My Boss Bought Me a Dryer, Then Threatened My Job

Paul is the owner of the store I work at. I am the store manager. I have two employees who each only work 10-15 hours per week. We’re a fancy grocery store. Specialties are real italian ingredients and olive oil and vinegar. I see Paul maybe 2x a week. Max 30 minutes at a time.

K. Here we go.

Last December Paul gave me $300 cash for Christmas and said, “I know it’s not much, but I appreciate all you do.” He bought me a dryer when mine broke, no questions asked. That same pay period as the dryer and the cash, I worked 26 hours of overtime. That’s a lot for a small local business. And I appreciated it. I really did.

But generosity doesn’t cancel out emotional detachment. And lately, it’s been feeling like I’m the only one who actually cares about this place.

I hired my older sister, Jade, to work here. She wanted to buy the store from Paul, and my dad was going to invest and help her make it happen. But right before the purchase was supposed to go through, Jade’s life imploded. It was sudden, messy, and changed everything. That gave our dad time to pause and rethink the food business. With Jade now facing major life changes, the idea of investing in a grocery store. Something he never fully understood — started to feel more like a risk than a legacy move. He’s always been supportive, but he’s also practical. Construction is what he knows. Grocery? Not so much. Now, he won’t help me buy the store either, for the same reasons. And honestly. I get it. This place is a lot.

Plus, Paul has always had a thing for stirring the pot. When Jade worked here, he’d talk shit about me to her. Now that she’s gone, he talks shit about her to me. It’s like he needs someone to be the problem so he doesn’t have to look in the mirror. Same energy he brings to the golf course—he and his best friend have been kicked off three teams for laughing and making snide remarks about other golfers who are like five feet away. Total mean girl behavior. It’s petty, it’s exhausting, and it’s exactly how he operates in the store too. When he is here.

Yesterday, Paul started talking about how Jade’s not interested anymore and how my dad won’t buy the store from him for me either. Then he casually mentioned that a friend of his in California—someone who sold their business—has apparently been interested in buying the store for over a year.

Then he said: “If that happens, you may be out of a job.”

I didn’t even know how to respond. I told him, “I only planned to work another year anyway. Once my house is paid off, I’m saving, going back to school, and starting a family.”

Which I regret saying because.. why? Why did I say that? Idk. Pure shock and raw honesty I guess.

He asked when the house would be paid off. “November.” And he said: “So anytime after November you’ll be fine.”

Like it’s that simple. Like I can just bounce without a second thought because he’s bored or ready to move on.

Then he said something that’s been stuck in my head ever since: “I have no desire to be here. I have no passion for it. I could be here working. I could be here all the time. But I don’t want to.”

Meanwhile, I’m here Monday through Friday, plus three or four days on weekends every month. Sometimes it’s both Saturday and Sunday, which turns into a 12-day stretch. Sometimes it’s just a random Sunday thrown in. This weekend—the 6th and 7th—I’m working both days. After that, I won’t work another weekend until the 27th. And Paul? He said he’d let me know how he feels, and maybe he can cover one of those days.

So when he says he doesn’t want to be here, I can’t help but think: Why should I?

I’m not trying to be cruel. I’m just tired. I’ve been showing up, keeping this place running, carrying the weight of someone else’s indecision. And now I’m being told I might be out of a job because someone in California might want to buy the store?

Paul’s generous, yeah. But he’s also emotionally unavailable and wildly inconsistent. He’ll help you out, but he won’t show up when it actually matters. And I’m starting to realize that being appreciated with cash and appliances doesn’t mean being respected with presence and honesty.