I'm so frustrated right now and I need to vent, so I apologize for any formatting issues. I quit my restaurant management job almost exactly a month ago. There were a lot of things leading up to this decision.
-
I actually made the poor decision to come back to this company after a year away. They offered me a great salary and promised that the work environment and culture had improved. They hadn't. The “improvement” that was made was actually giving employees one sick day a year (you heard that right), and accrued time off of TWO days a year. (Also heard that right).
-
When I came back at first everything was ok. Then they pushed everyone in management to bring their labor cost down to 10% for hourly employees and management covered the rest. I loved my team and it was so difficult cutting hours back. But, I also lost the time to do my job because I was covering hourly positions for 10 hours each day before I could even get to my direct responsibilities. Because of this I averaged working about 60-70 hour weeks. So, I got burnt out, and so did my other managers on the team
-
Because of the burnout I lost a quarter of my management because they found opportunities that better suited their work life balance. I was so happy for them! But, I felt stuck because I felt if I left no one would advocate for the team I cared about. I kept pushing through knowing that I had a vacation coming up in July with my fiance to visit family. I kept telling myself with a break I could come back better than ever.
-
Three days before my vacation was supposed to start I broke my leg while at work fixing equipment that I shouldn't have been fixing. I was fixing it because they wanted us to cut back on maintenance hours and it needed to be done. I had to “use” my one sick day to go to the hospital and get my leg in a cast. Then the very next day I was back running the restaurant as the only manager while on crutches and a freshly broken leg. My other managers wanted to cover me, but they were already covering me for my vacation and it would mean they would work 10 days in a row. So I pushed through.
-
My fiance was rightfully pissed that my corporate team didn't send assistance so we made a deal that I would start looking for new opportunities. I would either find a new job, then quit. Or, I would meet a mutual savings goal then quit. It's hard to look for a job while having a broken leg and working the hours I was doing, so I hit my savings goal first.
-
Some of my friends at other locations were feeling the same way I was and found opportunities. When they attempted to put in notice they were “walked” instead of being allowed to complete the notice. I didn't want to do that with my team so I had to come up with a believable white lie in order to maintain my notice and assist my managers by training them on my duties, and doing transitional items. All in all, I gave them a 6 week notice and a list of items that needed to be done in that time to make the transition seamless. They didn't complete anything on that list in the timeframe AND didn't hire anyone to replace me despite me offering to do the interviews for them.
-
My last week came up and I sent them follow-ups for the items that needed to be completed. (The bank was still in my name, miscellaneous bills, online accounts that needed to be switched etc.) We get to my final day and all of a sudden it's a panic to get items completed. So, I made a deal with them. Pay me for an additional week and I will assist them with this process. But I will not be going in person unless the items had to be completed in person. So, I emptied the bank accounts and deposited checks, I adjusted accounts, and I helped my manager that replaced me (they still sent no one, just have him doing the job with no new title) with anything else that came up.
-
They didn't pay me. I've started a fun email chain with them explaining that if they don't pay me for that additional week by the end of this week lawyers will be contacted. They also never paid me for my additional PTO that I hadn't taken yet. If they don't then I'm planning to sue for wages as well as for the fact that they had me working on a broken leg that happened at work, the day after it happened.
So I'm here with my dogs having a glass of wine and looking at other opportunities that will hopefully truly have a better “work life balance and culture.” Whatever the fuck that is anymore.