This was back when I was working retail after retail job in one of the local malls, and living paycheck to paycheck. I worked for a seasonal Halloween place so I knew it wasn't going to be a long term job. I'd already interviewed at another place selling jewelry and was pretty sure I had the job, but not 100% about it, and even if it was a guarantee, my start date wasn't until early November. I was also working another part time job in a clothing store in the same mall, around the hours at this location, and I could not get them to give me more than maybe 20 hours a week at the time, which was why I had interviewed for the jewelry store gig.

The manager of the Halloween store was an entitled shit of a man child - he was money, several years older than me, and likely didn't even need the job. I was in my early 20s living in a two bedroom apartment with maybe four other people, eating ramen most of the time. Most of the staff of the store was young women that he had hired, myself included.

Because I had experience in retail and had been working since I was maybe 12, I was the assistant manager of the store. He was salaried and I was making barely minimum wage at the time. There were times he would work maybe 25 hours a week, and I made up every other hour the store was open - 10am to 9:30pm, six days a week, and 11 to 6 on Sundays. I stopped to figure it out one night, and I was working literally every hour the mall was open one week. He was also sexually harassing most of the female staff, including a girl I thought was a friend. At one point he cornered me in the store and put his hands on me. I was afraid it was going to go a little further unless something changed. And right around then, the clothing store let me go.

I had enough, and called the regional manager to let her know what was going on. She agreed to a sit down to talk about it. I walked into the meeting, and he was there. Before I even had a chance to say anything about what was going on, he but he with how my accusations had no foundation and he was calling his lawyer. I said I had others who would back me up, and then the regional manager says, "friend's name says you're making this up for attention."

I stood up, quietly unhooked the store keys from my keyring, put them on the table, and said, "You can find someone else to close. I can't work for a company that won't take this seriously," and immediately walked out of the office. Grabbed my stuff, and left the store. And then internally freaked out, because holy shit, I had rent due and no job at all. But I kept walking away.

Took several deep breaths, got myself a diet Coke, and walked over to the store I'd been interviewing at. The manager was in... And he not only told me I was hired, he was able to work with their regional manager to move up my hire/start date so I was only out of work a couple days.