What I wish I could tell my boss: ‘My dog was put down and you went back on your promise’

I started dental nursing in a practice in 2016. I had just left secondary school and it was my first job. I was so excited but also very nervous about going into the big world of work. Everything was going great at this practice, but then things started to change.

When I turned 18, my hours changed from set to contracted hours, which I was excited about at the time as I was able to earn more money with the additional hours. However, the shifts suddenly became a lot longer. I was doing 12-hour shifts more than once a week. There was also a big turnover of staff, especially dental nurses, but I loved all of my colleagues and I was young. I didn’t know this was a sign for concern. I had always been told ‘the grass isn’t greener’, ‘this is the best place you’ll ever work’ and ‘they’ll be back’.