This Feels Illegal

I have had a bad wrist since 2005; there’s a metal plate repairing the bone I broke completely off. As a result, I can’t do everything as normal; the tendons are stretched over this plate.

I used to work in a kitchen. The job itself wasn’t bad work, just typical tasks like washing dishes, prepping for meals, keeping an eye on food in the oven and steamer, making a list of supplies to order, restocking when orders came in, cleaning, and locking up at end of the day.

One day, I was working prep for soups when the celery we had in was kind of funky. I was told to do the best I could with a piece of celery that grew as one plant rather than the many stalks we know them to be. Despite the difficulty I had using knives because of my wrist mixed with this oddly-formed celery, my boss got angry and got in my face.

Boss: “You are taking too long with this! Hurry up, or I’m firing you!”

I had been working there for two years; my wrist problem was not new knowledge or a surprise. For whatever reason, that day, [Boss] was just fed up and decided that getting in my face and making a threat to fire me over how I cut celery was how she was going to handle it.

I immediately went job hunting after that. Someone else quit at the same time I did, and last I heard, [Boss] can’t keep anyone for long except for like two people from when I was there.