I am the store manger of a food business that was hit really hard by COVID-19. Losing 90% of revenue overnight bad. The owners decided to shut the business for many, many months and then re-open it. I was given a very small crew to build it up from the ground and It's slowly getting better but we're miles away from hitting profit levels. Things were really quiet for months but I started to get overwhelmed by e-mails, phone calls, customer service, ordering, stocking etc. I used to have an assistant manger but that's not possible due to low revenue.
I told the owners over a month ago I was overwhelmed and I need help. I was doing more and more hours just to keep the place running. I was already doing enough hours. When I told them one of them threw their eyes up in the air and the other made the usual we'll get you the help you need but no change was made. Well they made one change, they hired a person with no experience and not great English. The new staff member is actually a really great person and she's developing fantastically. What ended up happening was I had to train in the new staff member from scratch on a pretty skilled part of the business and give them constant help with their English so they could get through the day. I got on with it and this staff member is now flourishing. I warned them that I'm going to start making mistakes, and yea some tiny mistakes were made but it's a miracle nothing bigger happened. I have to constantly juggle several things and run around to keep shit ticking over, all while serving customers and answering e-mails and cutting my breaks short so things stay on track.
I then asked for a raise and was denied. He told me the couldn't give me the raise since the business is struggling. Also, it took him 2 weeks to even talk to me about the raise, of course. There are 2 locations, in the business, 1 is doing really well but my location is struggling. Other staff in the better performing shop have gotten raises. I felt like I was burning out big time and really losing drive. Then a few weeks later the owners turned up and started grilling me demanding I do x, y,and z and pointing out to me that stuff was not good enough. I stayed completely silent and just let them have their say. I was too sad to stand up for myself. I never got a well done or good job, nothing. Just complaints, zero encouragement. I was getting super-stressed all the time in work. In fairness the team we have are amazing, they really helped keep me motivated.
Then I saw another company I really liked was hiring and I knew the person who owns the company due to us working in the same industry. I made contact and their interest in me was immediate. Turns out the job on offer was going to be a hefty reduction in salary so I made a counter offer out of desperation and they created a new position just for me!!!!!!! Salary is pretty close to what I'm on now and the business is young and growing. I might be getting in at the right time.
My new boss talked about burn out and said if he sees I'm doing more that 40 hours he'll tell me to stop working. I'm currently doing 50+ hours a week. So yea, called up my soon to be ex boss 2 days ago and told him I'm giving in my notice. He was shocked, he came in today to chat, I had no break today as we were missing staff. It was the end of the day, I was tired, hungry and cranky.
We talked for about an hour and I just let him have it. Reminded him of me warning him I was overwhelmed and how I had to prove it to him, nothing was done beyond giving me more work and more staff traning to do. Asking him did he not notice my hours were going up all the time after me warning him I was struggling? He said he did but it didn't register. Telling him that turning up for the first time in months and giving me shit was devastating. Told him you never say “good job, well done.” He then asked was the the raise I asked for part of this, I said of course he then told me I was on a better salary than some other managers in the company. The managers he mentioned are well below me in the standing of the business, much less responsibilty. I reminded him that I hadn't got a raise in 3 years and all I wanted was something to keep up with inflation and since he decided to re-open the shop and put me there why should I suffer because you sent me to open a business we knew was going to struggle? I reminded him of the massive success that I brought to business pre-covid. My predecessor had 13 years in the role and was there from the first days of the business opening. He left us high and dry and I didn't get enough training before he left cause he was fed up. Depsite all of that under my stewardship the business continued to grow and profit levels increased steadily year on year until covid hit. I did really well and I loved the job for a longtime. We went over lots of things but I kept bringing it back to I told you I was struggling and there was literally nothing productive done to help. He made some apologies but it's too little too late.
I then reminded him that my replacement is going to need to be able to serve customers, make damn good coffees, order all the stock, make the rosters, deal with our corprate clients, learn our computer system we use, work autonomously, learn how delaing with all the corporate clients works, answer every e-mail and phone call, work from 6 in the morning till late afternoon, liasie with the kitchen and delivery team constantly, all while being on the shop floor and serve nearly every single customer from open till close. I literally had to bring in my own laptop and have it next to the tills so I could write e-mails while serving customers, making coffees etc.
I now know nearly every single customer's order when they walk in and I know many by name. I'm a very jovial, chatty person and my customer service is as good as it gets. There is a stock take coming up next week and I plan on doing the bare minimum to get it done. I actually plan on calling in sick for a few days soon due to stress. I feel really bad doing that to the team but I've had enough. I'm not going to just leave and fuck them over but I'm close to my breaking point.
I'm going to work less hours, be less stressed, have a better sleep schedule and work for a business that I'm really passionate about and help it grow into a nationwide operation.
So yea fuck suffering in work, fuck long hours, fuck being ignored by the owners, fuck multi-tasking all day, fuck working for people that have the mindset that they are doing you a favour by employing you, fuck feeling weird asking for a raise when you can literally see inflation eating into your wages, fuck people who exploit staff labour for profit, fuck company owners having multiple houses/cars/holidays and the staff all getting paid less than a living wage.
Very excited for my new job. Can't wait to learn and be challeneged by an exciting business.