Here is a lovely story time for your day. I'm sure it'll be super all over the place, but there is just too much info and I dont even remember what order everything happened in so you'll just get what comes out and if you have any questions; I will answer them. 

So, Feburary 17th, I accepted a job at a pet sitting company in a rich area of Arizona. I originally applied for a position there as a manager in January right after I graduated because I wanted to start saving up money for when my loans come in in 6 months. I got rejected the position, but the owner said that she would put my resume at the top of list because eventually that manager would need an assistant; and then a month later, I got a call and accepted the assistant manager position. I figured, you know, $12/hr + compensation for pet visits + gas would be a pretty good deal. The only downfall would be that they offered no insurance, but I figured that would be okay. I weighed the pros and cons, ya know?

So I started at the company. I worked from 6am to 2pm. Half the time in the office and half the time doing visiations. My days went by suuuuuper quick. I enjoyed it. I got to spend my time with pets and learn how to do office work. I rarely had to talk to the clients, because that was something they advised against unless necessary + no dress code. 

BOMB.

Everything was great, until like a week and a half in- My boss started making comments about me and started making me feel stupid. 

The office is extremely unorganized and getting things put together takes so much effort because you need 10 other materials in order to complete them. For example: To do key returns. I need to print out the key return sheet, get the black order book and check the days, grab the add on clipboards, add that to the key equation (different than key return) notebook, grab the key return book, highlight ongoings so that you knew not to return the keys, grab the 6 key bowls, and separate returned from ongoing, take them to the work in progress table, separate them out, take the key return list and highlight each keys that were there, and if the key was missing you'd have to go to the key receipts to see which other pet sitter still had them, and then file away the keys into the files. IT WAS A PROCESS. 

But you know, eventually I got it with help from the boss whenever I got stuck.

Now this , treated me like I was incompetent and twelve (No offense twelve year olds reading). I have a college degree and I am TWENTY-SIX. The way she explained everything made no sense and she would always tell me to "look at the procedure book" and make me go step by step even though I already knew what to do. There is a step in there that says "After going through all the steps to determine urgency, ask the owner or another manager if said pet owner was home". 

So that is what I did, and I ALWAYS had to go back and redo the entire process "Is the pet a dog or a cat? its a dog, so we go on to medications, do they need medications? No, okay so call after 9am on return date". She then would ask me how long its been since the last visit AND THEN DREW ME A CLOCK SO I COULD SHOW HER. 

And everytime I had to do this, SHE WOULD ASK ME WHERE THE CLOCK HAND OUT IS. 

And she definitely caught me rolling my eyes because it was utterly STUPID that I had to do this because Im not a ing child, and after the entire process- the pet was home and she just waits an extra 20 mins of my day. She just didnt want me to blatantly ask if they were home, she wanted me to go through all the steps "You need to have a sense of urgency, you cant just ask me everytime if they are home". 

IT STATES IT IN THE PROCEDURE MANUAL. WHAT THE .

I ignored it.

Her also reasoning for talking down to people was "Not everyone graduated high school, and not everyone has the same comprehension skills".

This does not justify treating everyone like they are children. 

Then the comments began to follow. 

I wasnt even two weeks into the ing job before she began to make subtle mentions of my weight. I should have ing knocked her out right then and there, but I was so taken back by what she said that I just didnt respond back.

"I want you to be as comfortable with filing, as you are with fridge".

NOT ONCE, BUT 6 TIMES SHE MENTIONED THAT THROUGHOUT THE MONTH I WORKED THERE. 

Yes, I am chubby. I gained a ton of weight from emotional eating while at school. 

But to ing mention that? RED FLAG.

And then 3 weeks ago, she mentioned my weight again when she was training me on a dog walking house. We were walking this dog around the neighborhood and she says "Dog walking is such a great way to lose weight, you'll lose so much weight working here".

I once again was taken back and just didnt say when I should have yelled at her right there. But I ing held my breath because I needed the money. But by this time, I was already looking for another job. 

She does not know if I have a medical condition that made me gain weight, she does not know if I even WANTED to lose weight. I could have been happy with my weight (which I'm not) but she still had no right to say anything like that at all. That is HARASSMENT.

I had another pet sitter, whom I just do not like in general because she takes things too personally and takes her job too seriously, mention my ing weight last week. We were discussing lunch because it was noon and I hadn't eaten anything yet and after the visit, I was able to go on my lunch break. She asked if I ate meat or if I was vegetarian. I told her I ate meat, but wanted to go vegetarian. Before I even got to mention the reasoning why I wanted to stop eating meat, what does she say? "Going vegetarian won't make you lose weight. I tried". I literally had to do everything in my power not to knock her out. I did tell her "That is not the reason, but okay then." and she quickly changed the topic. WHO ING SAYS THAT? YOU DON'T KNOW ME. DO NOT MENTION MY ING WEIGHT!

So thats all regarding my weight, but now my boss begins with the remarks with my appearance:

Now this job does not require me to dress up at all, it is casual because there is no point in dressing nice when you will have dogs and cats all over you. 

This particular day, it was raining, now anyone who had curly hair knows that once water touches your tamed hair, it can go from a good hair day to a bad hair day real quick. So, I threw my hair back into a messy bun to keep it out of my face and to at least make it a bit more fashionable and kept looking before it dried and looked like I got electrocuted. 

What did my boss have to say about that? YOUR HAIR LOOKS MESSY AND UNKEMPT. PLEASE TRY AND KEEP YOUR HAIR NICE. I SUGGEST YOU BUY GEL AND SLICK THE BABY HAIR BACK LIKE MINE. 

If I had short hair, perhaps, but my hair touches the middle of my back and NO ONE with long hair slicks their hair back with gel. When I told my mom this, my mom said "A messy bun is a style. Everyone wears their hair like that, even at the bank we have employees who wear that style. It's cute!" Why is this not acceptable to take care of dogs, BUT ITS ACCEPTABLE FOR PEOPLE AT THE BANK? TF.

So what did I do? I stored everything I ever needed in my car. Jackets, perfume, a hair brush, A TOOTHBRUSH. Just so she couldn't say that I looked unorderly when in fact I should have told her that I looked fine and shouldn't have gone the extra mile for this stupid job. 

Now one thing that should have been red flag from the start besides the weight comment, was the fact that she didn't take my side when a situation happened with a pet. There is one account that requires an hour visit with 6 dogs. All these dogs are AMAZING, except for one. The English Bulldog. The baby of the group, despite being HUGE (Even though he is 2 and no longer considered a baby). 

Now, from the first day that I went there- he just didn't like me. He always jumped on me to grab my shirt or my pants. He was always trying to get at me. But I learned to use my hip and bounce him away from me. The second time I went, he actually got ahold of me and wouldn't let go. My pants and my shirt, and began to rip my shirt. Thankfully another sitter was with me, and was pulling him off me but then the situation of not knowing that the breed has a short windpipe and we accidentally KO'd him. He woke up and was fine afterwards, but I was so traumatized that we "killed" him that it ed with me the entire day. It was protocol that we call the boss and explain what was going on, so I did, and she explained what happened regarding the structure of the breeds airpipe and that we KO'd him. 

I cried in my car afterwards, called my mom and cried some more, and then arrived back at the office and DID NOT want to talk about why I was upset. She kept nagging at me to tell her when I told her I didnt want to and then I ended up crying at my desk. Even afterwards, she thinks I was upset because the dog grabbed onto my clothes and NOT the fact that I was traumatized that we accidentally KO'd him despite me telling her that. She kept making me go to that house despite me not wanting to go anymore. The next time I went, she told me that he just needs love and attention right from the start so that I should get down to his level and give him love because "he never acts like that with her" despite other sitters telling me that he is a head. 

So I did what she told me to do.

What did he do? bit my and started biting my clothes again. Since then, I learned that he is afraid of the hose and I used that to my advantage to keep him away from me and on his best behavior. I also learned from the maids that were there that the dog had also attacked the maids and she said that she was so sure that he had broken skin despite them being around since he was a few weeks old. 

So I went back to the office explained what went on with the dog again, and using my animal knowledge and observation that I learned from school. I noticed he wasn't neutered, but everyone else was. So I brought that up with my boss how the owners need to get him neutered because all the hormones is making him aggressive and too dominant. 

No. He is still just a puppy. I've been doing this for 20 years and I know how dogs are. He just needs love and attention. To prevent him from biting your pants and risk pulling them down.... how about you start wearing a belt. 

and what did I hear on the phone the next day?

I believe the dog should be neutered. He is starting to become too dominant. 

I wanted to throw my entire desk at her face when I heard that. I was so livid. I told my other manager about it and all she had to say was "Oh yeah, she does that a lot. She'll listen your opinion, and then make it her own".

So at this point, she had mentioned my weight many times, disregarded my emotions regarding a situation, said I should buy hair gel and a belt to prevent looking unkempt. I just totally gave up on the job. I hated working there. I felt so insecure about my weight to the point that I stopped eating lunch there because I didnt want her to say anything or make more references about the fridge.

Wednesday, I'm not sure what day it is where you are, but for me that was two days ago, I had to come into the office at 9am. Which was fantastic for me because I could wake up at 7:30 whereas Im normally waking up at 4:30am. So I showered, put on my makeup, my clothes, and I made myself look nice because I actually had time to do so. 

I was barely in the office 30 minutes before she made the comment "I don't want to be rude, but I feel like you should know that I smell some BO from you and that in the mornings before work, you should shower". 

I was ing pissed at this point. She left to go to a pet visit and the moment she stepped out the door, I threw my on my desk, grabbed my phone and text me mom "I ing quit! I'm quitting RIGHT NOW!". (Yes, I have a good relationship where Im a freely allowed to curse around her and she doesnt care).

Prior to that day, my family and friends knew about what was going on and they had told me for weeks to quit because that is harassment and that I didnt need to put up with a job like that.

So, I decided to be at least nice and put in my two weeks resignation so that they could at least find someone to replace me.

But my mom called me like 5 mins later when she went on a break and told me that I needed to dump all my that they gave me (I have to carry around a binder with info sheets about the house because I needed info on the pets, gate keys, alarm codes, house keys, etc), and just walk out. Just to leave and dip, tell her " you, I quit" and just go home because even if I put in my two weeks, she still is going to be an that I'd have to deal with her.

So I was going to follow my moms advice and just drop all my and dip. And then I remembered that I had visitations to go today where one of the dogs required medication. So my heart felt bad, so I went to my visits (also so I could get paid the extra $$). During my drive to the first house, my aunt calls and told me to disregard what my mom said and that I should write up a letter explaining why I am leaving in detail and then I should leave. 

So the moment I got back from my visits, she thankfully didnt return back either yet. Another manager was there, so I felt like it was perfect opportunity to handle everything right there without having to deal with the boss.

I wrote up my letter, printed it, and taped my office key to it. I put my stuff down and told the manager "I'm quitting. I cant deal with the boss anymore, she's driving me insane. Look closely so I dont get accused of taking anything. Here are the house sheets, the keys are checked in and I'm putting them here, the office key is taped to my resignation letter right here. I'm not dealing with this anymore." and he just nodded and said "I understand" and then I got in my car and sent a text to my boss saying "Thanks for the opportunity, I quit. I placed my resignation letter on your desk along with everything else. The manager saw me check in everything, so I didnt take anything. Bye!" and then I went home. 

My boss responded to my text about two hours later, once again DISREGARDING what I had said in my letter. "I'm sorry that you are quitting. I know the paperwork is daunting, but it would get better over time. It was good to get to know you. Take care.". Once again she did not digest or take into consideration anything I said and just thought it was because of the office work, which sounds similar to how she handled the whole dog situations with thinking I was upset about my clothes and not the fact that I hurt the dog. 

I should have cursed her out through text. I should have done it in her face. And I especially should have done it when she made an INAPPROPRIATE comment towards another sitter regarding his mental health. 

This poor guy, he was going through a hard time because he was dealing with depression due to his brother passing away 3 months prior. And he was burning out from work and he didnt show up to a visit. So she basically fired him, but told him that he can always come back when he is in a better headspace. 

When he was gone, she was explaining the situation to me about how his brother died and stuff and then proceeds to say "Poor guy. He is really going through some tough stuff mentally.... I hope he doesnt kill himself!". 

WHO THE SAYS THAT.

Unfortuntatly there is no HR because the company is small, and she owns the business so there was no one higher up that I could talk to. If I wasn't depending on the money, I would have left the company the first time they mentioned my weight but considering I literally only had 13$ to my name- I made myself stay.

Please. If you are in the same situation where a coworker or boss is making harassing comments towards you. DO NOT PUT UP WITH THAT ABUSE. It is not acceptable! You should bring it up to someone and get the situation handled, or just leave. I know everyone cant just get up and leave, but at least try and find a back up job before you leave so you are not leaving with no income. 

You are worth more !

~Andy