TL;DR: I gave 2 weeks and my manager said not to come back. I am happily obliging and I feel better than I have in over a year.
I won't give all of the details of why my job sucked and I needed to leave because this post would be a novel, but I wanted to make a little feel-good post because it's been a pretty awesome day!
I(M21) worked for a year in a family-owned cafe hosting and serving. Service jobs are almost required to suck, but this one got consistently worse the longer I stayed. I saw 2 assistant managers get fired for having the audacity to advocate for fair pay and moving the restaurant into the future instead of keeping it firmly stuck in the 90's (in the worst way possible).
The last straw for me was when I stuck my neck out for a good buddy(M25) of mine to be hired as a dishwasher, and manager A(F70s) refused to hire him because he has autism and therefore is “a liability”. I'm seeing him tomorrow and I couldn't bear to tell him the truth about why he didn't get the job and still go back to work at a shithole like that.
I handwrote my two weeks' notice after my shift today, I should've taken a picture of it because management is already making shit up about what actually happened, but it was extremely professional. Started with “To whom it may concern,” went on to thank them for the opportunity, refrained from mentioning any of the reasons I was leaving, and told them my last day was August 20th.
Manager B(F40s) saw it and immediately texted me to not bother coming back.
It truly felt like taking off a backpack full of cement that I'd been hauling around for a year.
I had already made plans a couple of weeks prior to have dinner with a coworker(F25) tonight. It was the most fun I've had in ages. We talked for 2.5 hours straight, mostly about how much the job sucks and how we're both incredibly passionate about this type of cuisine but we felt completely stifled in our creativity there. She told me in a few months she will be ready to open her ghost kitchen (she's an extremely talented vegan chef in culinary school), and she WANTS ME TO BE HER SOUS!
My roommate(NB22) still works there, and I am their ride, so management has not seen the last of me and it boils their blood LMFAOOOO. I went in to pick up roomie, and to my surprise all of my coworkers called me over to talk and express solidarity!!!! Manager B had tried earlier to guilt trip them all into taking the rest of my shifts (there are A LOT) and they had refused!!! They told me they feel like it's her fault for not letting me finish my 2 weeks, she created the problem, and she can figure it out!
Honestly, I didn't think most of my coworkers gave a shit about me. It took me leaving to realize just how important I was there, as a member of the staff and as a person. I got hugs from everybody and assured them they have definitely not seen the last of me.
The past few months I have felt so pessimistic and unappreciated, turns out that was just a result of god awful management. Sometimes coworkers can be really, really good.