Boss fired/quit troubles

[pinksunglasses]

A little over half a year ago I moved to Florida from NC. I spent a few months looking for a job, at the age of 19 and no college under my belt (I'm sure everyone knows how stressful that is) I finally got one at Jersey Mikes subs. I was so relieved, I knew I wasn't going to make great pay of course but I needed a job to pay for my car insurance and such, and I was very happy I got one there. I've been there for about 5 months and I want to quit every time I go in, especially when I work with my boss. We have no manager so we kind of go about our own ways of doing things and he only comes in a few times a week.

 

A couple of months ago I got into a car accident and lost my car due to transmition problems. It was an old car and it would have been better to just get a new one rather than spend a ton of money on a junk car. I have been walking 30 minutes to work, then 30 minutes again to come home after work.

 

I work really hard, especially when my boss is there because I know he is meticulous about some things, small things, but I try my hardest to make him happy with me and get things done right according to his way even if it seems a little unnecessary. I try to be in a good mood and happy when I work with him as well, but it's hard not to get stressed out around him.

 

He is very unorganized and him and his wife disagree on how to do things, along with the other employees, such as how much bread to make in the morning. When he's not there I try to make it the way that the other employees and his wife see as right, and when my boss is there I do it the way he is comfortable with. If I mess up with anything he points it out and makes a big deal about it and it stresses me out so much because I like doing a good job and it just seems like he can't be pleased. The other day I forgot to write names on some orders because It wasn't busy and that's the way the other employees do when it's not busy. When it's not busy you it's pretty obvious who the sub goes to. I try to write names when he's there because he likes that. That day it slipped my mind. I was ringing someone out at the cash register, it was the only person in the store, as I was ringing him up a couple came in. He took the time to step away from taking their order and while I was ringing out wrote down on the order sheet "Sara needs to write names". It made me kind of mad that he took the time to do that rather than say something to me afterwords when there weren't people waiting and that it was that big of a deal to begin with. Later he came up to me and told me that my job was on the line because I hadn't done that. He told me I was a very good worker but that I don't do things the way he likes and that I'm disrespectful. I was devastated because I try so hard and do so much to try and please him. I went home and cried. I need this job because I'm saving for a new car and It's nearly impossible to get another job without one, it's already hard enough with a car.

Today at work I found out that he told another girl (we both started the job on the same day and trained together) that her job was on the line because she wanted to take a week off for a camping trip.

 

I feel like he's throwing the whole "you are about to lose your job" thing so loosely, as if it's nothing more than to get us to work harder but I take that very seriously, I went home and CRIED about this. I really don't want this job anymore, I am stressed out so badly, especially when I work with him, I'm not happy here at all. The thing is though, the car situation. I want to get out of there right now if I can, but I don't want to go and get just some other job that I won't be happy at either. I was waiting for my car to get a job at an animal shelter, or something along those lines, because I know I love animals, I plan on going to school to be a vet tech. But now every day is just so much with all of this on my mind. Now I get so nervous when I'm around him, I feel like I can't do any little thing wrong or I'll get fired.

 

I have no idea what to do. I could wait for a car, but then what do I do in the meantime with all of this stress? Also family members of mine say that they had never had a boss like that. I know it's not fun working with a boss usually, but I don't know who's in the wrong here. I know we do things differently when he's not there, but there are people who have worked there years who have been doing it the whole time, and he knows this. I feel like he's being an *******, and disrespecting me by throwing around the "your job is on the line" thing, with me and the other girl, I mean it was in the same week that he said this to both of us separately. Who's in the wrong?

[Mr. Lucky]

I will say that most small business owners, relatively sane when they start out, go crazy from the pressure of trying to eke out a profit. And franchise deals are often even worse, because the owner is last in line after everyone - suppliers, franchisor, government entities, landlords, utilities, etc. - to get get paid.

 

Now this by no means excuses your boss's irrational actions, which are obviously counterproductive. So to answer your "who's wrong" question, he is because that's not how a knowledgeable supervisor treats people that he wants to be motivated and work hard. But he's still the boss and you're faced with either tolerating his autocratic style or looking for something else. Sorry if that's not what you want to hear...

 

Mr. Lucky