I've had a terrible few days at the ol' job, so I need to rant a bit.
I've been working at this spot for over a year. In that time, we've had massive turnover. I started the job with at least 5-6 trained employees above me, and now a year later, I'm the senior employee based on the fact that everyone else has quit. I've stayed loyal to the business and worked any shift they've needed, usually taking the absolute worst schedule of anyone else employed there. I've kept my professional composure, despite being disrespected more times than I can count. I've continued to show up and work despite being offered raises that never materialized. I'm the one guy that everyone knows they can count on, and people straight up say that they 'do not want to work on the days I'm not there' because everything falls apart when I'm gone.
I've come to be somewhat of a lead person at my job, without title or pay increase, due to my tenure and hard work ethic. People around me look at me as 'a leader' and I've been told by more than one person that if I ever leave the company, there will be many coworkers following me out the door. I've earned this respect by working my ass off the past year, and it seems the only people in the company that are blind to my efforts are the owners and upper management.
A few weeks ago we had a person give notice who holds a senior role in our company. This created a shuffle among the top staff as to 'who' was taking 'what' duties, when this person leaves. In the midst of the reorganization, the owner took it upon himself to bring in an outside guy to 'fill the role' of manager. This guy is one of the worst hires I've ever seen, he's incredibly lazy, incredibly confrontational, and will not succeed in this role. I'm technically the 'next in line' among our staff here for a promotion, and the fact they brought in an outsider, without even considering me for the position, is incredibly insulting. Additionally: the fact that the guy they hired is himself a terrible coworker/manager is the absolute icing on the cake.
I told my senior manager clearly and directly that if I ever showed up for a shift, and this 'new guy' was listed as my manager, then that would be the last shift I ever work for this company. The managers responded with 'Well, he's not technically a manager, he's just a key holder until we find somebody' which is a very nice way of saying 'He's the new manager, we just don't want you to quit before he's trained'.
I worked yesterday with the 'new guy' in his lead capacity for the first time. He did the very bare minimum, didn't do half the duties the shift requires, spent a good chunk of his shift sitting in his car smoking weed, and then left early before everyone else had even finished their tasks saying 'I've had enough of this place tonight'. This is the new standard of quality this business now holds – and I'm not gonna stick around and watch it all fall apart, just so the managers can run to me and expect me to 'fix it' when it eventually, inevitably does.
I'm scheduled today and tomorrow. I coincidently took off all of next week (several months ago) for an unrelated personal event… so after tomorrow's shift, I'm just gonna clock out, block the business's phone number, and go about my life. I know for a fact that place is gonna experience very large ripples of consequences when I stop showing up, and they absolutely deserve it.
For anyone still reading this rant, thanks for your time. Remember: You always get the results you set yourself up for in business, and in life. If you own a business and disrespect your best employees while giving promotions and bonuses to your worst employees, you're gonna end up with no good employees left, alongside a schedule full of highly paid no-talent scrubs. Its a worker's market right now – everyone everywhere is hiring, and we all deserve to work alongside a business owner who actually appreciates your efforts and rewards you for your loyalty.