Hi everyone, I (25F) was a seasonal employee as a barista within a department store. My expected tenure was to last 90 days and truly, I was elated working there. Although it is just retail, due to having cities because stalking issues, this was my first time being employed again; note i’ve been a barista before.
The employees were for the most part nice and starting to warm up my first month in, and my boss quickly favored me. All but three people, namely the eldest two workers, strongly despised me. It was noticeable enough where other workers picked up on it, over heard them mocking the way I speak. For reference, I tend to be quite peppy and also have a Spanish accent, which hurt and felt a bit racially charged. Additionally, one was supposed to train me and refused to, never introducing herself to me so much that I had to formally request another. The other was one of the three who off putting during training. I was tasked with seven drinks, with five ripped out of my hands and her making herself. When asking for feedback as I was a bit rusty, she said “I only met you a 30 mins ago, what do you want from me?” She later never interacted with me really aside from insisting I was fully trained when asking questions. One other girl would later pick up training me.
My boss would insist I not interact with them officially and not to bother befriending them, especially considering they would ignore him as well supposedly when engaging. This happened after when training on their computer system and I was experiencing a bit of cognitive delay. My boss accommodated me by allowing me to type it up in the system first then write it on the cups. One of the three girls made five snide comments that day and to our boss, who had been right there and training me. I had politely informed her “apologies for the inconvenience, I have a disability and am still learning. Thank you for your patience.” I had to inform her three times as she tried arguing with me over this before getting red in the face and storming off. I had to relearn this system due to the computer system being entirely new, with an expanded menu and different writing system. I would eventually pick up on it.
Fast forward to the day I was fired, I had a nightmare of a situation. My HR team had all been out on vacation, the people who were in charge of scheduling. I informed them weeks ago of a very important doctors appointment, and I would need my shift pushed back an hour later. They did this accidentally for the week prior forcing me to manually correct it, coming in early. I called three times informing them day of I will be late that day. My boss was aware and knew how important this appointment was. I also texted the coworker group chat informing them i’d be late and if anyone wanted to take my shift, they could. They all were aware and alright with this.
I ended up being 45 minutes late due to blood testing required, and due to the lack of my shift being pushed back. I also found out I was diagnosed with PCOS and was awaiting test results for whether I have the BRCA gene — truthfully I was crushed. My phone broke a few days prior forcing me to get a new one, leaving me unable to use our company app as I wasn’t able to download if off the store to notify upper management even further just in case. When I arrived I informed them of this and they told me they’d call me in later to download it. Rather, it was letting me go over my tardiness this day. They then gaslit me over how late was late, when in training I was told 10 minutes and notify if 15. The app confirms this. They asked to show the app to argue my case but I of course could not, nor refused to provide theirs. So they insisted their five minutes were correct. For reference, I often was late punching in due to laggy systems/learning my numbers, but primarily learning still to drive. I lived in a city and just got my license, and don’t have anyone to help me practice. I only ever had to notify being late 3 times and was absent once due to illness. As I work with food, I insisted it was best not to come in but they tried using this absence against me.
Lastly, they argued the clothes I wore were inappropriate, but I was in dress code and am merely plus size and curvy. Meanwhile, I had thin coworkers who would wear crop tops, leggings, jewelry, colors outside of code, and never get coded. They even thought it was strange. I never was written up for any of these, and was insisted I was not a fit; they refused to also allow me to call anyone over from the front to argue on my behalf of character and performance, as my boss wasn’t in either. Later that day I was informed my firing was actually from a complaint the girls who mocked my speech filed.
Given this and a lack of written warnings, which goes against code of firing typically, should I file a complaint against the store? Or should I take this as a learning experience and move on.