I'm a hair stylist. I use to work between 4-8 hours everyday. Not bad right? I went to a high end cosmetology school for two years, busted my ass to get to where I'm at. May I say, out of the 5 children my mother had, I'm the only one with a higher high school education. A woman just quit the salon I work out, so out of the other four girls who work there, I had to pick up her shifts. Making me work between 35-55 hours a week. I use to get two days off a week. My coworker and boss decided to go on a vacation. So that means even more shifts for me to pick up. I am no longer getting two days off a week, if I'm lucky, I get one day. Everyone else is having flexible schedules due to vacations, family and friend plans, or events. But if I want to see my boyfriend who lives 80 miles away, I have to ask for it off in advance and maybe it get called in.

I know, I should be happy. Because some people work 13 hour shifts 7 day a week. But I only get paid $7.25 an hour. ONLY MINIMUM WAGE. I'm always on my feet, I mean always. Always helping people with their problems, fixing mistakes, multitasking, cleaning, running back and forth from working 8 hours, driving an hour and twenty minutes to see my boyfriend, just to wake up at 6am to work another 8 hour shift.

While everyone else is enjoying their vacation and I'm trying to squeeze in a dinner with the man I love. I haven't seen my family or my lovable dog in a week because I'm never home, I'm running out of energy. I bawled last night because standing on my feet for one hour longer made them bruised and pinched the nerves. My eyes twitch from lack of sleep, I'm dehydrated and have been eating nothing but fast food for the last six days.

Just to come back into work with a smile on my face and "hi how are you, how can I help you today"

Where's my help, where's my vacation? I can't take in anymore. How can such an underpaying job, overwork me so much 🙃