Marked NSFW due to mentions of sexual harassment, albeit brief.
Hello, I (21F) have been working since the age of twelve. My parents forced me to get a job at twelve at a day care. There are a number of reasons that this is or should be illegal, but I was in a “unique” situation. I had to take care of ten children that were otherwise unsupervised, most of whom I did not share a language in common with. Because these were children left during work hours, I was taking care of them from 8am-5pm Mon-Fri. Pay was the equivalent of $7/hr. That job finished just before I started 8th grade, and once I was in school I was expected to also take care of the eight foster dogs we had at the time, in addition to five other dogs in the neighborhood. I was being paid significantly for these five neighborhood dogs because they were owned by wealthy people, but i was also forced to pay for my own food and clothing so it didn't last long. I was also made to babysit a few local children.
Once I was 16 my parents forced me to 'find a real job' and was saddled as a retail associate for a Cracker Barrell. My boss told me explicitly to flirt with older men and I didn't have the legal knowledge or wherewithal to report her. I ended up getting fired from this job not long after I turned 17 because I had to take one of those national tests (SAT/ACT, don't remember which). I put in for a day off two weeks prior and it was denied, told my boss the situation and she told me to find someone to cover. Nobody was able to cover. I told her that nobody was able to cover and she said “okay!” Was fired for not showing up because she left on vacation and decided to not inform the other managers there. I still have to explain this story when employers ask if I've been fired in the past five years.
Then worked at Subway for an abusive employer that stopped paying us 30 minutes after closing regardless of when we were actually able to leave (usually 1-1.5hrs after closing). I had a long list of illegal things that happened at that job. I had creepy coworkers, customers, and the like to field the entire time I worked there with no support. I was in high school at this point and still working over the legal limit for hours that a minor is allowed to work. Eventually I turned eighteen and went to college.
Freshman year I worked 30hrs/wk doing manual labor, most of which was overnight on school nights. I had an 18 credit load. Sophomore year I couldn't afford college without becoming an RA, so I did that (20hrs/wk) and took another job at Subway (20hrs/wk). 14 credit load but they were entirely made of biology and chemistry classes. Kicked out of college due to the pandemic and had to return to shitty, abuse-ridden household to work overtime hours at Lowes. Junior year I took a promotion at the RA job that increased my hours to ~25 and ended up as a cashier at a grocery store. Relentless harassment from managers and customers alike. This was the only job I quit because the harassment was too much. Ended up doing the RA thing on top of working at a rape-crisis center. All of these jobs I was making less than $13/hr.
I graduated in December and can't find jobs in my career field, or even approaching my career field. Unresponsive potential employers, employment scams, and jobs with one or two star ratings that don't pay anything approaching a reasonable wage for the job. I went back to Lowes for a couple months but I just hit a wall. I was working my ass off and being treated inappropriately by a sexist manager. He routinely covered for sexism and racism from other employees because they were understaffed. I quit. I've been living off of my meagre savings for a couple months now and I don't think I can do it anymore. I've been doing nothing and I am so fucking exhausted. This is the first break from working that I've taken since I entered the work force almost a decade ago. I can't get a psychiatric diagnosis because I don't have medical. I can't get any of my physical health problems sorted because I don't have medical. None of them are debilitating but I would like to be able to take more than ibuprofen and benadryl for serious pain and insomnia. I can't afford rent after next month and I need to find work but it's all seeming so pointless. Work has been a part of my identity for so long that I've realized I don't have real hobbies or interest or direction.
Retirement isn't in my future. I'm only $24k in student debt so far but I'll realistically have to go for a master's or doctorate to even approach the kind of work I actually want to do. It sounds dramatic but I don't think I can do another 50 years of this. I'm willing to go into further depth about the particulars of bullshit I experienced at each job if anybody's interested.