After 10 years of working in food service, I decided to start over in a new industry and got a job with a big financial institution in my area. I'd heard nothing but great things before I applied, and up until today, this largely rang true with me; I'm being compensated well, the work environment is pretty healthy, and our group plan is incredible, even for my first employer-provided insurance plan.
Couple weeks ago, there was an announcement that there was a mandatory Zoom meeting with an exec at 7am, about 3 hours before my scheduled shift. Cool, I thought, must be pretty important if I have to be in early. They gave us notice, so I was well prepared to be there.
Today was the meeting, and god was I disappointed. Nothing but an hour of listening to this guy talk about…well nothing really. The executive didn't seem like he had anything planned. The only thing I can really note about the meeting was his mention of developing AI systems, which he not-so-subtly hinted at being a way to eliminated certain positions.
The worst was when an illustrated face kept popping out of the exec's virtual background, and somebody asked him what it was. He turns off his virtual background, and there he is, sitting in his home office. I had to go to work 3 hours early for this oh-so-important meeting, but it apparently wasn't so important that the man who made it important couldn't leave his own house to be on-site.
Attached is the email I sent to my supervisor explaining why I won't be returning for my shift today. Should I have sent this email? Probably not, no doubt it'll bite me in the ass later, but I don't care right now.