Resignation Trilogy: True Stories From a Fed-up Waiter

By J. Clark Allison

Three entertaining true stories reported by your intrepid food server from the front lines of the Great Resignation of 2021. Got a restaurant or other service business? Find out what not to do if you want to keep your current and future employees from leaving for greener pastures. It's not rocket science but has got a lot of you completely baffled,

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pissed Off Press
• Release date: Feb 21, 2022
• ISBN: 9798985521412

J. Clark Allison

James is a Minnesota-born resident of Colorado, a dog person, author, voice actor, bartender by night, former yoga teacher and application programmer, who sometimes writes very long sentences and loves storytelling.

Book preview

Resignation Trilogy:

True Stories From a Fed-up Waiter

J. Clark Allison

I dedicate this book to all the horrible bosses out there. I hope you can learn to get out of your own way.

And to all the great workers who deserve better.

Copyright © 2021

J. Clark Allison

All rights reserved.

No part of this work may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the express written permission of the publisher.

Pissed-off Press

ISBN: 979-8-9855214-1-2

INTRODUCTION

I HAVE NOW quit three jobs in about as many months, starting in mid-August of 2021. The last one was just three days ago as I write this. I guess that makes me part of the Great Resignation. The first time I quit I hadn't even heard of the great resignation. I was just fed up and couldn't stand it anymore so I walked out. The next time I quit, I was aware that there was a lot of turnover and demand in the job market, which made it a little less scary to quit, but I was already dissatisfied and it had been getting worse. The third, and hopefully final time I quit, I had barely started the job, and though it would never have worked out regardless, it was definitely on my mind that I wasn't alone and this employer, desperate for help, had no idea, so I told her, for what it's worth, that I was leaving because I had a problem with her and how she treated me and that was the only reason I didn't want the job.

I hate to use the n-word, but I suspect that some or maybe all of the people I worked for in the jobs that I quit were narcissists to some degree. I agree with those who think the term is overused and probably misapplied to garden-variety assholes or anyone we just don't like. On the other hand, there are people, with or without a diagnosis, who have something wrong with them and can't seem to help but behave in ways that look kinda crazy. A decade or two ago we might have just called them drama queens. It is a real thing and I was in a relationship with one of these folks for a few years, so I have some up-close first-hand experience. It's hard to explain and sometimes hard to see when it's happening. I was lucky to have had a couple of friends who took me aside and pointed out that this relationship was not normal - the things that were happening were not okay. Only then did I start to see it and mostly in retrospect. So now, looking back at these jobs and the people I worked for, I can see that it wasn't normal and it wasn't okay. Call it what you will.

I think it's fair to compare the Great Resignation to the Me Too movement, as a new awareness dawns among the workers, especially in service jobs, that what they've put up with is not okay, doesn't need to be that way, and they deserve better. Sometimes what is not okay is a hostile environment that may involve some sort of sexual harassment from management, coworkers, and/or the public, so there's definite overlap. Like the Me Too movement, I expect to see this continue and snowball, facilitated by social media and the internet. Hopefully, the result will be better work environments with saner managers and