Back in 2015 I worked for a pretty well known company when I was 17. It was my first job while in college so I was experiencing new things in an environment I’d never been in before so I had no idea what was normal. I ended up quitting on the spot.
When I first started there I should have known from the interview process that this was not a good company to work for. At one point during the interview they decided to make it a group interview and had everyone come in together. After about 15 minutes of questions to everyone I finally got asked a question. When I answered the response back was “wow, she actually talks”. Everyone in the room laughed and I was honestly embarrassed. My dad had passed away a month prior so I think part of me was adamant on getting a job to take my mind off of things so I ignored it.
Fast forward to two weeks later and I’m scanning an elderly woman’s items for her when out of nowhere a bell goes off and everyone stops what they are doing and goes silent. No one had mentioned to me that we were doing a two minute silence so I’m confused but continued to scan items. One of the ladies I worked with was mad I wouldn’t stop serving this customer but anytime I stopped the customer then got annoyed with me for just standing in silence. At this point I still had no idea why no one was doing anything because no one had informed me. I ended up getting into trouble afterwards by management for not respecting the two minute silence that I didn’t know about.
Now to the recordings. Everyday at lunchtime I would sit alone in the communal area and just eat my lunch. No one at the company even attempted to talk to me and I think it was down to age. Most of the people had worked there for years and years and were mostly in their early 40’s/50’s so they all had a bond. Every lunch time they would sit at a huge table and talk about topics that were a bit inappropriate to be discussing at work. Eventually their topics got a bit out of hand that I wanted to record them so I could show my boyfriend because I was quite surprised. I guess I forgot to show them to him because last week I was going through my sound recordings and I saw them. I let him listen and he couldn’t believe that I just had these recordings on my phone and didn’t tell management.
I should probably explain why I left the job. A rule for when you were working was to not have your phone in your pocket. I respected that up until my mum was struggling at home. Mentally she was not well after my dad passed so I was worried all the time especially because she was alone while I was working. So I kept my phone in my pocket. One day I got frantic upsetting messages from my mum and I was worried so I explained everything to my manager and I couldn’t control my emotions so I ended up crying. My dad had passed literally a month before and my mum was struggling. I went to management hoping they could understand. Instead I got yelled at for having my phone in my pocket and for crying on the job. My manager who was in her late 50’s exact words (I remember because I couldn’t believe she would be so blunt) were “Both of my parents have died and I still worked. I collected my emotions and put them to the side for my job. We all have parents that die, but the world doesn’t stop spinning.” I was 17 dealing with all of this, she knew it was my first job and didn’t care. I quit on the spot and walked out.
I don’t really know where to go with this but the recordings are of the staff discussing certain topics and saying their personal opinions which were rather offensive.