EDIT: LONG POST, TLDR AT THE BOTTOM
I recently left a job I had at a restaurant due to not getting enough hours. I struggled to pay my car payment due to the lack of hours. I didn’t have money to hang out with friends like a normal teenager and definitely not enough to save money over time.
When I first started I would be working 3-5 shifts a week, then during the holidays I took a week off for a family christmas trip and when I came back, I got my schedule and I had 1-2 shifts for the week. I never once told a manager that I’m working too much and need less hours, so why was this happening? I figured maybe this week was just weird and next week would be back to normal. It never got back to normal. After it happening two weeks in a row I decided to talk to the scheduling manager to see what’s going on. She says people came back from college for the holidays and were wanting to work, and we had just hired some people for the holidays. I said alright, but I need my schedule to go back to normal. Schedule the next week is normal and I’m happy with it.
The next week it’s the same as before, only 1-2 shifts for that week. I think another flunk, then it just continues. This all started in December and I was still experiencing it even when I left a couple days ago.
I tried SO hard to get my managers to pay attention to me doing good work to give me more shifts. I eventually sot down with the general manager to let them know what’s going on because I was on the verge of leaving. I really didn’t want to leave. I had some friends and I had been there for a year and memorized our system and menu. It would suck to start all over again.
I tell my GM about my problem and he promises to have it fixed. I questioned him on if I was getting ‘kicked out’ or lead on to quit since I never got shifts. He says no and that my schedule will be back to normal. And just like when I talked to the scheduling manager, it only lasted that week before the 1-2 shift schedules were happening to me again.
The breaking point was my yearly performance review. I honestly thought it was going to be good. I had been putting in as much work as I can during my shifts and always did what was asked of me by coworkers or managers. But no. I was told that I had a bad attitude, bring down the moral of the restaurant, and just other things that felt more like insults rather than constructive criticism to help me preform better at my job. And all of the things listed that I do ‘wrong’, I had never gotten in trouble for before. If I was told I’m doing something wrong I wouldn’t have continued. It made me so angry.
I do so much for them. I would take shifts constantly (because I would barely have any hours), even asked people for their shifts so I could make money. I would do extra stuff on top of my responsibilities for which positions I was. It felt terrible to be treated like this by a job I loved so much.
At the end comes your raise based off of your ‘score’ on your review. I got a 25 cent raise. (BACKSTORY: I originally got hired at this job for $8 an hour. I had previous food industry experience and accepted $8 because it was better than $7.25 at my old job and I was only 16.) I straight up told my boss I was unhappy with this. People who had been hired after me with no prior work experience were getting paid a dollar amount more than me. If my raise had just brought me to $9, I would’ve been fine. He tells me he will see what he can do about it and never gets back to me.
This review made me feel so shitty I just couldn’t stop crying from the ride home after. I couldn’t stop crying when I got home. I felt so betrayed and used by this company I had been loyal to for over a year. How could they treat me like this?
After this and some convincing from friends/family, I started looking for a new job and thankfully found one through a friend at another restaurant in town. I put my two weeks in, wasn’t offered my $9 that I asked for from my review when I put in my two weeks. Right then I knew this was a good decision to leave because I had lost all the fucks I gave about this place.
I wanted to work out my two weeks so incase I don’t like this new job or something goes wrong, I can fall back onto them. After working through my first week of my two weeks, I get my schedule for next week. It’s a schedule with the hours I wanted originally. I felt so… insulted. Like now that I’m leaving, I can get the hours I begged for from management. It was like a slap in the face, like they were taunting me.
So I said fuck it. I was exhausted this week already due to working every single day since I started training at my new job on top of finishing my two weeks at the old job (even though it was just a three shift schedule this week). I also have school, so I was exhausted from all the overload. I got next weeks schedule on Thursday night, and just didn’t come in for my shift that Friday morning. No call no show. I didn’t get a call from them asking where I was, so I guess maybe they suspect I wouldn't come in?? I don’t know, I haven’t been removed from the schedule for next week yet.
JUST BECAUSE IM UNDERAGE DOESNT MEAN I DONT HAVE BILLS TO PAY SO I ‘DONT DESERVE HOURS’. IT DOESNT MEAN YOU CAN PAY MY SHIT BECAUSE IM A ‘KID’. FUCK THEM. I DESERVE BETTER THAN THIS.
TLDR: my job gave me shitty hours and I couldn’t pay my bills. I leave to a better paying job and put in a two weeks. The second week into my two weeks I’m given the hours that wouldn’t have made me search for another job. I no call no show the rest of my shifts for the rest of the week and will be for next week.