Bully store manager upsetting everyone

[Auburngal]

I had enough. He’s only been a manager for 2 months at my store and he has upset every colleague, morale is an all time low and there’s just anger. I know of at least 6 colleagues including myself who cry about work.

He has zero sympathy, doesn’t accept excuses- such as when customers dump fresh things in the bread, doesn’t want to listen to our suggestions etc.

Heard that in his previous store, he made two very approachable managers (both worked at my store before he came) leave the company.

Why is he still a store manager? He has ruined everybody who is under him.

Yesterday he talked to me like shit in earshot of a couple of customers. When he was walking away from me, one of the customers came up to me and said how he spoke to me was disgusting and going to complain about him to head office phone number. I said please do! I have suggested to colleagues if a customer is nearby and SM does similar to what happened to me, that ask the customer nicely to contact head office.

SM pulled me up about 2 cases of produce that was missed in code checks. Myself and 4 colleagues don’t remember seeing these cases there. I believe he hid them somewhere and put them there himself. Guess what there’s a camera right above where these cases were found!

Im full time so have to deal with his bullying/patronising/BS behaviour about twice as much as other colleagues.

Im dyslexic, asthmatic and have anxiety and these have been made worse by the bully SM. I am struggling with my emotions as dyslexia is affecting how I react.

I want to leave and raise complaints about SM. But my parents will not be pleased if I leave without a job to go to. But if I’m not working, I have all the time to go to interviews etc. As I have to make BS excuses why I need to finish work at 1pm. As SM does not listen.

Make a log of all these issues and include dates, times and details of incidents. SAVE THE CCTV FOOTAGE........This will act as evidence.

Ask your colleagues to do the same, then get into a union if you are not in one already and the union will come down on him like a tonne of bricks as his behaviour risks are numerous, including :-

• Increase in staff resignations, due to low morale.

• Reputational damage to the business, due to his toxic attitude to staff, even customers have become aware of his toxicity, which is clear from your post.

• Increase of staff sickness due to the effects of working in a high stress environment.

You could contact HR but going straight to a union will increase the chances of a positive response and outcome and the quicker this ' pillock' is dealt with, the better it will be for yourself and your colleagues. It sounds like an absolute nightmare to be honest and the sooner he is dealt with, the better.

Causes tend to be the bullies' inability to cope with the pressure of their job so they develope a coping mechanism where they vent their anger at the wrong people, in this case people who he relies on to work to their best ability so in the end, they cause chaos and it all hits the fan for the bully, this is why you and your colleagues are winning and he's losing.

Lift each others' morale, stay strong, stay positive, and I know this is easier said than done, this idiot got it coming to him so hang in there your all doing amazing.

I have sent you a PM

Record and detail every action, then grievance his sorry ass. Escalate to HR and beyond if needed.

People like this are subhuman filth and should be fired.

Please if you can get as many colleagues as possible to write down their experiences... it's never going to change so get the bullying little arse put in his place by submitting a multiple person grievance to both HR and union if you are in one. Don't hesitate... it's got to stop. I DESPISE bullies!!!! Especially if you can all vouch for the fact he's a liar absolutely toxic.

Make an official complaint, esp re the boxes he hid, if it checks out on cctv they’ll hopefully they would have to sack him as that’s 100% bullying = gross misconduct!

Don't leave your job. Have your mobile phone on you on record.at some point your manager will verbally attack you again.get your colleagues to do the same, get them to have their phones on record.you all need to stick together to expose this bully,when you have enough recorded evidence, take it to branch manager or better still,head office,ifhead office try Sweeping it under the rug, tell them your all going to the papers.

I would send an anonymous letter to the head of HR detailing what he does, stating that you feel you have to write anonymously for fear of reprisal.

Go straight to HR, also with any evidence. Ask to meet with the area manager and also express your feelings and experiences

Keep a voice diary on your phone. If possible record him speaking to you inappropriately. To be honest store manager or not I would be telling him to lay off. If he doesn't, once you have the evidence, speak to HR.

I’m not sure which company you are. At Tesco we had the protector phone line we could call anonymously and raise these issues for investigation. Can you find something similar in store?

Definitely agree with writing to hr anonymously.

Also definitely agree with joining union such as usdaw. However, they may not be able to represent you at short notice - this may vary depending on which union you join.

Be wary in that hr generally sides with the company, not necessarily with the employee.

Is his name Will by any chance?! Sounds like an old manager I had, universally LOATHED.

Currently off sick (non related health issues)

Also the customers can see us we are struggling mentally and physically.

All my colleagues are backing each other and we have said that we should not go things alone.

I am wanting to leave as 17 years ago I applied for a job at the supermarket as a stop gap and still here.

The thing is i have no clue to what to apply for jobs wise. Don’t want retail or call centre. Don’t mind having some contact with customers.

I’m a member of the union and will be contacting them this week.

you need to put in a group grievance from as many as possible

B&M by any chance?!

Y’all need to band together. Document things. Pay witness for each other. Get the random customers to too.

HR needs written reasons to fire someone, they can’t if they don’t get complaints. As this manager has been moved stores they probably have at least one strike against them.

if they speak to you poorly just loudly say that that’s not a professional way to manage the (whatever). Document and follow up.

Ok

About a quarter of the staff have contacted HR and/or the independent whistleblower line about his behaviour. That’s what I have heard about. Then customers have complained about him after hearing him talking to us and can see the pain/upset/low morale in our eyes. Friends and family colleagues have complained about him. Not disclosed who their friend(s) or relatives are.

The store has about 65 colleagues .

The manager is a bully, evil, aggressive and uncaring. Words you don’t describe a manager. He is also victimising me from hiding the cases and put them out two days after the use by date. Then put the photo onto my file.

He should not be able to treat staff like this especially myself who suffers from anxiety and dyslexia. If my anxiety is bad, my dyslexia is affected. This effects my emotions.

Then a disabled colleague suffered from a serious injury (not at work) in the autumn and only is able to go back to work. The manager says that he probably to reduce his hours or ask him to work at a larger store as not the work for him to do. Store manager can’t do that as that’s disabled discrimination under the 2010 Equality Act. Plus the stores are not easily accessible by public transport. Colleague can’t drive due to their disability. Store manager said to my disabled colleague that if the injury happened during when he was manager, he would only pay a max of 6 weeks of sick pay. He can’t do that. A few customers have heard of what could happen to this colleague who is a hard worker, despite of their disability.

All the problems with colleagues with low morale, being upset and ridiculed etc only started when he started at the store - 2 months ago. Can’t complain to his area manager as he’s their ass licker.

If none of the complaints from both customers and staff gets fed back to SM, then there’s serious issues with the hierarchy and head office management at the supermarket needs questioning

From this post, and previous ones about where you work and poor customer behaviour (which when allowed to continue and staff not protected is a management failure) either your work place is toxic or you're burned out and need a change. Or burned out because the work place is toxic.

I think you need to get out, but understand that a) you shouldn't have to because what's happening is wrong, not you and b) that's daunting after 17 years.

I've never needed to take time off for interviews, I've put something along the lines of I need to schedule interviews on my days off, which change each week in the cover letter or CV and if someone has invited me for interview and I can't make it then I'll reply with different days & times that I can, ask about a phone interview first etc.

Retail, hospitality and care work all have transferrable skills, housekeeping in a hotel or similar is hard work and you're time pressured (which I'm sure you're used to), but it's limited contact with guests.
Care work is full on and poorly paid for what you do, but also rewarding and you can train doing the care certificate and nvq's etc if you get an employer willing to put you through it, and they're often funded.

Don’t want anymore retail work. Certainly don’t want to work in hospitality and have no patience with care work.

Everything was fine until the SM took over and bulldozed everyone’s mental health and morale. The previous SM was fantastic and showed care, sympathy, helped me with my anxiety issues. He wanted to move as he lives 55-60 miles away from my workplace. Totally understand why esp as he has 2 DC under the age of 7 (I think).

All the new SM has undone all the work that the previous SMs have done and worse.

The most simple thing to do (which I doubt will happen) is to remove the SM as things were manageable for my MH before he came in.

I feel sorry for my colleagues who are in their 50s and 60s - have hours suited for them for DC DGC care, care for their unwell relatives as they won’t be able to get hours they need at new employers. Plus they will struggle with technology and ability to get to work as despite living and working in a small town- not many employment opportunities

Did they do anything about the manager, @Auburngal? Have you left?