Today it's rainy and dreary, I work in a job that requires me to be outside sometimes to help customers. My job is just to give the customer the products not to help load them up, but sometimes we do as a curtasy if they are alone or older. I decided to make a off hand remark to my boss, the only other person working today, after I had been outside for over 30 minutes in the rain, helping to load a customer.
“If I knew I'd be spending so much time outside in this weather, I would have brought a change of clothes.”
And instead of just being polite and agreeing with me or responding sarcasticly like I expected, my boss got mad and said “it's your job, you know this is part of the work you need to do so you shouldn't complain. I'm sick and tired of everyone complaining about their job it doesn't promote a good work environment, I don't want to hear it.”
I was shocked, and so just stfu cause no matter what I said, it was clear my boss didn't care. I've told my boss and coworkers previously how I value being able to lean on them when I'm feeling down or just want to complain cause then i can get it out of my system, feel hears and get back to work. My coworkers agree and so rely on me when they want to complain or vent while I empathize with them. We have all expressed how important it is to a healthy work environment that we can be honest and complain about the little things that we don't like when doing our jobs because this isn't the first time my boss has told us not to complain about our jobs. It doesn't matter if this is forgotten in the moment, I don't think workers should be shamed when there are no customers around for complaining about their jobs to their bosses or coworkers. If we don't and just bottle it up, then it could become resentment and the reason why people quit. Yes, we could go home and complain to family or friends or even strangers, but seeing as how they aren't in the same environment, then they won't be able to feel the same kind of empathy or fully understand it the same way that a coworker would.