So I’ve been working as a bakery clerk for a grocery store in my town for about a year now. I have struggled with anxiety for most of high school so I thought a job like this would be easier for me (working in the back). As time went on, more and more issues started to rise and I have thought of quitting more times than I can count. The last straw for me is this: there is NO time to get everything done in the day. At all. I have tried to tell this to my manager numerous times, but her only advice is to “manage my time better” and “work more efficiently”.
I walk in at 6am and I leave at 2:30pm, lucky if I can take my lunch, and I work fast. I’m constantly multitasking, which is stressful and ups my anxiety. I’m only ever scolded and never given praise. I can never take time off since there isn’t enough staff to cover shifts. I even once got in trouble for talking with a coworker while working. As in, physically working and making light chatter. We are expected to stand beside each other, heads down, in complete silence for 8 hours straight. Everyone there is miserable, and for good reason.
This is a minimum wage job. I took it to try and get some work experience and get more comfortable in a social setting before going to university. I can’t help but feel used and worse off mentally than when I had started. I’m so used to keeping quiet and assuming that everything is probably my fault but this time around, I know it can’t possibly be something that I’m doing (my coworkers get similar treatment, but my manager really loves to to get mad at me the most), and to be told it’s because I need to “be more efficient” is insulting. To make it all worse, they won’t pay you half the time for overtime. You literally have to count your hours, check your pay statements and fight to get it. It’s just so tiring.
This is my first ever job. What a terrible first impression of a working environment :/