My old job

I have decided to do a blog post on how much my old job I was in for 9 years at a popular high street chemist/Health and beauty store affected my mental health and some of the things that were said to me and why after 9 years I left.

I started there when I was 23. I had previously worked at a supermarket(which I loved) but left there as the hours I was working were no longer any good for me. So I found this job at a chemist and applied and got it pretty much straight away.  

It all started off well and I did enjoy it and made some friends and settled in well, All was OK for a year but then it started to go wrong. I was off sick for a bit and they didn't like it and then other sickness meant I got a disciplinary and that annoyed me as I couldn't help being ill. Then some other stuff happened with complaints(that I still don't understand what actually was supposed to of happened) and it all started going wrong from then on wards. 

Then we got a new team leader and I didn't click with her and she didn't click with me, so it made going into work hard. This carried on for a year, things happened and were said and I just felt I was being picked on for no reason. Included being accused of stuff and being made to feel really small and stupid. 

Luckily I had friends there that stood up for me and were supportive, I had some family stuff happen too and it just made me really sad and down and I think my depression had started then but I ignored it and carried on the best I could. Back then I was working full time. 

Then three years had passed and I got to help out at a local pharmacy and then ended up moving there permanently and leaving the big store I was in. All was good there to start with and I loved my manager and met my best friend there. But then the manager I got along with left and it all started to go down hill because we didn't have a manger and it just went really wrong and I started to question if I had done the right thing in moving. 

But a new manager started and took over and for a little while it was alright and I thought it was going to sort itself out and I would be alright. But hell no how wrong I was. It turns out the manager we got had issues with me. Daily she would make comments about how I was scruffy and that I was lazy. It got so bad I ended up being signed off for 6 months with depression and anxiety.

Then I came back and it all seemed to be going well, I settled back in and we got a new manager and I started to really enjoy working there. But then got moved to another pharmacy up the road and I knew from the first day I wasn't going to like it, I had no say in moving there. It was decided on my holiday that I was moving and that was that. 

The manager I had there I thought was going to be OK and would understand my depression and mental health, but turns out that the minute anything started going wrong he would hide. And that meant two customers ended up getting aggressive with me and that then meant I got suspended. 

It was after the 2nd one had a go and I realised that the girls I worked with had not got my back and hearing what my manger back then said that I handed my notice in. I had already got to the point of waking up in the mornings and not wanting to go in and making reasons to not go into work. So that was the final straw. But my dad went into see the manger and some of the things he had said about me were awful and made me so mad. Apparently I am not a people person and I shouldn't work in retail. Well how wrong he was, I am now in a job I love and a job where I am appreciated and I have a fantastic team of friends and the managers/supervisors are supportive.

Never ever let anyone tell you that you cannot do something. I am glad I saw sense and left, even if I did leave behind friendships. I am so much happier where I am now, and maybe I have lost money but I would rather work somewhere and be happy than somewhere that makes me ill.