Context: I (20F) work in a large department/retail store with many department managers who are all white. I am south-east asian.
I started working there in October/November as a Christmas casual and felt as though all the management there was unfriendly and not wanting to get to know me because I was just a casual and I probably would've been sacked after the seasonal period (I ended up not getting let go btw).
At the start of my job, my manager scolded my east-asian coworker (openly in front of customers), and despite her wearing a nametag, thought it was me (I made the mistakes :c ). My coworker could barely get a word in before saying that she had no idea what my manager was talking about. In response, all my manager said was “Oh, you're not OP”. No apology for that public embarrassment my coworker faced.
Hearing the story at first, I just assumed it was because there were many new hires and it was hard to remember faces. Simple.
Then a similar incident occurred again where my manager confused me for another south-east asian girl (not the same one from the first incident) and didn't apologise for it.
It's now August (almost a year) and another POC coworker of mine gets brutally scolded at by our supervisor for apparently losing $1k worth of stock. My coworker is frightened by this news and almost cries on the spot. It's only later when my coworker has calmed down does she realise that the supervisor called her by another asian coworker's name.
The supervisor comes back later:
Supervisor: Wait, what's your name?
Coworker: it's [name].
Supervisor: Oh, I thought you were [other person's name]
No apology. Walks off. My coworker had been working alongside our supervisor for almost a year, and the supervisor still got them mixed up. Upon observation, I've also realised that this supervisor is more lenient and friendly with the white coworkers, and made casual conversation. But was more strict and condescending on our POC employees.
Perhaps I'm just overthinking all these interactions, but I find it odd how incidents like this have happened to me and my POC coworkers multiple times and that our managers have found it suitable to step and talk over us in such a condescending manner.
Maybe they're not racist, but am I experiencing some sort of micro-aggression from my white managers? Or are all department store managers like this and I'm overthinking their actions?