So I got a part time job to try to pay off some debts and keep me busy recently. Floral Delivery, which as you might have guessed is very popular this time of year (Valentine's Day).
It was fine, I did the work and whatever. But then Valentine's Day. Not only is there about 4-6x the volume of orders, but also a huge snowstorm started around 2-3am. Of course, the city I live in is unable to watch a weather forecast, so there were zero street plows. All roads completely buried.
My boss was having me drive their car. It was some kind of Prius, and it sucked. Why have a boat with a strong engine when its so low to the ground, you can't go over a literal molehill without bottoming out? Anyway. I started early in the day and hustled. Its been snowing all day. And hard. My hair was frozen to the back of my jacket, my socks were soaked (and crunchy/icey) inside my boots, and the only reason I could feel my fingers was because of taking short breaks to shove my fingers between the vents with the heater running. The vehicle had been getting more and more unweildy with each delivery because of the snow building up, combined with the steep mountain roads and zero infrastructural support. I wasn't the only driver having issues. Several other cars here and there would have to stop and turn on their flashers, clearly stuck unable to go further. A few cars were sticking at weird angles out of the snow. It was like this all across town, because the city didn't bother getting it cleared.
I am a very careful driver, but I can't account for everything. I've never actually crashed a car before and I've been driving for two decades in several different regions, states, and even countries.
I tried to stop in front of a house, and the vehicle slid a tiny bit, but then went over the side of a ditch I couldn't see (the snow was literally perfectly level, but the ground was buried up to my thighs in the ditch and only up to just above my ankle at the most shallow spot). Scared the piss out of me. I tried to get out of the ditch myself, of course, but the piece of crap prius had bottomed-out on the higher part. The car was like a tetter-totter, so there was no way to get wheels on the ground. I called my boss and explained. Thankfully a bit later, a friend showed up (funny enough, I hadn't realized someone I know lived on that street). He used his truck to pull me out and since then I've sung his praises as my hero on social media lol.
I tried to continue my deliveries, but I couldn't because of being shaken up and also because the snow everywhere was just getting higher and higher. Walls of snow were developing wherever there were once roads or alleys. From the country edges of town, the weird mountain village, the main road, and even the interstate highway. I told her that's why I came back to the store. She didn't believe me until a nearby customer said, “yeah its crazy out there. I can't get home because of it, and I live on [the main road].” and then she glared at me and sulked.
What was it my boss asked next? No, it wasn't asking if I'm ok. It wasn't apologizing for making me use the prius when they should have given me an off-roader (which they have just didn't want to let me use it). Nah that shit is too humane.
“Why didn't you just stop the car at the closest point then get out and hoof it?”
CANT MAKE THIS SHIT UP.
I'm, frankly, not going to hike up the side of a LITERAL friggin' mountain carrying glassware and flowers in 15F/-10C weather with blinding winds (which was ripping the petals off of even the healthiest flowers). If I had walked it, I'd be delivering a vase of sticks. I said she's welcome to do so, but I'm not going to do that. She rolled her eyes like a 12 year old.
Honestly, asking that made me drop any guilt I felt about failing to deliver all of the orders. But now? They're literally saying they'd rather I endanger myself to send their crap. They didn't say “you're fired” to be fair. But they did whine about me damaging the car (it wasn't damaged, btw. Just had a huge amount of ice stuck to the area around the hood… because of being a source of heat/warmth during an active snowstorm, so snow would melt on it, the water would stick to it, and then would re-freeze on it). Now I'm just pissed. They were more interested in profits and costs over an employee's life.
When I got home I was seasick, from my inner ears still swirling (from the vehicle sliding around so badly and being stuck in it for several hours).
Whereas my manager had been pestering me every damn morning (because they're too disorganized to set a schedule or even tell me when to be ready to go in! I have other shit to do and am not waiting by the phone every morning like a maiden waiting for her sailor to return from his voyage), today I didn't get any messages. Doesn't matter if I had or hadn't, I decided to have some day drinking. Fuck it. I'm not going back, and I am trying to figure out how to file a complaint with OSHA.
Oh and they're trying to short me on pay. Each shift was edited by manager to appear 10-15mins shorter. IDK what to do about that since the last time I filed this kind of complaint, the state told me to die mad about it.
Serious question. How do I do what I need to do to eat and keep a roof over my head without it making me hate abso-fucking-lutely everything?