Where did my Tuesday Morning go?? (Update)

Hello dear friends! It's been a minute and a half since I last posted on this platform, and I apologize for my absence. I seem to have fallen into a rather unfortunate series of events and it has taken quite the toll on my mental and physical health.

That "food poisoning" incident that happened at the very beginning of June was more than likely the terrible onset of COVID for the second time in my life. I thought it was food poisoning, but in hindsight, people aren't THAT sick from fast food for more than a day or two. Three at max, but an entire week? That's not normal. I got officially diagnosed with COVID at an Urgent Care on June 24 after I lost the ability to taste my food properly or smell strong scents that were right against my nose. Caused me to miss a lot of work for awhile, but it gets worse. I was able to return to work on July 4th weekend, BUT on that Sunday I ended up getting injured at work because a client became assaultive. Sprained my hand pretty bad to where it was hurting for weeks. So I had to take three weeks off of work. This is my fourth week absent from work, I believe, and I have still yet to hear back about when I can officially return... because my employer retaliated against me for pressing to get workers' comp insurance information, as is my legal right by law... Oh, and I wrote in painstaking detail about how an upper manager verbally assaulted me over the phone, so that was probably a part of why they excused me like that and haven't been communicating very effectively with me since.

But it's all good gang! Apparently in my place of residence, many mainstream fast food places must now provide a $20/hr minimum wage to their workers. I did some math and, not only would that allow me to get paid enough to cover my bills, but it also pays more than I currently make at my social service job, AND if I work 28 hours at a fast food place, I'll make the exact same amount that I make right now working 32 hours a week. So I decided to apply for a pretty popular fast food place in my area. I was informed that having an open availability when the high schoolers are still in school would probably be better for me, so when I attended my second interview about an hour ago, I told the interviewing manager that I would be available 24/7 at least until January of 2025 when I expect to return to school once more (there were some hiccups with trying to resume in Fall 2024 unfortunately). At that point, however, I'd make my adjusted availability known.

Personally, I think I'm a shoe-in for this position, especially since I can work overnight shifts, morning shifts, and afternoon shifts while the kids are still in school. I was told that if accepted for the position, hours will start pretty low, but depending on how fast I learn and my work performance, I can get more hours. The average amount of hours for part-time employees (I'd be part-time) is 20-30 hours a week with a maximum of 40 hours being possible if you include picked up shifts and the like. At $20/hr, you best believe I'm hopping at that chance. But in the event that I am not hired at this location, I'll try again at another location of the same franchise in addition to applying to even more fast food positions at other chains... It's crazy, because I've been working in social services since 2020 and not once in my life have I ever made $20 per hour. I think the closest I got was $19 but never $20... this is with an entire social service degree (bachelor level) and our minimum wage being pretty hefty in our state since about 2016.

In any case, I hear back at 6:30pm at the latest to hear if I got the job or not... I hope I get it, because I almost risked another emergency mental health hospitalization after my boss retaliated against me with taking me off the schedule and waging false accusations against me. I'm tired of this place and will be quitting as soon as physically possible if I am accepted where I applied. I will do a same-day resignation if I must, but I can't spend another minute at this place. In all my years of employment in various industries, not once have I ever been mistreated so terribly by an employer. Not once have I ever been screamed at over the phone by an upper manager to the point where I no longer felt confidently safe returning to the premises. Before I knew I was taken off the schedule, I was going to take pictures of what I was wearing every single day before work and I was going to turn on one of those family tracking things on my phone where my brother would be able to see my location at all times just in case something happened... there's something very wrong at this place, and they've been cited countless times for a variety of different offenses. The fact that we are still open is amazing to me in the worst possible way... for the sake of the children, I hope that something is done quicker because these citations have been going on for over an entire year at this point in time. It's too much.

Anyways, that's an update on my whereabouts. I hope to get back to posting again sometime soon, but I knew before that I would need to give an update of sorts just for my own peace of mind. Hope all of you have been well too.