A lot of problems with manager and work

Ave Sodalis

Hi all,

Before I start, I know my own personal best option is to leave, which I will do as soon as possible. However, I would hate to leave my workplace as it is and I believe the reason it has gotten as it has is because too many people have done nothing.

I work in a shop whilst saving for further education and there are some serious manager problems. The manager has been working there about 8 years. There are staff there longer than her. I've been there about a year and a half. To put a long story short, the manager is a bully. She yells at people across the shop in front of customers, she's made staff members cry having called them stupid. She is always right, even when she is wrong.

For example, there was a problem with one of the printers and there was an expert in. The manager asked if it was the way staff were tearing off receipts and the expert said no, because if that was the problem then it would have happened a long time ago and that it was an issue with the printer which would need to be replaced. The manager spent a long time trying to convince the expert that it was indeed the staff's fault, whilst the expert kept telling her that that wasn't the case. I had warned the staff of what happened so they knew and sure enough, a few days later the printer jammed again and I caught the manager yelling at the girl on the till about how she must be tearing off the receipts wrong.

Another example is that she gave out to a woman for not facing off crisps. This was about 4 in the evening and the agreement up until then had been that the crisps get faced off every morning but things always change at random as I believe the manager just likes giving out. The woman faced off the crisps again. The manager comes back 10 minutes later and gives out to me for the crisps not being faced off yet. However, half way through her giving out, she notices the crisps are faced off and flatters a bit, before changing the subject about how they weren't faced off properly (they were).

I have seen her trying to teach a woman on something new and it involved her slamming the manual down on the till and yelling "can you not get it through your thick skull!" at the woman. I was close enough to hear the so called lesson and had yet to hear the manager actually tell the woman what she was meant to be doing.

The rota is a mess. Every week she makes mistakes such as rotaing several people for one till. She might give people holidays but frequently "forgets" to rota them off and then makes a huge deal about having to change it. Very often she leaves holidays until the last minute regarding telling you whether or not you are allowed it off. We get the rota on a Friday evening and although we get a provisional weekend the week before, it could change on the Friday's rota. We can't plan anything, even doctor appointments as the manager may rota us for that time in spite. A woman's father died on the Thursday and she wanted the woman back to work on Monday. The woman came in as she is terrified of the manager (the manager picks on this woman a lot) and the owner told her to go home again.

The hour break doesn't happen, despite many staff working the required hours. We get a 15 minute break for 4 1/2 hours worked and a half hour break for every 6 1/2 hour worked. Both these breaks are unpaid which is fine, but we are also expected to be in work 10 to 15 minutes early on normal occasion and half an hour early if you are opening (this changes depending on the whim on the manager) and if you are working to close, you also have to count your till which means you could be up to half an hour leaving if you are working with new staff. This is all unpaid. I've done full days on Sunday, closing with two new members of staff. This meant I was in at half 8 in the morning, left around half 7 in the evening, with one 15 minute break and one half hour break, both unpaid with an extra hour unpaid work, including training the two new staff members. We also pay to "rent" our fleece, jumper and shirt. There are people working there for 14 years who still get their uniform rent taken out of their wages.

Although the agreement was that I am a full time worker, I have spent the last month or more on part time hours. It was fine at the start as I had back hours to cover and the shop was quiet. However, they continued. It's all evening work so I can't do anything else with my day and my days off were split up so I couldn't go anywhere even if I was off (not great when I'm in a long distance relationship). This week coming really takes the biscuit as she, without consulting me, has put me on a three day week so I will be working about 18 hours this week. This is something I can't afford but as I was off when the rota was put up, I've yet to see the manager to speak to her.

The insulting thing is, there's other less competent staff on more hours. There's one guy who always comes in late, takes extra breaks, walks around most of the day with his hands in his pockets, has zero sense of initiative and needs to be told what to do at all times. There's another woman who spends her entire time doing her tiny section and refusing to do the till. If I work mornings/afternoons, you would be very lucky to get away on your lunch when you work with her because she won't use the till.

I'm starting to thing the manager is trying to get rid of me, hence the awful hours and crappy shifts. She has no reason to fire me. I've never been late (even though she's purposely changed the time you're meant to be in by in order to make it seem like I'm late). Despite not being there as long as most staff, I know how to do more things. I'm one of the few who know how to open and lock up. I'm one of the few authorised to do refunds. Other than the odd mistake which everyone makes such as forget on a busy evening to clean down a shelf, I have never done anything wrong. The manager has to constantly make stuff up in order to give out to me. She's even told me that anything the aforementioned lazy guy does or doesn't do is on me. If he doesn't do his job right (which he never does), it's my fault. She has told me to teach a new woman how to open and close the shop and if she makes a mistake, it's my fault. She has given out to me for not teaching her how to use a certain machine when the last time I asked the manager, she told me not to teach her it as she wouldn't need it yet.

I'm probably the only person in the shop who doesn't roll over on my stomach when she bares her teeth (figuratively speaking). When she's being entirely unfair, I call her out on it. When she kept putting off giving me a day off to attend a hospital appointment, I went to HR (who are also terrified of the manager and believe they are powerless against her so will do nothing). When she's wrong, I tell her. When she says things like "This hasn't been done in 5 weeks!" when it was done the day before (another favourite thing of hers to do, we even started pretending to take bets as we do things on how long the manager would make up a time for), I tell her and ask if she would like to look at the security cameras if she doesn't believe me.

She is used to people cowering before her, and it is sickening to watch. The owner is aware of what's happening but does nothing except give out to her. This only makes things worse and she then takes it out on the staff. I would love to leave but she has whittled the long term staff into believing she cannot be replaced and therefore they think they can do nothing. I'd hate to leave them in those circumstances. The moral in the shop is nonexistent as is the motivation. How could it be otherwise when even if you work hard and get everything done, you'll still be given out to for not doing it?

I'm wondering what my options are. I plan on speaking to the owner and highlighting everything but I don't believe this will do much good. Where can I go after this?

Sorry for the long post by the way. I wanted to give an idea as to why something needs to be done but I may have gotten a bit ranty at times. These are only examples as to list everything would take far too much time!

TL;DR Manager is a bully, working environment is poor, owner isn't likely to help, and I don't want to leave without doing something to improve the place.

Zaph

sup_dude wrote: »

TL;DR Manager is a bully, working environment is poor, owner isn't likely to help, and I don't want to leave without doing something to improve the place.

The highlighted bit is the important part here. If the owner isn't going to do anything to improve the situation then a) it's not your responsibility to do so; and b) you're not going to be able to do so without having the owner onside. All you can really do is leave and try to encourage all the other long term staff to do so as well. No job is worth putting up with that sort of crap for.

Afollower

I admire you for wanting to improve things for other people before you leave but perhaps if things improve you won't need to leave... MANDATE is the Shop Workers Union - go on their website and find out who the local Official is. Make contact and you will be given help and support. Good luck.

9or10

Sup

I do sympathise, I really do.

I think I worked for her sister a few months back . She was constantly giving out about something and when anyone pointed out that she was the cause of that particularly cluster, she'd simply switch to some other thing.

There's no changing these people and as Zaph says without the owners support you're on a hiding to nothing.

Leave and I wish you all the very best.

Ave Sodalis

Zaph wrote:

The highlighted bit is the important part here. If the owner isn't going to do anything to improve the situation then a) it's not your responsibility to do so; and b) you're not going to be able to do so without having the owner onside. All you can really do is leave and try to encourage all the other long term staff to do so as well. No job is worth putting up with that sort of crap for.

9or10 wrote:

There's no changing these people and as Zaph says without the owners support you're on a hiding to nothing.

If it makes a difference, although the owner has ownership of the shop, it's also part of a chain company. Would it be worth approaching them?

Zaph

sup_dude wrote: »

If it makes a difference, although the owner has ownership of the shop, it's also part of a chain company. Would it be worth approaching them?

Probably not. If there were a load of customers complaining about the behaviour of the manager, then maybe it would be worth it. But as it's a franchise the owner is free to run it as he sees fit as long as it doesn't breach his franchise agreement.

Mrs OBumble

If you personally are being bullied, then you could contact Workplace Relations to discuss your options.

You can also encourage other employees who are being bullied to do the same, or to get jobs elsewhere. Be aware that they may not be interested in doing so. What you experience as shocking bullying, they may well be willing to put up with as herself blowing off steam, if other conditions of the job suit them.

FobleAsNuck

sup_dude wrote: »

If it makes a difference, although the owner has ownership of the shop, it's also part of a chain company. Would it be worth approaching them?

who employs you? if it's the company that may not be considered insane

Ave Sodalis

Thanks for the replies!

I'll have a talk with the owner and see how that goes anyway.

I don't think customers will complain to the franchise. They've complained to me and other staff about her but I doubt they would be willing to go too far with it.

Although I mostly used example of myself there, I'm not really bullied compared to others there. It would be like crying over a scraped knee when someone else has their leg cut off. Thankfully, there is a small change happening. Since I've started, I think the other staff have realised that it's okay to be angry at her. One member of long term staff is actively looking for another job. The woman who gets picked on the most has realised that it's not herself at fault for it (apart from not standing up for herself) and has gained a considerable amount of self worth in the last year. I'd love to see her go somewhere else but she still believes she'd be useless somewhere else.

Ave Sodalis

FobleAsNuck wrote:

who employs you? if it's the company that may not be considered insane

No, the manager and HR manages employment

Wanderer2010

God I absolutely hate bullies in the workplace, there has been so much written about them that surely they can even recognise themselves by now?! From reading your post OP, it seems you have spineless HR/owners. Of course you can pull someone up on bullying but it takes correct documentation, a fair process and commitment. Sadly your owner probably just doesn't seem bothered and if enough workers don't speak up then the situation continues. It also seems that she has some hold on HR if they are that lax about her.

You could pursue it up the chain and its worth a go but you are better off looking elsewhere, your experience will stand to you. People like that aren't worth losing sleep over. I know its not fair but moving on is for YOUR benefit. A job isn't worth sacrificing your mental health for, life really is too short to be miserable in work.

LegacyUser

I have been in your situation honestly and I know how you feel- my old manager was very similar to yours except he was actually the owner too which made things alot more complicated.

Would you consider keeping a note of everything you've told us above, but also of more recent events with dates and times? And try and suss out from other members in the store is there anyone else in the store getting to breaking point with whats going on..If there isnt then thats fine go on your own but if there is and they don't feel comfortable coming forward (which is more likely) then I think you should organise a meeting with the owner with all your findings.

The way I look at it is yeah your only in college and you don't need this job and when you leave it'll be the same etc,. but how will you feel leaving knowing that you could have made a differance?? I think it'd be good for you.

Of course, if you dont want to do this definitley make a complaint to WRC and request an inspection in the store. Your name might not be brought up but youll be back payed for the breaks etc. Good luck

Avatar MIA

The best advice has been given already. Here are the problems...

1. Inadequate support from the owner.
2. Inadequate support from HR
3. Unlikely that Franchise owners will get involved in a local staff issue
4. A long history of the bully being allowed to run roughshod over staff
5. Most staff (some there as long as 14 years) willing to put up with the situation.
6. YOU thinking you can fix the above before moving on.

Nah, you're only in this job as a means to an end. Keep that in mind. Apply and move ASAP.

All you can do is write/make contact with the ultimate owners detailing your concerns AFTER you leave.