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My stepdaughter, who had a hell of a time getting a job because of her general anxiety and complete lack of people skills, has been promoted to assistant manager just 3 months after starting at the job she finally did manage to secure.
Part of me is thrilled at the progress she's made, which isn't nothing--but part of me is like, "...seriously? Are they that hard up for talent?" And then yesterday she casually mentioned that she's had at least 4, maybe 5 different managers since she started. She's not sure the one counts, because he quit on his second day and she never actually met him. The place is apparently a shithole and no one can stand it for more than a few weeks. Even beyond managers, she says at this point there are only 3 employees who have been there longer than she has.
For her part, she doesn't hate it. It's a little stressful, but no less stressful than every day life is for her. Yeah, customers yell at the staff for tiny mistakes--but regular people yell at her every day for her gigantic mistakes, so she doesn't really notice the difference. Yeah, the regional manager has profoundly unrealistic expectations of the amount of work a single employee can do, but everyone her whole life has had unrealistic (for her) expectations of what she can successfully accomplish, so she's very used to not meeting expectations and just letting the daily failures roll off her back.
So I told her, hey, that's good news. Just keep showing up, use the place to practice whatever skills you need to, and they'll never, ever fire you.
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