I began my employment at a vape shop in November 2019 as I had quit my previous job of managing a beer shop due to lack of wage increase.
At first, everything was ok, but then red flags began to emerge.
It was revealed that the son in law of the owner, who was the manager, was on Meagan's law for sleeping with and harassing a six-teen year old girl. It wasn't long before I realized this thirty six year old creep was a complete degenerate, and was manipulating a nine-teen year old girl to perform sex acts in the back on the shop in exchange for vape products.
Then the pandemic hit, and we were closed for the most part. Only going in to grab supplies and etc.
Flash forward to summer time 2020, my hours were cut from 36 hours to maybe 14. I didn't care much as I was still collecting UC. However, a pattern began to emerge. This manager would call me randomly throughout the week, and ask me to work his shift. I'd agree as the job is relatively chill. One of theses shifts, the owners stopped in and asked of his whereabouts. To which I was told he was getting his windows tinted in his brand new car. The next day, he called me nearly screaming that i was not to divulge any information of his whereabouts to anyone EVER.
It didn't take much though to put it together, he was cheating on his girl friend, and the owners blew his cover. Possibly with the young girl, no way to confirm. Why else would he be upset? If it wasn't that it may have been drug related as he also asked if I were able to get pain pills on several occasions. I declined as I really don't do that.
This pattern continued for the better part of a year, almost always on a Thursday. I live a relatively laid back life with few expenses, so after a while, I started telling him no, as I simply didn't want to work. I had money and didn't give a fuck.
This upset him.
Spring time 2021, still only working a few shifts a week, he still pressed on getting me to pick up his shifts. Sometimes I took them, sometimes I didn't. It varied based on my mood and plans. But it began to upset me because it wasn't that they wanted to give me money, it was the fact i was doing all of the real work. I was the one cleaning, doing the art on the walls, and all the dirty work that the owners' children and relatives didn't want to do. If it involved anything other than sitting in a chair and looking at TikTok, I was the one doing it. At this point, I am the only one not in the family working in the shop.
I stopped picking up any shifts, and this made his blood boil. I told him, “If you want me to work, write it on the schedule.” This was an intentional jab at his work ethic, as he refused to do this simple managerial task. No schedule had been written for months.
He came in one night, five minutes before we closed, infuriated as I had actually written a schedule so that another co-worker can go to his classes at a community college, and he threw a hissy fit. So, i secretly recorded him.
This led to his inevitable firing. The children of the owners did a number crunch to his salary and the amount of hours he was working and determined he was being paid twenty-five dollars an hour or more to do an atrocious job. Sales have dwindled due a lack of consistent stock, and customers were looking elsewhere for their vaping needs.
They at least did me a favor and didn't reveal that I recorded his rant.
I had saved the day, or so I thought. I had stood up to a bully and predator and won the fight. You would never guess that things were about to get much worse.
The shop's supply dwindled to almost nothing, as the owners had let their tobacco license lapse, and didn't pay taxes on anything they had sold in who knows how many years. The shop locked the doors for a “remodel” by June of 2021.
We did remodel, I primed and painted walls, and other menial tasks around the shop awaiting for them to get their licensing and taxes in order.
UC ran out in July, and the shop didn't re-open until almost November 2021. I went months of living off what I had saved. Every week I was reading texts of promises we'll be open any week now.
You would think that after all I had done, I'd get some hours, or maybe even a raise? Maybe even make me the manager as I have the experience necessary.
Nope, I got fucked. Back to four-teen hours a week, only weekend shifts. They re-hired one of their old employees for no apparent reason, and they promoted the children of the owners, who are possibly the laziest people of all time, to “”””””managers”””””.
Although I was happy to be at work again, it was though the old manager had never left. No one cleaned, no one organized, no items were added to the register, I had to remind them to take the garbage out, they wouldn't get small bills or change for the register, they wouldn't go get basic supplies at for the shop such as paper towels or garbage bags, they wouldn't do anything. They wouldn't even write a schedule, which wasn't a big deal as it was static. But I have to text them on the day of to see if I was working a holiday or not.
The stock of vape supplies continued to dwindle, as they have to invest a substantial amount of money into getting the store re-opened. Eventually we did get some things back in, but the consistency of which product arrived became less, and less, and less.
And then my paycheck bounced. Its fine they gave me cash. But then it bounced again. Its fine they paid me in cash, again. Then I received a letter from the IRS claiming I owe money. Which ended up being because of my UC, but it caused me to investigate the extremely sketchy pay stubs from this shop. The stubs did not include the year to date, and were sometimes hand written. The federal taken out for the few months I worked was 100$ more than what they claimed on the W-2. They owe me an additional 100$ and I have yet to see it.
Not a week ago, the neighbor of the owner stopped in, and its generally a rule to give the regulars a hookup on whatever. He asked for a thirty dollar vape, and I asked what they usually charge him, and he said 15$. I stated that I thought that was a little too cheap, which lead to him claiming that I called him a liar, and he walked behind the counter and started shoving me and threatening me. He claimed he was going to break my fucking jaw. Over fifteen dollars. When my paychecks are bouncing every other week. I called the cops, and had him removed from the premises.
The owners and the children then called me on speaker with the subtle intent to get me to not press charges on their neighbor for assaulting me. Like an idiot, I did not.
I would love to have video evidence of what happened. But, in the fallout of the previous manager, he changed the security camera codes and “forgot” what they were. So now if anything horrible happens in the shop, like being assaulted, we'll have no evidence.
This past week, one of the “”””managers”””” tells me how he is leaving for a week, and I'm going to pick up all of his morning shifts. At the same time I had switched shifts with the other “”””manager””””, and I felt that a schedule would be necessary so that everyone knows when they had to work. This was too much to ask. He became heated, and I had to literally write the schedule myself.
So, just today I get there for my shift and I observe the money sheet, and it is completely fucked up with days missing and etc. Some scribbles of hieroglyphics next to the days of the week. Via text message the “””””managers”””” explain that last week, when we ran out of report sheets, I messed everything up by drawing an additional box on the end of the report and filling out the paper work as usual.
Their hieroglyphics on the side of the report sheet were to indicate that Monday was actually Wednesday, Tuesday was actually Thursday, and so on. I explained over text that this was the most illogical was to fix the issue, and that they should have just copied the information onto the new report sheet when we got one. This lead to the following text from one of the “”””managers””””,
“Dude you're easily the biggest asshole I've came across in a very long time its wild”
So, like a manager, I completed this menial task transferring the money report to the correct days on a new sheet and said,
“Damn guys that was rough, took like 4 maybe 5 minutes. I'm such an asshole for suggesting that. So I'm writing the schedule, fixing the money sheet, do you want me to do the order next?”
in which the “”””manager”””” retorted,
“You had to add another comment? miserable person” “its the way you word things” “nobody needed a schedule you literally wrote it for yourself lmao? and fixing the money sheet? you said it took 4 minutes was that a lot for you?”
so i replied, “ok so I'm doing the order (thumbs up emoji)”
By the way, I can't actually do the order. Because there is no money in the account. Hence my paychecks are bouncing. We pull in at least five thousand dollars a week, and I have no idea where it is going.
The shelves are almost completely empty, and I haven't been fired yet. It makes my head spin knowing that I have to go in there for almost the entire week. An entire week of lying to the customers of why our shelve are empty. Well really, I've been lying to them for months now.
This has been a nightmare for almost three years, I'm rapid fire applying on indeed to get any work from home job I can. Hopefully I can quit by the end of the week, and get the fuck away from this toxic lazy shady family.
And if you are curious, I still have the video of the first managers rant, and screen shots of interactions over the money sheet, and pictures of our depressingly empty shelves.