The hardest part of these discussions is how to narrow it down and summarize well! Here we go…
I have a blend of the two answers. I had a job that I LOVED, was good at and thought I had found what I should be doing; therefore my attitude was great and worked my butt off for them! After a few months things soured as did my attitude and I ultimately handed them the key and walked out for my sanity.
Without getting into too much detail, my story goes as such: I started working at a gift shop two days a week. After a month, it was a full time position. After another four months, I was offered manager. It was not about the pay (only $11/hr.) or the benefits (none!). The owners treated me well at the time, I worked with two others I enjoyed, and I liked the work. They weren’t making much money though and had to close or downsize (go from two spaces to one space rental). they chose to downsize and I was, for the most part, in charge. I was MADE for this! The owners were even out of state for all but the very end of the process. D and her husband, W (who just sat back and watched most things) even offered to sell the store to me and my co-worker if we “did a good job”. When they got back, D (main owner) began to have issues with how things were getting done. My co-worker and I were literally moving big heavy displays and when D saw where I chose to put things, she didn’t like it. She didn’t like that I was sick ONE day during the process. She didn’t think anything I ordered would sell. I put too much on markdown sale (some of the merchandise had been included in the store when they bought it almost TWENTY years ago!), as well as marking it down TOO MUCH. I put things in “odd” places. In the meantime the co-worker (it was just the two of us for most of this process) had a LOT of drama. I continually had to cover for her and was affected by her drama. In a nutshell, I felt awful about myself every time I had to walk through the door. I WAS rude to a few customers and complained A LOT.
One day D came in as “we needed to talk”, which turned in to her going off on me telling me I need to “tow the line”, how easily I could be replaced, and that my attitude was awful. She even brought my daughter in to it. That was the last straw. I had a couple of days off and talked to others to be sure I wasn’t over reacting, and when I went in again I double-triple counted money, took all my personal items, and got ready to hand them the key. After this I KNOW they gave me bad references when I was looking for another job (small town after all!). They made my filing for unemployment awful as possible. Thankfully they live in a town over so I rarely see either of them now. The point of all this…even without getting paid well, having no benefits, or even having weekends off I was happy and had a great attitude. When I was treated badly (you heard the tip of the iceburg here) I had an AWFUL attitude, and it was reflected in the way I treated customers, which was the most important part of my job.
As a side note, I kept it classy and didn’t go around telling everyone how awful they were. Most people know already, honestly, and they’re getting worse. I’ve been told multiple times what a great job I was doing, especially with the headache of downsizing. THAT’S pretty satisfying!