To give quick rundown `I work in a small supermarket, I'm a young student and i've been in this job for two months. I'm open to honest opinions but please be respectful. This is going to be LOOOONG READ. A VERY LONG ONE. APOLOGIES IN ADVANCE. Skip to Saturday if you don't want to read all of the post as that part is the most relevant sections and Monday, Thursday, Friday are just for context.
Names in the story
Store Manager – Jean
Team Leader – Randall
Assistant Manager – Myron
Monday, I called in sick to work two hours before my shift (It was going to be at 8 in the morning) because mentally I was down in the dumps. Jean picked up the phone and when I told him, he started groaning on the phone about how it was going to be very busy that day, and that I should have called in the day before to say I was going to be sick. I kept apologising but alas he kept going until he stopped and just left me alone.
Thursday I go back to work, I'm slightly nervous because of what happened before since I was working with Jean but when I came in it seemed okay. But later on the day it got heavily busy and my manager didn't help me on the tills, I had to do it myself while stocking up the shelves, even while he was on the tills he would call me over for me to handle the customers or to sort out issues at the self scan checkouts so it was slightly wearing me down but I just thought 'it is what it is”.
Now this is wear the problem starts, Jean calls me to the office and asks me to keep my phone in the locker. I said no because of my mom who contacts me emergencies. I tell him this and he says that I should have her called the store instead and that I have to put my phone in the lockers. He then accuses me of booking a holiday off work while I was on shift on the shop floor. I refuted these claims because I remembered booking my holiday while I was home. So he decides to use CCTV to prove that i'm lying. While he was looking for the clips of me doing it, I called him to clarify what was going on and he ignored me, when I called him again he told me to be quiet and to talk to him after he find the clip..which pissed me off.
He found the supposed time frame of when I booked my holiday and to (not) my surprise he was wrong. It was me just closing the shutters to the cigarettes and dairy since it nearing the closing time. He then complained on why I was closing early mind you it was 5 minutes before closing and customers like to spend sweet time on the shop floor when we're about to close. So I apologised and said I won't do it again.
I was pissed off throughout the rest of the shift that when I finished my shift I just clocked out and left. (this is important for later.
Friday I got my timetable for university very late and I texted Jean when I'm going to be in university and I said that I can only work two days while at uni. He replied saying that I should have said this to his face but I apologised once again and didn't think much of it.
Saturday (Today) I'm at work and Jean comes in four hours later into my shift with Myron (they weren't booked for today). I'm called into the office again. Now the first thing that was the issue was my alleged attitude. Randall came into the office and Jean asked him to say his issue with me, I believe Jean put Randall on the spot because Randall didn't know what was going on until Jean had to remind him that he complained about my attitude. The issues were
– I was packing a large Uber Eats order while manning the tills by myself, and Randall complained about me being slow so I retorted by saying “Do it yourself then”. Randall explained that he wasn't trying to be rude (I don't remember specifically since it was a week ago) but I think I apologised when it happened
– Me not flushing the toilet, (Honestly i'll take L for this one). I dunno how to explain but the toilet was already flushed earlier so when I was done using it I tried flushing but it only sucked half the content and since it was busy on the shop floor I just went back to do what I needed to do and forgot about the toilet. When Randall called me over to complain about me not flushing I denied it because I genuinely did forget for a moment and when I remembered I apologised and cleaned up the bathroom.
-He also mentioned me leaving the kitchen dirty (it was two used Ketchup sachets) which I cleaned up after he complained about it to me.
Now during this when I was trying to respond back to what Randall's issues were both Jean and Randall kept talking over me saying the points I was making didn't make any sense and that I was wrong, not really letting me speak. Long story short I had apologised again to Randall for what I did and then he left.
Now this is where the bigger issue starts
Jean starts to complain to me saying that I lied about my availability because `I messaged him saying i'll only be free for two days for university. I tried to explain that when I was hired it was during the summer break and I said I would be free most of the time. University wasn't mentioned but he knew I was a uni student so we didn't talk about availability during uni (unless i'm wrong because now i'm questioning past events). He shouted at me saying I was wrong and mentioned he had a witness to prove that I was wrong i.e Myron the assistant manager because he was there during my interview (of sorts)
He said that he asks of everyone to be free during for at least three days (which I thought was weird because my other coworker who's in uni said that she was going to ask if she could work two days maximum because of uni) and i responded saying that I have other things going on outside of uni that requires me to only work two days a week. He then responds basically saying that I have a choice saying I can either work three days minimum a week or he'll fire me. Which took me for surprise, he kept saying that if it's the latter then he'll have no problem letting me go. I said that i'll have to ask my uni to move around things (I lied about uni consuming my time because I wanted to work less from the job as it was time consuming and I like to have good balance of work, university, social life and time for myself)
After that he went on to complain about me leaving my shift on time on thursday but without telling him because he may have needed me to stay longer to help. He used words such as “buggered off”, “scattled away” to describe me leaving my shift. He asked why I kept doing it and I responded saying that other team leaders never had an issue with me doing this.
But he misheard what I said. He thought I said team leaders from my previous jobs not the ones in my current job and he responded saying “that's why you don't work for them anymore” which took me by surprise but I clarified saying that I meant team leaders in this job. I was written up for my “poor attitude” and my “poor punctuality” (I've only called in sick once) and he said that the team leaders will be keeping an eye on my attitude from this day forward.
I'm writing the post to ask what should I do? While i'm not desperate for the money as I got £400 from my father and i'm getting paid next week, but I would prefer to have a job just to keep myself afloat. My friend said I should quit because the stress isn't worth as i'm just two months into working there.
What do you guys think? And thank you if you read all of this. 🙂