Hello! I am a long time lurker at r/antiwork and I had a situation happen that I wanted to share. I am definitely open to guidance!!
Onto the problem:
I work at a chain restaurant, (think endless breadsticks and Italian-American cuisine). I started my job there during COVID and was there for 6 months, but quit because I was moving to a new city, (X city), for school and didn't want to commute.
During COVID, I found patrons and management to be very kind, thankful, and accommodating. I felt that I was valued and my guests loved me! I was quickly promoted and was happy to contribute. As things started to get back to normal, I found myself excited to leave for school because the job was getting more and more demanding, with less thanks. Normal procedures were starting to come back and management was starting to be less kind.
I found another job, loved that job, but quit to move back to my original town because the cost of living in X city was insane and I could not afford to stay there. The other job was willing to work with me and they are potentially willing to hire me back, but I was hopeful to start bartending, (which they didn't let me do). That brought my back to the chain restaurant because they said they would train me in bartending. I am back at the chain restaurant because I had to start paying for school and other job opportunities fell through for one reason or another.
I love my coworkers, (most of them), and there is one manager I really respect and appreciate, but the job is overwhelming now. It is back to being as corporate as possible, which means they do not care about their employees. We're only supposed to have three table sections, but I have been sat four or five tables multiple times, without anyone checking in with me, and when I ask the hosts not to do that, they explain it was the manager that took over seating because the wait for the guests was too long. We have to have any food we want to eat or order signed off on by a manager, and we likely will not be able to eat until our shift is over. I cannot ever find time to use the bathroom, because even if I tell the hosts not to seat me so I can pee, they end up seating me or a manager tells them to, and they are essentially forced to.
It has happened to ALL of my coworkers, too. There have been many nights were we've looked at each other and felt like holy shit, we're about to fucking walk out because we cannot handle this. Management doesn't care if we are doing okay in our sections, or if we feel confident in our abilities, they just seat, seat, seat, because the guests cannot be kept waiting. The guests always come before us, which is so frustrating because sometimes, the guests are so fucking mean. Pardon my French, but they really are. Along with that, prices at the restaurant have gone up, so people are tipping less because of how expensive everything is. For 30 hours of work, I only made about 400 dollars, which is less than I would make working a minimum wage job in my city.
I sent my manager a message telling them, due to my course load at school, I would be unable to continue working there, (I am a senior and all my classes require an obscene amount of work). I was grateful for them giving me my positions back, but I cannot handle the stress and the shitty pay, and the poor management. I didn't say that, though.
Poor management example, a bartender asked to be sent home because she threw up, and one of my managers stormed around IN FRONT OF HER, saying “I can't not have a bartender. Should I just close up the restaurant? Send everyone home? Well, sorry our bartender got sick, so you have to go home..” like, he was being so rude to her when she was sick and had tried to stick it out as long as possible. There are many more cases like this.
Anyway, instead of accepting my two-weeks notice, my manager responded: “Let's talk on your next shift.” I sent back “K.”.
I don't want to burn my bridges, just in case a future job calls them as a reference, (if I didn't care I would just not show up to the shifts he's already scheduled me), but I genuinely cannot handle working there and I know he is going to try to guilt me into staying, or talk me out of it, but I cannot handle it. I'm not sure what to do. I've only been back two months, but I have not been making good money, and I have been feeling so horrible after almost every shift because the customers were mean, or management fucked me over constantly.
Not sure how to go forward from here. Also, please do not publish or repost anywhere without my consent.