I Knew I Needed to Quit

[00:00] Hey everyone, welcome to the very first episode of Look. I just work here. The podcast specifically for people who are trying to survive the customer service world off of caffeine and pettiness. I'm your host, Sierra. And honestly, I've been wanting to do something like this for quite a while because not a single person on this planet doesn't have a work story that changed their life forever. It's only right that I start the very first episode

[00:32] about a story about when I knew I needed to quit. I was working at this athletic facility and this particular athletic club, the air was essentially 40% protein powder, 30% ego and 30% body dysmorphia. Like if you're carrying a gallon of water and it's not filled with creatine and just straight Hulk Hogan nectar, do you really belong there? Part of my job at the club was to be essentially a Swiss army knife.

[01:05] I checked people in, got them reserved for group fitness classes, cleanliness checks. I had to know the club's programming forward and backwards. So it wasn't just scanning people in, it was genuinely knowing the club better than you know your own house. Literally did everything under the sun. And I don't mean to toot my own horn, but I was good at it, like really good at it. And I was building relationships with these members, the kind that trap you in a customer service role.

[01:41] And it's one of those places where it traps you into working customer service because you start to build those kind of friendship, work relationships with the members or the customers to the point where you're just thinking about like, I can't leave. If I leave, then who's gonna reserve the group fitness classes for this 66 year old lady because she refuses to download the app and do it herself? I'm talking about you, Brenda. I loved my job. And it was great until the company decided to make some changes.

[02:13] And unfortunately, these changes affected me and my household. And when I say changes, when I mean affecting, I mean like financially affecting to the point where I'm having to do grown up math. And I'm thinking to myself, okay, if I stay because I love my job, how am I gonna pay bills? But also, I don't know if I'm gonna find a job that I love as much as this one. And then my last thought was actually, if I go in the parking lot and cry in my car eating a cheese stick, can I sell that on Patreon?

[02:46] Let me know guys, that's still a running thought in my head. So at this point, I've been in my role for about a little over a year. I really got grounded at this club. I spoke with my manager about the situation and I requested a raise, nothing crazy. $2 raise to just keep us on our track from what we were doing. And he was like, yeah, let me go talk to the GM. And the GM said, okay, let me go talk to our regional. And luckily our regional manager was in the club that day.

[03:20] And so he went and asked our regional directly and our regional manager said, and I quote, yes, whatever she wants to keep her. And that made me feel super valuable, very seen by my higher up leadership. And I thought, oh my gosh, this is perfect. I get to keep the job I love without having to sacrifice our lifestyle or worrying about paying bills. I was ecstatic. And then my manager asked for a meeting. And I kind of felt like a weird vibe

[03:54] whenever he asked for it. I sit down in the office and he tells me the good news that everyone agreed, yes, we'll give you the $2 raise. Awesome. And then he leans in and he says, but now that I've given you this raise, you have to work whatever shift I tell you. Open, close, mid, weekends, holidays, it didn't matter. It was whatever he put me for the schedule, that was my work. And I couldn't request or switch shifts anything.

[04:28] Like he was laying down this non-existent hammer to control what my schedule was because he helped me. So it went from me feeling valued and seen to, okay, well now you have this ultimatum. Probably just like the majority of people in the world, if you give us an ultimatum, it's not gonna go well. It's just not, you can't control people like that. I think I cried for like two or three days straight because it was something I seriously had to think about. And the crazy part, when he said that,

[05:03] I told him I had to think about it. And then this man goes, well, what do you have to think about? Oh, I don't know, Robert, maybe because I don't want to feel controlled or that I don't have any say in my own work schedule. Just a thought, just a theory. As soon as he questioned what there was for me to think about, I should have been like, I'ma head out like a newborn baby. And this whole decision was really affecting me. I couldn't even do my job properly. Members were asking the whole two or three days,

[05:39] hey, are you okay? Hey, something's wrong. And I'm not gonna just dump all my drama on these people. I still have this image I have to uphold while I'm still in this position, while I'm still working here. Let me tell you guys, when I say I wouldn't stop crying, it was like full-time crying. I was clocking in, clocking out, getting full package benefits every time I shed a tear. On the final night where he said, I need to know by such day and time. I sat in front of him and I said, I don't know what to do.

[06:11] And when I said, I don't know what to do, I was hoping for my leader to help me talk through it, to help me figure out where the problem lies and why I'm struggling to stay. And this man, y'all, this man had the audacity to say, why are you doing this to me? Come again? He says, why are you doing this to me? I have so much going on right now and I need to know if you're staying or if you're quitting because I need to know if I need to replace you.

[06:45] And my family dog just died and this is just the last thing I need on my plate right now. First off, your dog probably died to get away from you. And second, this man really sat there and thought, hmm, my employee is having a mental breakdown. How can I turn this around and make it about me? During my crying era, he turned it around and made himself the victim. Like this man has never been held accountable for anything, for what he might have been doing wrong in his life.

[07:17] As soon as he started sprinkling grief on top of manipulation, like it's Parmesan down in Olive Garden, that was my answer. The next day I put in my two weeks, I don't trust you anymore as my boss. And that's what I told him because it was the truth. And of course he tried to turn it back around on me, saying like, well, how can you not trust me after everything I've done for you, blah, blah, blah. Call it what you will. But I wasn't gonna go down without a fight. I was not about to let my reputation that I've built with the company and my GM

[07:51] and my regional manager just be ruined because of this person. What my manager didn't know, and yes, it's legal in Texas. I researched it like I was taking the bar exam. My manager didn't know as I was recording our entire conversation on that last day. You know, where he sprinkled in about his dead dog. I requested a meeting with my GM. I flat out told him, look, I'm not leaving because I don't enjoy my job. I'm not leaving because I'm not happy or with the support y'all've given me. You know, I still saw myself building a career

[08:26] with this company. And that's when I told him, there's something I have to play for you. And I played him the recording, not the entire recording. Because mind you, that last conversation was about 45 minutes to an hour of just me sniffling, crying, and him talking at me. And that's just the important part. After I played it for him, the GM just kind of said, okay, thank you for sharing this with me. I said, okay. And I left. I already had a new job lined up where I was, I was actually gonna be the GM of a small boutique studio.

[09:02] So who really won in this battle here? But don't judge me. I actually kind of liked the food that they sold at the job I was working at. So one day I went to go get the food, obviously. My old manager was there. And he goes, hey, can I talk to you really quick? Of course, I'm gonna be civil. Sure. We go sit down and I don't know why. I thought he wanted to figure things out, apologize.

[09:36] You know, he finally maybe realized where he fucked up. So he sat at the table and he looks at me dead in the eye and he goes, you recording our conversation, that's illegal. I could sue you for that, by the way. I said, it's not illegal, but okay. He said, it definitely is. I looked it up, right? He said, because of you and showing my boss that recording,

[10:08] I'm not gonna move up or grow in this company. So I hope you understand that you ruined my career. Oh, I ruined your career? I'm so sorry that a recording of things that you said and actions that you took resulted in what happened. So maybe it wasn't me who ruined your career. Maybe it was your audacity to talk to an employee and try to manipulate them like that. Maybe there's a much larger problem in where we are.

[10:42] But again, this man's never taken accountability. So of course he wasn't gonna see how his words made him into the bad guy. So I just kind of looked at him when he said that and I went, okay, what else is there to say? I'm not gonna apologize. I'll apologize when you apologize, but clearly that's not gonna happen. So that's my quitting story. Now I wanna hear yours. I wanna hear the quitting story that you remember like a core memory

[11:16] that affected you so much that you wanna share it. And don't worry, I'm not gonna say your name, nor am I gonna say the business you're talking about. I'm collecting these stories like emotional support Pokemon cards. Please send your story to podcast at lijwh.com. All right, I'll talk to you all later.