Working in hell

So, I was sick and tired of not having any money, so I decided it was time to get a job. Everywhere I had applied to had said no because I had little to no experience.

I had done work experience in one place but didn't exactly like it. The boss kind of threw you headfirst into the things to see could you handle things. I thought stupidly things might have been differently working for him. I applied for a job with him. He told me that it was going to be the Monday before he had an answer for me.

It was 6pm on Monday evening. I decided to give him a call and see had he come to a decision about hiring me or not? He told me that he wanted me to start work tomorrow evening and work until Saturday evening. I told him that I couldn't do weekends as that was the only time, I got to see my boyfriend. He seemed to understand that.

Well, my first night was not a pleasant one. It was scrubbing a sink out the back. It was also mopping floors and cleaning toilets. Why was this not an indication to get out now?

My second day of work was a little better (sort of) I was serving on the tills.

One thing did puzzle me thought where was the girl from last night?

This man approached the counter and was buying a load of stuff. At the end of his transaction. I told him the price and he gave me. He kept saying to me that I had given him the wrong change. He kept saying I had left him 20 euro short. I knew I hadn't left him short. He said he would be back in the morning to talk to my boss about what went on.

Really who leaves an employee on their own the second day on the job?

I thought nothing more of it. When I went into work that evening my boss approached me and asked to explain what exactly happened last night. I told him my side of the story and he was like who was it? I had no clue who the person was. He told me to be more careful. But it felt like he was taking the customers side over mine.

I had holidays booked and he kept texting me asking what days I was going to there and when I was going on holidays. Like I was making it up. Sometimes the wages would be late coming in as well.

Any time I asked him a question he would look at me like I was stupid.

He’s the boss am I not able to ask my boss a question if I don’t understand something?

A lot of the other staff members were complaining a lot of the time because they were not getting the right amount of hours and were warning me that he does this when he is trying to get rid of you. I didn't know what to think.

He would constantly test me on different things in the shop. One day there was no money in either of the tills. When I called him about it, he said don’t panic and laughed and ended the called when the customers were still standing there. He never came out with any money. The customer was getting very impatient. I had to give the customer chance from my own money and then tell him about it. He was not happy about that one.

Very soon afterwards it was only the boss, his wife and me running the shop all the other staff had left or he had let them go for some reason or other.

That is when the trouble really started, he would start texting me at the last minute asking me to work longer hours and not take no for an answer.

He was always commenting on what I was wearing and calling me names I was uncomfortable.

Well, that was until he would get new staff in and then I would be pushed to one side and only given like an hour or 2 to cover their breaks. Or there was sometimes I would get no hours whatsoever.

Someday when I went into work there would be new people in there and the boss would be like oh you have to train this person in. I was starting to feel like I was been used.

Or I would arrive into work and the boss would be like to me oh this person is here I meant to put you down at a different time to work can you come back later?

At one stage I had worked over my limit and was tired and asked for a few days off. He looked at me and laughed.

The rota wouldn’t go up until 6 or 7 on a Sunday night. I was getting little to no notice.

It was getting to the point where I believed my boss was ignoring my messages and phone calls.

It was getting ridiculous he was calling and texting me at god awful hours.

I had to take a week due to health reasons. I had dropped in my certs to the boss, and he would question what it was all about? I told him a bit about it, and he just laughed.

It was late on a Sunday evening I had been waiting to for the rota all day long. I text him and ask about my hours and got a very rude reply from him. You are tired. I am giving you the week off.

He finally got a rota system in place, but it was all over the place. A rota would go up on a Sunday after I had texted him about my hours.

I go into work one day and there was this rude new staff member. I was busy counting charity money for the boss when the guy comes up clapping his hands saying now, we can’t be standing there doing nothing. I completely lost count on how much money I had counted. He would change the shop around to suit his own needs and he would never see the point in clocking in or out of the Rota system.

Near the end of every shop day all the tables and chairs would need to be carried inside. He would always make smarts remakes about the medical condition I had.

The shop was getting done up and there were builders everywhere and the dust was getting unbearable to work in. There was one of the days the boss asked me to stay on for a few hours and said to the guys to lend a hand. He laughed after the boss walked away and said I am not going to do that.

Lots of people were asking me how I was sticking working there with the dust and the noise? I felt like saying I wasn’t coping at all. The dust was really affecting my allergies. I was constantly sneezing.

My boss was working me to the bone and wasn’t going to give me any time off. I was now working 7 days a week (which I thought was illegal) and it wouldn’t be just one shift in a day I would have to go back 3 or 4 times a day. I was completely wrecked. The days were getting longer and every time I went into work now there always seemed to be a delivery that needed to be done and he would always change the way he wanted it done.

I had started closing the shop now. Which my mother didn’t like she thought it wasn’t wise letting a girl closing a shop at 10pm at night and dealing with money.

What would really annoy me was I would also do a shift and just have finished, and the boss would call me and ask where I had gone to and ask me to come back to the shop for another hour.

This was getting ridiculous I had no life whatsoever now. I hated working for him now. My friends and family were getting annoyed because I would always bail the last minute because I needed to work. Which I was also getting fed up with.

Covid had just started and there was only four works there now. You would think it would be easy to plan a rota with only four staff members, but the rota was taking even longer to be given.

I was getting very little respect for all the work and effort I was putting in for all my days work I did.

One day we all had to get some training for a health and safety course and afterwards another one of the staff members picked a fight with me outside the shop and when the boss found out he confronted me about it and wasn’t listening to myside of the story at all.

Worst for all he set me up on this Communication and Digital Marketing Course to do because apparently, we didn’t know how to treat customers correctly. More like he didn’t know how to treat staff members.  

It was late one evening when I was on a late-night shift, and he came up to me in a foul mood and insulted me so much that I ended up calling my mother in the middle of my shift saying I want to walk out. I told her he had insulted me so badly. I was bawling cry and really didn’t want to stay there any longer.

Other staff members would tell me what he would do to them, and it was just unbelievable. He would mess with their heads and make them believe that they were going crazy.