Cracker Barrel (October 30, 2007 - September 13, 2009)
I left my job at Cracker Barrel on September 13. I arguably didn’t leave Cracker Barrel on my own terms, but I felt like I was forced to after an argument with the general manager- one of many petty arguments we always got into. I was the only person he ever yelled at, which made no sense, because I was technically the best dishwasher based on evaluation scores and ranking, even though many have been there years longer than me. In a matter of 20 months of working there, I was making more money than some who have been there for three years. Well, we got into an argument on September 13, and I was sent home early on a five hour shift. The next day, I had to come in to talk to him, and he told me he would have to suspend me until he decided if he wanted me to continue working there or not. After meeting with him for about 20 seconds, I told him not to bother, and I just left- something I’ve wanted to do for awhile but was waiting until I starting substitute teaching so I would at least have a regular income and not drain my savings too much.
I voluntarily cut my hours at Cracker Barrel this past summer, because I just didn’t need the money that bad. I was working around 18 hours a week for $140- just enough to hold off my bills. Now that I’m substitute teaching fulltime again, I can make $425 a week doing work that is respectable, easy, and mostly rewarding. There was no reward in working at Cracker Barrel. For 1½ years, I worked late shifts because of school, and I never got to do anything ever. It was a horrible time of my life, and I absolutely hated my job but needed the money. I would go as far as to say that my relationship with Rachael faltered because the shifts I had to work cut into the time we could spend together. But, we were living together at the time, and I needed money and a time schedule to work around school. If I worked normal shifts earlier in the day, we would’ve gone out a lot more and been a lot happier. I was forced to work closing shifts in order to get the amount of hours needed to make a stable income. Not needing money anymore, I recently switched to work opening shifts so that I could have my weekend nights free, but I would have to work as early as seven in the morning. That was definitely not worth it either, because it wasn’t worth going to bed and waking up early to go to work there. Plus, I would always get sent home early if business was too slow. I came to realize that my job there was just simply not worth it. I hated the job I had to do, and because of that, I stopped putting any effort into my job- basically turning into the majority of the workers there.
With this past weekend off- the first full weekend off in many years- I didn’t even know what to do with myself. I woke up early both days thinking that I had to be somewhere, and to my relief, I went back to bed. With my substitute teaching job, I can essentially just go into work any day I feel like it. This could pose a problem if I become too lazy with this lenient schedule, but I don’t see that really happening. I enjoy my job and the income that comes with it. I have money, free time, and a fairly easy job. Now, I just need to get rid of my chronic depression and start getting out and doing things.