hi. I (20F) am Scottish and I work at one of the big chain stores in the UK. I won't be specific but, in order to get a membership discount card with us you need to buy a £1 share in the company. UK people might get what store it is !
Either way, I've worked here 2+ years and the staff is the highlight, so many lovely people and a few tolerable and smart managers. Except for one.
Whenever I have a shift with this manager, I never see him do anything except micromanage without doing anything himself and/or sitting in the CCTV room just watching the screens. (Or, as my friends have caught, watching YouTube in the head's office.)
Him being lazy would not bug me honestly, being lazy at work is the kind of thing I get for people making my wage, but it's that he's totally useless at doing his job as a manager. He REFUSES to delegate. Usually, with the other managers, 2 of us will work on reductions and doing the waste and the management is supportive. But when the shit manager is on it's just me doing the work of 2 or 3 people while my colleague is on tills. (I won't get into it but it's also awful at the tills when he's on. The micromanaging never stop.)
I get put in charge of getting people's breaks and filling in their work while they're on break, which I wouldn't mind if I didn't have so much to do myself, but I'm constantly stressed about getting things done before we close.
Sometimes I don't get to take my break even though I know I'm entitled to it, I'm a total people pleaser and I always give 110% when I could get by on 70%.
All of that is stressful enough, but he always has to make comments masked as reminders too. “Remember to check the back of the shelf, we've been finding a lot of things past sell by.” (When I'm the one who finds a lot of this stuff. I already check.)
“Make sure it's neat and tidy. The clearance bay is a mess.” (We always make it look nice. But we're a SHOP there's so many customers ? of course it won't look nice once the public comes in and gets things.)
“You need to answer your phone/ check your texts. I try to reach you for extra shifts or starting earlier and I never get a reply.” (I'm part-time and have mental illness and chronic fatigue. I literally wake up an hour or two before my shift. We're just totally understaffed.)
Note: I'm not the only one who thinks this. Everyone that works here dislikes him, including the other managers and team leader.
I know that was very long, but I do have a question/ am looking for advice here.
What do I do?? It's been wearing on me honestly. Is there anything I could say to him? My other managers?
I honestly hate complaining and asking for help. I feel kinda mean about this? It's the best job I've had, and I love everyone else there. Previous jobs as a teenager I wasn't even on the books and worked longer hours than I do now, on farms and with machinery like rides while looking after children my last job title was “Santa's helper/ santa's elf”. So anything better than my teenage jobs is incredible to me !!
But this manager is my biggest stress of my job, aside from a lot of the customers being creeps/ entitled.. but that's just a part of working service ! 🙁
Thanks for anyone who read all this or has some advice for me! It's nice to get off my chest how stressful it all is anyway.