Edit: TLDR
TLDR:
Insensitive, racist, sexist boss fired me under the guise of 'poor college attendance', held my last paycheck over my head and basically just insulted me in verbal and letter form because I didn't want to be his 'bestie' like everyone else.
I'll just preface this by saying this is mainly a rant, since my poor fiancé is probably sick of me remembering things to complain about lmao.
Sorry if mods don't like it! I'm still kinda new to this group.
I applied to work for a small accounting business last August (8 people including owner) and was there for 3 months before being let go in the most insufferable way I've ever had.
The owner was (probably still is) a rude, insensitive, sexist and racist asshole, and I was unfortunate enough to not see it until I'd accepted the job.
He proclaimed to be 'honest' and 'lighthearted', when actually he just made insensitive jokes about other people and was rude to their faces in the name of 'honesty'.
But when it came to telling someone that they smelled, for example (a college student through no fault of his own), he just talked shit behind their back and danced around the topic.
He'd also try to be best friends with everyone. And I mean this literally. Anything that suggested you didn't want to be besties with him, he'd take personally.
It was common for him to invite everyone out to meals and to clubs (most employees were 19 to mid 20s and he was in his late 40s with an adult daughter) to get hammered.
I'm an anxious person and I don't drink without my fiancé there since I get very clumsy when drunk and may end up injuring myself.
Apparently, declining those events was a mistake since he seemed to hate me more and more over those months.
He also didn't like that I had no accounting experience, despite hiring me knowing this fact. I was supposed to do my Level 2 during the apprenticeship, but instead I was doing Level 2 in college and at work I was doing Level 3 tasks with a mentor.
I couldn't keep up with both, and it was as if he (and others) were pissed off with me for not understanding.
I actually ended up getting frustrated with my mentor (he's not awful, just… stubborn) because I didn't understand why his method of doing something was better than mine despite getting the same results (a very minor thing, this will come back later).
The owner also liked making sexist remarks (especially after watching the Barbie movie with his daughter) and insentitive comments about Autism and ADHD, knowing full-well I have ADHD.
His mother worked with us and he was awful to her (80 yr old with heart problems) but she endured it for her son's business
During a morning when I was early, he was the only other person there and out of nowhere told me about a trip to China he had where he was offended they called him a racist term, then decided it was a great idea to use racist terminology for Chinese and Black people to 'prove his point' that they were rude.
We had a mixed-race apprentice, who I told about it afterwards as a warning…
In terms of college, everyone was lovely. The only issue was me not being informed I had a limited amount of time off (about 4 days) until I only had one left due to transport problems.
I then got Covid (great timing) and missed the last day, so it would mean I'd have to wait til next term to start again (fine by me).
Apparently, owner didn't like that and that was the 'official' reason I was let go.
I think he was looking for an excuse.
To start, I didn't get my monthly payment and nothing was said to me about it or needing to talk.
He held it over my head until I came in, completely baffled, and blindsided me with a 'talk' about letting me go.
None of my coworkers said anything either, just changed the seating plan which confused me more.
The talk was… something.
I was accused of being rude, lazy, a poor employee and argumentative. Remember that small frustration with a coworker? That was me being argumentative, apparently.
He even gave me a fucking letter disguised as an official 'letting go' letter that was paragraphs full of insults, just using fancy words this time.
Ive never been more humiliated or angry in that moment, especially when my coworkers said absolutely nothing to me afterwards, not even a 'bye'.
I should've known, really. They all had 'rich mindsets' and had expensive hobbies like golf (except one lady who was lovely and his mother), giving me weird looks when I mentioned I couldn't afford something.
My fiancé was right not to trust them (he told me this early on), but I, ever the optimist, ended up finding that out on my own.