SUMMARY

Equality in the workplace will never exist. Countless men endure poor, unsatisfactory, and extremely exploitative working conditions; however when women experience these conditions it's called "misogyny" or the "wage gap"


BODY

So a two days ago, I walked out of my job. I was finally fed up with everything going on there. The lack of responsibility on part of the business owners, poorly trained (or sometimes not even) co-workers, refusal to hire a manager to oversee everything going on, uncomfortable sexually suggestive comments directed at me that persisted even when I ordered them to be stopped, being paid below a minimum wage and not having the difference met if my tips did not meet minimum hourly standards, having me illegally delivery alcohol without proper licensure on top of countless other unmentionable illegal activity that goes on there.

What set me off was an issue where a table whose credit card transaction was accidentally voided. I tried to fix the accident immediately by notifying the shift leader about the problem. The both of us stayed for an extra half hour messing with the POS system to see if there was any way to retrieve the data and un-void it. Unfortunately we couldn't figure it out, so I left a note to inform the owner on what happened when he inevitably notices the books were short.

Well I wind up getting bitched out and told that it's your responsibility to pay the difference out of pocket. I told him "I'm not paying for that, you don't have the line cooks pay for every meal they mess up do you? You don't have the bartenders pay for every free drink they give out do you? Why should I have to pay over an honest mistake too?.. This just raised his temper, and I admit I could've handled it more diplomatically than simply pointing out my employer's faults.. But this resulted in me; A loyal employee to this restaurant for 5 years walking out the door in the middle of my shift. No (f)un-employment for me.


Today, I hit up craigslist to find some day labor or some kind of temp work while I search for steady jobs. I have some experience with construction, landscaping, and other manual labor and got a call from this guy to help him out with some work on a construction site nearby.

I get to the site and introduce myself. They guy seems all right, he's not very talkative but whatever. He yelled a lot of obscenities which is pretty common in these jobs and he was pretty hot headed. I honestly fucking hate working with people like this and it's the reason why I don't usually do this kind of work anymore, but I figured "hey it's just one day. I come here for 5 hours, get my $100 cash and leave."

At one point, me and the contractor are moving a big piece of machinery up these really narrow basement steps; it's a pain in the ass to say the least. The guy is getting really frustrated now and starting to take it out on me. He asks me to "foot" the machinery, which I had never heard of.. Then he starts calling me a fucking idiot, this and that, yelling really nasty stuff in my face. I told him to calm down or I was going to leave. We continue the frustrating job and he eventually pushes the machine in my direction (this is a 300lb box of steel on a relatively steep incline). I dropped the machine by accident and was fucking pissed.

Now this angry contractor guy is coming at me about to hit me. He got me in a headlock that I got out of, punched me in the mouth once, then I blocked a hit and gave him a right hook straight to his jaw. A few seconds later, the guy desperately needed to wash the blood off his face.

The owner of the business comes out freaking out saying "What's going on?! Is there a problem?!". The guy is pretty jacked and instinct kicked in. I had to get out of that place before the situation escalates exponentially. Who knows if the contractor has a gun, the business owner has a gun, or if both are gonna gang up on me. I calmly got myself together and started to walk out of the basement. Once I turned the corner, I started running. The contractor ran after me. I jumped in my car, wasn't quick enough to lock the door and he opened it trying to drag me out. I floored it and luckily got away with my hide safe, and unscathed other than some minor bruising; however I had to clean the other guy's blood off the handle of my car. I was nervous about police becoming involved, but luckily the security footage from the business where the job was captured the altercation and it would be revealed that I had no other option but to defend myself.


LESSONS LEARNED

1.) Men get thrown off the job and shuffled out the door, and face a shitload of uncomfortable, harassing, and illegal work situations very often, and if we decide to quit or walk we're shamed for not finding something new before we quit if we quit, being irresponsible, or lazy not matter how just our reasoning is.. Women facing these situations is not misogyny it's the reality of "being equal" in the workplace. Some employers are fucking shitbags and only one step above a slave-driver and will go to great lengths to make sure their employees know that.

2.) Always stand up for yourself in work situations. Oftentimes, bosses will take out their lack of responsibility and lack of accountability for its poor operation on their workers. (If you ever watch Bar Rescue with Jon Taffer, you can regularly see him calling people out for shit like this.) Know how to stick up for yourself, and know what you're getting paid for. Managers and bosses who belittle employees are losers.

3.) Men often face very dangerous and difficult situations that a lot of women don't understand or can't comprehend. Mainly because we're always taught "don't be a little bitch" "suck it up" "keep it to yourself". My own mother tried to shame me for walking off these jobs for not finding a new one and not sticking around to get the money I was to be compensated for the day gig. The solipsism is real.

Stay safe out there guys, when a situation gets violent always know that it has the possibility to exponentially escalate within a fraction of a second. This guy was a true psycho, don't stick around to prove something.. If you have to get violent, do it as a means of escape.