Hi all, TLDR at bottom. I work on a sales floor, as the summer is ending our tour flow has gone down significantly. It's a given rule since day one that aslong as we are not on tour, it's fair game in the back. Play on your phone, read, go on the computer. Anything that is not disruptive to the overall sales floor is perfectly acceptable. Most days when we're slow, everyone is just in the back office shooting the shit or scrolling tiktok. However, that's where we get to this morning. I'm beginning to get fed up with the business I'm in, I like the people I work with and the money I can make however management and the overall corporation I work for has left such a bad taste in my mouth, and with my small family growing I'm wanting to explore my options.
I'm preparing for the earn my Comptia A+ and Security + certifications hopefully by the end of the year, it's time for a career change. So I dusted off my father's old books and brought them into work, as I expected, it's been a very slow Monday morning. So as the floor opened and I found myself free, I began studying for this large exam. That lasted about 20 minutes before my supervisor came up to me and basically got on me about “keeping the tables tidy and clear”, while I just had my one large book open while reading. Meanwhile glancing around and see others with bags out, breakfasts strewn about and laptops on top of it all. My table consisted of my boom and water bottle, yet he felt a need to snap on me. I told him “no problem, I can just put it on my lap.” He then said that it would “cause me to seem un approachable and unprofessional.” Rather than continue this stupid argument, I just put the book up and opened Reddit. He hasn't said anything since however, now I'm openly on my phone, arguably less professional then reading a book?
I have a feeling this was a pathetic attempt to either flex power? Or maybe just some other vendetta? I can't wrap my head around it.
TLDR; I got chastised for reading my Comptia Certification book at work instead of just scrolling my phone like everyone else.