A few weeks ago I asked for two days off, August 9th
and 23rd: the last two home games of the boys’ soccer season. That’s
a reasonable request, right? I mean, that was the first time I’ve requested
time off AND I’d already missed the past eight games because I was working;
plus, three weeks is plenty of time to find someone to cover a shift, yeah?
Well my boss said, “I’ll only give you one of those days, so pick.” I picked
the game on the 23rd, because it was the boys’ very last game. Right
after I picked, my boss then decided he had to check the function book first to
see what was going on that day. We happened to have two functions along with our
normal dinner in the restaurant, so he decided it’d be too busy, and changed
his mind; I could only have the 9th off. Fine, whatever, I tried to
reason with him but he just got angry. So I gave in.
I went to the boys’ game on the 9th, sat up in
the box with their boss Jonesy, and he said that I needed to be sure to get the
weekend of the 23rd/24th off since it’s their last game
and they have a big party with music and races afterwards. I told Jonesy I had
already asked for that day off and my boss said no. So (knowing about some of
my prior complaints with my boss) he told me I should just quit…
As any of you could see from my last post, these past couple
weeks have been really rough; but I’ve done my best to fake a smile and suck it
up. I’ve wanted to quit, and I’ve had numerous people tell me that I should
quit, but I just can’t bring myself to do it because there’s no one else
working in my position (as personal assistant/wedding coordinator/waitress),
and my boss would be absolutely lost if I just up and left. Plus, I’d feel bad
dumping everything on his wife to deal with by herself.
So, after those rough couple of weeks I decided that: you
know what? I’m here on holiday to spend time with my two friends and watch them
play soccer. If I want to watch their last game, I’m going to watch their last
game! I had full intention of telling my boss tonight, a full week in advance,
that I wouldn’t be working next Saturday (the day of that last game). Our work
roster is made up on Saturdays, and I wanted to tell him before it was finished
so that proper arrangements could be made to replace me in my shift, but I
didn’t stop working from 1:30pm to 10pm this evening. There was literally never
a good time to tell him before the roster was already made up.
When my shift did finally “end” at ten o’clock, and I sat
down to go over the emails I had printed him, he said something to the extent
of “I think I gave you Monday off too (because I already had tomorrow (Sunday)
off).” That was my cue to break the news… I had started off by saying, “I know
you’re not going to be happy about this, but I can’t work on Saturday. It’s the
boys’ last game and I just found out there’s a big ceremony and awards to be
given out afterwards. I don’t want to miss that.”
(That was a slight exaggeration, there’s only a big party
after…ha. But still, I don’t want to miss it). I already knew he was going to
get upset. What I didn’t expect was for him to say what he did…
After the initial, expected, anger reply he proceeded to
call me UN-CHRISTIAN and told me that I was killing his business. Are you
kidding me!? You know what’s killing your business, mister? How about the sky-high
employee turnover rate! You can’t keep employees around long enough to even get
them through training…and the one’s who are still here, don’t exactly enjoy it.
I trained my first new employee just FIVE WEEKS after starting myself! That’s kinda
ridiculous in my opinion; at that point, I was still learning!
One of my favorite quotes is by St. Francis of Assisi; it
says, “Speak the gospel wherever you go, and when necessary, use words.” I try
to be a living testimony of my faith…I don’t always do a good job talking about
it, but I do my best to live it out through my actions. When he called me
un-Christian, that really got under my skin and upset me. I lost it. I said to
him, “Do not call me un-Christian. I’ve gone above and beyond for you since the
day I started. I came here on holiday, to have fun, and watch my friends play
soccer, but instead, I’ve been working constantly. I could’ve quit a long time
ago but I didn’t want to leave you with no one to help you stay organized or
finish the things I’ve started. So please, do not call me un-Christian ever
again. And since you’re already mad, I also need to tell you that I’m quitting
on the 12th now instead of the 22nd (of September).”
He said a few more mean things, confirmed that yes, what I
was “doing to him” was in fact, un-Christian, and then said, “I don’t need you
anymore you can go home.” We still had those emails to go over…so I’m actually
not sure if I quit, if he fired me, or if he just needed the rest of the
evening after that heated disagreement to cool off. I guess I’ll call on Monday
to see if I’m working next week? Whether I am or I'm not, I'm glad I said what I said. He's a bully, plain and simple.
"Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; do not fret when men succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes." - Psalm 37:7
XO - Cristin
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