AIBU to be annoyed at my manager?

[crankyemploy]

Hi!

this is not a thread where I ask AIBU and everyone says yes and I say no I’m not 😁I’m just genuinely unsure if I’m being UR or not and I’m new to working (first job after school!) and wondered if this would annoying anyone else.

I work in retail and my manager and or supervisor (usually only one in at a time) seem to get more breaks than other people. I know for a fact they are supposed to have the same working hours as us and the same breaks allowance, yet every morning they spend an hour in the staff room having a breakfast (they order from a local cafe as soon as work starts so by the time they’ve gone to collect it, walked back, sat down and eaten it they don’t actually start work for a good hour or so and during that time they’re uncontactable. At times we’ve had problems whereby we needed either of them (for an authorisation code, for a refund, for an unhappy customer, for a difficult situation- that sort of thing) but they’re basically not working for the first hour or so and you can’t go and ask them anything because they are sitting eating breakfast watching netflix in the staff room. I know for a fact they get the same 1 hour lunch allowance as everyone else- not extra for being a manager- and this breakfast hour doesn’t come off that- they still take a full lunch too. It started off with them spending 5 minutes getting ready for the day by drinking a coffee then it extended to having a quick breakfast, now it’s become a full hour of a proper sit down breakfast and Netflix.

I guess what I’m asking is, AIBU to feel a bit annoyed about it? Or is it something that as managers they get to have extra bonuses like that and it’s actually ok and just sort of part of being a manager?

thanks all, just needed some perspective and to be told if I’m being a bit cranky and should pipe down or if I’m correct to feel a bit irked by it!

Just for some more context- I really struggle to accept things that I see as inequality and that’s why it’s annoyed me and irked me especially as they are uncontactable to us and won’t work even though they are technically supposed to. Although it’s also possible that it’s not really inequality because they’re a manager and we’re not and maybe this is just one of the perks of being a manager? it’s all a bit confusing when you don’t have much experience but if anyone with a bit more experience could offer an opinion I would be really grateful!

Do they stay working later than everyone else? Are they doing work related things before everyone else? Extra unpaid hours for audits, stock takes, covering sickness/annual leave?

They should be contactable for refunds etc regardless.

Nope, none of the above. Tbh it’s closer to the opposite- they frequently leave early although I understand this is definitely a perk of being a manager!

They need to be contactable when you need them, the rest of it is none of your business if it’s having no negative impact on you

I left a job because of a scenario like this.
I worked at a bookies at 18, when the manager was “working” she would leave for 2 hours so she could have dinner with her kids and put them to bed.
this would be ok if those were her hours but she would leave me alone in the shop, my induction said for safety there should always be 2 people.
I asked another member of staff and they said that she shouldn’t have done it and had been in trouble before.

In my previous career I worked in retail management. I did all my admin such as rotas in the staff room because there were no offices to do this. Or often I would do these tasks at home and take the time back in the form of longer breaks. Could this be the case?

Are you sure that’s what they’re doing for the whole hour? As a retail manager I would often eat, then do rotas/payroll/reports or whatever before heading to the shop floor. And usually I had got there early and done stuff before anyone arrived.
Same with lunch, I might spend 2 hours sat at the computer doing admin that needed doing whilst eating lunch, but rather than that being a 2 hour lunch, it was 2 hours of working with some food whilst doing so.
I would also stay later to finish things I’d not been able to do during the day.
Consider whether this could be the case for your manager before assuming the worst or letting it get you down.

How do you know what working hours is in their contract?