Unfair treatment at work

[Successgirl2022]

Hello All,

I work for a major retailer. Because of never-ending lockdowns for 1 year
and huge redundancies after that, I was asked if I would agree to move to my local store (no need to go by train like I've done for 6 years spending £100-120 a month on it) from clothes to food in August 2020.

I had a chance to refuse and to stay on clothes where I've worked for 15 years in 3 different stores because we moved for my husband's job and I managed to transfer which was a very stressful nearly impossible procedure but I made sure I did.

So I thought I would give it a go even if I knew straight away I preferred working on clothes 100% more. The reasons are

1. I love being warm

2. I prefer to work in clothes. I never minded helping in a food hall but I knew how much more extremely hectic it can be than clothes. Though it can get crazy on clothes during sales and offers too.

So, I've signed my contract to move to my local store in October 2020. I SO MUCH regret doing it now!

Until the Christmas craze started it was more or less ok but it took me the whole year to adapt to it.

With Christmas madness, the rules for yellow reduction stickers changed 1 month ago. They used to be done in the morning at 5 am - 8 am before the store opens. Now they've changed them to the evening. So the store clothes at 20:00 and we have to do them till 22:00,

I saw a nice new young student girl doing the deli section in 3 hours 19:00 till 22:00. That's how long it took her. The shelves are crazy full and you have to go through sliced meat and deli products looking for tomorrow's date. They obviously want nothing to be missed and avoid wasting it.

So tonight I also started doing the deli section at 19:00 and finished at 22:00.

My incompetent immature manager told me 3 hours was way too long! What??? How dare he!

I was really upset about it how ungrateful he was towards me.

I checked 1000 or maybe 2000 items. I'll count them all next time specifically to know how many.

Has anyone been in a similar position?

Thank you very much

A manager telling you that you need to speed up when completing a task is not bullying.... its them doing their job? Im genuinely confused as to why you think this is bullying. Why would you mention you were so upset you needed to get your husband to pick you up, what does that achieve? Why do they want things done quicker, is this their decision or is it a national decision made by looking at the average time taken - maybe your stores average is much slower?

Your attitude is so wrong. They're running a busy business. You're there to do a job the way they want it done. You sound like the kind of person who makes everyone's job just a little more difficult than it needs to be.

Haven’t you posted about staying for the shares despite hating the job before?

The solution to finding a task difficult isn't HR complaints, suggesting someone else does it and working only day shifts.

I would ask your manager exactly how long they expect you to take and for advice on how to speed up. If they expect you to be X amount of time faster, what advice do they have to help you achieve that? Have they worked on it too so they can give some pointers?

You seem very dramatic and OTT. It's rich of you to call him immature!

Your manager wasn't being rude or ungrateful, he was managing - as he is supposed to. Ask him what the target time for the stickers is and see if you can get near that time.
If not, speak to him and explain that; instead of going on the defensive and throwing a strop.

Going above him to HO because he's done his job is not going to help relations, and if you're desperate to stay there for 2 years you'll want to keep things civil at least.

Get the faster people instead of me for yellow stickers and keep me in a day.

This is unbelievably precious of you.

I have an inkling the “ incompetent immature” manager may be experiencing their own challenges managing you

To be fair you actually sound incredibly tedious to work with.

It's not bullying but it is not very helpful either. Some managers don't understand that encouragement and empathy are valuable tools. The changing of HR doesn't surprise me it seems to be everywhere nowadays. Our HR is centralised so you email (can't phone anymore) and someone picks it up. Could be anyone and then they don't take ownership of it so you could end up with two, three or more people involved. I feel you pain OP and its disappointing that people with years of experience and lots to offer are not valued as much as they should be. Merry Christmas and focus on the two-year window if possible

People make life and death decisions, or close multi million pound deals with less fuss than you're making over yellow stickers.

This is not bullying. Havent you posted before about the shares?

You want your shares yet seem to be a bit blind to the fact that this if pushed could become a performance related issue.

Have you posted about this before? Apologies if not but the "got to stay 2 years for the shares" really rang a bell.

Ask how long it should take and what the error margin is. You don't have to do it "perfectly " and waste time if some errors are acceptable and even expected. Ask for pointers of how to do it faster, either from your colleagues or the manager.

If there's a company "way", you can't do it your way and then moan you're being bullied when you're pulled up on it.

Why not live off of your extra income and save yourself a lot of stress whilst looking for another job?

You sound like some of the staff my DH has to contend with whenever they try and bring in measures to help customers, who moan because it's more work for them, regardless of the fact it'll improve sales. Probably the same company I suspect as well.

I have to agree with prampushing - if you have a "second job" that makes you the equivalent of a section managers salary, why don't you just jack in your grim supermarket job and focus on your well-paid second job? I mean, shares are great and everything, but you can invest in shares without working for the company.

@Successgirl2022

They rotate us on different sections. He knows I do a thorough job and people who rush it miss 1-2-3-5 items and waste!

Your job is done however your manager says it should be done. He obviously doesn't care about accuracy, he wants speed so just do it quickly. Also I can honestly say senior management won't give a flying fuck about this.

Seriously....I came in fully prepared to take your side as workplace bullies suck. I've also experienced it in food retail...but tbh op youre.kinda bring a bit of a dick.

A manager telling you once that you are not working fast enough is not bullying. Fair enough if he was constantly picking on you and only you but one comment at a time of year when he too, is provably under a lot of stress... ...not so much.

He probably thinks you're an uppity cow who thinks she is better better everyone else just because she has worked their longer. Maybe if you had a bit more respect for people, including your boss, he wouldn't be so short with you.

*there longer than them

You sound like a complete pain in the arse tbh

1000 or 2000 items, that's quite the leap. A year to get to grips with a job in a Food Hall.

On a side note do they still have mince pies, I haven't managed to get any yet so I'll pop in.

@FAQs

1000 or 2000 items, that's quite the leap. A year to get to grips with a job in a Food Hall.

On a side note do they still have mince pies, I haven't managed to get any yet so I'll pop in.

I’d you go in at midnight Op may have just about finished putting the price reduction stickers on them

Why do you have to stay 2 years for aggressive if you have been there 15 years?

I don't know where aggressive came from - it should have said shares