The awkwardness ...

Dear Friends and Family,

Have you ever been in a situation where you are living with someone who has offered you a place to stay or room for rent and things happen in life that are the little tests that you hear about in life.

There is an awkwardness in the home Im staying in. I haven't paid rent for a total of four months. The first two months were when I made an agreement with the manager of Forever 21 that instead of putting in my two weeks notice I could go ahead and leave.

I left Forever 21 for the management had been playing favorites with employees. We are supposed to put our time-off requests about two weeks in advance for any time off we would like or days off, etc.
Well I put my paper work in about 4 weeks in advance, I figured its plenty of time for them to know Id be leaving for about a week out of town in September.

When time boils down and Ive bought my ticket and everything, I see the knew schedules were put out and I see that Im scheduled to work the week I asked for off. She boasted how its because she was a favorite and I agreed that there was no doubt that was true with many of the employees with in that store. So I had to decide if I was going to miss out on my trip or stay and suffer.

I told the management what the situation was and how I felt it was un-fare that I put my paper work for time off in a reasonable amount of time. She put hers in for the lesser amount of time and still got the time off she asked for. They responded with, "..well we approved your time but I guess we lost the papers, or lost the paper requesting your time off."

With past jobs Ive had, management always came to us to discuss our time off and if there would be any scheduling conflicts that interfered they'd work it out with us.

Upon coming back from my trip I had to begin the grueling work of Job Hunting again. Forever 21 said I was considered Re-Hireable telling me I was a good worker and that I could get my job back. I tried to apply for it again but was told I had to wait 3 months before applying again. When the tree months was up I tried again and she refused my application saying, "Im sorry Im going to have to decline your application. You last weeks were really bad, you kept calling in, you were late. I just don't think its in our best interest to accept your application."

I never had my last two weeks.

So about two months later I finally got a job at Kohl's. I was hired as Seasonal, I got paid 7.25 and had great responses from customers and all but one of the managers. I had begun working in early November and I was happy that I got to work on register. As time went on I was told Id probably be asked to stay and that Id move up from Seasonal to a "regular employee."

That wasn't the case what so ever. January the 3rd, a Friday. I realized I wasn't on the new schedule for the upcoming week. I thought maybe its because of an error. It was only the 3rd and we were told told between the 10th or the 20th we would be told if were going to stay with in the company or be let go.

I asked one of our new managers if he knew what my schedule was since I wasn't in the schedule book. I didn't expect him to really know much about it since he was new and he wasn't in charge of the putting the schedules together. So he suggested I wait till Monday to see what was up since there weren't any other managers working that day.

So on Saturday I called and with my luck The Dreadful Manager Lady picked up the phone. I told her that I was calling to find out my schedule since my name wasn't in the book and I wanted to know when my next day to come in was.
She replied, "Oh your not the only one, but I will make note and I will call you back before the end of the day."

Cut to around the evening and no reply. I was enjoying my day off really like anyone else would but still it was in the back of mind, Your Job.

I figured she wasn't going to call me back so I called her back and she said she was calling the store manager since he was off and he hadn't replied. "I will call you back."
Sunday rolls around and nothing, I figured I didn't have to work sunday since nobody called me to say, "Hey where are you? You were scheduled today, are you running late?" Nope nothing.
I did the same on Monday, nothing till I called around noon to see what was the deal.

Come to find out that I was let go and nobody felt the need to let me know that my time was up or that this would be my last week. I finally got a hold of our store manager and he told me that he had no phone calls nor any messages from The Dreadful Manager Lady. She basically flat-out lied to me.

He apologized for her actions and said I could re apply again but I wouldn't want to work there if she was under management.

alas my job hunting would begin and depression would set in. Cold, rain, hot, windy… sweaty, hungry, happy and charming to my customers.

I am at Macy's now and after a few weeks that felt like forever, I have my set schedule that begins next week and I don't have to work one day a week anymore. I do have hopes that it will all get better but it just has really sucked lately. Ive been looking for a second job to bring in more money pay rent, which is 400 a month for a small room in this woman's house. For January and February I only paid 100 for each month.

I did my best to push myself and look for another job regardless of the weather but its like those factors don't matter to her . . .
I would get depressed for a week or two would go by and id be stuck inside due to the weather. Its like you think I'm not trying but cmon, Id have more of chance getting a job if I had a car instead of a Bicycle. Then I wake up on a rainy day and feel guilty cause another day passes by and thats a day I could be working and money coming in for rent.

I hear theres a letter coming to my door about being "evicted" but thats only through the grapevine. This is the second time she has gone to others to discuss my financial situation and have others tell me I need to find a job quick or bring in 100 or Im out in two weeks.
She has had plenty of time to come to me and talk to me, Ive brought it up to her saying, "Im sorry for being so behind on rent the past few months." She just says to keep it up, call em back, go here, go there….

I dont wanna sound like Im whining like a baby about things, maybe I am? My life could be worse. But am I not trying hard enough? I knew Id have to wait for my name to be in the schedule system for Macys. It finally is now, just had to wait 3-4weeks. I told her that but she sees it as they're cheating me on work, and I should find another job so I can bring in rent.

-xavier