I worked at Handmade for just over a year and I can honestly say the whole time I worked there I was just constantly stressed out and uneasy, getting worse as the months went by. I was on a zero hour contract and asked for part time hours as I was a student at the time, they said that they would accommodate around me in terms of shifts but I had problems from the get go. They would put me on days that weren't in my availability (because of lectures etc.) and I was immediately frowned upon by management for not 'being helpful and flexible' despite them knowing I was a student. I worked myself crazy here and barely benefited from it as the wage was so awful (bare minimum wage) - I was also constantly told that this would be increased if I were to train to become a shift manager but this was all just words and they never helped me to progress at all. On every shift I would find myself literally running around trying to do the jobs of about eight people because they would stand around talking (including managers). I also found that I was expected to do jobs that shift managers are responsible for but never promoted to this level or paid for the extra I was doing. I was constantly asked to stay on later for shifts or come in earlier, if I couldn't do it the managers would act funny with me. They seemed to suffer a lot with people not turning up to shifts and calling in sick, perhaps this is because nobody enjoyed their jobs due to how management treated them. Several times I was literally left in the restaurant alone expected to serve everyone single handedly. Very often I would work 9am-close (usually leaving around 12-1am, even later of a Saturday) without having a break because we were so under staffed (this is illegal). Saw rats in the back of the kitchen several times, reported this and nothing was done. I will also mention one particular event that really shook me for a while - I was working on a busy night with only one other girl (a shift manager) and was taking food over to a table of 4, whilst putting the food on the table I saw that the next order for a table of 1 had just been put onto pass so I quickly dealt with this table of 4 and then rushed over to pass, the man of the table of 1 stormed over and started shouting in my face standing over me very aggressively, telling me I've left his food sitting there for ages (wasn't even there a minute) and I'm an awful waitress, with profanities. The shift manager saw the man shouting and came over, asked the man to sit down, she was talking to him for ages - I bit my tongue and blinked back tears and delivered his food to his table which was still hot and nothing wrong with it. I carried on working as I was the only other member of staff so I couldn't really just stop and the shift manager eventually came over to me - instead of asking if I was okay, she said that was all my fault and she's very disappointed and now I'm costing us money because she's had to refund his full bill? I was treated so awfully and was shocked that I got the blame for this - I know the customer is always meant to be right but this was mistreatment and aggressiveness which should never be tolerated, I wasn't backed up at all by her. As soon as I finished my degree I said I could work more hours and they started putting me on 7 days a week, giving me over 50 hours a week, along with one of the other girls expecting us to work these long shifts with no days off and often no breaks. Oh, and there was also an instance where an assistant manager tried to claim I had agreed that I would work for free (I believe he was sacked). In the end, I called my manager in to talk and said I needed less hours because this was affecting my mental health, he seemed to understand and said things would change but nothing ever did despite several more attempts to even slightly reduce my hours. Eventually I just quit because I had a very near breakdown just due to being so over worked and constantly stressed.
