About this new supervisor calling me challenging.

[paintyapron]

Hi

Before I complain this AM I just wanted to look at people's opinions.

I started a Christmas temp job lastnight for a few extra pounds for Christmas, I applied with two friends due to PND and thought it would help lift me a little.

I arrived to find I had been separated from my friends, ok I thought I'd just go out of my comfort zone. They said it was as friends aren't allowed to work together, my 2 friends are based together though! All of my floor was couples and friends chatting. I was on my own for 6 hours and no one in my bay said a word to me.

My manager told my friend ' I was brave to apply if this really was the case regarding my anxieties'

Secondly, it was supposed to be an induction evening but no induction was done, we were told to just start wrapping.

I did, loaded it up in the post trolley.
Manager came and had a go at me because she has OCD and I did it wrong apparently.

Tried again, super neat. Got in trouble again as the parcels weren't level. However I hadn't yet made enough parcels for it to be level.

She came back and said 'by god, aren't you challenging'

I finished my parcels and asked what I should do next, they made me go around collecting bins and tried to make me climb over boxes to take them out as the bin exit was restricted. I said no, I'd rather not.

Aibu to ask to move to another floor where I won't be treated like this. Just had to stop myself crying all night.

She's so nasty. When some people who came from Latvia arrived she shouted across ' the Latvians have arrived' I was horrified!

I'd pack it in. I've had PND and its hard enough without feeling judged all the time.

You cant do a job properly, if you hadnt been told how they like it to be done.

Also, is it Amazon?

I’m not sure this job is going to help your mental health very much.

The manager sounds awful, no matter how much posters try and justify her behaviour, it is AIBU and people enjoy a challenge on here! But, she sounds unprofessional and yes, it makes sense that seasonal workers get most of the flack.

I would advise you that you shouldn’t let her unprofessional way of speaking to effect your way of speaking. Be professional and make sure you are focusing on the job not reacting to her (however unfair it seems!). So, for example, refusing to climb over bins seems like something that you rightly should have objected to. But then you need to ensure that don’t sound like you’re whining or making a personal choice on a whim or just to be difficult.

You have a relevant reason why, and so he confident enough to explain that, in a friendly yet firm way. You are right to be concerned about health and safety even if you get flack for it. It would be you taking the risk and what you want for Christmas really isn’t a recurrent back injury!

I’d also be clear but polite, that you haven’t had the training that you were advised would be done, if people complain you don’t know what to do.

Maybe try it one more time then ditch it if it’s the same?

I am a bit confused about why your ‘anxieties’ and pnd are being discussed openly on the warehouse floor. That seems a bit strange, and I’m not sure it’s working in your favour?

Not Amazon. Big card company

I was a christmas temp at a major supermarket. While the induction was fine, the staff on the tills were the most sneery fuckers I've even known and they never made it clear how long your breaks were meant to be.

I'm quite shocked about some of the responses to be honest. You do seem to have a horrid manager who expects you to know how to do the job without training. It's not unreasonable to expect to be treated with respect as an employee.

Many years ago I did a few temp jobs like this while a student. They were never very nice jobs and often had bad managers. This sounds a bit like one of those!

It's just pure luck that your friends were put together and you weren't. But the rest is generally not very nice treatment.

If you really don't need the job and you are thinking you will leave, I'd give it another day or two. If she says something iffy, such as you're challenging or that 90% of temps are thieves I would (politely) pull her up "that's not very nice" or "it's a wonder you've got away with say g things like that". If she criticises what you've done ask her to show you or train you again. I wouldn't want to let her win!

OP if you don't need the money, don't go back. I worked in countless places like this as a student. Places that paid barely anything, treated stuff like shit and had a higher staff turnover rate than they produced products.

If you didn't receive training, it's not your fault it wasn't 'up to standard' the first time.

It's not your fault she shouted at you for not taking ten seconds to enquire whether you finished or not.

If she does have OCD, this is also not your fault and having OCD isn't an excuse to be rude to employees if 'neat' wrapping still upsets the manager due to the OCD tendencies being triggered by said wrapping. As long as your wrapping was up to company standards then the manager cannot/ should not require it to be up to her own personal standard particularly if this is one of the triggers of her OCD.

As for the Latvians thing, whilst it won don't offend me, I think announcing the arrival of a whole group of people via their country is a bit unprofessional of a manager, but that would personally not bother me.

Unfortunately your boss is being a bit of a dick. It's very common for bosses to be a bit of a dick, it must be in the job description. :-/
However, you've only been there a very short while, I'd say take a deep breath, ignore the jibes, do your best, and see if it gets better.
Chances are your colleagues find her a bit of a dick too, so you'll end up bonding with them over it, once you've been there a while.