Okay, Reddit, I’ve had enough of working for tremendously stupid people who wield power over others in really disgusting ways, and I have 2 things for you today: a story from today of how I was told my jeans are “dark dark blue” and sent home on my first day of work by the store manager at Dominos.
The 2nd thing I have for you is a solution to all of this nonsense – to the petty tyrants, and to the massive ones, who make it impossible to survive day to day and treat our lives and time on this planet like a joke, or something for them to exploit rather than cherish and respect.
But it’s a solution that requires us to form together and work for ourselves, rather than wait for existing institutions to ever care to change.
Why should you listen to my solution? Because it’s a solution that empowers all of us against the psychopaths who ruin our lives both in business and government.
Why don't I just say focus on protest and unions? Because it's not enough. I’m not going to protest and negotiate every few decades with a union and government for my basic human needs to be met by my job, and neither should any of you.
Incremental pay increases or small standard of life increases won by these efforts aren’t enough, not when it takes enormous amounts of energy to get them, and not when we have to do it all over again every few decades.
My solution cuts through all of this – but we have to do it for ourselves. And if we do, we will possess our own lives and freedom, truly. We will answer to no one. Our basic human needs are met by design in this solution.
We all have a right to thrive and to have our basic human needs met. The fact that the existing business world and governments cannot seem to make this work is not an accident, and it’s a situation we can walk away from, and one where we we need to correct it for ourselves. Remember, existing institutions and leaders are the ones who built the system that stacked the odds so grotesquely in their favor to begin with – what makes you think they will change anything drastic for you, especially if it means losing out on their own way of life? They won’t.
But, let’s start with the story from today and why I’m dedicating the rest of my life to ensuring I build my solution for myself and for all of you.
First – my hiring interview at Dominos about 2 weeks ago. The Hiring Manager, Robaka, and I talked about my former work as a musician, mentioning her own aspirations. She mentioned, at least twice, the exact name of her instagram, and that on there, she plays guitar and sings. I asked if it would be okay to check it out and she said sure, she has a small following. Seemed innocent enough.
She also mentioned quite a few times that she was “showing her ass” (apparently her strange term for “being too honest” which I've never heard and can't find by googling so it's super rare at least) in regards to being too honest about how she only married her current husband because “he was close by at work”. This was in response to my mentioning that I'm going through a divorce. Poor guy. If only he heard those words. And why does she need to disclose that information to me during my interview, anyway? Very strange.
I already felt pretty uncomfortable by this person and wasn't sure the job was worth it if I had to work with her, so I asked if I’d be working with her mostly or for someone else. She assured me that I would never really work with her directly, but that I would have a home store and help out at other stores she manages. Great!
Later that day, I check out her instagram and am immediately met with lingerie and other provocative pictures. I feel like I should’ve been warned there were pictures of her in that state, as she only mentioned her music and singing videos. It’s basically softcore porn.
So I show up today to my first day of work after years of bs at other jobs ranging from physical assault (Bank of America) and sexual assault (Orangetheory Fitness), to just dealing with mindless petty tyrants who seem to get off on their own lack of empathy and compassion, to already dealing with this very strange hiring manager.
All I needed to do was show up at 4pm in black jeans (not track pants, mind you), and they’d have the rest of the uniform ready for me. Great.
I show up at 4pm in my black jeans. The store manager, Wizzle, immediately says, “I can’t let you work, those jeans look dark, dark blue to me. Can you go home and change?”
I said they aren’t dark, dark blue and that I couldn’t change as these are the only black jeans I have. I asked if this was a joke. He said no, and pointed to another worker there and said, “see? HIS are black.” Sure, they were a darker shade of black, but they were also track pants – which I was specifically told NOT to wear. Given what I was already getting from Wizzle, I decided not to argue this point to him.
He then suggested I could go to Walmart really quick and buy some new ones, but until then I can’t work. I responded that I don’t have money to go buy new jeans. He said, “then you can’t work.”
The audacity, really. What a tremendous lack of compassion and empathy – I genuinely can’t afford to just go buy pants like that right now. He could’ve said, “Okay, they’re dark enough for now – after first pay check, go get a new pair that are darker.” To which I would’ve said, “no, they’re black, I’m not doing that” because I’m not going to let insane people walk all over me like that. Now if I were actually in dark, dark blue jeans, that would've been the compromise of a good manager. He didn't do that, though – just told me to fuck off.
So I left and called his boss, Robaka, the hiring manager.
She asked me to send a picture. I sent texted this one. https://ibb.co/WFBDPKh
And later this one. https://ibb.co/y6TBCyg
Her response over the phone (prior to texting it again later) was, “well, they do look dark blue in the the upper part of your leg” to the first picture.
I conceded that, “Yes, in the shadow of my car, they do look blue. But in the part where there is sunlight hitting my leg, they’re clearly black. So, what are we going to do about this? I’m not comfortable working for Wizzle after this.”
She said, “Well, you’re being really confrontational and Wizzle (the Store Manager) is the best to work for because he is so good about catching stuff like this. If he says they're dark, dark blue, then they’re dark, dark blue.”
I said, “No, they’re definitely black, but since Wizzle doesn’t agree, I guess I have to go home.”
I texted her another, much more clear picture of my pants later and said to let me know if I still had a job and what store and what time to show up at, but I won’t work with Wizzle.
You can view those texts here. https://ibb.co/rQJFGvM
No word back on whether or not I’m fired, but I’ve made it clear I didn’t quit, I just need to be in another store – of which I was told I’d be needed anyway. Funny how quickly that changed.
Now I'm waiting to hear back if I'm fired or not, and will probably contact Robaka's boss about all this.
So, reddit, are they black or dark, dark blue? Was the manager out of line? Would you put up with this kind of bs or waste your time/money on such people? I hope not.
Now, as for my solution – it’s called Our Next Arc, which is where my username came from. Mods seem to think I'm always self-promoting or karma farming on many subreddits, so I make it a point not to mention ONA much and definitely no links in my posts. I'm just one person with limited skills and resources, and am doing what I can on my own to make this happen with my own business. This is going to take all of us.
To sum it up, ONA is a business model that adheres a $33 minimum hourly wage or else the business must be run as a co-op ith a $25 minimum wage, along with enforcing a salary range of 3x maximum so no one is being overpaid and taking money away from those doing important work, as well as ensuring we pay taxes rather than politicians to ensure that government programs are funded that can ensure basic human needs are met for all.
I'm as serious as it gets and fully believe we can build this union together – and if you actually want to make some change, then you can check my profile to find out more or DM me and let's talk.
I’m not here to self-promote so I’m going stop talking about Our Next Arc and not mention my own business by name, nor post any links to any of my sites – check my profiles and reach out if you want to work on this idea further.
I’m only here to share my stories with you all as I seem to be a magnet for work abuse situations, and to ask you all to please join me in this fight in building Our Next Arc. I can’t do this alone, as much as I’ve survived working for myself mostly since the pandemic began.
I need your help and with enough of us behind such a project, we can make this happen. Check my profile, reach out, we need to come together to build this for ourselves.
And for the love of god, do not take jobs working for people who make it clear they will abuse and mistreat you. Stand up for yourselves and help build a way to ensure we can finally walk away the exploitative and abusive work system we are all subjected to.