I love my job. I love my coworkers, the customers, the food that we make. There are some problems with our management team. The store manager is seemingly a nice guy and I've gotten along with him really well up until a few recent events, but he isn't exactly getting the job done. There are a lot of managerial tasks that just aren't up to snuff and it is affecting the rest of the team. So after chatting with the manager about numerous things and not really getting adequate responses all of us felt a little bit frustrated and we regularly vent to each other. In addition to griping about the managerial situation we have also had a lot of really private conversations. Myself and one coworker talked about how we used to shoplift in our youth. Lots of conversations have been had about romantic relationships, abuse, and yeah a lot of complaints about things going on in our shop that are out of our power. Despite this I seriously do love my job and I work extremely hard and I do really well in almost all aspects. All of us coworkers joke around including jokingly complaining about different tasks that we hate.
So I get called down to the office to chat with the manager and he says it's a performance review. He says the two main complaints are insubordination and negativity. He says that my negativity is starting to affect other staff members. He says that my insubordination comes from not being enthusiastic when my assistant manager asks me to do something. Then he adds that he probably forgot to tell everybody but **** is assistant manager now – so.. I was being insubordinate to someone I didn't know was my superior. And I was being insubordinate by jokingly groaning when asked to do a task. I told him that I was totally shocked. I asked for examples and all he could give me was the thing about groaning at my assistant manager. I asked about negativity and he didn't really have an answer but I was totally shaken because he made it seem like everybody was upset with me and I had been under the impression that I had an excellent relationship with every staff member. Like we all joke around and I genuinely consider them all to be good friends. I told him that I would think about all this and I was totally floored and that maybe I had just been misunderstanding people's responses to me. Not to mention that like I said I love my job and I feel like I am pretty happy 75% of the time that I'm there – which is a lot for the kind of work I do lol. So I go upstairs and say to my three co-workers (there's only one other and she's my bestie so I know she has no gripes) “hey I'm really sorry about my negativity lately, I heard it has been effecting you.” All of my co-workers gave me this look of confusion and I explained a little more. They all looked horrified and vehemently denied ever saying those things about me or even thinking them. My coworkers were amazing and told me how much they loved me and loved working with me and supported me. I literally started crying because I had been so confused and afraid that I was actually hated.
So here's the biggest kicker for me, I think. A couple of months ago a co-worker pulled me aside. They had been working there longer than the rest of us and wanted to warn me that the video recording device that was in the kitchen aimed at the register also recorded audio. I was shocked by that and did some research to establish that it is in fact illegal to record people in that setting without their consents, but I decided to sit on the information as I didn't really think my boss was sitting there listening through all of these conversations.
So when I'm downstairs and my evaluation my manager is talking about how negative I've been and how I've had all these things that should have come to him first and he says how it's especially embarrassing that his boss had to be the one to tell him this. I asked him how his boss knows that his boss is never even around. My manager says “he has his ways”. I say “the illegal audio recordings from the kitchen?” My manager looks kind of hesitant but then ultimately says “…yeah”.
So this motherfucker tells me that I am insubordinate for not being 100% enthusiastic all the time and jokingly bemoaning a certain tasks. He implies that all of my coworkers have been upset about my negativity when in reality my boss has been listening into the convos where I am critical of him and doesn't want it to affect others. What I really don't get though is why I'm being targeted – every single other one of my coworkers has taking part in these conversations with me.
I have called a meeting between myself, my manager, case manager, and the store owner. I really really love my job, more than I've ever enjoyed any other job before. I feel like it's a 50-50 chance I'm going to come out of that meeting with a job but it's a risk I'm willing to take in an outcome I'll accept either way. And heck if I don't keep my job then maybe I will make a call in to somebody about those illegal audio recordings.