In her mind, Margaret DesRochers, 56, of Ware shouldn't have to be working this hard anymore, not at her age. Well past middle-age, she has to work like she's in high school again just to make ends meet.
In fact, with all of the drama she deals with on a daily basis, she says she might as well be back in high school.
It's been a long five years for DesRochers, working a minimum-wage position at Dunkin' Donuts and quite frankly, she's has enough. Supporting herself and her daughter, DesRochers has been making coffee, working a cash register and assembling sandwiches for too long, and says that she has almost nothing to show of it.
“I feel like an expandability, like they can toss me away whenever,” said DesRochers. “I haven't gotten a single raise over all this time and it's just wrong how they treat us.”
Monday through Friday, from four to ten, DesRochers works the same early-morning shift every week and her life hasn't changed much within these five years. DesRochers essentially lives paycheck to paycheck, and sometimes that isn't enough to get by. Even making around $20 in tips every day, she says it just isn’t enough.
“I don't make ends meet; it takes everything just for me to be able to get food on the table,” she said.
“I have bill collectors calling almost every single day and I basically have to decide which bill I skip paying for the month, so if the trash collector is hounding me, I have to push cable back a month,” she added.
DesRochers’ problems don’t end there. She says the asst. manager does whatever she pleases, customers always snap, most of the employees there don’t even bother to pull their weight and that she works twice as hard as people who are less than half of her age. It's all in a day's work.
"My job is unbelievably stressful,” she said, “and there are not enough people on the floor because the asst. manager plays kiss-ass to keep it that way so she can scavenge up more tips for herself,” she said.
“There have been days where I have come home crying simply because I cannot deal with this stress anymore,” she added.
DesRochers is so tight on money, she can't even remember the last time she was able to buy something for herself.
She says she is losing stamina and resolve through her aging, and doesn't know how much longer she can keep up with her job. But she doesn’t have much of a choice. She has to work to pay off the mortgage on her house, to which she wouldn’t disclose the total cost.
"Personally, I'm in such a rut right now. I have no ambition to look for a better job and at my age, there is no one who is going to hire me,” she said.
DesRochers attended Holyoke Community College for Early Childhood Education in her early 20’s, but never took off with it. If she had the choice, she would go back in a flash.
“I definitely would go back. Instead I got married and had children and now I work here, barely able to support myself. I wish I could take it back,” she said.
Still, she looks forward to the day she can finally leave and support herself through social security and an easier job.
“I'm hoping to be finished (working) around 62, and if I'm still working, I will not be working there,” she said.
If she has gained anything through her years of hard work and little pay, it would be knowledge.
“I've really learned to appreciate people who work the same kind of jobs. They have so much to deal with, and they don't need you to belittle them on top of it,” she said.
To sum it all up, DesRochers had a select choice of words.
“No one can live on minimum wage without food stamps or being on welfare. It's just impossible.”
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