I can’t stand one of my colleagues

[TimeAtTheBar]

And it’s really out of order of me because she’s actually very well meaning.

I am her manager and only started last month. I was meant to have a handover from the outgoing manager but she bailed on her notice. So this girl (and she is a girl; about 19) who has been there the longest has been my go -to for questions about specifics. I mean stuff like where we keep the XYZ. I had some training in a different site but not as much as would have been ideal so I’m having to wing it a bit; my boss is fine with this and I’m getting lots of support from them.

But this particular colleague is getting right on my tits. She keeps correcting me. Over tiny stupid things that don’t matter. She talks over me with customers. She tells me to do things.

It’s partly of my own making I think because I deferred to her knowledge in the first week but I just want to scream in her face that I AM HER BOSS when she pulls me up on things.

My current strategy is just ‘yes I know that thank you’ or laughing when she tells me what to do. But any minute now my last nerve is going to snap and I’m going to say something I’ll regret.

She’s also not actually very good at her job and I am going to have to have a conversation about her standards with her soon which makes it even more laughable that she patronises me.

im posting while on my lunch break, she hasn’t left me alone, every time there’s more than one customer she has asked me to come and assist.

Just posting for a rant really. I know I’m being unreasonable. I need to gently assert that I’m the one in charge, not her.

Sounds like she's just trying to get YOU to do your job

I think the problem is it’s the first normal week I’ve worked with her. My first week was in head office training. Then a week here with my boss training me. Then half term which was insanely busy. So today is the first quiet day I’ve spent with her and she’s spent the whole time she was here picking holes in what I was doing. It annoyed me before but now it’s enraging me 🤣

I’ll stamp it out tomorrow.

Oh and we are closed now and I’m laying on the floor trying to stop my back from hurting, before anyone jumps on me.

Sounds like you're making really basic mistakes at work that deserve correction, she's hardly picking on you for nothing. Cross-contamination is a huge issue for allergies etc.

And you're at work yet scrolling on social media.

I don't think the "girl" is the problem here - you sound younger than 19. I'd be really annoyed if someone was paid at management level but I had to teach them everything and they were condescending towards me.

Why do people say stuff like this on threads? Does it make you feel good to be rude?

And you're lying on the floor of your workplace? Seriously.. is this a wind-up thread?

The new manager. OP will be out of a job if she starts calling her a patronising little shit!

I work in retail and I absolutely agree with the op. Our manager and maybe 3 team leaders are excellent but we have about 5 young people and they are young especially when compared to me who are incompetent but think they know everything. It's obvious from everything they say and do that the job is just a way to get spending money and they have absolutely no interest or pride in what they do.
This is the main reason I wish we offered proper full time jobs to people who actually need to earn a living and not 16 hour contracts to students who quite simply don't give a toss.
Sorry not the same as op but aggravating all the same.

Don't minimise. Someone who is coeliac intolerant could be laid up for days and off work causing hardship.
Cross contamination is really basic kitchen hygiene and if the manager is failing to adhere to it, then the bar is really low for the staff.

She was right to pull you up that. If the business receives a large fine for failing to comply with regulations and closes then she's out of a job.

Also, why are you on shift on your own, have you completed a risk assessment and line worker training? Why have you not scheduled the right number of people on shift?

That's not letting her be the boss...

That's asking a colleague in a new envt what indidual operational aspects are... THAT ARE SPECIFIC TO THAT SITE! (knowing what day the bins go out /when the recycling goes out aren't essentials of overall managerial process...).

The 19 year old won't know this... As she can't possibly (or unlikely will have had enough experience in work to know this...

PS perhaps leading her to think. She's asking me stuff... Therefore I'm her boss.....

I’m not minimising. I made a mistake, it’s not a mistake I’ll make next time. I’m objecting to the gleeful going on and on about it. Also we always ask every single customer about allergies before reaching for the tongs so I already knew it wasn’t a GF issue.

And yes ok that needed correcting but she is also pulling me up on using the ‘wrong’ milk jug etc which I couldn’t give less of a shit about tbh.

I'm assuming the reason you don't do that is because you know she's not a girl.

Living at home and you having a daughter does not make her a girl.

So you don’t care about cross contamination and you’ll happily complain about how hard you work when in reality you’re being paid to sit on MN.

I don’t think the team are the only incapable ones here OP…

Oh do fuck off. None of that is the case and you are just being spiteful.

I’m not paid by the hour and I will do all my duties before I leave. But at the moment I am taking a break.

Pretty long break OP you’ve made several posts since midday

Completely irrelevant, but I’m imagining you working at Boots on a makeup counter for some reason. Just thought that was interesting.

I am perfectly capable of multitasking and have been posting/reading while doing other things. Except for the last half hour or so when I’d had enough and downed tools for a bit.

Ha! No, very different.

Independent company for a start.

😄A lot of people on here really hate managers.

Ew. Ageist alert. She is a legal adult.

Very patronising and unprofessional for you to refer to a member of staff as “the girl”. Ew ew ew. You awful person. Get off Mumsnet and speak to HR if you need support with approaching her about her conduct.

Just the ones who spend paid work time to post threads on MN bitching about their direct reports, with a bit of ageism thrown in for good measure too.

"Multitasking" by browsing Mumsnet whilst doing your job.. um.

Not to mention calling other people "shit" but being incapable of using colour-coded tongs for a gluten-free roll..

My DC are coeliac and if you used the wrong tongs on a gluten free product, you are putting their health at risk. It also is high risk for cross contamination. I think you need more Lear king on your job before you start slating the girl who has been there the longest…

Yes I’ve got the message about the tongs loud and clear thank you. I take it none of you have ever made a mistake? Especially in the early days of a job?

If the customer had allergies I would have known, having asked, and been on high alert. The tongs (both pairs) were fresh out of the dishwasher and next to each other and I grabbed the wrong ones.

Not at all the point of the thread.