TLDR: I was overworked doubling up on jobs and expressed this to the boss multiple times, he did nothing about it so I got fed up and quit. He told me off very aggressively and was arrested the next day for something severe, but unrelated
A while back, I was working a waitressing job while living at my parents house. While I love my parents, we do not live well together, so I found a new place about an hour south of them and subsequently a new, better paying job.
The restaurant knew from the get-go that I planned on being a temporary employee so I could have income while I searched for a job relating to my degree. When the time came, I gave management a notice that I had found a new job about two months before it started. An opportunity arose with a client at the new job and I elected to start a couple weeks before originally planned, so I gave the restaurant my two weeks notice, about a month before my original end date.
I felt like an ass for this, and I needed the money to make up for after my move, so after the two weeks ended, I agreed to go about another two weeks with them, working night shifts about 5 days a week after my new job’s hours, and doubles on the weekends.
After 11 days of this, I voiced to my restaurant manager how I was almost passing out during shifts from being burnt out and that we were over staffed for the weekend morning shifts. The manager was very well aware of my situation as I try my best to be transparent with this stuff. Saturday morning on day 13, he asked me to complete my morning shift, and said if the situation called for it, he’d cut me at the start of the night shift. We had 4 waiters and 3 tables that morning. I didn’t make a fuss because I was paid hourly and not on tips. Night shift rolled around and he never addressed my early cut, and even asked me to stay “a couple more minutes” while avoiding me the entire shift. We had maybe 2 tables to a waiter that night. I drove the hour back to my new place at 11:30 pm, exhausted as hell.
I texted him when I got home and told him that I was on the brink of falling asleep during shifts, my physical health was deteriorating, and we were well over staffed for Sunday morning based on usual trends as well as our lack of reservations, as we have been most weekends, and begged to have the morning shift off. He gave me push back and I admitted I made a mistake by taking on so many hours and asked for leniency with the promise that I would be there for the night shift. He gruffly told me that he better see my face by 8 am and hung up on me mid sentence.
I’m not the one to say important things via text, but I was fed up and exhausted and upset, and texted him that I will not be showing up for either shift, I apologize for the inconvenience, but I had to put my health first. He texted back the meanest shit I’ve ever heard from a human, saying how my new boss won’t put up with my constant bullshit, I’m unreliable and worthless, I was a pity hire because I’m a female and live in town, I’m a terrible person, etc. This text nearly broke me as I gave so much to them, was late to one shift but worked 6 a week (60+ hours depending on doubles,) and was super nervous about my new job and whether or not the new boss would like me.
I was reeling in anxiety and insecurity after this text, really distraught that I had been supposedly such a shitty employee and shitty person. I got a call the next day that my manager had been arrested on child pornography charges for waiting at local places for the high school buses to drop kids off, and taking up skirt photos of children. The local police department had been investigating and tailing him for months. His arrest helped me realize that I was not a terrible person, and experience has helped me realize that I was being taken advantage of for my flexibility and propensity to put up with bullshit.
Now I know why he always left the premises during our 3 to 4pm lunch hour instead of joining staff lunch.