EverythingOnlinePro

For simplicity’s sake this story will be told in first person narrative.Have you ever been in a toxic work environment?

So have I!…..

I was overworked, unhappy, mistreated, misled, and taken advantage of (all is my fault 100%).

So I quit my job a while back with no plans and ended up working at this convenience store/pharmacy.  I started working there and the first few days were just a learning curve.  Everyone was extremely nice; everything was fine and normal.  The District Manager always wanted me to work crazy hours and I did.  After I was somewhat fully trained they revealed the secret of the store.  The previous manager at this store had not been keeping up with inventory and everything was a mess.  They took me upstairs into the storage area and oh my god was it horrible!  There were so many expired items, so much product that had gone bad.  The whole place (which was large) was very unorganized and stuff was everywhere!  There were snacks, all types of vitamins, many products that were no longer for sale, just the most random items all over the place.  It was like someone just kept literally dumping whatever in this storage area for months.  What I and some of the other members of management had to do was find time to slowly organize this mess.  Now mind you, time is hard to find when you work in a very busy store and always short staffed.  The store I ended up working at in the beginning was a 24/7 store.  I volunteered to work overnight 12-14 hour shifts 5-6 days per week which was brutal, but it gave me time to slowly organize the mess upstairs.  It was not worth it at all.  I had to call the police multiple times every week because people would come in and steal.  Some people were very clearly under the influence of something and would make the pharmacists uncomfortable.  Some people would eat things they have not paid for nor planned to pay.  I did not know these things happened on a daily basis, but I do now and it makes me appreciate and respect people who are able to deal with it.

Now here is the crazy part.  One of the main reasons I was so quick to volunteer to do night shifts was because it was slow during the night and I did not mind too much.  However, the pay was the main reason.  I was told that I would be compensated double for overnight shifts.  Great!  So I did this for a few weeks, and as mentioned above it was not worth it at all.  After a while, I noticed my pay was not what it should be so I asked the District Manager what was going on and was reassured that I would be getting paid double for overnight shifts.  This occured multiple times verbally and over text so I was like “okay, let’s see what happens”.  After a couple more weeks I asked to be transferred to one of the other stores I had been sent to a few times to help. One of the workers there who had done overnight shifts told me that overnight shifts are only $1/hr more and not double.  This upset me very much because I suffered a few weeks thinking they would fix my pay and being promised things that ended up being straight lies. 

Other than that, one thing that was very awkward and unpleasant was that they would have group chats where each store gives updates to the District Manager which is great, but they only cared about the monthly subscriptions to the store.  I mean I understand business is business, but forcing your employees to create faux email accounts and signing up for the subscription (which costs $5/month by the way) is just not right and annoying.  The benefit was I’m sure a bonus of some kind which never reaches regular workers.  Again, I understand business.  I understand you have to make money and pay your employees, but the pressure was unreasonable.  It’s not like we can force people to sign up if they just ran in to grab gum.

There were other unreasonable demands such as coming in on your day off to unload the truck at “4:30 AM – 6:00 AM whenever the driver shows up”. 

The overall experience was terrible and after a few months I decided I have had enough!  I would never work at this place again!

I’m sure a lot of people have many great stories, thanks for reading and have a great day!