I’m not 100% sure if I can even post this here but we’ll see.
I work for a dining service at a college. A new company took over recently and things have gone completely to shit. Our staff is stretched extremely thin, people quitting or calling out everyday. I’m an opening supervisor and generally we have 2-3 other people besides myself to open the place. For the past few months, from callouts or people quitting, I have been opening and running the entire place for up to 5 hours by myself. I get paid the base pay as a supervisor for my company and I have not gotten a raise in over a year of being a a supervisor. There’s a total of 7 stations that need to be set up, cleaned and filled throughout the day, each with their own plethora of items to sort and set. As someone who’s worked in this same dining hall since before Covid, I’ve never experienced the amount of stress that has come with this new company. Management doesn’t seem to care about anything having to do with the hall unless they’re walking around and criticizing. They schedule people at all the wrong hours, when we’re busy we have no staff, when we’re slow we are stacked. There’s a lot of factors that go into it.
Today, my boss asked to sit down with me and proceeded to tell me that either my attitude needs to change or I’m going to be demoted and moved to another location. I really don’t know how to feel about this. I feel betrayed and unheard And just generally upset about this talk we had. I am good at my job but my job now includes mine and 3 other peoples jobs throughout the day. Not to mention the fact that we- i am serving between 900-1200 students in 3 hour periods.
I just feel that my hard work is not appreciated and that I’m being told to suck it up or leave. And it’s really sad because I’ve worked here for 4 years and I’ve never had an issue like this. It’s as if management has put on a blindfold to how understaffed and stressed out we all are. I’ve talked to many of my coworkers and they all say the same thing. Management doesn’t care about us and everyday they make it harder and harder for us to stay here.
Let me do say this, this past Monday was an especially stressful day for me. I was by myself and my coffee spilled everywhere first thing in the morning as I’m trying to open everything else. My head chef decided he’s going to make fun of me while I clean it up which was almost the straw that broke the camels back. The morning went on and more and more things seemed to go wrong. By the time lunch hit, I was completely mentally checked out. I vented to one of my coworkers about this stressful morning I had and was generally stressed out and upset the rest of my shift.
I understand in a professional environment it’s not a good look to be upset with your job or whatever…. But I feel as though I’m justified in feeling the way that I do. And I don’t think it’s right that I have been made out to be the bad guy when I bust my butt every morning to make sure everything is good for these students and for management.
I really do want a new job… but the pay I get is better than any place that is hiring right now… and I need to be able to pay my bills. I just feel really stuck right now.