RHU Classic Toxic Coworkers: The Tale Of Too Manly

This story was originally posted on September 14, 2011.

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Bookstore Slave here with yet another story, this one about a sucky co-worker.

Now this happened when Bookstore Slave was... um, a Bookstore Slave. The holidays rolled around and as usual, newbies were introduced to the workforce as Temp Holiday Slaves. New and temporary as they were, most threw themselves into learning with a will, and me being the one always at Registers, I generally took to standing at attention nearby and walking them through their training days. Not that I minded, since I'm patient, have a good rapport with most custies and keep the nervous newbies from having heart attacks.

On the other hand, I suspect the real reason I get to train newbies is because Bitchy McLazyass doesn't want to do it and she figures dumping them on me gets the job done and nobody has to get a raise or actually do their job except us low rankers. But I digress.

One newbie, whom I shall dub TooManly, is apparently an immigrant. Nothing particularly wrong with that, but I suspect his roots/culture affected his work ethic. 

His first proclamation was simple: Wrapping gifts was woman's work and he wanted nothing to do with it. In fact, he didn't even know how. TooManly resisted, grouched and whined until manager McAwesome told him he needed to do his damn job, which included wrapping gifts during the Christmas season because everybody had to pull the extra weight. After being taught a simple technique that even the guys at the bookstore were capable of easily managing, TooManly was so pissed at being told to do his job that he proceeded to bungle it up, horribly. The result was so piss poor that I always had to re-do his sucky job so that custys didn't leave in disgust.

His second was posed as a question. If he arrived half an hour late, was he still on time?

"NO!" comes the chorus from Manager and Slave alike.  

TooManly promptly proceeded to be exactly 30 minutes late, complaining of traffic whenever warned and even written up for his tardiness. I was late to my break more than once due to his incessant tardiness. I told him that if traffic truly was the problem, then he needed to inform a manager that he could not be at the store because school let out at XX and needed XX amount of time and his scheduling could be adjusted accordingly.

This advice was ignored simply because "STFU You Are Only a Mere Woman and I am TooManly to Listen To A Woman."

Now, I know that the concepts of time are different in other countries, and that it may even be polite to come after the time expected. But when you come to the good old US of A and take on a US of A job, you must be there and at your station on the dot. Likewise, if you immigrate to the good old US of A, you also better snap out of your Male Superiority complex because here, we don't put up with that shit. This is basic sense.

TooManly ultimately was fired because he simply wasn't reliable, something I relished because the Manager that gave him the boot was a Mere Woman after all.

--Bookstore Slave

 

 

Comments

[heavy melvanova]

Yeah, that pisses me right the hell off. Yes, I know people and cultures are different around the world, that's part of humanity. But if I moved to another country that had different dress codes, I'd adapt. If they spoke another language, I'd learn some. I'd even cover up in the more modest countries, it's called respect.

But don't come here and expect all your old cultural norms to fly here, especially in regards to women. We work here, we have rights here, we can do what we want here. You don't like it, no one forced you to come here. Deal with it.