Under-Appreciated at Dunkin Donuts

From Bagel Bat

I’m not even sure I want to stay at the Drunken Donut anymore.

For starters my boss is an diligent student in the school of non-management. He prescribes to the belief system of “be best friends with your employees!” and “discipline? What discipline?”

Now, before anyone here accuses me of advocating mean managers I’m not. All I wish is that my manager would take some initiative and actually act like a manager instead of trying to be best buds. There are about 35 people at my place of employment and maybe 85% of the employees are under the age of 19.  The manager is in his 40s and is of course, dying to be friends with them and to be cool and relevant in their eyes.

This makes it difficult because when the teens mess up and spend the afternoon shift doing nothing like they usually do, they don’t get disciplined or talked to, I DO. Everything they didn’t do gets pushed onto my shift and I’m supposed to take the heat.  There are cameras but no one really does anything about it unless the place burns down or money is missing.

I don’t know if anyone would understand unless they’ve worked for the place or something like it but I HATE how nothing is good enough for morning shift. All I hear is everything I didn’t do, which is usually tiny things like no-calorie sweeteners not being filled to the brim which I was told not to do anyway, there being tiny  stain on the floor, or some of the napkin dispensers missing a few. I’m rather tired of the lack of appreciation.

The old ladies in the morning that bitch about my work always tell the woman I just trained what a great job she does, even though I’m the only one she works with and I trained her and taught her everything she’s doing and I’ve been there almost 2 years. In that much time they’ve never said anything to me. No “thanks”, no “good job” nothing but bitching. It hurts because it adds to the festering feelings of under-appreciation I’ve had since around April.

The feelings of under-appreciation were born from one event: I had an opportunity for a scholarship that I was notified for at the end of March for almost $ 3,000. It would have covered my tuition for one whole semester and my teacher gave the application to me because he really thought I could get it. All I needed from my employer was a letter of recommendation on a paper with a letterhead with a signature in pen. 

So I asked the franchise owner on a rare occasion that I saw her, I explained to her how important it was that I have it and she said I would have it within two days. Well a week went by and it didn’t show up. So I had another week before it was due and I asked the store manager where it was. Store manager told me the franchise owner forgot about it and was on vacation and that he’d do it for me. I was hurt, but I figured okay, manager works too. I got into work that night and there was a letter for me. It was awful.  No letter head, a couple lines that more or less said “Bagel Bat knows how to make coffee and works at night. The end.”  

Even more hurt and angry, I took it to the school to see if maybe, just maybe they’d take it. My teacher told me it was completely unacceptable and having served on the scholarship board before, said they wouldn’t take it.  I never got an apology from the manager and I haven’t seen the franchise owner since April.

I’m writing this because I now have a second job, and I may have to keep the job at the Drunken Donut until at the very latest November, but I swear with how depressed I’m getting there I might just quit early. :(

--Bagel Bat

Comments

[mltbeenie]

Maybe you need to start being a tad bit more confrontational. Let people know you are doing your best and if they would like these tiny issues fixed in the morning, they should do it in the morning, as that certainly isn't asking much at all. I guess I'd rather have people fear and despise me than treat me like utter shit.

[trekkiebabe]

There's nothing wrong with standing up for yourself, and of course document incidents! Can you get the owner's email address or phone number, sounds like he/she needs to know what's going on?

[The Last Archimedean]

Document, document, document... and grow a backbone. Complain to the boss or owner about the slacker co-workers.

[Spritzy]

I'm sorry that the owner and manager treated you with such disregard. I know that it stings and destroys one's trust in people. And pretty much that's what we have to do. To not entirely trust or rely on people, particularly people that we aren't close to, cause we never know when they're gonna go back on their word, give you half-assed crap, or forget about you entirely when you need it. Of course it's good to trust our friends and family and rely on them in particular, but even then, it's always good to have a backup plan...a second option...just in case.
In that situation I probably would have found more than one person to write recommendations for me, long-time friends of parents, previous teachers, pastor at my church, volunteer center leaders that I've worked with, things like that. That way I'd be sure to have something that was acceptable, even if one of the others fell through on me.

[Fortune Cookie]

Send a letter to the owner explaining just how much money she lost you and get her to do at least something like give you a bonus or raise or whatever...It's almost blackmail, but they fucked up.

[Skittles]

It sounds like your on your way out of there as it is, and if this is the case I highly recommend that you stop working so hard especially if you have another job already that is steady. Seriously you already lost the chance at a $3,000 scholarship you don't owe your best effort. I wouldn't normally say this type of thing, but in this case they clearly don't appriciate the work you do so if I were in your position I would actively stop caring so it didn't affect me as much.

[Polo-Necked Strip Mall Monkey]

I weep for you. This sucks. Funny how retail survives despite management getting everything backward....

Good luck, m'dear.