So I’ve been working at a small family food retail business for 10 months now.
Honestly I was really excited to get this job, because my previous retail job at a bakery chain ghosted me for three months (casual employee). This job is honestly really intense, mostly because of the massive number of different tasks to do and products they sell. Some products are sold by weight, some by fixed price, some barcodes scan and some don’t. Some items have price tags and some don’t, and if neither boss is available you basically have to just guess how much it’s worth and pray.
The bosses are a married couple with young adult children who, when I started, also worked for them. Now two of them have other jobs during the week and come in to work weekends. Their youngest gets called in basically whenever, even though they’re trying to study. And mentioning the bosses, they have very little communication between them. I would assume if I tell one of them something important they’d tell the other, but that assumption has historically been proven false.
Since I started there, three people have quit because of mental health and one was essentially bullied out after putting in his final two weeks and then getting Covid.
They were looking to hire someone to work full time back in March. Then two people, one part time and the other full time, quit. They then found one person to work full time in a specialist position, who then went down to part time, and then quit. They’ve now hired two teenagers who can work Saturdays. But no one else.
They’ve previously complained about how “No one wants to work anymore”, but the obvious fact here is that no one wants to work for them. The pay is low; after six months I got a 50c increase to my rate. If I stayed for longer I was told I could expect another raise when I’d been working there a year, along with increased responsibility. Presumably this was also going to be another 50c.
There aren’t enough staff to work in shifts. Before hiring the high schoolers, I was one of three employees that wasn’t related to them. For months I worked 10 hour days when the store was open, studying on the days it was closed. I was there more than anyone other than the bosses. And I’m pretty sure I was still getting paid the least.
I finished my course and immediately found a starter position in my industry. It pays more, but they only wanted me a few days a week. So I kept both jobs. Working 30 hours of retail, then 15 in my industry. Not the worst workload in the world, I’m aware, but it means I’m working 6 days a week. Eventually I ended up having a breakdown, telling my bosses in retail I needed to drop to fewer hours. I now only work for them 24 hours a week.
My boss from my industry job has made it clear she would like me to work there full time. And knowing staffing is short, I discussed with one of my retail bosses about the fact I would be leaving after Christmas and would like to start pulling back on hours after they hire more people, just to make sure the new people can carry the workload. And after they hired two new people to work the weekend, I thought I could start pulling back and drop Saturdays. I have been working every Saturday since about March. The only Saturday I have taken off wasn’t to relax; it was to work somewhere else for the day for a lot more money. I haven’t been able to go with my family to the countryside since Easter. I haven’t gone camping with my friends since November last year. Even trying to use my accrued time off, I get told “we need all hands on deck on the weekend”. There is no extra weekend rate.
My boss was not happy with me asking to leave Saturdays. He got very upset, saying that I was ‘letting them down’, and that me asking this was ‘a punch in the gut’. ‘We took you in as family’. ‘It feels like you don’t want to be here anymore’ yeah of course I don’t. I have a job in my industry waiting for me. This was great when I was a student, but I’m graduated and burnt out from dealing with customers. I hate how much I resent the random customers who mildly inconvenience me. It’s made me a worse person because I think so badly about people who are just buying food, and yeah maybe they’re not always polite, but no one is. I shouldn’t want them to get hit by a truck or mauled by a bear.
But of course I couldn’t say ‘yes I want to leave’, because social convention says that I have to placate. Meet the positive face need, reassure. He kept talking about loyalty, and how it doesn’t look good on a resumé to bounce between jobs looking for higher wages. I’ve worked there for 10 months.
He said that he told me he wanted me to work the same hours until Christmas and then pull back. This wasn’t established in our earlier conversation. He says it was. Again, I placate. “I must have misunderstood”.
“I understand you want to pursue your interests, but this is about loyalty.” My interests? This is my career. I have two qualifications in this field. This job can give me a path to where I want to be in my industry. I have a solid basis for a career on a golden platter, and I’ve been stalling because I’ve been terrified of letting these people down. But I’m not family. I’m not important. My future will never be considered next to their profits.