I'm not sure if this fits here, I'm only venting. I'm forced to move from one job to another in this moment in my life. I have to keep earning money and to prove I can work in the country where I'm an immigrant. I have been working a week as a barista/front desk person/busyboy in a fancy bar and restaurant in a small town. I deemed myself lucky to be hired. My previous job wasn't great and I thought the new environment would be pleasant instead with new encounters and challenging things to learn. Now, the thing is, I can do the job. I serve customers with a smile, arrive early and leave late, learn things fast when I am told and can practice. But the work “ethic” is an absolute mess of sadism and irrational posture. There's a firm requirement of never sitting down. Literally. The person I am under “supervision” of (more of that later) prouds herself on never sitting or going to the bathroom. It's so very creepy and sad. Everyone seems under a cloak of caffeinated urgency wheter they are actually doing tasks or not. This means LESS work can get done, and of worse quality. The first times I would serve the clients, clean my work station and sit on a stool there, without leaving my place, ready to stand up when needed. Well, I don't know if I'm being demanding or not, but I can't sit. The owner will show up, smirk and ask if I am stealing his money and, rethorically, if I want to go home instead. So I stand up and do whatever thing I can come up with. Wiping clean a surface that doesn't need it, fetch a random bottle in the storage room to put in the back of the fridge – literally every possible dumb thing to prove that I am not resting there. There's no rest other than the bathroom, the only place I can sit in. Well, people who work in the kitchen or are more experienced rightfully take their breaks chatting among them or whatever, but my sitting in the front seems conspicuous and quite offensive. Then a client arrives, I am around trying to look busy, the owner himself takes my place at the desk. It's a really dispersive system, only not to accept that people might need to break from the standing position once in a while. I get serious knee pain, they keep hurting for hours and this could be so much reduced with just a few minutes of sitting down. For God's sake, I could even work while sitting, cleaning tools and other things. Instead I need to spend my energy, both mental and physical, in striking an attitude so that I won't be singled out. My supervisor is the perfect busybee. She never complains, she prouds herself on the aches and long hours. Which I would understand if all of this was a rational endeavour to a mea . A lot of her effort in looking busy is about doing stuff with exaggerated performative gestures, anxiety, noises, all of which adds time and confusion to moves that are pretty simple. But she LOOKS more committed than me, even though we're doing the same job. When there are lots of clients I perform very well. Because I can actually work. When there's no one I might judge I could sit, sure, after maybe three hours or going back and forth and inflating, splitting, re-enacting tasks… As soon as I lay my ass on a stool, the pressure and insinuations begin. I am really confused about why I was hired in the first place. I was supposed to undergo a training shift when my supervisor only asked me to clean and do menial stuff. Even now, if she's not busy, she will intervene in my dealing with the clients and engulf all of the process, just to prove she is working more, all the time, with no rest, while I am doing only the “bare minimum” (which is a lot). I honestly feel like I'm there to relieve their group pressure and be the butt of their jokes and discontent. If anyone has read so far, thank you, and have a nice time.