I've always worked in service right? Since I was 16. And I've worked the gammit of positions there are.
I currently work at a “Mom and Pop” Italian place in my town. And even though I've worked up to management in other places, they have placed me in the lowest paying station. The management and staff treat me like I don't exist even if I'm talking to them. The management acts like I'm rude and an inconvenience for bringing up things I'm told to let them know about. There's a lot of forced positivity, and the people who actually made working there at least tolerable have left.
I've been told I'd be fired for discussing my paycheck, workplace atmosphere, or haven't a problem with someone who doesn't do their job with anyone else who works there. I get consistently blamed for things I didn't do. I only get paid up to $400 (it's usually more like $250) every 2 weeks and they won't add more hours. I've gone into delinquent status on all my accounts to pay, three times in the three months I've worked there. I can barely cover my bills. Working here is literally killing me. We have a mandatory meeting on Sunday to “celebrate” a cook's birthday. Our “work chat” is a Facebook messenger group. There's so much forced positivity it's permeating the walls. Everyone has to act happy or they'll get mistreated.
I come home and the atmosphere is almost the same (I had to move back with my family during COVID-19, but now I can't get a job good enough to move back out). I've applied to a bunch of entry level positions in different fields and they all have ignored me or ask for experience (wtf is with that? It's entry level). It's been two months since I started looking and I'm no closer to getting out of this hellhole than I was going in.
I'm just so tired and stressed out and mentally not ok, and no one around me seems to see that.