I’ve had 2 jobs in the past 2 years. I’m not heading towards my 3rd in the past 2 years… which I’m hoping blossoms into a career. The first job, was me being a manager at T-Mobile. Let me tell you… I am NOT doing that again. That job gave me burnout so fast because they were constantly trying to get me to commit fraud, and force my employees to as well. I was working 60-80 hr work weeks. And even was forced to work while I had severe covid in 2021 and almost died from it. I left that job 5 days after my one year mark. Literally walked out because the burnout wasn’t worth it.
Flash forward to my current job. Been here since April 26th. Once again. I’m doing 60+ hour work weeks, never get a day off, and have literally been forced into canceling EMERGENCY doctor appointments that literally define the fate of my life, by them threatening to fire me for even making these appointment… ON MY DAYS OFF. I’ve only been here 5 months. I put in my 2 weeks yesterday and my bosses exact words were “Wish I would have known. I just fired 2 people”. Dude didn’t even care that his best seller was leaving his team. I was told I had gotten a “few dollar raise” recently too… just to find out its fucking 50¢. I’m also risking drug trafficking charges being here because we illegally sell magic mushrooms. So, I chose to put in a two weeks.
What’s similar about jobs #1 and #2? They didn’t give a fuck if they were overworking me, and I’m the ONLY one both jobs did it to. Yet they expect their workers to not get burnout with 1 day off a week, if they’re lucky. They expect us to not get burnt out after working long hours. Literally 10am-9pm every day. 6-7 days a week. Usually up to 14 days straight. Simply put. Employers do NOT care about their employees. Whatsoever. Job #1 was a huge third party retailer. Job #2 was a small business. The thing they shared in common? Literally everything. From walking over their employees, to forcing them to risk criminal charges.
I start a new job, mid September. I’m extremely excited, anxious, every word in the book to describe how I feel. I’ll be working for my dad’s friend, as a manager. And I’ll be getting 4 days off a week. Words cannot describe how much of a weight off my shoulder that is. I’ll be getting paid $8/hr more to work there. My boss is even going out of his way to get me a laptop for work and everything. He’s my age (~21) so he gets the work burnout stages. I’m incredibly thankful for that. Let alone for being given such an opportunity, and I genuinely hope I can make a good impact and help him grow his business.
What really sucks though? Had I gone anywhere else, I probably would have been paid $1 over minimum wage, vs $8. I wouldn’t have gotten a reasonable schedule. I’d be forced to do some super super long weeks. And most importantly, I’d be stepped on. Yet employers wonder why nobody wants to work. When they don’t provide competitive wages. Flexible schedules. Even just benefits sometimes. Yet they expect people to work through the burnout. And of course, if you do get burnout, it makes your resume look awful. You just even speaking to a potential employer about why you left, the TRUE reason you left just makes you look worse. What a fucked system.
My message to anyone in the same boat is, keep your head up, and your eyes peeled. Genuinely. There will always be another employer who WILL treat you with the respect you deserve. It just takes a lot of fighting for. Even though working in general, just sucks ass.