Disclaimer: This is most likely going to be long, sorry!

I’m going to try to keep this vague, because my job is in the “tech industry” and I know my coworkers use Reddit. In September I was looking to leave my old place of employment, underpaid and overworked I turned my eyes to some place that was hopefully more relevant for my field of study that I’m starting in January (dual major information technology/cybersecurity). I landed in a consumer device repair job, hoping that it would teach me some skills related to my studies.

I was wrong, all I’ve learned how to do is fix a phone and apply screen protectors. It carries little to no relevance in what I’m studying as to what I’ve learned so far, and the job is horrible. I regularly work with two people, an experienced coworker and a manager. I love my coworker, we get along, they’re the only one who’s trained me, they’re extremely patient when I make stupid mistakes or miss obvious things.

My boss however, does absolutely nothing. They constantly sit on their phone, disregard customers that come into the store, typically only does 2-3 repairs a day. Extremely frustrating. The owner of the shop comes in every so often, more often now that one of my coworkers walked out, and is the poster child for a toxic employer. They regularly belittles myself and especially my coworker.

I’ve been thinking about leaving for a while, however I recently had an encounter that pushed my thoughts to the edge. The owner got me one on in the shop, and directly told me to stop talking about my wages with my coworker. They said it’s disrespectful, and it’s not the standard, and it’s not the “standard”.

Honestly, f*** the “standard”. My coworker makes $20/hour, which is a severe underpayment as they essentially do the job of my boss and have more than a decade of experience. The coworker I briefly mentioned early who walked out made $19/hour due to their certifications (which I have). I make $16/hr, and it used to be only $15 until I asked for a raise because I am now the only person with those certificates at the store.

The owner knows I’m underpaid, knows my coworker is underpaid, and doesn’t want to let the cat out of the bag. I would’ve quit already, as I work 45ish hours a week with no overtime (I reported the overtime on my first check and I was told after that to explicitly say in text that I only work 40), my boss and owner have constant screaming matches because they are related, and this job is awful on my mental health. I’m in the middle of an eating disorder, I have awful sleep dread, I’ve been having panic attacks in the morning before I go in.

However, I’m already paycheck to paycheck. I doordash at nights and on my occasional day off. Because of this, I’m weary to quit and put myself at more dire financial straits. Also, the owner of my store has been verbally abusing the coworker that walked out to the point of threatening to report harassment, and I don’t want to go through that. I’m scared that a short blip job will look bad on my resume, and I’m scared I won’t find anything better.

I’ve contemplated doing Doordash/Uber Eats/instacart full time but I don’t know if that that would be an adequate income replacement. When I start school in January, half of my rent will be covered, so there’s that financial help coming soon. I missed thanksgiving with my family (I live 8 hours away) because of this job, and the owner told I could only take Christmas weekend off to spend with them, but I’ve thought about quitting after I get my Christmas bonus to spend more time with them. But I’ve also been torn about quitting sooner because I absolutely cannot stand this place, but I’m scared of what I mentioned earlier.

Thoughts? Has anyone been in a similar situation, any advice is welcomed, even if it’s something I wouldn’t want to hear. I’m desperate, folks.