I’ve had about 16 different jobs in my life, varying greatly from Disneyland, retail, sex shop, costume store, makeup artist, and hotels (to name a few lol). So I’ve had a lot of experience with different types of coworkers, customers and managers. I’ve only had one great manager, a few whatevers but mostly I end up having the lying, manipulative, work first live last, you shouldn’t be here if its only for the paycheck, type of assholes that don’t respect their workers. I’ve always thought it was just my bad luck finding jobs with these horrible bosses, but reading so many posts on here about others awful experiences I realized it wasn’t my bad luck, its just how most managers are. This depressed me for a while as my hope of finding a job with a respectful manager seemed impossible.
Pre-covid I worked at a 5star, very high end luxury hotel. The manager was an insanely strict asshole and the job was very high pressure and stressful but it was the most money I’d ever made so I endured it for three years. I was furloughed because of covid and when it was time to return I couldn’t bring myself to be treated like that anymore despite actually making a livable wage. That was last year, and been unemployed since.
About 6 months ago I started “understanding” reddit and found this sub. As I said, I was depressed at first, reading post after post of demanding, clueless, cruel bosses mistreating their employees. But then realized…it wasn’t just about what the boss did, the posts were about how workers were standing up for themselves, fighting back or just not taking the crap managers spew as law and/or just walking out. I was so proud of the people who could do that. I’ve quit almost all my jobs but stayed and endured the misery for a year or more. I just always had the mindset of not wanting to be “in trouble” and I’m just not a confrontational person either. I never really stood up for myself just endured and did my work.
About 2 months ago I took what I thought was going to be a super low stress, easy, close to home, min wage job at a dog day care. The manager quit right before I started and the asst. manager unofficially became manager. She wasn’t mean, she was just clueless at what being a manager actually entails. She flat out said she didn’t know how to train people, so I trained myself on the front desk system and brought my Forbes five star customer service skills to this dog hotel. Her worst trait were these long condescending speeches she’d give on how to do something, or why we did “this” a certain way and if you asked a question you’d never get a real answer just a longer speech about something else. At first I found it amusing, as my job skills and experience far surpassed hers so let her tell me whatever nonsense she wants, I know whats real and doing a great job despite her. There was so much more lacking in her managerial and people skills but that would just lead to an even longer post, so onto the quit! Those speeches got less amusing fast. They quickly turned into long convoluted reprimands about things I wasn’t taught or told in the first place, how to literally write words down, or how I was handling the dogs wrong, (I stopped barking and misbehavior calmly with pets, love and the angry voice, she wanted me to be more aggressive). So today I made a perfectly legitimate judgement call about allowing a new dog in for grooming. She proceeds to tell me in her condescending speech all the reasons I’m wrong and even the groomer said I can’t believe she talked to you for so long, and like your stupid. A few other smaller irksome things happened, and then decides she wants to quiz me on opening procedures. Proceeds to telling me she has a list of things on her phone she wants to talk about, and when I mentioned how I did something a certain way she responds with “I know, I watched you on the cameras.” Then continues on with her nitpicky list of no no’s I supposedly did and all the manager duties she wanted me to do for her. As I stood there not looking at her and gripping the desk in angrier and angrier fashion I just started thinking of this sub. Then the good thoughts came- “I don’t have to listen to her anymore, I’m not in trouble, leaving this job won’t affect any future career, I don’t have to let this happen to me like I have so many times before.” I said “I’m done” Her: with what? Me: You! I’ve worked hard here and am an adult who doesn’t deserve to be talked down to. Grabbed my stuff and left. Sent the owner a tell all text of why she was the reason everyone was quitting and now just feel happy. My only regret being I didn’t tell her off more or have a great exit line, (which I probably could’ve gotten here) but was proud of myself for not just enduring for a paycheck.
Thanks antiwork and the young people helping to show us older jaded workers that things can only change if we do!
TL:DR Inspired by posts on this sub, I quit my job because the manager was condescending and clueless. I chose to no longer endure that kind of treatment where I work