tl;dr: i was a glorified babysitter for two children whose mom was one of the most entitled women i've ever met.
as a college student in february of 2015, i started a contract job through an agency to care for two kids with autism. i loved the kids and i loved the work, but their mom, not so much. the way this program worked, parents or guardians would essentially start their own “business” through this agency and then hire providers themselves and medicaid would pay the providers. us contract workers didn't deal with the agency itself at all other than to turn in timesheets or contact the client's case manager if need be. so their mom and dad were basically my employers. they determined my schedule, my pay, etc.
my starting schedule consisted of a couple weekdays (3pm-7pm) and every other saturday (time varied depending on their plans). a couple years down the line, she told me they needed me every sunday as well so they could attend church. after a little while, they stopped going to church, but she still wanted me there 9am-5pm every other sunday after my saturday shifts.
i went out of my way to help this family on multiple occasions. i was their only provider for around a year-and-a-half and was taken for granted for most of my time there. this was intended to be a one-on-one service but she would constantly leave me with both kids. i would only be allowed to bill for one and she would bill for the other while she was out shopping or something. (yes, she got paid since her husband was the business representative). there was lots of shady shit being done throughout this program that got reported but of course nothing ever got done about it.
i made pretty decent money and i had a child to feed so i stuck around. at the start of the pandemic, she started ramping her bullshit up and i began to get burnt out. february of 2020, she and her husband were supposed to go out of town for a concert and i was supposed to stay overnight with the kids. the day before, i came down with strep and i texted her immediately after leaving urgent care. i told her i knew how important the night was to her so i still offered to come in and sit with them and she (like any reasonable parent would) told me to stay home. (this is important for later).
a couple weeks after that, i was set to work 5pm-11pm on saturday so they could go out with friends and i was supposed to be back for my 9am-5pm shift on sunday. i dropped my 3-year-old off with my mom around 4:30pm and went on my way to work. at 10:15pm, their mom texts me they won't be back “til late”. confused, i told her i needed to leave at 11pm because that's what i was told and that's what i'd told my mom, plus i needed to come back early the next day. she proceeds to ignore me so i blow her and her husband up with calls before she finally just texts back “we'll be home at 11:30.” she came through the door, threw her coat and her bag down and stormed past me to her room without saying a word. that was it. i started job searching then.
another couple weeks go by. by the way, i almost never found out what time i'd be working on saturday until the thursday before. that's where the screenshots come in… so on sundays, they would almost never go anywhere. normally we would all be at home all day together and i would take care of the kids while they holed up in their bedroom nursing their hangovers from the night before. so i thought it would be okay to ask to come in a little later sunday morning if i was going to be there until midnight and not get home and in bed until 1:30am. apparently i was wrong.
i came in the following monday and she immediately chewed me a new asshole. bitched me out for calling in the night before the concert, like i asked for strep and like i didn't offer to still come in. bitched me out for making them come home at 11:30pm the one weekend i blew them up. she said i “made her husband drive home drunk” and that the reason they were going to be late to begin with was because they couldn't find a lyft (which was not communicated to me at all). then bitched me out again for asking to come in late on sunday because they “had plans” and i turned their weekend into a “fucking catastrophe” when she's the one who told me to take the whole weekend off. said they never get more than 6 hours of sleep and that i had been ridiculous for even asking. then she cut my hours in half, knowing i'm a single mother. after the cut, i was bringing home $1,000 a month and she didn't care whenever i would tell her how bad i was struggling. food stamps and child support barely kept me afloat. of course this was at the height of COVID so i was having a hell of a time finding a new job. i finally found one september of 2020 and i still have nightmares about working for this woman.
there is SO much more but i've already written a novel and i appreciate anyone who's taken the time to read it all. i'll be happy to answer any questions or give any additional details if needed.