DD walked out of job

[MiansyMoo]

Will try and keep short. DD is 18, recently got first job at local supermarket. Had an induction where she was waiting around for hours, signed a ten hours minimum contract waiving her right to work less than 48 hours a week, even though the position was advertised as part time.

She signed it anyway. Like I said, first job.

At first shift, she was left alone for four hours before someone came and realised she was there at work. Apparently everyone ignored her request for help, was very unfriendly and rude. On top of this, she was also not given the door code to get in, not given any duty manager numbers, or any information about what duties she was supposed to carry out.

She had her second shift yesterday. Again, she said she was given no duties, no guidance, just left in the store despite her induction consisting of just signing a contract. No training was given at all, aside from a brief e-course.

She said she roamed around the store for six hours completely clueless, before eventually walking out during the shop hours.

DH thinks she has behaved appallingly and has no sympathy. However, although she is 18, it's her first job and she was up all of Friday night anxious and even crying as she had no idea what the hell she was supoosed to be doing. On top of that, she hasn't been put on the rate of pay advertised at the interview and they've given her 45 hours next week, not the 20 she agreed too.

AIBU to side with DD on this? Not saying walking out of a job is right, but it clearly was making her very unhappy

It does sound odd that she wasn't directed to tasks and didn't have a set area or training or anything. Though when you describe the interview it does certainly sound a touch shambolic all round!

I worked various jobs during Uni and one was particularly bad (I was a receptionist and wasn't allowed breaks or lunch away from my desk, given little training and left in horrible situations early on like dealing with guests when we had overbooked and having to relocate them elsewhere, it was dreadfully unprofessional and I was so incredibly out of my depth). I did stick at it, but I do remember my Mum, who has a strong work ethic and has always encouraged me to work, saying that maybe I should just stop turning up. I didn't, I found something else and left, but I do remember it was nice knowing that she would have supported me if I'd thrown in the towel.

Did she tell anyone she was walking out ? Will anyone know?

If not, then suggest she goes back for her next shift, asks the manager what she should be doing, if there's not actually any work for her to do, then she should tell the manager she thinks this is a waste of her time and their money for her to stand around for X hours trying to look busy when she's not really got anything she can do, so would like to resign.

It's not a case that she has to stay in a crap job, but resigning and just not turning up are 2 different things.

MiansyMoo YANBU to support your dd, who was treated appallingly.

I hope you can help your dd get something that will encourage her and get her on a great career path, this doesn't sound like it.

PS totally agree with InvisibleKittenAttack, get her to go back, explain the situation and resign properly.

I walked out of a part-time job at a similar age - it was in a small, independent shop, and I was there on my own most Saturdays, which I hadn't been told at the interview. Going to the toilet or having any breaks were virtually impossible, and the manager used to constantly ring to check up on me, then berate me for being on the phone and neglecting customers. One day I told him I'd put the keys through the letterbox when I locked up, and never went back. A few days later I scored a Saturday job in a men's clothing shop, which was a rich source of nice blokes and nights out, so it all worked out okay!

I don't blame your daughter for walking out, but it's so odd that they should be interviewing people when there doesn't even appear to be a job for them to do! Just told to tidy. What's the point of that? It sounds like a pathetic company. I hope your daughter gets a job at a decent place soon.

I am not normally one for making snap decisions, but I am broadly on her side in this case. However, I can't believe she managed to spend 6 hours doing nothing. She clearly has some initiative (hence the walking out) but she should be using that initiative to keep asking questions until she gets satisfactory answers about her duties, who she reports to, etc. If the answers are not satisfactory then she should resign, formally, with reasons.

I don't she's behaved well honestly. Your first post made it sound like she had zero clue what she was doing and no one would speak to her to tell her, but actually the duty manager told her to face the aisles. It's a dull job, but in a larger store you can very easily fill up a full shift just doing that if you do it right, and she shouldn't have needed any training or guidance if that was all they wanted from her those shifts.

Lot's of employers are pretty slow about getting new employees numbers and codes, and places like supermarkets, where there are tasks you can easily do with no training, will often roster someone for a few shifts before they get around to training them for a specific role. It's not ideal, but it is common and if your DD get's another similar type of job she might well have a very similar experience.

The hours thing is her own fault, she signed the contract.

If she really couldn't stand getting paid to tidy up shelves, she should have at least found that duty manager and told him she was quitting.

Sounds very much like my first job around that age. Difference is, I was stupid enough to stick it out. Meant to be mostly part time, some of my own money to enjoy one last summer with friends before we all went our separate ways, ended up working up to 50 hours a week, in a badly air conditioned shop being ignored by the rest of the staff all summer. I still get angry with myself for not having the spine to walk away. She did the right thing, hope a better job comes along quickly and has better opportunities. Has she tried your local Iceland store? Apparently they are fantastic employees if you can get a job there.

I asked DD why she couldn't just tidy and she said because she couldn't reach anything but the bottom shelves. Anything higher she wasn't allowed to touch due to safety and she said everything else was 'already tidy.' Also bear in mind the second day she actually got told there was nothing to be done and this was the day she left on.

She also got hired as a "Sales Assistant." She got told she'd be on the till permanently. Yet the duty manager had no idea she was supposed to be on the till or even working that day.

She's not normally one who gives up easily. She's just completed four A Levels and is expected to do well. Hard work is known to her, if she can spend eight hours a day working on her A Levels something tells me it must have been that bad if she couldn't manage to tidy shelves for 8 hours.

I'm with your DD here too.

She's at the right age to apply for an apprenticeship in something she'd enjoy though. My friend's son has just done an apprenticeship that lasted a year and has walked into a 25k+ job with the same company he trained with, at 19.

I work in a shop and I know not all are the same, but I really do wonder, like a PP, about your dd's version of events. I mean if it's completely true then she's right, but it seems a bit far fetched to me.

I'm really struggling to see how she was left for hours on her first shift - was she not given/did she not ask during induction, who she would need to report to, where she would meet them, about her clock in card etc? Also I can understand 'normal' colleagues not being too helpful but surely if she'd approached a manager (someone in a suit) they'd have helped?

If she walked out, I would say go back on her next shift. Find a manager and explain she's on such and such department but unsure who's her manager/what to do and they should be able to help her. When she sees her manager on her department explain she's unsure and what should she do.

In regard to signing the 48hr waiver - she didn't have to, she can change her mind but has to give notice I think, or at least in my store. Tbh though the money can be great. It sounds like she's on a 'flexi' contract, like me. Mine is 9 hours a week (so rubbish) but I get between 45 and 60hrs per week which is great for me. As I'm contracted 2 days I can say that I can't work such and such day and they sort it out. I think taking a job like that you have to take the rough with the smooth and particularly at the begining take extra shifts to show willing. If it gets too much though, she should say that they're too much hours.

I'm going to sound harsh now but you have to be, not bossy but definitely explicit in what you want from managers. If you're generally helpful/nice and do favours for them, they will for you. They're very busy and the 'little' things can be forgotten and you do need to ask over and over sometimes (in a polite manner) for things to stick. Not that any new starter should be forgotten about, of course not, just that dd has to start off confident and take the initiative from the begining.

She's emailed the store email now saying she is leaving with immediate effect.

I can see why she left- I would not be happy if my higher paid, till job ended up actually being a lower paid, basic tidying job. It's not what she applied for.

However, I don't think she was entirely right to walk out.

Sorry, I'm with your dh, it's all very well walking out of a job when you've got mummy and daddy to pay your bills, but not in the real world

But she does have mummy and daddy and quite frankly she shouldn't be forced to put up with shit because that's what happens in the "real world". Yes 18 is an adult, but in your first job, many are still very young and need guidance, . To be there, not knowing what to do and no one helping you is horrid. Have you ever had a job where you don't know what to do, are ignored and untrained and left to it? It's not nice.

Yes in the real world, if you have no other options, you need to suck it up and put up with shit for the money, but I for one wouldn't force my daughter to do that whilst I can help her avoid it. Should the op send her up the chimneys too? Give her a real grounding in shite work? What other shite conditions should she put up with because that's " the real world"?

I can remember being a young person in a new job, not liking to ask anything in case it was annoying. Also putting up with some crap treatment for the same reason, and other people seeming to think it was ok.

I think it's a common trick these days for stores to advertise a part-time job of X hours, then spring a flexi-contract on the new starter, who doesn't like to object so just signs it.

I would not be happy if my higher paid, till job ended up actually being a lower paid, basic tidying job. It's not what she applied for

Ok, that's a drip feed and would make me change my previous statements. If this is she wanted to work the tills and they put her on tidying so she literally walked, then I will about face and be with your husband.. that's appalling bevahiour.

'Vague tidying' is crap & boring, but if that's what needs doing, that's what needs doing & in a supermarket it needs doing continually. I'd be unimpressed she hadn't just got on with it & made herself useful. Just because they haven't trained her on the till or ladders on day 2, doesn't mean they won't. Yes, it sounds shambolic, but she's not at school now, she needs to be more proactive & not expect to be spoon fed. I think she should go back & get on with it (they probably didn't even notice she'd left), at least until she finds something else. It's really not teaching her anything supporting her walking out like that. She can 'be assertive' & 'stand up for herself' by finding the right person to get things sorted out.

I think her version is somewhat true, also.

At the induction she literally signed a contract and got a uniform. It was a duty manager who saw her, who told her to see another duty manager on her first shift to get details.

Yet on the first shift, the duty manager didn't know who she was, or even that she was working that day. He gave her the basic instruction of 'tidy up' and according to DD was about two years older than her. So there wasn't an 'official' manager such as a guy/woman in a suit who could meet her and sort it out.

Some days when the manager is not in, it's literally the duty manager. DD is unlucky she got the duty manager both days, IMO.

What difference does it make the duty manager was two years older than her? If that was their job that was their job. With every subsequent post your husband is coming out the one in the right,

The person who interviewed her may have known nothing about the job she was to do.
I work in a supermarket and arrived at work at 6am one Sunday to find a new starter had been there since 3am! The interviewer should have told her 3pm, which was what the dept manager had said.
(She was at least inside, not on the doorstep, as we have a night shift staff.)

bluntness I mentioned the pay in the original post, one rate was advertised and suggested, then the actual contract had a lower amount.

Still, she didn't HAVE to sign it!

Team DD too.
I did this last year; I lasted three days, walked out during a shift because the manager was shit and didn't want to know, no training, just left to it with no support. These places do exist.

Cross posted with you saying she's sent an email.

I don't know, I don't know your DD, but it sounds like she thinks it's all a bit beneath her to tidy up & generally get on with the job. Massive drip feed about applying for 'sales assistant' & being told she would be on the tills, but even so, walking out on day 2 because she had to tidy up instead is pretty unimpressive.

Often these places have too many 'Duty Managers' who are badly, if at all, trained. Why didn't she see who was the DM on her next shift?

The duty manager was another very young adult, who, according to DD, was very rude and didn't seem like he was bothered at all. DD tried to talk to him and apparently he has worked at the store in question only a month himself as his summer job to save up for his next year of university. What my DD is saying is that the people who were supposed to be more experienced than her and to guide her seemed just as fed up as she was.

And I'm sorry for the potted info here and there, I'm asking DD more when questions arise. She's talking about it more now, because earlier she was crying and started again every time I asked her what went wrong. Also, bear in mind all info I have is from my DD. I wasn't there.

I wonder if she needs to toughen up, but then again it did sound like a pretty awful organised job. Yet she still could have let them know.