-on mobile, pardon any errors!
So to set the scene, my decision can be traced back to the start of the pandemic. I was working a PT Customer Service job for a major airline, which I loved. Well the pandemic hit, and the industry took a major hit, and I got furloughed for about a 1/3 of 2020.
In that time I decided to go back to school, and re-tool myself. I started in 08/2020 in an online boot camp for programming. I went all out into this program and was spending 10-12 hours a week in online classes and labs. That was also the same time I realized that working PT was no longer feasible. So I decided to start searching for a FT job. I spent several months looking, and decided to be accept an offer to be a manager at a small family owned business (it was owned by 2 brothers, their BIL, and several friends). Note: I made it abundantly clear that I was taking evening classes, and I couldn’t miss any because of the attendance policy. And they agreed to my conditions.
I started a few months after I accepted, and everything was going great! Until 5 months in. I was told I was going to have “complete autonomy” because the owners wanted to “step back from the business and enjoy their retirement”. Well that autonomy ended then.
I had decided to take off Memorial Day weekend, after talking with my Assistant Manger, he was fine covering for me, and the owners. They didn’t care as long as a manager was there.
Not even two hours after leaving I get a call from one of the owners. He was telling me that the Assistant Manager was slacking off, talking with the employees, and not doing his rounds.
Not even 15 mins after that, my Assistant Manager calls me threatening to quit because, that owner that had called me cursed him out and disciplined him in front of customers.
I listened to him, agreed what the owner did was unacceptable, and had to plead with him not to quit while I was gone, because I was out of state, and couldn’t make it back asap, and the owners explicitly told me they weren’t going to cover for me. Thankfully, He stayed until I came back, but quit the day I came back.
The hunt started for a new Assistant Manager, but in the mean time I promoted the most senior employee to be my new assistant manager until he left for college. I created the job description for the owners, job posting, and suggested a hourly rate of $16 an hour. Not great, but good for a small business. They told me no, and then made the posting for $13 an hour. I expressed my concern saying no one would respond to this for a such a low-ball offer. They were insistent that it would be fine.
They were wrong, they are out of touch rich boomers, who don’t know what life is like outside of their gated community.
I got several replies, but they decided to “thin them out” before I could review them. So basically I interviewed one person in two months of the post being up.
The owners then said it was my fault no one was applying, and that I didn’t have a new assistant.
At this time, which was close to the end of summer, about half of my staff was going off to college, along with my temp assistant manager, I was also hiring/training new regular employees.
At the same time, I was working open/close 5 days a week, and regular 8 hour shifts on the other two days. I had no time off, was working 72 hour weeks, on salary, no OT, and also going to school in the evenings for 10 hrs a week.
Once my temporary assistant manager left for college, they wanted me to work open-close 7 days a week, which came out to 112 hours a week, and forget school.
If I had left school at that point, I would have been on the hook for $30k, I wasn’t going to do that.
Here comes the juicy part, promise!
Since they were going to in-flexible with me about my schooling, after promising me time for it, I quit on a Friday evening. I called owner, told him due to their not working with me on my school, not giving me my autonomy as a General Manager, and then trying to force me to work over 100 hours a week.
The owner yelled at me over the phone, called me “unprofessional”, “an entitled millennial”, and then threatened to sue me for breach of contract. (There was no employment contract, I live in a “right to work state” so I can quit whenever). I told him I would finish my shift, leave the keys, and lock up and never return.
They didn’t like that. Not one bit! The two brothers who were the main owners, came to the business, with beers in hand, to try and convince me to stay till the end of the year. I told them “no”, unless they met my demands, which they wouldn’t and they continued to bully me to stay, calling me “an entitled dumb millennial”, “unprofessional”, and then threatened to sue me for their loses for having to shut down till they found a replacement. All because they didn’t want to work their business any more. They then proceeded to block the time clock and prevent me from leaving, while still bullying me. I stepped away, called my lawyer buddy, told him the situation. He told me I had nothing to worry about, they couldn’t retaliate, so I just left after that. I handed them their keys, didn’t even look them in the eyes, just looked passed them, and left to never go back.
More was obviously said to me, but I am glad to have left. I did record the whole interaction on my phone, so there was proof, and for my safety since they had been drinking when they came to talk with me.
As for me, I finished school school, and got a great gig making 40% more than I did there, with 1000% less stress!
As far as I know, they still haven’t found a new GM after 9 months, so one of the owners had to take over again. Forget entitled Boomers.