I'm just so sick of it all. I bust my ass, working retail, for $16.75 an hour. My kid is in the cheapest daycare around and I know, during the worst of the pandemic, if she so much had a sniffle, she was being sent home. I understood and as much as it annoyed my manager, she knew I was a single parent and really wtf else could I do? I've been written up once for “too many absences” but it's not like I can control daycare policies either.
Today was no different. I was busy putting out new stock, marking down items, didn't have my phone on me. Took my first 15, saw I had a missed call from daycare. They want me to pickup my daughter because she's “acting more tired than usual” and she was running a low temperature of 99.8 degrees. She was also “sneezing uncontrollably”. Well fuck me. Despite the fact I had 5 more hours on my shift, I had to clock out and get my kid.
My manager wasn't happy. She asked me how much longer I was going to “let this problem persist”. I told her I couldn't control the fact daycare wants me to pick her up and if I don't I could easily lose her spot. I'm literally stretching my budget to the max – I cannot afford to be put on the wait list for a different daycare and I can't exactly afford a different daycare either.
My manager told me this was my last strike. I don't know if she actually wrote me up but it took everything I had not to cry before I clocked out. She doesn't have kids, makes at least eight bucks more an hour than me, works less hours than me and while I understand that she feels like I'm letting down the company, she also knows I'm struggling like crazy right now. She knows my rent is about to be increased. She knows I don't get child support and that this job is the only way I'm treading water. I'm at the point where I'm using food banks, getting almost expired food and where I'm honestly considering having to steal shit or dumpster dive to make ends meet.
So here I am, sitting with a pit of anxiety in my stomach. my daughter is fine – and I feel like I paid for a day of daycare for nothing. I don't want to lose my job but god damn, it feels like a lose-lose battle no matter what I do