That's it- I'm gone

[johnb1]

Okay, as of Aug 30th I quit my job at a local gasoline company in Western Canada, whose name rhymes with a certain kind of rich milk -here's a hint, it ends in "o"
My job was okay until August of this year. The local refineries shut down and nobody
had gas-not Petro-Canada, not Shell, not us, nobody. Firstly, no premium, then no regular gas. The company I used to work for buys gas as it needs it-it doesn't have an arranged contract, so when it runs out, it's out for a while. That was back in August
before that, I was bounced around from filling station to filling station. This particular
company has a policy-they can fire you at any time, and you can quit at any time, no
notice has to be given. four or five people I knew quit or were fired in about 3 weeks.
I was kinda sorry to see 'em go because I didn't mind working with 'em, but one person nobody liked, and when that person had collected enough bad stuff, out she went, and I bought coffee for everyone. so, on to August. I mentioned we didn't have any gas, right? this was for about a month. I was still waiting for someone to fully train me how to do the paperwork. As I'm sure you can guess, the job isn't done until the paperwork is done. Someone trained me-once, and once only. I got trained in bits of the paperwork a few times, but as for full training, as in 'sit down and I'll show you how to do the paperwork', well, that never happened. The person who was supposed to train me got fired, and everyone else either didn't want to show me how to do it, or was too busy, or couldn't be bothered to do so. So, anyways, I was sitting on my butt, and I decided to ask the boss for some work. Well, I got 7 hours Saturday-fine and good. I had someone to talk to, and I'm great as part of a team. You can leave me alone for a bit, but I prefer having someone to shoot the breeze with-it makes the day go better. The other day I had was Sunday. All day sunday. from 7:30 am
to 8 pm. I was to open the store and close the store. At the beginning I was okay, and up till about 6:30pm, I was okay. Oh-I guess I forgot to mention this-we operate on a coupon system and we gave 5 cents off per litre, and those coupons were about to expire at the end of the month, which was Aug 31, 2009. Was I busy? Oh yes. Did
everyone and their dog come in to get stuff? Oh yes. At the end of the night was I totally exhausted and frazzled, and the next person to talk to me had a 50/50 chances of getting punched in the face? Oh yes. So, about 9pm I was starting to close up, and people were still coming-at 9pm on a Sunday. I was TRYING to do my paperwork, but it's pretty hard when you still have people coming. I got madder and madder as time went on. By 9:45 I had had the biscuit. Luckily my mom was there getting gas, and helped me by putting the locks on the pop cooler. I locked up the store and-someone was banging on the door. WTH ! "Yes" Gimme a pack of Export 'A'
full flavor "We're closed, go to Mac's or 7-11". "Gimme a pack of Export 'A' now, dammit". He wouldn't leave and he wouldn't go anywhere else for his smokes-he HAD to come here. It's a good thing loaded guns aren't allowed because I would have maimed him on the spot. So, I did the paperwork as best as I could, made sure the shift change went through okay, locked up, set the alarm, and oh ! what's this, someone else just pulled in "Sorry lady, we're closed " "What time do you usually close" "Around 9 pm", and she finally left. I used to work 3 days a week at 8 hours a day. Fine and Dandy. Then it was 2 days a week, 8hrs a day. during the week, or 1 day a week, 1 weekend day-also okay. Now, all there is left is this-I must have pumped 4,180 L of Gas that day and took in $125 worth of coupons at a nickel per litre. If that was all there was for work, I couldn't handle it-so I said "Well, stuff this "
and I wrote a letter to my boss, handed in my coveralls, any cash I had left over in 'em (I got a fill up just as I was closing) and any other company gear I had, and that was it. I don't think it's a great sin to admit that you made a big mistake, and that you didn't know what you were getting into, working for Company X, and that for my mental and physical health, I had to get the heck out of there, and that's what I did.
Looking back, I'm not surprised-the company didn't train you that well-a 2 hour
video on WHMIS training and tobacco control, and that was it-the next day they threw you in front of the till, which I didn't know how to use, but learned quickly.
Bonuses? No. Fun environment? (as promised on the mini application form) No.
Regular Salary Reviews? No. A great place to work? No.
so there you go-I probably won't get hired there, but I talked to one of the people working there, and I told him-if you're ever up the creek, gimme a ring, and I'll come on down and help you out. so Bye Bye gas company. I won't be freezing my butt pumping gas outside at 30 below anymore

John B

[lordlundar]

This particular
company has a policy-they can fire you at any time, and you can quit at any time, no
notice has to be given.

Awww, how adorable. They think their company is an equivalent to an At-will state. Too bad the standing labour laws would like to slap them up the side of the head with a cinder block.

(for the track record, there's no such thing as At-will employment in Canada, despite what any contract says otherwise. An employer has to give the employee 2 weeks notice and an employee has to give the employer 2 weeks notice. Serious legal action can be levied on the offending party for failure to abide by the law)

[infinitemonkies]

That's not true. I just checked the employment standards act to be sure:

An employee is not required at all to give notice if quitting.

The employer does not need to give notice if the employee has worked there less than 3 months, 1 weeks notice or 1 weeks severance pay if the employee has worked 3 months to 1 year, 2 weeks notice/severance if the employee has worked more than a year.

The employer does not need to give notice or severance if the employee is laid off temporarily (for up to 3 months.)