My father (late 30s at the time) worked as the manager of the meat department of a semi chain grocery store in my area. He had been in that line of work for about almost 15 years at this point, he was genuinely amazing at his job. Always showed up on time, would never take a day off unless his vacation time allowed it, would work himself ridiculously and wouldn’t stop unless he was genuinely sick and had to stay home, was very fair to his employees and gave them an amazing schedule so that their time was appreciated, and ensured everything that needed done for the day was done before he came home every day without fail. Truly an awesome work ethic and he still holds it now in his early 50s. He had a great relationship with all the staff there, including the owner of the entire store who regarded him with really high praise. He made an incredible wage and while we didn’t live lavishly by any means, by the standards of the area we moved to and being a single dad with most of the custody for two kids since I was 7 and my brother was 10, we were doing very well. Never had to worry about food or bills and while he wasn’t the gift giving or spending money type, we got rare and small but decently expensive little gifts when he had the extra money to spare like tablets or video games.
Around when I was 14, the store was bought out by a new man. This guy had never been in this line of work before, he managed food trucks and stands beforehand and knew nothing about how a grocery store was supposed to be run. Things went downhill very fast.
He accused my father of stealing meat from the meat department. The department my father had been working in and the manager of for the last 6-8ish years. Out of absolutely nowhere.
My father invited this man to our home to have dinner and for my father to show him the receipts and the packages of meat he was accused of stealing, but the man refused. My dad, usually the blunt but respectful type, slammed down his name tag and his key to the store and said “Fuck you, I quit.” Walking out right after.
Very quickly after that we had to move back in with my mom, which was tough on him as they had been divorced for 7 years at this point and their marriage was very toxic. He struggled for a while but very soon got a job working at a place he loved even more which gives him better pay, better hours, now the STORE manager, and a happy work environment with buddies and parties at his cool boss’s house.
Fuck that food truck guy, but also thank you for giving my dad the push to get his dream job.