Should I quit? How do I approach this topic with my boss?

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I've been at my job for a year and I still don't have a key.

I know normally it would be no big deal if you don't have a key to your workplace. But I work at a small business with only a handful of employees (therefore it's quite realistic to give everyone a key). And it's set up in such a way that everyone gets a key within approximately 6 months unless the boss thinks you're totally inept.

Due to some screw ups I made when I first started at this job, I had a hunch the boss would never trust me with a key. But I used to at least take comfort in the fact that I have another coworker who I thought would never get a key (lets call him Tim). Then I found out yesterday that Tim is about to get a key (even though I've been here almost twice as long as Tim).

Now I'm the only employee without a key. And to put it bluntly, my coworkers aren't the most respectable bunch. So it's really insulting how the boss trusts these people with a key but doesn't trust me. I'm making minimum wage at this job and I feel like the boss will never let me advance just because I got off to a rocky start (I've come a long way though).

If my past mistakes are always going to haunt me at this job, is it really worth staying?

By the way, I work another job on the side where I get more hours (and more respect).

Talk with your boss about it. Mention that you feel singled out in a negative way, and see what the response is.

Your boss could possibly think he's already given you a key.

I suppose that's a possibility. But I think he knows I don't have a key. He always has to come answer the door for me when I arrive (the door the employees enter through is always locked).

And my boss likes giving people keys because that means he can go home slightly early and have his employee close up the store. When I'm working the evening shift with him, he's never asked me to close up.

Another possibility is he is protecting you from possible grief and targeting by fellow employees. Being a keyholder opens you up to having the finger pointed at you if something bad happens.

Just ask him to settle your mind.

Frankly, unless you are the first to arrive or last to leave (or have to come in on days they are normally closed), you don't need a key to the office.

You say you're making minimum wage so looking around for another job in the meantime wouldn't hurt. To me the job doesn't sound like it's worth salvaging unless you feel there aren't any other jobs out there that you'd be conformable doing. But again, the job being minimum wage means you wouldn't be giving up much.

Yeah, I'm leaning toward quitting.



Good idea. I've thought about doing this. It could have one of two results:

1. He decides to give me the key when he realizes how much this bothers me.
2. He ultimately decides not to give me a key (in which case, I'd quit).

And I really don't know which option he'd go with. If he goes with option 1, I'd stay. But if he goes with option 2, I'd look petty for quitting just because he won't give me a key. In that case, I would have been better off quitting without bringing up the key topic.

I'm trying to weigh the pros and cons. Should I discuss this topic with him hoping he'll give me a key? Or should I just go ahead and quit assuming he won't give me a key? If I don't bring up the key topic, I'd be missing out on a possible opportunity to get a key. But if I bring up the topic, I take the risk of making myself look petty.

This could be true. I think his heart might be in the right place. I don't necessarily want the responsibility of being a keyholder. But at the same time, I want a key so I can feel normal (because everyone else has a key). I see the key as more of a symbolic thing. If I had a key, it would symbolize the fact that my boss trusts me.

And to add insult to injury, the employee I mentioned who is about to get a key is clearly somewhere on the autism spectrum and also screwed up in the beginning. And yet he's getting a key. So it makes me wonder why the boss holds my Asperger's against me.

It's a minimum wage job with little incentive to get promoted, right? Then who cares?

I can understand being surrounded by people who think very little of you to be degrading and therefore not wanting to work there, but, it IS still that - a job for the sake of a job. If you look it as just that it makes life a lot easier.

Haven't posted on here in a while. Coming back to post an update.

I quit the job a month after I started this thread. But I'm upset it had to come to that.

I hate to bring race into this, but one of my coworkers was black. Imagine the outcry there would be if my boss stereotyped the black guy as a criminal and refused to give him a key. But somehow it's ok for my boss to stereotype an aspie?

I'm tired of the fact that society thinks it's ok to discriminate against us because we supposedly "don't have a real disability" or because "other groups have it so much worse than us."

it is petty. i can't believe you're considering quitting over something so minor.

Did you actually talk to the boss?

and yes it sucks to be treated worse than everyone else just because you act a bit differently

First of all, I've already quit.

Not sure if you're on the spectrum or not (if you're not on the spectrum, maybe that's why you don't understand). On a previous post, I believe I mentioned the fact that people on the spectrum have to deal with feeling left out their entire school life. The last thing we need is to feel left out in the workplace once we get out of school.

At a typical job, I agree it would be petty to quit just because you don't have a key. But then again, at the typical job, there are plenty of people who don't have a key. At the typical job, there's no reason to feel left out if you don't have a key.

This job was different though. Literally everyone but me had a key. And the reason why I didn't have a key made it all the more insulting. I quit because it became clear I was wasting my time at that job. I worked there for a year, was clueless when I first started, but came a long way during that year. But it didn't matter how far I came. It didn't matter how much I accomplished. My boss was always going to view me as "that autistic kid."

Why bother staying at a job when you have zero chance of advancement and your boss is never going to acknowledge your accomplishments?

No I didn't. After weighing the pros and cons, I opted not to bring up the key topic.

But I announced my resignation right after a coworker with less seniority than me got a key. It wouldn't take a rocket scientist to figure out why I quit. I'm pretty sure my boss knows the key is why I quit.

Basically, you should have lined up another job before you quit this one.

Why do you think the employer was discriminating against you because you are Aspie? How does he even know you are Aspie?

Forget all the bullcrap. Search for another job. It's better than being on disability. Much better.