This took place several years ago when I was a senior in undergrad, but I just discovered this sub and wanted to share.
It was always my dream to be a physician. I busted my ass all four years in college to apply to and get interviews for medical school. It was an exciting time as I was nearing the finish line of my first hurdle, which was actually getting in. So when I had more down time my senior year, I decided to get a part-time job to afford a celebratory vacation after graduation. My university resided in a very affluent area, and so I applied everywhere I could in the vicinity. It was a little difficult finding a job at first. This would be first job to be honest, but I ended up getting a server position at a local restaurant. Now this place isn't fine-dining or anything like that, but it was definitely above average and had a long history in town.
The place itself was okay. My coworkers were pretty fun to get to know, but the turnover was insane! People were quitting and getting fired left and right. Reason being, the owner of this place was a right royal c**t. This man verbally abused me day in and day out. I vividly remember him calling me a r****d in front of customers. This man would rip your whole life apart if you did something to irk him in the slightest of ways. Sexism, racism, you name it. It was all fair game for him. I think this was the first time in my life where I felt genuine anxiety just from the mere presence of another individual. The amount of dread I felt getting ready to work was horrible. My entire body would go numb except for an immense pressure in my gut. Looking back, it definitely contributed to my depression. On top of the verbal bs, I made the mistake of offering to cover a coworker, which led to me permanently working that shift as well. Even with my relative free time during my senior year, I still had a lot of work for classes and research, so this made things very stressful during a time I should have been relaxing more.
After several months of emotional and mental abuse, I finally saved up enough money for the trip I wanted, and so I decided to jump ship. I wanted to find a way to screw this d**k over in the process without having to deal with him in person due to my anxiety. My plan was to signup for a double shift on a Friday, then just not show up and provide no notice. I did feel bad about my coworkers likely having to pick up my workload, but at the end of the day, I decided that my mental health wasn't worth the abuse anymore. Also a lot of my coworkers jumped at the chance of snagging someone's table. Again this is an affluent area, and so the tips were always hefty. I'd say on average I was pulling in 30-35% tips, so I knew they'd be making a lot that day. Anyway, Friday comes around. About fifteen minutes after I was supposed to be at my shift, a manager calls me. I kept it short. I told him “Yeah I am not coming in, I quit”, then hung up. Five minutes later, I get a call from the owner. My anxiety starts to kick in so I decide to let it go to voicemail. Several minutes later, I get the most obnoxious voicemail from this mofo. I deleted it last year so I am going to paraphrase:
“OP, I want you to know that you are REQUIRED…to show up for work. This is not optional. As someone applying to be a doctor, I am sure you know what it means to be professional. This is absolute unprofessional behavior. Believe me, when you get a job at medical school, they will look into your work history. I get calls from employers for doctors and lawyers all time for all sorts of reasons. BELIEVE ME, even if you don't put this place down on your CV as a job reference, they will still find out. I'm not sure if you're aware, but they will see your social security code and be able to look up your work history. When that happens, they WILL call me and I WILL tell them about your behavior, so I want you to think loooooong and hard about this. We can avoid all this if you just come in now. We are busy tonight and you need to come in. Thank you.”
Do you smell that? That sweet sweet smell? Ahhh the smell of desperation. Although not showing up for a shift and quitting was a pretty minor attempt of getting back at him, hearing the desperation, anger, attempt to threaten me made me ecstatic. Did he really think a med school is gonna give two flying f***s about my part-time job as a server? He also thought med school was a job lmao. I wish I was getting paid. I didn't bother to call back and obviously I didn't come in for the shift. I blocked his number as well as all the managers from my phone and enjoyed that sunny Friday outside with my friends. I ended up getting into med school a few weeks later and went on an unforgettable trip in Europe after I graduated.
It's been several years since that phone call. I still get some anxiety just thinking about it and even writing this post. At the same time, this also feels therapeutic. To add a cherry on top, the ratings of this restaurant completely nosedived. There are tons of reviews now about the drop in food quality, high turnover rate, and some asshole “employee” running around cussing people at and screaming.
Now, I'd say i'm a crushing it in school. I still have lots to learn, but I know i'm going to make a great physician one day. Anyways, if I had to put a moral to this story, it would be this:
Protect your mental health and don't take shit from nobody.