When i was young and naive and had just finished my education, took a job as an assistant manager at a gym club.
The manager was an absolute asshole. It was a 28 hour/week position, I worked approximately 60 hours a week. All of which were “hours of interest”, no extra pay or possibility of leaving early on other times as compensation. I had exactly zero training for the job and was expected to do things that were actually in HIS contract do. He lied about so many things, and never had time for anything that meant collaborating with me. He played the victim role and would say that he didn’t have time, because he was pressured from HQ. But when any of the young female members of the gym came in, then he sure had time for them (he was 42 years old).
The woman who left the position before me had also left because of terrible working conditions (I only found out about that after I left). And the girl who took over from me just returned after 3 weeks sick leave (having worked there for only 2,5 month!). However, me and some of the other people who knows about the situation is doing what we can to help her, and now HR is involved, and it seems that he is getting fired.
I still wish I had been strong and brave enough to grab the bull by its horns, and get HR involved my self, but he completely broke me in the 18 month that I was there. I eventually had to go on a sick leave for 8 weeks to get my mind back together, because I was completely strung out on stress. I left after that. I just said fuck it all and didn’t look back. Now wish I had, I wish I had done something. I know now that he had had 7 people in that position over the course of 3,5 years!
As of now, I have now taken 6 month off to work out what I wanna do with my life, and will be starting on my masters degree in September. I have also gotten back to finding joy in working out, which was something I lost while working there. My friendships and other hobbies are also slowly getting back to where they were.
My best advice to anyone in a bad place: Get out! It is not worth it. And if your boss is an asshole, fuck them! You don’t owe them anything! You come first, and no career or paycheck is worth you mental health! Be kind to yourself.
Thanks for reading :)