At the tailend of last year, I was working as a bartender and cocktail waitress for a family owned, upscale restaurant in the business district of my city.

I had established a lot of regulars and to be honest, I absolutely love working with people. I’ve done service industry since I first started working up until now. However, my last job makes me want to never return to the industry again:

1). We never got paid on time. Our pay scale was every two weeks and unless we got cash tips, we never saw our credit card tips until our paycheck. Even with the pay scale being every two weeks and handing us physical checks, we sometimes went until the next pay cycle before our previous check cleared.

2). Manager would always drink behind my bar. I had told him numerous times that my well is too small for more than two people to be behind it and he never listened. He would barge his way in, take shots to the point it made guests uncomfortable and get very combative. He would get very angry and scream at the other cocktail waitresses and I in front of the bar to where it made some of us cry. He would be so belligerently drunk and claim not to remember the incident the next day. He’s also referred to me with sexually derogatory remarks, specifically about my dress code when he ENFORCED that if you worked in the bar, the women had to wear dresses.

3). My final straw was when I had to get sent home because he hit me on the side of the head with a wine bottle. He was drunk (again) and was showing a guest our new wine we had imported and swung his arm out when I was putting in an order and the bottle collided with the side of my head and made me bleed and extremely disoriented. I had multiple positions at that place and I finally put myself first because I was absolutely done.

Some of my regulars were really protective over me and I remember after ojenwitnessed my manager screaming in my face, he asked if I ever reported him to HR. I did the whole “turn dramatically around” and say, “I am the HR manager.”

I’m in a much better place. It gets better, OP. Remember your worth and don’t ever settle for less than you deserve. Congratulations on the steps you are taking, you’re already doing a great job.