I recently turned 18 and am leaving for college soon, but have been working at a huge retail store for over a year a now. Many weeks ago I let them know that I was going away to college, but that I wanted to stay “on demand” and come back to work holidays and summer and such, which is very common at the job.
Today was my last day before going on demand, meaning I wouldn’t be coming back to work for another few months after today. Two of my bosses called me into their office today and told me that they were basically giving me a citation that would stay on my profile for a year. The citation was for a bunch of small offenses that had added up, like not wearing a name tag or having my drink in an unregulated container. The real kicker is, they then told me that workers with a citation on their account are not allowed to go on demand, meaning I had no other choice but to resign being that I was moving away for a few months.
Now i’ll admit, I did mess up a few times regarding dress code and such because they recently had gotten very strict, but i’ve been incredibly distraught over the fact that they gave this citation to me on MY LAST DAY as a full time employee and forced me out of a job I had planned on staying at for a few years. I am questioning why they gave me the citation, knowing that it would make me unable to return, when my offenses were so minor. I actually enjoyed my job and my coworkers and had told everyone that I would be back at work in the fall. I pride myself on being a good worker and thought that my bosses thought highly of me, but I feel like I was pushed out and made purposely unable to return.
My boss actually told me that I could reapply in the fall as a seasonal employee and that they thought I was a great employee, it was just the timing that was inconvenient, but I don’t believe him and feel that if I were to reapply, I would not be accepted. I leave for college in a few days and no longer have a job to come home to.