I'm not that old yet, so I don't have a lot of work experience...yet. However, I have worked at a few places now and the different types of work environments have been extreme opposites. In other words one was way more stressful than the others, but there are some other differences that I want to talk about as well.

Realizing what kind of work environment I want to work in has been an amazing life-changing experience that will help me with the rest of my life. No matter what kind of job I choose to go into next, at least now I have some kind of idea what kind of pace I want to work at (not too fast but not too slow). I also have some preferences on what kind of management I want... Nice. I want nice people to supervise and manage me.

So let's start, shall we. I used to think I wanted older people to train and mentor me. I had some younger people train me and they just really didn't want to do it... So they didn't, making the transition into the actual work super frustrating.

Then I finally got a job where older people were training me and it really wasn't that much better. They had trained many people before me and didn't have the patience for how new I was. In fact they thought I was so slow, they cut my hours way too much. I got a shift like every other week...and their check bounced. So needless to say I got another job.

The new job was all women my same young age, but they didn't seem that interested in training me either. In fact, all they wanted was to sit at the bar, talk, and tap on their phones. I went from too fast-paced to too slow-paced.

I stocked the beer fridge because I would have gotten in trouble if I didn't at my last job. Then when the manager came in, they took credit for it...

I want to say it's because they are young, but the other place with the wrinkled bartenders were super immature too. One kept trying to take my tips until the chef yelled at her and the other apparently said not very nice things behind my back.

Oh, and I haven't even started on management yet.

If management doesn't make me wait an hour to speak with them, I'm happy. If management pays me for meetings, I'm happy. I also appreciate it if my checks don't bounce.

However, I had one horrifying experience that led me to get a stress rash. I've had one before from exams; not something I get a lot.

The owners of the bar asked me to meet them on a Tuesday. I worked that day so I thought it would be while I was on the clock... It wasn't. I texted them after work. I got a text saying they were on their way, followed by a text saying they would be a while. I waited over two hours to get told I was doing a bad job, but that it wasn't my fault because they should have met me earlier. Oh, and I didn't get paid for this meeting.

You can imagine my surprise when I get a new job and we get a paid orientation. Oh, and I only waited ten minutes for the boss. I was very happy.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that, if you are young and you hate your job, it's possible you are being taken advantage of by your boss. Maybe there is a better job for you out there too.