I hate my job and I don't know what to do.

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I work for a fast food fried chicken joint located in the ghetto of the particular city I live in. I am a -very- white man. The area where we box up chicken is incredibly small. The are is deep enough so that the person who is working the register will be touching the back of the person who is boxing up chicken. During high volume, we have four or five people working in this space. It's maybe six feet long. And for some reason, they are all helping the person working at front counter, even though drive-through is supposed to take priority. The typical order is eleven pieces, a large mash potatoes, fried okra and a bag of biscuits. I'm expected to take the order, fry the things like okra or fries or nuggets, prepare the sides and biscuits, box the chicken, collect the cash and give proper change, all in under three minutes. A time above my window blinks my time at me. It turns a vibrant angry red when I'm not making the mark and displays it for everyone in the building to see, no matter where they are standing. Because of the tight working conditions, being surrounded by loud, obnoxious people who are constantly bumping into and touching me, and constant pressure to do my job well for mininum wage, I spend the majority of all my eight hour shifts in a constant state of overload.

If that wasn't enough to make my job miserable, during the past two managers (I'm the senior member of staff, besides one high school kid.) I was constanly denied the job of shift leader, (Which I was initially hired for.) because of my inability to shave or cut my dreadlocks due to a spiritual/religious vow I had taken. When 'Brand Inspection' would make their rounds, which they did often, I would be sent home. In other words, management was hiding me. My vows have ended, so that's a non-issue now, although there is still no talk of my promotion, which is fine, because I don't need a twenty-five cent raise to deal with all that anyway.

Because of where I work and the fact that I am white, I am constantly harassed by customers for just about any reason they can think of. I've had money thrown at me, food tossed at me more times than I can think of. I am physically threatened on an almost daily basis, and have no idea if they are even serious or not. I'm fairly confident that I can handle my own, but something about being threatened invokes an emotional response that I can't explain.

I don't make enough for rent, even when I do get all my hours. I am constantly having to ask family for financial help.

I can't even seem to get an interview anywhere else.

I'm stuck, and I don't know what to do.

Hours before I even have to go to work, (I work the evening shift, 1600-000) I find my self so anxious and worried about having to go do it all over again that I can hardly function at home. It has become a huge difficulty even keeping my house clean. I havent been able to bring myself to wash the dishes in weeks, and have subsequently been living off of dollar menus, since food stamps don't cover cooked food.

Sorry for the rant and giant post, but I had to say something, somewhere.

Have you the oportunity to go to work in another restaurant when customers don't take pleasure abusing you? Sometimes they feel they have the right to treat employees like s**t just because they have bought some nuggets. It must be really frustrating, so please, change restaurant and go in a part of the city when people know how to behave politely and show respect for other human beeings. You deserve respect, so start respecting yourself and go away. If you have the oportunity change job. Or change country, why not?

the OP may not like this, but for me, [in my youth] my only escape was down and out- down to homelessness [and after a while slinking back home to mom and dad] and out- joining the military. that was my only way out of mcjob hell.

Sounds abrasive to say the least. Definitely time for a change of career, I'm just wondering if there's a way - given your financial info - that you could fill out a FAFSA and get loads of assistance getting back to school, perhaps even for free?

Other than that I think even working at a warehouse or seeing if the post office is hiring would be a huge improvement in wages. Heck, even Walmart pays $11.00 supposedly. You could try carpet cleaning, janitorial, after hour office cleaning, get yourself in on an install team for Home Depot; yeah, these jobs might be a bit more of a challenge to land but if they see that you've been working at this place for this long they'll see that you have a good work ethic, enough applications and I think you could be in a much better position.

Eventually, I'm not going to be able to force myself to put on that filthy uniform. I've been doing some research into possible career steps, particularly in the fields of Private Investigator and Medical Transcriptionist, but I have absolutely, absolutely, got to find something else in the interim before I'm out of a job completely.

MisterJ both you and I tend to be in a similar circumstances as I too wish to change my occupational environment. I'm not the best when it comes to words of wisdom that lies with the other more higher-powered members but, atleast I wish you a honorable and sincere gesture that you'll be able to find some serenity occupation wise..