Daughter being bullied at work

[Aliceisagooddog]

My 18 year old daughter has started her first part time job in a supermarket. She has found it quite difficult because she has had minimal training and has been treated poorly by colleagues. It seems this branch has a toxic atmosphere. She wants to quit. Should she complain to a senior manager?

What has been said?

How long has she been there? What exactly is going on?

The toxic atmosphere is more than likely being fostered by the senior management, unfortunately. I'd just urge her to cut her losses and find another position elsewhere, rather than try a systematic culture change. That's a lot to hope for in a first job.

She has been told she is too slow. She wastold to interact more with customers but then criticised for interacting. She was asked by a manager if she had problems understanding or remembering. Colleagues reported that she was leaving the shop floor to go to the toilet when she was actually helping a customer. Many other issues too. I think her face doesn't fit, she is quiet and not part of the clique.

If she can manage without the money, I'd be inclined to quit. Life's too short.

Minimal training from a supermarket chain seems very unlikely. They have specific, standard procedures in place.

Has she understood the training? Has she asked for clarification?

Is she too slow, as they suggest? Has she followed procedure when leaving the floor? I don’t mean to be unkind but if this feedback is coming from her managers it doesn’t mean it’s toxic, she may need to meet standards

I agree, this could really damage her if it carries on, there's always something else out there even if it takes time to find.
I have a 17 year old girl and there is no way I would encourage her to stay.

How to respond to this.
The young woman has received constructive feedback. Its not bullying.
Trying to find another way to say this is life.... work happens, shit managers (which im not convinced this is) happen.
To ops dd- speak to manager about things, clarify what shes unsure of.

Please encourage her to leave ASAP. This job will destroy her confidence. It sounds to me like bullying - but even if it's just the wrong job for her personality/skillset, there is nothing to gain from sticking it out when clearly the fit isn't right.

Any work place will have standards to keep up. Telling her to leave will not teach her to be resilient. Better to encourage her to communicate with management and overcome any issues.

Shame on them they're like school children. It's probably not going to get any better and she doesn't need bullying in her first job - who does! It happened to me when I was 18 and it made me ill. I collapsed at home one morning when I was due in work, my mum rang up and told the head of the works what had been going on - they moved me to another department & location & I worked with a lovely group of women, all older than me but they were kind and that's all I needed.

I've never forgotten it, so I'd advise acting asap before they really upset her.

How is this bullying? Minimal training is normal. Yes she needs to interact with customers, what did she actually say or do to the customers when she was criticised for how she interacted with customers. With regards to being slow is she very particular and trying to make things perfect like perfectly lineing up stock can you explain to her things don't have to be perfect and in a busy environment speed is often more important. Did she struggle at school?

The only thing there that seems off is her being reported for going to the toilet but did she actually tell anyone what she was doing? Some jobs have really strict protocols.

The interacting thing is a bit contradicting but the being slow and also asking if she has issues remembering are not bullying.

It would be more helpful to try and get her to stay and learn how to deal with something that makes her uncomfortable. I have only ever had this situation when my children were racially abused at school. I wasn’t going to sugar coat it as you can't change your face. We talked about it at length and how to negotiate it. I was worried if they saw themselves as victims that’s what they would become.

My daughter was bullied in a job by a manager who persistantly put her down and fawned over the male co workers. I suspect out of jealousy as my dd had quit a good rapport with them.
In the end my dd resigned and did so without another job to go to.

The bullying went on for about 6 months before she left and involved daily catty and spiteful comments. Even the other male co workers noticed how differently my dd was treated. I think the line manager was trying to push my dd into working lots of extra overtime for free thus trying to say ' earn my respect and ill start bring nice to you'
This was a new manager that had just joined and 5 other staff reporting to the line manafer also left around the same time.

My advice is give it a certain amount of time.

My response relates to if she is being bullied ,the average inexperienced 17 year old will not get the better of a group of nasty adults in a workplace.
Constructive feedback is obviously all together different.