So I started a job as a teatender at a small kava/kratom shop in December of 2019. It is a small business where one person is on shift at a time to run the store, serve customers at the lounge, offer education on the herbs we sell, and also jockey the separate retail desk.
I had been an infrequent customer of the business since they had opened in 2012, and thought I had become friends with the owners over the years. The owners are a husband and wife team and I always really thought they valued me. So when I had left my corporate job in 2019 and ran into them, they had offered me a job and I thought, “what the hell” and took it.
I went through three unpaid interviews totalling about six hours, where the boss lady told me that I had the most well compiled resume she had ever received, and am overqualified. However, she said they are opening their fourth location soon and need a manager for the two most well established stores, and that is what she was hiring me to eventually do.
So I started as a tea tender and set out to be the best one they had ever seen. And I was. The customer base loved me and sales were always better when I worked.
A few months in, they lost an employee at a location about 40 minutes away. So I stepped in and offered to fill some hours there until they got someone trained up. I ended up basically running both locations, doing all of the inventory, ordering, seasonal maintenance, and anything needed to keep both stores going while the owners focused on opening their fourth store and getting it established.
Months went along where I never saw the bosses. This was good to me, as in training, the owner/manager told me that if I don't see my boss, it is because I am doing a great job. And if the boss was spending 30+ hours a week in the store with an employee, that she was trying to push that person out.
So once they get the new store established, the fun begins… I was working 50ish hours a week and all of a sudden I am being supervised for about 40 of those hours…. The message was clear that I was considered a problem.
This continued and then their backroom manager (packaged all of the product for retail sale) quit, and the owner/ boss lady had to fill the role. Knowing she wasn't happy with me in the front of the house, I offered to learn back of the house and help out there. I thought, whatever I am doing wrong behind the bar, I can do better for the business behind a closed door. She said she would consider it and not forget my offer and get back to me.
A couple of months passed by without word, so I figured she had decided I wasn't right for that either. Then, on January 28 of this year, she announced to me via text that she was giving me a raise. I had never asked for more money, nor ever spoken about money troubles, so this came as a surprise. I said thank you and kept on doing my job.
In the next two weeks, boss lady reminded me several times about the raise I was to expect, telling me that she didn't forget and that I deserved it. That raise didn't show up on the next check. I figured maybe it took a pay cycle to take effect.
After two pay cycles and no raise, I just accepted that this was another psychological game to push me out. I am built to hold out, especially if I know I am unwanted and they refuse to fire me so I can't get unemployment. So I stuck around.
Oh, I also found out that while I was basically managing two of the four stores for the business, she had appointed someone at the new store as manager of that location …
This is when she decides to twist the knife and tell me she hadn't forgotten about my offer to work back of house, and would get back to me soon on a decision…
No word on the raise, no word on the job change, and a couple more months of extreme and unnecessary supervision every day I worked. Again, supervision is not necessary at this job and she had previously told me the intent of this treatment. I grit my teeth and held out, as that is what I am made to do. Fuck quitting when someone wants you gone and refuses to fire you, right?
Let me stop here to say that I LOVED this job, and the customers were really great, the only thing that made it unbearable was the boss's everpresence and the intent I knew was behind her being in the same store I was every day.
Anyway, six weeks ago I broke and gave my resignation notice. I love the place and the people, so I have a full six weeks notice so that I could at least help train a replacement. This immediately resulted in me never seeing either boss again for more than a few minutes at a time as they rushed in and out of the location I was working.
Seemed like great confirmation that they were, in fact, driving me away. I still tried to be a good guy and did the best job I could every day for my last six weeks. I still posted orders to replenish inventory, still brewed tea every day so we wouldn't run out, and continued to be everyone's favorite tea tender. In those six weeks, boss lady ignored any orders I made and refused to replenish product.
Last night was my last shift working there, and I am so glad to be gone. Boss lady has tried to act friendly and encouraging about me leaving, but it is clear that she now somehow hates me for leaving (all of the customers say I am the only thing keeping the place together). Boss lady came by yesterday for a while and when she left, said goodbye to some guests but made it obvious she was ignoring me. No goodbye, no thank you for working out to your last day, no best wishes for the future. Not even a smile and wave.
It was an amazing relief when I clocked out, locked up, and slid the keys under the door. I left her a message letting her know that since she didn't give me the opportunity to ask about the keys, I didn't know what she wanted me to do. And I didn't want to hold onto them and be accused of any wrong doing. She acted like this was the wrong thing to do, even still.
Fuck that place. I never needed it anyway as anything more than something to do until my kids graduated. Well, now my kids are graduated and I am going to go RV full time and try to forget about the tea place.
Wish me luck and thank you for letting me share.