I worked at a pet grooming salon a few years ago. When I first got hired, the manager told me that there used to be a ton of drama in the workplace but after hiring new employees, they have finally gotten to a place of peace where everyone gets along with each other. She warned me to not start any drama so as to not disturb the peace. I thought that was great and I was relieved that everyone got along.
On my first shift, I made a mistake and the manager responded very passive aggressively. I thought of confronting her but I decided not to because I didn't want to “disturb the peace.” Looking back, I'm wondering if she only warned me about not “disturbing the peace” so that she can treat us however she likes without getting called out for it.
I became terrified of making mistakes and I wanted to avoid any sort of confrontation, which unfortunately involved allowing people to walk all over me. I didn't want it to be this way and I tried building up my confidence, but I didn't want to get fired and I didn't want to be “that employee” who started drama.
Within my first week of working there, I noticed how the manager hardly showed up, was often late when she did show up, barely worked, nitpicked every little thing I did, and bragged about how she gets blackout drunk every weekend. She was confusing because sometimes she took her job seriously and completed all her work, but other times she totally slacked off and didn't give a damn. It's almost like the times where she actually did her job was to make up for the times she didn't, but you can't have it both ways.
One time when the manager wasn't there, the other employees told me how there's about 15 customers who were charged wrong and they want to speak to the manager because only the manager can fix the issue, but she never returns their calls and is seemingly avoiding them. Then they basically vented about her for a few minutes and that's when I understood why there used to be so much “drama.” It was the manager. The “drama” was really just the manager being a shitty person who talks down to her employees and as soon as someone confronts her, she plays the victim and brushes the situation off as “drama” rather than reflecting on her own actions and thinking about how she can improve as a person.
This made me feel a lot better about my performance as an employee because at least I showed up on time to every shift and I did my best. I just got my master's degree and I'm specifically looking for a job where my boss doesn't have a massive victim complex but let's see how that goes lol.