Today marks the day I just couldn't take it anymore. I fucking snapped today and I actually just straight up walked out of my workplace. This post is going to be very long, so I appreciate if you read all of it, but understand and apologize for the length if you don't.
I had FUCKING ENOUGH of being treated poorly. 3 of my coworkers (my manager and two fellow employees) just kept fucking with me, teasing, harassing, bullying, and gaslighting me all day every day that I worked. Things used to be better but I feel like as they got to know me better, they hated me more and more. For my ugly looks, for my short height, for my autistic traits, the way I talk, my little habits like the way I walk or the way I eat things, or for my social shortcomings and sheltered upbringing.
They would constantly pester me. Every sentence was a jab at me, berating, insulting, and belittling me. Calling me every name under the sun that they could think of and more. Constantly messing with the food or drinks that I ate for lunch or breakfast, such as spitting in them, flipping them over, hiding them, or putting things like hot sauce in them. Pushing me around, shoving me, making me look bad in front of customers, refusing to pay me back for items, or generally taking advantage of me. Hell, they even "joked" about killing me or doing violent things to me on a semi-regular basis. And all three of them would gang up on me in this manner.
Nothing worked to stop it. All the times I would try to see it as joking or banter, I'd make a little jab back, worked to no effect. Or all the times I politely yet firmly asked them to cease this unprofessional behavior, which quite frankly doesn't belong in a work environment, also worked to no effect. And I tried so, very, very hard to let these things slide, or let them wash over me like rain on my back.
My coworker, (let's call him Jake), began the workday with a few simple jabs at me. Nothing out of the usual, so I ignored it. And the day continued on. After I went to go get some food, I got some bagged bread slices and dip to put them in. I hadn't had this dip in quite a while, so I was looking forward to eating it. And after I had not even eaten two slices, Jake comes over and comments how the bread looked grey and rotted (it was olive bread, that's why it looked like that). As soon as I picked up the package to show him that it was olive bread, he fucking flipped it out of my hand and it fell across the table.
Now you may be thinking, that's not a big deal right? The bread didn't leave the package, so no harm done. Well, I would agree with you if this was a normal day. When "joking" around with coworkers that shouldn't be a big deal, and normally I'd just kind of let it happen and continue eating. But this WASN'T a normal day. I got very little sleep the last night, I was FUCKING FED UP already from all the shit they've done, and something inside me just fucking snapped.
I leaned over near him and pointed in his face, and said "DO NOT FUCKING TOUCH MY FOOD AGAIN!" (I wasn't yelling per se but I was quite angry in my voice). And he did not like this. See, Jake heightmogs me by a good 6 inches or so, and he's also partially thugmaxxed I think. So he didn't take it well at all. Jake got up in my face and puffed his chest up a bit, and asked if I was serious. I told him I was fucking serious and didn't back down. He then told me that he wasn't one of my little buddies (I don't have any buddies) and that I can't talk to him that way. Then he asked me if I was "for real", to which I also said yes. Then he pointed at the parking lot and said that if I didn't "chill out", that we were gonna have to take it outside.
At this point, my manager walked in after hearing us yell, and kind of told us to quiet down and stop cursing because there were customers. But I was red hot in the face and literally shaking with rage. I walked back towards the customers and tried to help one of them out, but I couldn't even focus on that properly, so I walked away as soon as he became occupied looking at something else. Then I saw from across the store that Jake fucking started talking to everybody else about what just happened, and I heard him say that he never saw me actually angry like that before and that he actually thought we were going to fight.
Now I knew that if I didn't leave, things were going to get physical, and I really didn't want that, since even though I carry a knife and he doesn't, I feel like that would screw up my life even more and I was going to get my ass beat anyways. I knew it would end badly, so I just quickly grabbed my food, clocked out, got in my car, and drove away. Afterward, I called the owner of the company (my first boss, who did treat me well) and apologized for leaving work that day on short notice, but I told him that due to personal differences with my 3 coworkers that I mentioned earlier, I had to leave because I didn't like the way things were going. I gave him a short summary of what I just wrote in this post, and mentioned that it was just a result of something built up over time.
And now I sit here, rotting away after leaving that place behind. And despite all of the bad things that happened today, I feel like I learned a very important lesson again. NEVER TRUST A NORMIE.