Sunday, April 15, 2012

I Quit! BFF 184


      The job I quit with righteous indignation was the one that I have never regretted leaving.  At the time I was a cashier at a specialty butcher shop that also offered bakery items and a full service deli.    The hours were long and except for the boss being a nit picky tyrant, I enjoyed it.  The customers were high end with lots of money to spend and always polite and kind.  I enjoyed the interaction with the public and my fellow co-workers.  


        My boss loved to put a person on the spot, and humiliate publicly if possible.  He would come up and bag groceries and make rude comments in front of the customers.  I honestly grew to hate the man.   When I went to the interview, he hired me on the spot failing to mention what my pay would be.  I was shocked to discover I had taken a $2.00 pay cut when I went to work there.  I learned the hard way to never take a job unless I knew things like that up front .  


         It was normal to work 10 hour days with no breaks.   His idea of a break was allowing me to eat or drink at the register.  There was no break room, and no such thing as true 15 minute breaks or lunch hours.  At one point he even accused me of stealing a Christmas wreath that happened to disappear on a day when I wasn’t even working.  Evidently whoever was working forgot to take it in at night and it was gone by morning.  The other cashier who had been working always spent entirely too much time in his private office for him to ever blame her.  I refused to do anything like that. It wasn’t in either of our job descriptions, but she was afraid of him and did his bidding.   She was trying to pay for college plus an apartment and needed the money so felt she had little choice.




        It had been tradition in my family for years to spend a couple days over New Years in Merrillville, Indiana with the Oak Ridge Boys.  We would buy our tickets and make our hotel reservations around the first of August and plan for New Years months in advance.  I had asked my boss several times over the course of July if he foresaw a problem with me having the time off as long as I worked every single day until then.  He told me “No, of course not.  Write a note and post it to the bulletin board in his office so he wouldn’t forget.”  Relieved and happy, I made plans and spent the money.  My family bought concert tickets for all the shows for the duration which  equaled 6 shows and made reservations for a hotel room.  It added up to quite a large chunk of change.  I counted the days in anticipation and continually made certain my request was still on the board.   The day before New Years Eve, my boss came out to the register and threw my time off request in my face telling me he needed me to work all weekend.


        To say that I was livid was an understatement.  The following day was New Years Eve and I was scheduled to be there despite my long standing plans and the money invested.  The next day dawned  frigid and cold.   As fate would have it the locks on my car froze up, and then my car refused to start.  I called in and told him of my dilemma, and he told me to call a cab.  If I was a minute late he would dock my pay.  At that point, I had enough.  I told him to take his job and shove it up his a$$ and to have a Happy New Year without me.  I went with my family to Merrillville and brought the New Year in with style.  


        I never regretted quitting that job.  Eventually karma caught up to him because OSHA discovered he didn’t have a break room and didn’t allow his employees any breaks from the job.  They shut him down until he built on to his establishment to make room for a break room and forced him to treat his employees fairly as mandated by law.  I am sure he never was accused of sexual harassment, but he should have been.  In the end, goodbye says it all.   I went on to bigger and better things and never looked back until next time when I give you another glimpse into the life of a trucker’s wife. 


 What bad experiences have you had on a job that forced  you to quit?  



12 comments:

  1. WOW, Kathy! I sure don't blame you even one little bit. I would have quit too. I was hoping you had written a note like the photo and placed on his bulletin board! LOL... That would have been great irony. hee hee

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    1. Darlene, I still managed to work there for almost a year. No, I quit over the phone. :P It would have been a great irony. LOL From what I heard, he had to work the register himself on the holiday. LOL I am so pleased you enjoyed my story. Thank you for stopping by to read and for your kind comments~! ♥

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  2. Unbelievable that he got away with that!!!! Wow! what a jerk! I wonder what became of him? I quit McDonalds after 2 weeks, when I was a senior in high school....couldn't deal w/ the public. But my shortest job was at an answering service. I lasted 2 days b/f quitting.

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    1. JoJo, he had to clean up his act quite a bit once he got in trouble with OSHA. They watched him like a hawk. He is still in business today. I am glad I don't work there anymore. Working with the public can be difficult, but I have done it several times. My favorite job was my last one. I was the acquisitions clerk at the local library and did a lot of data entry all day long. I put on my walkman with my favorite tunes or a book on tape and worked away. Just loved it. Thank you for stopping by to read and for sharing your experiences. ♥

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  3. oh, Kathy. What a horrible boss. Brings back some memories of less than optimal job sitches I've had in the past.

    You know, regardless of one's politics, it is NOT good/healthy for a society for ALL the power to be in the hands of the bosses. Minimum standards for wages, for reasonable break periods, for a safe environment help everyone, no matter how some may grumble that it makes them uncompetitive with some sweatshop in India.

    So sorry. I had my own interesting job experiences, as well.

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    1. Beverly, I enjoyed the job itself but he was just intolerable and some of his crap was just not fair. The pay wasn't that great either. I got another job and life went on. Thank you for stopping by to read and for your comments.

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  4. I had a similar situation in so far as loving a job and having a serious problem with the boss. I understand the end of the rope scenario.
    Good job Kathy and I'm glad you quit, a$$holes shouldn't be in your life. ♥

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    1. Jo, it is always something with jobs. If everyone loved their jobs every day and it was so much fun, everyone wouldn't call it work and they wouldn't have to pay people to do it. They would line right up and volunteer! Thank you for stopping by to read and for your comments!!

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  5. Mean bosses suck. My last job I had several issues with, management being just one issue. I don't regret quitting one bit. It was a huge relief. My 7 year stress knot was gone a week after I left. Glad to hear you told your boss to shove it!

    Stopping by via A-Z Challenge!

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    1. J Day, me too! Thank you for stopping by to read and for your comments!! ♥

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  6. That is awful! What a horrible person!!! And the poor girl who spent time in his office - so sad...

    I actually have had a pretty decent history of jobs. Although once I quit a maid job at a hotel after one day because I didn't feel safe. Many of the rooms had men living in them and they wanted me to clean the rooms while they were in bed! Yuck!!!

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    1. Ann, ewwww! I think I would have quit too. What a bunch of sickos! Thank you for stopping by to read and for sharing!♥

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