An Inconvenient Truth

Tonight is the very last night of MVWJ. I’m a junior in college and needed to make a little extra money this summer to cover expenses, so when a colleague of my mother’s told me about a job opening at a convenience store nearby I applied right away. The hours were perfect, Monday thru Friday, four hours an evening and the weekends off. It was in a really bad part of town, but it wasn’t really a problem and I honestly liked my job. Until one day, my great boss decided I was just the employee he needed to go work at his nephew’s store. The hours were to stay the same and the new store was in a great neighborhood downtown, about six blocks from my house. I was very excited and went to the new location without any hesitation.

That’s when I met L, the nephew and part owner. Within 30 minutes of my starting work he told me he needed me to work different hours.  I was okay with it, as it was still summer, but warned him I couldn’t work during the day or graveyard during the school year. He said it was okay. Quickly, my hours fluctuated everyday, from the supposed four hours to sometimes twelve. I’d get off at midnight, only to receive a text message at two from my boss saying he needed me to come back in at five in the morning. It turns out I was the only employee there besides my boss and his brother V, who was chronically late. Sometimes by more than four hours. I’d call repetitively to his house, which he shared with L, but got no answer from either boy. I constantly was texted by both boys, either with a fluctuating schedule or excuses why I was stuck at the store at four a.m., despite the fact I needed sleep before my eight am class started.

I had two sitters quit outright, and one just not ever return. I was racking up 60 plus hours a week and L was always surprised and angry when I demanded overtime. Every day off I had was filled with text after text from my boss asking me to come in, just for an hour, to go to the bank. At first, I’d agree, but I soon learned that coming in always led to being trapped for several hours while I waited for my boss to do whatever he had to do. Aside from the messed up scheduling and my constantly late co-worker, my job had other joys, like insanely drunk old men hitting on me in the most repulsive way possible, the fact that as the only person there, I could not go to the bathroom, or take breaks. And then there was my boss. He yelled at me every day, almost always contradicting something he had said the day before.

And about a week in, he told me the only reason I was transferred was because I was a pretty white girl and I could flirt with the customers in a way that would encourage the men to repeatedly come back. When I explained to him that that was an excellent way for me to gain new stalkers and that no boss in his right mind could possibly expect me to flirt with men as my job description, he quickly ignored me and complained that I needed to dress nicer and wear more makeup, because we were in an area of town where most of our customers were business professionals. Ironically, since starting here, my professional behavior, my newly vamped up looks and friendly personality have landed me three job offers at various downtown businesses. I start next week as a cashier for a trendy and small clothing store, where my new boss promises that I will be out of the store at ten, every night. I’ll miss the free beef jerky, but won’t miss my boss, not even a bit.