💾 Archived View for lesogorov.site › glogs › 2304 › Disrespect.gmi captured on 2023-12-28 at 15:18:18. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
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The head manager of the store, Mike, is a real jackass.
We had a coworker leave a few weeks ago, Johann, he was referred to the store by Roomie. Well Johann proved to be a bit of a liar and started missing shifts constantly claiming to be sick while hanging out with mutual friends, so we knew he wasn't. He hadn't fulfilled a shift in 3 weeks when he finally wrote a long, meandering text to Mike saying he was quitting, along with some digs at Mike and our other horrid supervisor Chuck. Since Johann left, Mike has been treating me a bit nicer. He was showing me respect, asking me to do things in a polite manner and praising me when I did a good job.
Around the start of the year he put me on the early morning 05:00 shift on Tuesdays for unloading our new deliveries. He sprung this on me without warning and also had put me on closing shift the night prior so unless I fell asleep as soon as I got home from work I wouldn't get a full night's rest. When I brought this up with him, he basically told me "tough shit", though he actually said "I did stuff like that all the time growing up, I'd do that shift after a night of partying". This was one of the first times I could really think of where an adult had told me to act against what was best for me. Every other time an adult in my life has always had my best interests at heart, even if their advice was poor. It felt icky. It felt like he didn't respect me.
The second time I had the 5:00 shift, I only got a few hours rest because Roomie accidentally got hit in the eye by the end of a cable. He made enough noise to wake me up and I ended up checking in on him. After comforting him and telling him he wouldn't go blind for a while he calmed down, but I never got back to sleep. So I was fairly zombie-esque at work that day. Every single day I had worked prior, the manager or supervisor at the time would tell you when to go on your break. Sure you sometimes had to remind them, but it always eventually got called out over the radio. Well that day I guess they missed my second break, I didn't really mind much (or notice due to the zombie-brain) but nevertheless I did want to notify them what happened. When I told Mike and Chuck I had missed it they asked "Why didn't you go on your break?" I told them "Because I wasn't told to" to which they laughed in my face and marked on my time sheet that I got both breaks before saying that "it's your responsibility to get your breaks". Mind you on those unloading days you're constantly busy and there aren't many opportunities to check the time so even if I did know when my break was, I wouldn't have known when I should have gotten it.
Well that 05:00 shift really proved to be problematic for my school schedule. Even though I didn't have class that day, it would essentially wipe out two days since I couldn't work on anything in the evening on Monday and when I would get back after my shift on Tuesday I would be so wiped out from getting up early and working a whole 8 hour shift that I just about passed out on the 5 minute car ride home. I told Mike that I couldn't fill the shift and that it was taking too much of a toll on my week. I told him this in the beginning of my shift while it was just he and I alone in the back office, because I knew he would make a fuss. He said okay and I thought that was that and that I was wrong. A few days later he came up to me in the middle of the day and throws my unavailability sheet to the ground in front of me and all but yells at me "How am I supposed to keep track of 16 other peoples' schedules when you don't put on the sheet that you can't work a shift!". I tried to explain myself, that I didn't know how much of a toll one shift would take and that it wasn't that I was unavailable, due to a prior regularly occurring commitment, just that I would like to NOT work that shift. The thing is he has the sheets hidden away somewhere in the back office, so I couldn't have even updated it!
There were a few other incidents where he'd just be a poor manager. Whether it be not ordering any pumps prior to the winter storms, despite being suggested to by Mary or telling people who claimed to be testing positive for COVID to come into the office to work (though Johann was lying about it), or even trying to make Mary come into work prior to the result of her injury, despite her inability to stand. He's made a few people cry, That and being a generally unpleasant person.
Well a few weeks ago, I had scheduled an unavailability to stop getting the opening Sunday shift, a shift I never had worked and threw a significant wrench in things which I was given without warning. I told Mike I could work the 05:00 shift, but that I could only work 4 days a week, the amount I had been doing long prior to the additional Sunday shift. He gave me a little fist bump and said that he appreciated me letting him know. I thought with Johann leaving that maybe this was him turning around and finally giving me more respect. He was giving me more tasks and telling me to make sure things got done. It felt like he had trusted me a bit more. Well that's all gone down the drain. As he was leaving today he was saying his goodbyes and said "see you all tomorrow, well not you (looking at me), Mr 'I can only work 4 days a week'". Needless to say I was hurt. Tonya jumped to my defense and said "He's a student". He said something about not meaning anything by it but then kept on going saying that I only work 5 hour shifts. This is mostly true, they're 5 and a half hour shifts, BUT THAT'S WHAT HE SCHEDULES ME FOR!
I just thought we had made progress. I was even telling Roomie a few days ago that Mike has been mostly good recently. His kind words weren't out of respect, but just to keep me happy.
Fuck you Mike.