my shift was starting. I have NEVER seen him treat any other staff member like that when they're sick.
When the day ended, after a long and busy and stressful day, he came up to me and said “what's the deal with me being late and thinking I can get to the shop whenever I want”. I told him I spent the whole night up and I should've called him to cover the first few hours for me. That I didn't do it on purpose and I legit thought I'd be able to wake up but ended up being 30 minutes late. He then said I should apologize and I said yes, I'm sorry, next time I'll let you know. And then he started yelling at me saying well you are irresponsible bla bla. And I said I already said I'm sorry, what else do you want me to say?
We started arguing, like literally yelling and getting angry and I started crying and customers were there. It was a shit show and embarrassing. He once again said “you have to think if you want this job or not” and I said “maybe I don't, I'm done with this, I'm sick and this is the type of treatment I get?”
I've looked for other jobs but this one “pays well”, I can pay my bills, travel and save money so in that sense it's pretty good and has good flexibility because I'm on a casual contract, so I am scared to leave but at the same time I can't do this anymore. Also this is NOT what I want to do career wise, but I am an international student and it's really tough to get a job in my field of study I used to work with where I'm from.
I tend to guilt trip myself into finding reasons to justify my boss acting like this with me, but I wanted an outside perspective as I feel like I've never been treated like this in the past and I feel like especially in the hospitality industry there's a lot of these types of situations.