A lot of problems with manager and work
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.
