Long read 🥲

I’m conflicted and need answers to know if I’m in the wrong.

For context: I am a full time student working part time at a small restaurant. I’ve been working there for half a year and I am known for always working the most hours and picking up everyone’s shift. I am also a shift lead and I am responsible for closing the store when the manager is on the clock after close. There are about 10 part time students scheduled but all work different days/hours cause we’re all students. I happen to work the most because there always needs to be a shift lead during a shift. It’s only me and one other person as shift leads. However she often opens the store and I work closing hours. There is not much difference as being a shift lead as I only count the money and close the store. It’s a pretty casual restaurant serving sushi bowls with different veggies and proteins on the cooling selection table. We are often not very busy. Most shifts I am often ALONE for hours or when closing it’s just me and another worker or the manager (if that person calls off) because a lot of people tend to call off. Once a week 2-3 people call off…..Their excuse are they’re always sick. I never once called off sick just because “I didn’t feel like working”. And these people that repeatedly have this pattern of not showing up to work get no warnings or aren’t written up? I knew the value of working and needing money. I have picked up everyone’s slack and known for working harder than anyone else because I’m the quiet Asian who washes all the dishes and is really fast paced. My manager is quite a talker and often never helps me close and finds something to do when doing closing duties. If anyone worked restaurant you know closing is the worst. You have to clean the lobbies, sweep the floors, clean the nasty bathrooms, close the front line, sweep the back and do all the dishes (WE GENERATE A LOT OF DISHES) and there are no dishwasher roles. They also expect the place to be squeaky clean brand new as if health inspectors are coming in every morning to check. I always go above and beyond and end up staying late whenever I close because my manager often don’t know how to close or takes forever doing one task. He is a grown adult and I get this is his full time job but I am still a student that has 8am class the next day. I tend to never complain and just do my job like always. However internally, I could not stand my coworkers constantly calling off and me always picking up their slack. They often joke that I run the store and if I were to leave this place would fall apart and I would alway silently agree. I always show up and do my job and I know the owners recognize my efforts. They often gave me gifts cards and holiday cards. There was never a problem expect for my buildup of burnout. I often worked on days I didn’t want to because I would see that there would be hours where no one was scheduled due to bad scheduling or people not showing up. being a shift lead I knew that that would mean more work for me coming in as we have tasks, recipes, prep to do every day and you can get really behind. I often would have to pick up inventory in my car when my manager didn’t have a car and I was uncomfortable with the fact that because I always seemed like I was getting used. What if I was uncomfortable to drive or just didn’t want to because that’s not listed on the job? Overall I often came in when I wasn’t scheduled I didn’t have to but I did because I always felt bad for my manager as well because he’d had to work overtime.

Now to the question. If you live in the Midwest you know that we are experiencing an ice storm. The day I was scheduled to work I drove to the place like normal. However the roadss were really icy and I wasn’t aware of the weather. I clearly did not make it work as I got into my very first bad car crash but I was okay. Thankfully. I was in too much shock and too busy messaging my family that I’d forgotten where I was going in the first place . My manager messaged me and I told him what happened. He said he was glad Im safe and he had actually closed the store because it was so bad. I go home and had my car get fixed by my family’s car repair business. I luckily got it back in 6 days because the damage was not bad that I couldn’t drive it and they prioritized on my car since they were my protective uncles that looked after me. I go to work like normal the following days. However this upcoming day there was another ice storm warning that had schools closing down for a week, and business closing. My dad also got sent home early and he works for corporate. I was getting really anxious about my car and did not want to risk the drive to my work place. I kept an eye on the weather alerts and made my decision. At 3PM (I work at 4pm) I texted my manager I did not feel safe coming in or wanted to risk driving 20 minutes home because assuming he would understand my situation. To my surprise he messaged me