I, 24m, currently work for a small business with two other employees plus our management/owners as a custom art framer. I’ve been doing this for the past 2 1/2 years and up until recently, was completely in love with my job. I love what I do and get genuinely fulfilled off of it.
The problem? Our ownership. Where I work is owned & managed by a married couple who are seriously the most difficult people to work for. The main owner, fired our bookkeeper/hr so he could bring his wife aboard when she was fired from her accounting job. Now, she claims to be the store manager and has just about the worst attitude anyone could have. She frequently argues with customers if they have issues, she plays favorites and tries to gossip about other employees, then if you don’t want to participate in that, she targets you.
In the past year, I went from being our number one employee to constantly being belittled over minor infrequent mistakes, being actually screamed at when she’s frustrated, threats of being fired or having my full time hours cut in half, plus many more. She’s constantly implementing new policies, procedures, and weird software programs she finds online, without telling anyone or being selective about how much info she tells each one of us.
As much as it hurts to leave a job I love, I’ve been really looking into it but the only jobs in my city that are actively hiring are nothing but warehouse jobs like Chewy & Amazon and basic retail. All of the jobs I’ve been passionate about exploring all require x amount of experience or college education for like $15/hr. Our job market is actually crap. The only non warehouse or retail jobs I’ve found are insurance jobs but several people have told me it would be a nightmare to work in insurance.
I’m at my wits end here. I’m constantly depressed and stressed out because my self esteem is constantly being destroyed at my current job, but none of the jobs I’ve been seeing would give me a schedule that grants me the ability to spend time with my fiancée or family. Everything is underpaid, bad hours, or demeaning work. I feel so burnt out and feel like I’m really running out of options and time.