I was working as a barista at this small independent 3rd wave coffee shop since June. We were a really small team, 4 baristi and the owners, husband and wife (I’ll refer to them as Mr and Mrs Boss). I loved my colleagues, but from the beginning on I noticed something was off with Mr Boss. My colleagues only confirmed my suspicions, that he was a narcissist. He kept micromanaging us, he flipped out every time we made the smallest mistake but obviously if we worked really hard or we did amazing he never ever gave a compliment. Like there were more red flags than on a Chinese military parade. We regularly worked unpaid overtime, worked 9 hour shifts alone without anyone giving us a break or even have the chance to go to the toilet (god forbid to eat a bite mid-rush), monthly salaries were coming irregularly and we had no overview on how much taxes and social benefits we paid from our salaries… he regularly supervised us through the security cameras and pointed out mistakes we made during work. When we tried to approach him about these things he gaslighted us, saying it’s all legal and other shops do it too. When I asked Mrs Boss about a pay increase to counter the growing inflation she came up with excuses that their costs also grew (they just changed the prices recently) and they can’t afford to pay us more…
So about 2 months ago I got an offer from a different shop and I wanted to take it so I told Mr and Mrs Boss that I got a better offer and I’ll quit. The new job didn’t work out so I actually stayed (yes, I know, stupid of me) because I needed a job while I’m studying. Due to the toxic work environment the job didn’t make me happy anymore but I needed an income and couldn’t risk quitting and not finding anything.
So today after my shift Mr and Mrs Boss came to the shop and told me that due to my low work moral they gonna have to fire me. I mean, I know I’m no saint but I couldn’t imagine they could get this low to fire me right before Christmas.