I’m in a closed-door, one-on-one meeting with my boss.

Boss: “If I was ever going to sexually harass anyone, it would definitely be you.”

I no longer work for them.

When I worked for a very large communications company, the main attendance manager was the worst. First, if anyone called off before their 360-day trial period was up, they were fired. During orientation, the manager said:

Manager: “Even if you have cancer and need chemo, that is not an excuse to miss a day during your first year.”

Because it was viewed as a good job, people came in and threw up at their desks — which I am sure sounded lovely over the phone since we were an inbound call center — but weren’t allowed to go home unless they actually QUIT.

One guy got hit by a car right in front of the building, and the security guard witnessed it. He clocked in and worked. The next day, he came in on crutches.

One day, an elevator broke. (When one elevator broke, the rest ran really slow.) The attendance manager and I waited together for a working one since we worked on the fifteenth floor. When we reached our floor, I was written up for coming back late from break.

I HATED that job and tried to wait for a better- or equal-paying job, but I had to leave for my mental (and physical) health.

I had been unemployed for about three months when I got hired at a movie theatre. It was just hourly, so I got unemployment, as well.

On my first shift without supervision, the power went out. It came back rather quickly because of the generators, but the registers didn’t work. It was during the day, so there were not many visitors.

My coworker left me with a bunch of papers with prices of the concession but no explanation of how and what to do with them. Customers wanted to buy stuff, and I had no idea what to do.

Eventually, text came up on the screen but I had no idea what it meant. The rest of the staff were gathered around the computer at the entrance to the theaters, so I excused myself from the customers and went over to ask what I was supposed to do and how.

The boss looked at me and pointed to the registers.

Boss: *Sharply* “Register!”

It was in a tone where I felt like a dog being told to go lay down.

Me: “But I don’t know what to do. And there’s some weird text on the screen.”

I continued to explain, and eventually, [Boss] came over and looked at it. She did something, and then the registers started to work. I felt so downgraded and hurt by her way of speaking to me that I was ready to leave then and there, but I would not get unemployment if I did, so I stuck out.

I was there for about five years. I became a manager within a year and a half and began training new employees within a year.

What eventually made me quit was when [Boss] called me on her way home one evening during my break.

Boss: “You overstaffed us on [shift]!”

Me: “But I’m not responsible for scheduling.”

We were told to look over schedules at weekends, but during the week, it was the office’s job. I was not an office employee. But for some reason, it was my fault this time.

Every time I tried to say something, she would cut me off, place words in my mouth, and just yell to the point that I started to cry. She didn’t even have the decency to come to talk to me at work but called me when she had left. It was so messed up.

Within two months, I had a new job. I gave my four weeks’ notice, which I used during my vacation, so I just left, had four weeks of bliss, and then started a new adventure.

I had a new job as a clothing chain store manager, salaried for forty hours a week. The horrible district manager picked apart everything I did and gave me heck for refusing to work more than fifty hours per week when I was six months pregnant with my first child.

I’m talking with a long-time staffer.

Me: “I don’t know why [District Manager] is so awful to me.”

Coworker: “It’s because she’s having trouble getting pregnant, and she’s jealous.”

I did not go back there when my maternity leave was done.

Back in the early 1990s, I was working for a small family hotel. They had a front desk system that was ancient and did not have a backup system. I was working the night audit shift, and the power went out.

I came to find out that the owner had not paid the electric bill. When they finally got the power back on, the system would not reboot. The owner called me an “f*****’ b***job” because I could not get the system back the next day.

I walked out and never looked back.