Hi all , any recommendations or advice would be greatly appreciated.
In 2019 , no less than 2 days after graduating high school , I began working at my fathers construction company ( 5 staff members ) to occupy my time and earn some money over the break whilst I made up my mind about going to university. Over the summer I had a blast as I was working with a close family friend and my older brother M27. Working 14-21 days in a row with only 1 day off before picking it back up again didn’t bother me then.
Fast forward a few years and I am now in my 2nd last year of my university studies ( double bachelors degree of science in I.T majoring in business information systems and bachelor of business majoring in international business ) , my friend and brother have been gone for 2 years and I have stuck around.
This company has taught me a good work ethic such as always rocking up early ( never been late in 4 years ) , always going above and beyond for the client , never cutting corners & always looking for something to do even if there is not much work. The money was great back in 2019 but with the cost of living my salary now is terrible compared to how much cheaper things were in a few years back and my boss / father gave me a pay rise of $50 daily but only on days that I work on site ( I work as the managing leading technician & web designer , social media manager & office admin ) which sounds great but is fucking terrible when I’m only on site 1 or 2 times lately due to the fact that I have been tasked with building their website from scratch with very minimal experience in that after their previous web designer contractor charged $15K for a website which they scrapped as it was “ terrible “ according to them. They constantly rush me and put extreme timelines on me to have the website done when I am rotating between all my jobs at this company and only able to spend roughly 1 or 2 days on the website for them constantly stating that “ they should have gotten a professional “ and gaslighting me into thinking I’m doing a terrible job when all my friends say the website looks insane for someone with no web design experience.
My pay has not changed basically in 4 years but my responsibilities and duties have almost quadripled leaving me constantly drained. I work 6-7 day weeks , full time university , gym x 6 per week and have a girlfriend who I cherish dearly but I find myself spending way too much time on this stupid company ( to make matters worse they call me at ridiculous times to make changes or create documents for clients etc without any OVERTIME ). I have asked multiple times and presented to them reasons as to why I deserve a pay rise and my father just laughs in my face thinking I’m joking telling me constantly “ you make ridiculous money for someone your age “ , yet my friends are on a lot more than me and have jobs where they do absolutely jack shit. My job working on site is physically demanding and extremely exhausting ( not for the average Joe blow ) and on average takes me about 3-3.5 hours & 150+km of travel per day costing me almost a whole days pay in fuel per week 🙁 and wear and tear on my personal car whilst my supervisor and co workers drive around in company cars with fuel cards and I shit you not do absolutely no work when they are on site.
My managers call me all the time saying we really need your help on this day or this weekend as its an important job even AFTER I tell them I have social plans or need to spend the weekend or afternoon studying , and when I state that they then gaslight me into thinking that If I don’t come in everyone will have to work 2 times as hard and they have lives of their own they need to live ( all work full time , I am a casual who works full time , no benefits , leave etc ). When I finally agree and cancel my plans , this not only affects my relationships but mental state but I always just brush it off and “think of the money “. Once I get to these so called “ important jobs” my co workers who have the work vehicles always rock up 25min – 1hr late then sit in the van watching TikTok etc smoking their vapes and that’s them for the whole day almost. They are nice enough blokes but their actions at work make it hard to respect them or like them and I find myself constantly getting angry or pissed off and voiced my opinions to my boss and other higher up bloke in the company for them to say “ they make me money , I can’t get rid of them “ it makes it all the more bittersweet. My manager literally argued with me stating that I need to work on my 19th birthday due to the importance of the job in which the morning of my birthday as I’m waiting for him as usual in the carpark early for work calls me saying “ had too much to drink last night mate , not coming in “ which pissed me off and ruined my birthday , my fathers response was typical British arrogant humour “ suck it up sunshine “.
I have been trying to leave this job for 2 f***ing years and recently have been trying to get into a relevant job in my field that I am studying at university which is cloud architecture or cybersecurity. I have a strong enough resume compared to other kids my age and have statistics and actual evidence to back up my achievements etc. I have relavant certifications and a strong work ethic yet every job I have applied for ( 75 so in the past 4 months ) has lead me on by getting me to do 1 way interviews and psychometric testing and then upon completing that either ghosted me or hit me with “ we have had a large number of applications , we have chosen not go ahead with yours etc “ which on top of my schedule and life just makes me miserable. I have given up weekends to apply to jobs & work for this company costing me relationships and memories to be treated like a throwaway and piece of shit with no feelings and Im sick of it , I feel trapped as nothing is coming from these applications and I feel like my soul has burnt out and these days I am much more miserable than I once was due to this company.
Im sick of being walked over , disregarded of my life and schedule by my mangers , treated like shit , not getting any bite backs from jobs and my father controlling my money ( sometimes skipping my pay to pay other staff when money is tight meaning I wont get paid for up to 6 weeks and then have that missed pay check “ trickled in over a few pay checks to avoid tax” meaning it can take up to 12-14 weeks even before I am paid the full amount. My father then gaslights me into having no savings and “ other children your age have much more money saved “ even after 1/4 of my pay check goes to fuel just to get to work and sometimes doesnt even make it to my account for 3-4 months. I now have $14k saved up and have thought about starting a business since no jobs want to hire me even though I have experience , qualifications and 2 fucking degrees.
Any recommendations or advice would be greatly appreciated. Im sorry for the long message but this is only 1/4 of it and I had to get it off my chest as no one else takes me seriously. I don’t know how much more of this I can take , I give up most of my days for this company and feel like it’s all been for nothing. I want to leave but can’t as all my I.T jobs keep turning me down.