This is gonna be a bit long, but I just need to blow off steam.

I work in an ice cream shop. I'm currently the only cake decorator on staff. My boss recently tried to hire another cake decorator. However, she didn't really know what she was doing and needed a lot of training, which I'm perfectly willing to provide when I have time. However, he only ever had her come on Sundays. And two of the Sundays she came were Mother's Day and Eid. Mother's day, it was just me and this new cake decorator I was supposed to be training in the store. How am I supposed to train her when I have a slew of last minute orders that came in the day before that need to be done asap and there's no one else in the store, so I have to also handle the line of customers wanting ice cream and cakes from our display? After she'd been in a few weekends, my boss complained at me that she'd worked three shifts and didn't know what she was doing yet. But when was I going to train her? I can't stay in the back and show her what to do if I have to be in the front managing a line of customers and only manage to sprint to the back in time to wrap up orders as best as I can between people. I told him I needed her to come on a week night when it's not so busy so I could actually spend some time teaching her. Or, alternatively, schedule extra people on Sunday so I have other people in the store to handle the customers and I can stay in the back and train her. Never did. Kept sending her on Sundays with just me, or maybe me and one other relatively new employee, in the store. So the cycle repeated. I couldn't train her, because I had to deal with the last minute orders and handle customers because the one other new employee couldn't manage the line alone. Wash, rinse, repeat. Then she quit, I assume because she got fed up she wasn't being properly trained.

We typically sell 90-100 cakes a week. Which should be fine. Except I'm frequently in the store by myself, so again, if it's a beautiful, sunny day and customers come in wanting ice cream, I have to stop working on cakes and go to the front whenever someone comes in. If I have a consistent line, I can't decorate anything. He also dropped responsibility for taking inventory and doing the ordering for the store in my lap, and we're also frequently out of ice cream flavors and waffle cone products, which I then have to take time away from decorating to make. Most of the other people in the store are fairly new, and they're all young kids who my boss never bothered to train. He just dumped them on me, all of them on weekends. So they're not great at their jobs, in part because I never had time to train them, so half the time even if I have other people in the store, there's an endless cacophony of, "Anges! Where's this? Anges! How do I make this?! Anges, do we have more of this flavor? Anges! It's busy! We need help!" And my favorite, "Anges! The phone's ringing!" Because they're all terrified of picking up the phone.

And a couple of them are just lazy and don't want to do anything, so they're constantly asking me to do things not because they can't but because they simply don't want to.

They can barely manage the line, so the other problem is no one else is making the cakes. Other people are supposed to make cakes so they're ready to decorate when I come in. But, now I have to make the lion's share of the cakes on top of being the only decorator. And helping them with the line, telling them whether we have things in stock because for some reason they can't go check themselves, getting boxes down for them because some of them just won't even try to use the step ladder to reach things, or because they whine that something's too heavy and they can't lift it, helping with the line when they're moving too slow to manage it, running the store alone when he can't get anyone else to come in, taking inventory, etc. I have like a dozen balls in the air literally all the time.

Plus my boss has a ridiculous 24 hour cake order policy. Whatever cake you want. Custom, signature, large, small, whatever. Place the order online, and you can select a pick up time exactly 24 hours later, and we can't decline orders.

Well, this is hugely problematic, especially with one cake decorator. Mondays are my days off. I don't get there until around 3 in the afternoon on Tuesday. I'm already working over time, I can't pick up more hours, and honestly it isn't realistic to expect me to be there all day every day to handle these orders. So I come in on Tuesdays and I'm already behind and have angry customers demanding to know why their cake that was supposed to be picked up an hour ago isn't ready. Well. It's not ready because you placed the order on Monday, set a pick up time before 3:00 on Tuesday, and no one was here to decorate it. It's also a problem with the sheet cakes. People routinely order big sheet cakes for 50 people and want it 24 hours later. Those take a lot of ice cream, and if they order one of the less popular flavors that we stock less of, it could wipe out whatever we have. Or, honestly, we might not even have enough and we may have to make fresh ice cream for the cake. Plus, we only have one pan for that size cake. I have to make one, wait for it to freeze, and then make the next once it's frozen enough to remove from the pan.I told my boss we need another one. He promised he was going to get another one, but he hasn't delivered on that.

But, whatever. His policy has always been 24 hours. Any cake. Never turn down orders. He's yelled at me in the past for declining orders when I knew I wouldn't be able to get them done.

Well, this week it all finally just ended in disaster.

This weekend is father's day and graduations. We completely sold out of cakes yesterday. I've had no time to do anything outside of the orders because we were slammed.

Thursday, this guy comes in. He wants two cakes, each for 50 people. He wants them "Fancy shmancy, make them the best cakes you've ever made in your life," and he wants them the next day. Okay, cool. Not allowed to decline orders. He'd previously called my boss, and my boss told him we could accommodate two cakes that size for the weekend, even though I'd previously spoken to him about the issue of having just one pan. Plus, other people called out. I was in the store by myself until 3:00, so I had to try to make the first cake between customers. Then take it out of the pan and make the second also between customers. I managed to get it done. But then the person that came at 3:00 is the laziest employee we have. She sees I have a piping bag in my hand and frosting everywhere. "Anges, do you have a lot of cakes you need to do?!" Yes. "Anges! Are you still busy? We're getting too many doordash orders." Okay. Figure it out. "Anges! Customers need spoons and I can't reach the box." FINE! Give me the step ladder. "Anges! It's really busy! I need help!" Endless! As she sees me trying to get all of this stuff done. I was supposed to leave at 5:00. I stayed until close to 7:00 to finish.

Yesterday, I was decorated cakes for almost 8 hours. I literally only stopped long enough to put together last minute orders and put them in the freezer so I could decorate them later. I only managed to get all the orders for the weekend done despite that. They kept coming in. I'd gotten most of the way through, and then oops! Someone else forgot their kid's graduated? Cool. Online order comes in, more cakes due tomorrow. Stop decorating. Go make the cakes for these orders. Resume decorating, pray they freeze in time for me to decorate them. It's ridiculous! I kept most of the orders due yesterday in the blast freezer because I couldn't even fit all the orders in the walk-in. We had maybe 10 cakes in stock at the start of the day yesterday, and that's honestly a generous estimate. We still sold 24 cakes, because of all of the last minute orders coming in. That's cakes that were ordered and paid for yesterday. That doesn't even include the orders that had been placed earlier in the week that still needed to be decorated.

And then, one of my wonderful coworkers takes an order for a Decopac theme cake without checking to see if we have the topper. At least it's not due for another week, but still an issue since we don't have the topper. I contact my boss about it. And do you know what he comes back with?

"Anges. Why are you taking another theme cake order? You need to be making signature cakes for the display."

Excuse me while I flip all the tables in the store. One, no one asks me. They just take orders. If he asked, I would've at least told him to check to see if we have the topper in stock before accepting the order. Two, I've told my boss multiple times that we need to adjust our order policy on theme cakes, because it's not feasible. He's repeatedly told me "no." Because we can't be declining cake orders, so I've always been told to take the last minute theme orders. Why would I have assumed that would change?! But you know what? The theme cakes aren't even the problem! Yesterday, I did nothing but standard cakes. White frosting or ganache, sprinkles or chocolate shavings on the edge, candy topper, and a message. No flowers. No air brushing. Nothing fancy, just basic cakes. I still barely finished. And I know when I go in tonight, there's going to be a fresh stack of orders for tomorrow, placed today. So am I going to get to cakes for the display tonight? Honestly, realistically not. Plus, it's a Saturday night and we're minimally staffed. Last night after I finished orders, I had to go and help the kids in the front deal with the line, because they weren't holding it together at all. They realistically needed help earlier in the night, but I just didn't have time. We have the same people scheduled for tonight. So it's going to be the same, finish orders, then go and help customers because we're short staffed.

Oh. And I make $2 above my state's minimum wage. So, $2/hour more than these kids who don't do half of the things I do. I asked my boss for a raise about a month ago since it had been a year and a half since I'd last been given a raise. He refused.

I don't mind working hard. But I'm one person who regrettably only has one set of hands and is not in possession of a time turner. Don't put me in a situation where it's literally impossible to get everything done and then complain to me that I've dropped a few balls. Don't complain at me about other people in the store abiding by your policy without consulting me. Don't ask me why people aren't trained well when you routinely schedule new people to start on weekends when you know full well between last minute orders and the weekend rush of everyone wanting to come out for ice cream I'm not going to have time to slow down enough to teach people to do things. And stop expecting me to do ten times more than literally anyone else in the store without proportional pay!

I'm just so fed up. I've been applying to other jobs, but so far nothing's come through. But I'm just dreaming of the day when I can quit and his store falls apart, because I've been picking up the slack for everyone and suddenly nothing's getting done because I'm not there to do it.

try the grocery store bakeries -- a lot of them have great benefits and regular pay raises and you can rise through the ranks -- even the big box stores -- 

I would start telling co-workers to get their own spoons and the little things like that -- if they can't get on a step ladder they shouldn't be working -- 'tell' them where things are -- stop doing everything -- if the line backs up out the door down the street and half the customers leave in disgust -- just do what you're supposed to do without taking on everything -- stop caring -- care about anges -- if you don't, as you know, no one else will --

your boss is content with sub par workers except for you -- he's unfairly squeezing you -- it's ok for co-workers to be sub par -- stop covering for their responsibilities --

it really sounds like a miserable situation where too much work with little decision making authority has been dumped on you -- along with you being 'the city dump' for complaints and managerial level expectations without the pay --

good on you for moving on!!! stay strong 

keep me/us posted 

Thanks.

I have started ignoring requests for help with the line unless I have time. I think part of the problem is some of my coworkers think that helping customers is just basically the entirety of the job, so they don't fully understand that when I'm in the back not helping customers, I'm still doing a lot of things. Or, they think customers are more important than anything else, so needing help with the line should take priority over finishing the cake I'm working on. But. then if a customer comes in and the cake they ordered isn't ready, I'm the one who gets the heat. And we've been getting a lot of special orders, which cost more because they take more time, and if a customer pays extra for decorating and then they pick up a cake that looks super sloppy and rushed, they will also (rightly) pitch a fit, and that would also fall on me.When the freezers have plenty of cakes and the list of orders isn't that long, sure. I can take some time to help clear the line. But not when I have a ton of cakes in the blast freezer and all of them are being picked up the same weekend. Doubly so if on top of the list of orders, we've also completely sold out of cakes in the freezers.

I do need to get better at it, though. Sometimes the whining is persistent enough that I cave, and then I end up stressed over the time I lost that should have been spent finishing cakes.

The problem with the sub-par staff is that as far as my boss is concerned, that just joins the list of everything else that's Anges' fault. "Anges! Why isn't anything getting done?! You need to go out to the front at least once every ten minutes to make sure they're all doing their job." Or, my favorite, "Anges, you need to move your decorating stuff to the front and work on cakes out there so you can watch everyone at the same time." Right. Because walking all the way across the store to get cakes in and out of the blast freezer as I need them is so much more practical than using the work table set up right next to the blast so I can just turn around and have whichever cake I need at the time in seconds. And also, then I'm right in front of customers, which is bad for me. Because they don't care that I'm doing something. Even if I'm obviously in the middle of something else, any time I'm in the front and there's a line I have people barking at me and demanding my attention. So no. I'm not going to move my decorating out to the front, where I would have a smaller work space, a long walk to and from the blast, and customers yelling at me for "not doing my job" and ignoring them. I also get, "Anges! They've been working here for -insert length of time-! What do you mean they don't know x, or do y slow! Why haven't you been training them!"

And my boss is never in the store, so he honestly has no clue how busy I am. He's straight up told me that he doesn't understand, because "it should be very easy for you to just go up to the front and watch every ten to fifteen minutes."

It's not. Because again, that interrupts what I'm trying to do in the back. And then as soon as I go out to the front, my coworkers are going to start with the "Anges, it's really busy. Anges, we need help. Anges, can you go get strawberries? Anges, I need..." And then I'll also have customers shouting and demanding attention. At least in the back, I can pretend I don't see them glaring daggers at me. And last night, we were supposed to have six people working. We ended up with three. One quit with no notice. One person was supposed to work open to close and decided she didn't want to do that. Another switched his shift, because the person who was meant to work open to close told my boss she couldn't open, so he had me ask this other kid to open instead. Well, both of them ended up opening and neither one was willing to stay until close, even if that was the girl's scheduled shift. I text my boss and tell him. First he goes, "Anges! Who told the guy to come in early?" Well. I did. Because my boss asked me to. I have no idea when the girl decided actually, she could open. My thought was, guy opens, and if he leaves early it's fine. We can manage with five. I had no idea the girl was actually going to open, and then just refuse to work her full shift, or that someone else was going to just up and quit. And then he goes, "But they're supposed to be there until close. They can't leave early!" Okay. But what am I gonna do about it? I have no authority to cut hours or anything. I can't physically stop them from leaving. If they walk out, they walk out and I can't change that. So we, again, ended up critically short staffed, to the point where I got the cake orders that had come in for the next day done, but didn't have any time to actually get ahead. Because when the Saturday night rush hit, instead of four people in the front and two in the back making cakes and ice cream, we had three people total, so we all had to help move the line along and no one was able to get enough other work done.

And I know he's going to look at the sales report and go, "Anges, I don't see why it was a problem. Sales were low." Which, yes. Sales were low. But you know why? Because we have no cakes in the display. The base price for our signature cakes is $29.99 for a small and $39.99 for a large. If we typically sell 20+ cakes on a weekend, and would have sold even more this weekend given it's Father's Day, that's the reason for low sales numbers. The ice cream sales and number of customers in the store is about on par with what you'd expect for a Saturday. Low sales are indicative of the lack of cakes, not less customers coming into the store for ice cream.

But talking to him is like talking to a brick wall, and if I try to explain the number of customers was similar to any other weekend, but we just didn't have our most expensive product in stock to sell, he's not going to understand what I'm saying, and he's just going to keep circling back to lower net sales for the evening.

But, whatever. His net sales are going to continue to be subpar until he gives me more people and competent people to work with. Because I can't function as the stand-in manager, because we have no real management in the store, the only cake decorator, and everyone's gofer. As long as this persists, we're either going to have inadequate inventory levelsor perpetually have customers walking out because the line's too long, or maybe even both, and it's not going to be my fault because there are only so many balls I can reasonably be expected to juggle.

The biggest problem is he just doesn't understand how to run a business. He's obsessed with keeping his labor cost low, so he hires the bare minimum number of employees he thinks it will take to keep the store running. What he doesn't understand is that one, that puts us in an awful position if someone calls out, because there aren't many people we can try to call in to cover. And, two, that means there's zero leverage. You can't tell someone "Stop calling out and start pulling your weight, or you're not getting hours" when you don't have enough other employees to pick up those hours. So you tell people they need to step up and do better. What do you do if they refuse when they're already making minimum wage, so you can't threaten a pay cut, and you have no surplus of employees, so you also can't threaten to give their hours to someone else who is willing to do their job better, because there isn't anyone else?

 I remember you posting this same thing about a year ago.  I see nothing has changed 

you are letting this so called boss walk all over you.  YOU need to grow a backbone & stiffen it!  When he shoots down anything you say just keep harping the same thing until he listens *&* actually does what is agreed on. Talk over him again and again and again & again……don’t stop talking until he actually does listen & helps with the problems.  

STOP being everyone’s “helper “ and do ONLY your job: decorating.  Let (force)  the boss do his job of working out the bugs.  

If he says your fired it won’t be but a few hrs to a day & he will be on the phone begging you to come back:) 

yes -- but the store can be operated while under staffed with minimum wage people -- it could be better run but it can sail without much wind -- no amount of you caring will get the owner to care beyond the numbers -- the status quo is working for him --

I hope you're still looking for work elsewhere -- you cannot create your leadership here -- your expectations are unrealistic for the situation -- you have a good grasp on how to run the place but it's not your place --

run Forrest run 

Ditto what everyone has said.  I am really surprised that you are still at the same store.  This is an employee's market.  It seems every business is looking for employees.  Find yourself a better job.

I'm definitely looking for another job. But tbh, this whole thing has kind of soured me on cake decorating, and I'm hoping I can find a job where I can actually use my degree. I know this is probably not a normal situation, but it's just been so exhausting for so long. I used to get excited about certain cakes, if someone ordered a cake with a fun or challenging design. Now I'm just annoyed by all of it, because all I can think about is how much time it's going to take and how much time I don't have.

I had it out with my boss again. He was whining that no one told him our cake inventory was so low. I texted him on Father's Day that I couldn't help with the line because we had no cakes. The girl who was working had to figure it out herself. I guess he didn't believe me? And when he started whining and pulling the "why are we so behind? I don't understand how this happened" I gave him the sales numbers. June 14-20, 140 cakes. On track to sell at least 100 this week, too, last I checked. And I told him, I'm one person. And we've had so many call outs! I can't do my job when I'm picking up the slack for everyone who fails to show up. I've been doing it for a long time, and I've reached a point where I just physically can't anymore, because I have two hands.

He straight up told me the sales numbers are irrelevant. Whatever the sales are, we just have to keep up with it. But they absolutely are relevant! Because if we sell 140 cakes a week, I need to have time to decorate 140 cakes in that week just to maintain our inventory levels, which were inadequate. To build up our inventory, I would have to decorate over 140 cakes. But, with so many people calling out, plus orders coming in that were more time consuming, I maybe only had time to decorate 80 cakes. But whatever! Sales numbers are irrelevant! And we need 120 cakes in stock by July 4th! We had maybe 45 cakes when he told me that. So I have to decorate the ~100 we're expected to sell to maintain our current inventory, plus a ~75 cake surplus to build up our inventory? Totally feasible!

He did hire a new cake decorator. Which is good, don't get me wrong. But now I'm going to have to slow down for awhile and take time away from doing my own thing to train her. Which would be fine. But he had her come in on a Friday, even though I specifically told him no weekend training for cake decorators. And then he gave me a lecture about how I was being ridiculous and there's no reason training should slow me down. Well, actually yeah. It does. If I have to stop and explain what I'm doing, I'm moving slower. If I have to stop what I'm doing and check to make sure this other person is doing things correctly, it slows me down. Is it necessary? Yes. It is. But don't expect me to be producing at my usual rate her first few shifts, and don't whine at me about how you don't understand why I'm slowing down.

I have at least stopped helping out front as much, because I honestly just can't do it. I'm running around too much. But I'm still the only person he'll let do inventory and place the order for the week. So I have to find time to do that. He still schedules me by myself sometimes, at which point there's nothing I can do if customers walk in. I have to deal with them instead of decorating. He still expects me to be a manager without manager's pay and watch everyone, and report to him about who's doing what. We still run out of ice cream flavors. And if I have no ice cream to make more ice cream cakes, I need to take time I don't have out of my shift to make the ice cream. And then I get "Anges! What do you mean we're out of -insert thing-?! Why didn't you tell me?!" Well. Maybe because I'm trying to do so many different other things, that one stupid thing wasn't even on my radar! Things are going to keep falling through the cracks and there's literally nothing I can do about it, because I'm already spread too thin.

I've sent out applications to other jobs but I haven't heard anything back so far. But I really do just want to get out of this.

Meanwhile, someone else straight up told my boss that he has no idea how I'm still working here, because if he had to put up with half of it he'd be out. And my boss's answer was apparently that I stick around for my boss! Because he's such a good boss and treats me so well. Ha. Ha. Ha.

I should remind him of that time I had to quarantine for two weeks because people in my house had Covid and I'd obviously been exposed. Did he check up on me to see whether I got sick or otherwise show he cared? Nope! Told me that under no circumstances was I to tell other employees (I did, because it happened right before Thanksgiving. People had travel plans and needed to know that if they worked with me they should get tested before going anywhere), and then I had to fight tooth and nail and threaten to quit to get any sick pay. And in the end I only got compensated at 2/3 my usual pay. Takes care of me so well! Such a stand up guy and great boss.

run forrest run run run -- your boss is incredibly immature -- so glad you are wising up -- the good thing about cakes is that there is life after burn out -- after a good long time you will find the cake bug nibbling at your heart again and it will be a good thing -- maybe not as a profession but just doing a cake or two -- in the future it will be fun again!

hope you get some great interviews right away!!!

Yeah. When I do an occasional cake at home, I still enjoy it. I think I just need to maybe step back from doing it as a full time job, because I'm just too stressed out all the time. I know this probably isn't representative of all cake decorating jobs, and there are probably lots of places out there with much more reasonable staffing, or at least somewhat more realistic expectations, but I'd be leery of being sucked into a similar situation if I moved on to a similar job. I don't even know if I'd recognize a functional store if I saw it because I'm just so used to complete, catastrophic dysfunction and chaos.

I'd rather go back to doing cakes as a hobby, and maybe if I'm looking for some extra cash maybe as a second, part time job, just a few hours a week. That way when I do decide to do a cake, I can actually enjoy the process instead of just constantly fretting over spending more time than I can afford to spare. Sadly, no interviews yet. But I'm keeping my fingers crossed that something comes up soon, and when it does my boss is in for a rude awakening. Last time, I made the mistake of being lured back by a raise and promises that things were going to get better. This time I don't care what he says. If I get a job offer, that's it. I'm gone. No amount of whining, crying, begging, or making promises I know won't be kept is going to change my mind.

But, yeah. I think if I can get out of this place and just bake and decorate when I have some free time, I'll be a much healthier, happier person.

And then two weeks later I'll stop by for a visit and just enjoy watching his entire store go down in flames. If I'm feeling really petty, maybe I'll even place an order for a cake. And do it online, because there's no way to decline online orders. xD

"because I'm just so used to complete, catastrophic dysfunction and chaos."

HAHAHAHAHA -- too funny!!!

" If I'm feeling really petty, maybe I'll even place an order for a cake. And do it online, because there's no way to decline online orders. xD"

i solidly heartily vote for petty!!!! YAY!!!!

Well, my days at my current job may be numbered.

My boss has been continuing to play with fire, and he's about to be burned. There's another of the same ice cream franchises that's much closer to my house, and they're looking for an assistant manager. I know the owner. I applied to work there before, he offered me the job, and I foolishly declined when my current boss offered to match their offer, plus give me more hours. I know he likes me, because we've been through the interview process before, and I've been working in the exact same franchise for two years, so aside from a few little things, like learning to make certain ice cream flavors the stock and my store doesn't, and the layout of their store he doesn't have to invest any money in training me. He contacted me within hours of my submitting another application.

So that job is basically a sure thing. And if I'm made an offer, this time I'm taking it. I don't care if my boss offers to match the offer again. Doesn't even matter if I'll be taking a slight pay cut moving to this location. Unless it isn't a massive pay cut, and I can't imagine it will be, I'm gone. The owner talked about how he maintains his equipment in my original interview. I met his family, he lets his daughter work at his store during the summer, soI know it has to be a healthier environment, and someone from corporate straight up told me it's a better location. Customers have apparently told his staff that they started driving a bit farther to get to this location rather than coming to where I currently am, too, because it's an all around nicer store. Plus, they stock fewer ice cream flavors and they only have one cake freezer to keep filled, so it's a much more manageable workload.

But, even better, I also have an interview for an office job coming on Tuesday. It's an office, so it's much more sane hours, I'd be able to actually sit down, and I'd have weekends off. It's also at a law firm, so working with lawyers, I'd be surrounded by intelligent people instead of people who ask me why we store the milk in the refrigerator instead of leaving it out by the blenders.

I'm so, dearly hoping that I end up getting it! But even if I don't I would honestly be shocked if this other ice cream shop doesn't offer me a job. And my main goal is new boss, so if I'm made an offer from either place, I'm pouncing on it. Plus, I'm still sending out resumes for office work in case this other job doesn't come through. But either way, there's a light at the end of the tunnel.

angesradieux

 Well, this is good news!!  I hope your interview goes well on Tuesday. 

omg this is hysterical! " It's also at a law firm, so working with lawyers, I'd be surrounded by intelligent people instead of people who ask me why we store the milk in the refrigerator instead of leaving it out by the blenders." HAHAHAHA

and there may be a few more particles of intelligence at the law office but unfortunately those who leave the milk out for convenience sake come in all walks of life -- 

oh I hope you get the best spot! I can't pick one over the other but for me office work was much easier physically -- 

but if it comes down to it and you get both offers, the ice cream shop better not cut your pay even a tiny bit!

you should hold out for a pay raise even --

Offering a prayer for you to be offered whatever is the best fit for you.   Have confidence & don’t be nervous.  God knows what is best for you and lead you to it.

You've mentioned a couple of times trying to get a job in the field in which you have a degree.  Have you pursued that route?  It seems like a logical place to start.

Have I missed an update?  Please, oh please do give us some news re your employment by

I'M QUITTING MY JOB!

Still pending a background check, but I have no criminal record so it should be fine. And they want to do a drug screening, but that's definitely not a concern for me. But I had interviewed for a paralegal job at a law firm and they just called today saying they are definitely interested on bringing my in. Projected start date the second week of August! I'm so excited!

And the timing is perfect! Because my birthday is a little under two weeks after my projected start date, which gives things some time to really start to fall apart. And then I can order my birthday cake from his store and just laugh when he has no one to fill the order. Petty? Yes. But he's been such a jerk to me lately, like literally screaming at me on the phone over things. And I've been working so hard. It's become so abusive and he deserves everything he has coming to him

good for you. Your boss sounds like a jerk. Run, don't walk out of that ice cream shop 

wow -- i'd report him to the labor board nothing doubting -- especially if you are in a state that allows one way consent for recording those nasty calls!!!

YAY for the new job!!!!! and for the birthday!!! and especially for the CAKE!!!!! hahahahahaha

cbd can show up as cannabis even though it always says it won't -- just saying -- and poppy seeds can screw a drug test -- so avoid poppy seed rolls too -- my all time favorite pastry is a poppy seed danish although that has nothing to do with your wonderful prospects!!!!!

YAY!!!!!

I just knew you’d find a good job away from that awful situation.  I’m sooo happy for you.  It was convincing you to apply somewhere else :). 

Be sure to take K8s advice and stay away from poppyseeds!  HAHAHAHha

please continue to let us know how things are going.  

Thanks! I'll definitely stay away from poppy seeds. xD Good thing egg bagels are my one true love lol

The groveling has begun. I got this whole spiel from my boss about how I'm like family to him. "I know we've argued. But families argue! You argue with your life partner. You argue with your siblings. It happens!" He also told me I should consider that he treats me as an owner of the store. I'm like his partner. I have access to the safe, I have a key, I can do everything. Which, yes. That's part of the problem? I do everything, but I don't get compensated nearly enough. Partners typically share profits? Last I checked, I get paid the same no matter how the store is doing? He complained that this is a super inconvenient time. Which, yes. We're staffed mostly by college students who are also all quitting in a few weeks to go back to school. But not my problem. "Two weeks isn't enough because of how much I depend on you! I need more time." Sorry, pal. Two weeks is standard courtesy, and most people who leave this store just quit on the spot. No notice beyond "I've had it, I'm done, goodbye." So he should be grateful for his two weeks.

He also gave me a song and dance about how he knows the job market. And places are hiring right now, but they're hiring at a higher pay than they can afford to sustain. So people are getting jobs now, but they'll all be let go. I should stay because I have security here. And he's running a small business, so he cares about people. Other businesses don't and only care about money. Pretty sure the only reason he's ever concerned if I have an emergency come up is because he knows it'll impact my ability to work. Like, what? Do you want a gold star for letting me take off when my grandmother was dying? Or my aunt was diagnosed with cancer? You still scheduled me open to close on Mother's Day, which was literally three days after my grandmother's funeral. Not like I was given bereavement time or anything, or he asked whether I might like to spend some of Mother's Day with family.

I also straight up told him that this job is just getting entirely too hard on me. Last week, within to days I made 25 batches of ice cream. Each batch is at least 25 lbs. So in two days, I personally made and transferred between freezers 625+lbs of ice cream. With my carpal tunnel, my hands were shot for days after. I'm still wearing compression gloves and a brace at work. He promised I would never have to make ice cream again. "I'll hire someone else just to make ice cream for you! You'll never have to make ice cream again!" Please.

He talked a good game. Promising raises and monthly bonuses, and more help. But then he sprinkled in things like, "Well, if you help me make more money, then--" Nope. I already do more than enough. And that just tells me he'll always find an excuse to not uphold any of those promises. "Because, well. I would have given you that raise. But now I can't afford it, because you haven't done x, y, or z, and I'm losing money because of it." Plus, there have been multiple promises of bonuses, raises, etc. that he hasn't followed through on in the past.

And then he goes, "Well, I never imagined you would do this! If you leave I may have to close the doors for awhile, or go to partial hours!" Yup. You will. Because I've been single-handedly running this store. And also haven't had a raise in over a year and a half. Maybe this is a lesson on how you ought to treat the people who work so hard to keep the business afloat.

He also very generously "offered" that if I do leave, he'll "check in" with me every 6 months to see how I'm doing and offer me my job back if things aren't working out. Hah. One. No if. I am leaving, unless God forbid this falls through at the last minute. Two, as soon as I'm out the door his number's getting blocked. I will absolutely not be taking any of his calls anymore.

I'm honestly not going to be making more money at the new job. If anything, without tips to supplement here I'll probably be making a bit less. But I don't care. Regular 9-5:30 hours, weekends off, not being on my feet all the time, and gaining more transferable skills and experience that will give me more mobility if I'd like to move on and pursue higher paying positions in the future is all worth way more than anything my current boss can offer. Plus after a year I get 2 weeks paid vacation, and I get 6 paid sick days and 2 paid personal days. Where I'm at now? No vacation. No personal days. I had to fight tooth and nail to get any kind of compensation for sick time when I was exposed to Covid and had to quarantine for two weeks, even though the law mandates paid sick leave for Covid related issues. And even then, it wasn't even at my normal hourly rate, he only paid me 2/3 my usual pay. He also expressly forbid me to tell my coworkers I'd been exposed. I ignored that, because it happened right around Thanksgiving. People had travel plans and need to know to get tested before visiting with family.

Meanwhile he tried to tell me he's taken such good care of me and his employees are like family to him.

Please. "You know me! You've seen what I can do for my employees, and how much growth I can offer you!" Yes. Yes I do know you, and I have seen. And that's why I'm 100% done with this job

bwuwahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

HURRAY FOR angesradieux !!!!!! 

you have officially learned the NO word!! may it keep you in good stead forevermore and more and more 

Don’t you just love it when all of a sudden you’re the greatest thing since sliced bread!!! Your like family??? …..and a partnership…ha ha.. Most partnerships split the profits, don’t think that happened. And then laying on the guilt. Too bad, so sad, I’m moving on. And two weeks is the average notice. You could have just walked in and quit on the spot, considering how he has treated you. I’m happy that you get steady hours and wknds off. And as you say, as you gain new skills, you can look for better jobs down the road. 

lmao

I'm still super antsy. I haven't received the official offer in writing yet, and I'll feel so much better once that happens! But I'm super optimistic. They did say they wanted to hire me, and we talked about pay, benefits, and start dates, so I fully believe they were serious about wanting to hire me. And honestly? Even if it does fall through, I may still leave where I'm at now. If nothing else, I can definitely find a retail job elsewhere with a much less abusive boss. He probably will have to close his store for awhile. But you know what? Not my problem.

He claimed he never hired a back-up person because, first, he never imagined I would leave, and second wanted to focus that money on my growth in his company. But no raise in over 18 months? Where's all that money he would have otherwise spent on a back-up? I certainly never saw a dime of it! He just wanted to exploit his current staff as much as possible and failed to implement a plan for when everyone decided they'd had enough. In a couple weeks, I'll be skipping out of that store and nothing he can say will change my mind

angesradieux

As far as raises go, it’s been disappointing for a lot of people. For many  in USA and Canada. Both my children and spouses got told no raises this year. Reason???? Covid. That’s a load of huey!!!! All of my kids/spouses worked through incredible difficulties, still are, during Covid. Especially taking care of their children while trying to work!!!! And online learning…that was a feat in and of itself.  After things relaxed, we as grandparents could babysit. The joke is, all of my children’s/spouses companies made RECORD PROFITS!!  My daughter works for an investment firm. They tripled their profits….TRIPLED. I know may others besides my children/spouses whose companies  did well during Covid, and also got denied raises. It’s unconscionable, and disgusting. My son was so ticked off, his bonus for extra work got suddenly crawled back, and company froze future advancement in the company. Son found a much better job. Better all the way around, and giving employees xtra $$ for working through Covid!!! That’s what every company that can afford it should be doing!! 

Sooo interesting to follow this saga!   Do keep us updated.  You are wish all the good luck with getting your new job tied up for sure!

I received the official offer letter! Still waiting on info regarding the drug screening, but my start date is confirmed one week from Monday!

My boss is apparently back in the country, but he was flying back yesterday, so he can't come try to talk to me about this before I leave. If he tries to break quarantine to talk in person, I'm leaving. He comes in the front door, I walk out through the back. If he calls and asks me to leave the back door open for him, I'll be walking out the front. He's been in airports. Airports are cesspools. Newark airport is where my sister's boyfriend contracted Covid. So nope. My boss can keep whatever germs he may have picked up in his travels to himself, because I may be vaccinated, but I'm still absolutely not taking that risk, no matter how small the chances of me getting seriously ill are.

YeaYea. YEA!!!  YES!!!  You go gal!!!

doing the happy dance for the official letter!