Coworker Hell: Day Off Meetings, Dumbass Managers, and Messages From Work On Facebook

Oh God, oh Beelzebub, oh Flying Spaghetti Monster, help me.

Mollywobbles here again.

Remember Birdie from my last story? The weekend after that story took place, she told me she'd put in her two weeks' notice.  Four days later, she was gone.  One week after that, she was back.  As was a girl who has quit and come back three - count 'em, three separate times. 

Talk about job security, amirite? 

Another girl who has quit and come back only once has been made manager.  She's been there about two years.

As for myself, remember that "Crew Trainer" thing I was talking about?  It's happening, but it's taking its sweet-ass time happening.  I got a "Crew Trainer Workbook" last month, completed it in about a week, and have been waiting for something to happen ever since.  It's not just myself, either - it's me and four other people, all of whom (with the exception of myself and one guy) have, you guessed it, quit and come back.  I'm beginning to sense a pattern here.  Stick around for four years, come in whenever they need you to, only call in sick when you're really, truly sick?  "Crew Trainer".  Quit a year in, stay gone for two, three weeks and come begging for your job back?  Manager.  I digress. 

The thing that has really pissed me off about this whole thing is how long it's taking.  It has been more than a month since we got and completed our workbooks, but only one person has watched the necessary videos because only one (who shall henceforth be known as Moo because she loves cows [side note: she happens to be Andy's mom from my last story, she's really cool]) knows which videos that need to be watched, and she and I rarely work the same shifts.  I get moved around on the schedule a lot.  It...complicates things.

Anyway, we were supposed to have a Crew Trainer meeting last week, on my day off.  I got a text message letting me know when to show up.  Fast forward to the next day, five minutes before the meeting is supposed to start, I'm the only one there. 

Store Manager looks at me and goes, "Oh, didn't you get Moo's text?  She had to cancel.  It'll be sometime next week."  Then he said something kind of incomprehensible about someone having to clean...hoods, or something, I guessed it was some work she was having done on her house.  I didn't pry.  Point is, no, I didn't get the text, and showed up on my day off for nothing.  Also, the lack of a specific date and time for the meeting being rescheduled irked me.

This past Saturday, I had the day off, so I called work to ask when I worked the next day (schedules are made up for Sunday through Saturday, with schedules posted every Saturday).

A manager whom I have mentioned in the comments before - one with whom I have been at odds with several times over her attitude and perceived self-importance, let's call her BM (Bitch Manager, Bad Manager, Bowel Movement, take your pick) - answered the phone. 

I asked if schedules had been posted, she checked and told me "You don't work Sunday, you work Monday at two.  No, wait, three." 

I repeated it back to her - "Three on Monday?"

"Yeah." - and went on my merry way.  Monday rolled around.  Two o'clock, my alarm went off, I got on the computer, got dressed, got everything ready to go.  Two forty-five, I get a message on Facebook from Closer: "Hey, Molly, call work, you were supposed to be there at two."

That's right - a message on Facebook. 

Not a phone call, not a text message, not even from a manager that was at work at the time. 

And, the kicker of it all, not at 1:55, not at 2:00, at 2-fucking-45.  I got to work at 3:00, and Store Manager was practically right on me -

SM: You know you were supposed to be here at two, right?

Me: BM told me three.

SM: *shakes his head a little* BM told you two.

Me: Yeah, I called on Saturday night, and she answered the phone and told me three.

SM: *jokingly* Well, you should have known to call at a different time and get someone other than BM to tell you! *walks away laughing to himself*

I guess I should never have expected someone who's only one step below SM's level to actually be able to read the schedule, huh?  I mean, it's not like it hasn't always been written in military time or anything.

And now, as I write this, my husband and his idiot friend are in the other room VERY LOUDLY writing an anti-Brony song to bug the shit out of me, using the names of the ponies that I literally just taught them no less. 

Oh God, oh Beelzebub, oh Flying Spaghetti Monster, I call upon all your powers to not commit murder on this night.

May your management be competent, and Brony on, my friends.

--Mollywobbles

 

 

Comments

[The Last Archimedean]

If corporate had any brains, they'd make YOU the manager...

[photoslave]

The part about getting the wrong time reminds me of one of the reasons why I quit Sears Portraits (no problem using the real name because I will NEVER work for CPI again. Twice bitten.) This was back in 2009 Christmas season. I was scheduled to work on Black Friday on the opening shift. I get up way early, shower, breakfast, and drive half an hour to the shopping district (store wasn't in a mall), spend 20 minutes trying to find a parking space, and fight my way into the store and up the escalator to the studio. I get in there and the assistant manager pulls me aside and tells me that they didn't need me since they weren't going to be as busy as they thought. I then ask why nobody called me (I didn't have a cell). She says "I don't know. Call the manager." I do. She called my house 10 minutes before the start of my shift. I was already in the freaking parking lot. She also knew that I lived half and hour away and didn't have a cell phone. Some managers are complete idiots that turn in bitches/assholes when you call them out on their mistakes.

[The Last Archimedean]

Zeus have mercy, photoslave. Was your manager the inspiration for this?

http://dilbert.com/strips/2006-01-30/

There really needs be a law put in that any potential manager has to pass a basic intelligence test. Anyone who has no common sense is automatically excluded from being a manager or higher-level executive.

Of course, then the problem is what do we do with about 10 million newly-unemployed former managers and executives... wait, that's not a problem at all. The 10 million retail slaves with common sense and a functioning brain who just moved up into management will need to be replaced on the front line.

[Karebear]

Out of all my managers in my past jobs throughout the years, I have seen more dumb managers than good managers. I had a manager do the same thing to me as to you, Mollywobbles. Call it and give me a different time than I was scheduled. Turns out she was trying to get me fired though. >.>

Hopefully it looks up for you. <3

[Mollywobbles]

photoslave - Wow, WTF? Was your manager high? What an idiot!

Karebear and Arc - Thanks guys =3 I've been after a management position since my second year there, and everyone knows it. Unfortunately, as I said in this and my previous post, nepotism and uninspired promotions are rampant in my location. This is, after all, the world of retail - where black is white, wrong is right, and anything that ought to make sense simply doesn't.

Oh, and one more thing I forgot to add in my post: About three weeks ago, we had a guy get into an argument with Andy from my last story, who is notorious in that place for giving people a hard time (usually in jest). He took a joke completely the wrong way, and as a result, he took off his uniform - hat, shirt and PANTS - in the middle of the lobby, in broad daylight AND in full view of customers, and walked out the door. We all assumed this was an overly-dramatic "I quit" and he was marked off the schedule for the rest of the week. Two days later, though, he called Store Manager and asked for his job back. The next day, he was back. Guy's been there maybe three months total.

I really just don't know what to make of my place of employment anymore.

[Anonymous]

I got written up back when I used to work for Guess because my manager told me the wrong times on the phone. The "solution" on the form was that I could no longer call for my schedule, and would instead come into work to see what time I had to be there. I went in the next week for my schedule- they gave me one 'on call' shift and no real hours. Turned in my two weeks a few days later. Fuck. That.

[m.]

God that "brony" shit is so freaking annoying. Grow the hell up.

[NC Tony]

The way I see it Molly, is you should quit, then come back and get a promotion to manager. That way when one of your looser co-workers quits, and then comes begging for their job back, you can use your new manager powers to refuse to rehire them!

[LaserSpawn]

tony, that might not work. molly's luck, she'd quit and they wouldn't hire her back.

[Skittles]

Make your husband and his anti brony friends watch one full episode, tell them, if they want to make fun of it they should at least know what they ar emaking fun of. Yeah nepotism is absurdly funny my company has a slew of carbon copy house managers they all resemble the manager who is a step above them both physically and mentally. It gets to be pretty funny. Like when we were all told that because a former co-worker had been fired we were no longer allowed to speak to them. I even clarified "you mean regarding work or the clients?", nope they actually thought they could make that rule.

[The Last Archimedean]

I had an employer who tried that once, Skittles. When the words "lawsuit" and "on my own time" were mentioned they backed away right quick. [No, I wasn't the one to mention those words.]

That was about 15 years ago.

[Mollywobbles]

LaserSpawn - You've been following my posts, haven't you? lol Yeah, that would absolutely be my luck if I tried that stunt. =\

Skittles - The thing that really irks me about the Brony thing is, my husband has watched every single episode with me, and even has a favorite ep and song. His friends (for the most part) have watched an episode or two, but it's not their thing and I can respect that. My hubby is just one of those people that makes fun of EVERYTHING - including stuff he likes - especially when he knows it upsets me. I like to sit and make fun of stuff sometimes, too, but after a while, it gets old. It especially gets old when he's trying to explain Bronies to his out-of-the-loop friends and goes out of his way to mention cloppers and Rule 34. Like that shit doesn't exist in every fandom. -_- Also, your company sounds ridiculous. They can't force people to stop talking to people - what do they think they're running, a preschool?

[Skittles]

They might think thats what they are running considering it's probably the higest level of education any of my bosses has.