So for starters, I worked at a farm goods store, not naming names. It was something that was out of my realm of experience, but I thought it would be a great way for me to expand my work opportunities and experiences for my resume. However, that would not be the case.
The job was fine, I started in November of 2021. At first, I really enjoyed the manual labor and throwing feed sacks and whatnot. I had some gruff people that I worked with, but it was a nice change of pace for where I was attending school at the time. There were quite a few employees and there were some decent managers, but as time would tell, the secrets would be unraveled.
About 3 months in, I noticed an incredibly large amount of drama from the employees and managers. They all hated my GM, and the AGM was the one trying to rally them against the GM. However, at the same time, the GM was trying to take the new recruits and show them that he’s not all that bad. The reason for the hatred? Total abuse of his position. Wasn’t working his required amount of time in his work week, he never helped with the big moves or heavy loads from customers, (for instance if they bought some fence posts or large bundles of wire.) Not only that, but if the store was short handed, he wouldn’t DARE to come in. He flat out said he would not be coming in to help and that management was paid to “figure it out” although HE was paid to be the slack whenever there was no one to show up! On top of that, there was a demeanor he carried about him that was like “yeah idgaf” and he wanted to be your buddy, but then when his boss started to make complaints about sales or walks not meeting standards, he would berate us and make us feel bad for the quality of work we have made.
We all talked about how unfair he acted, but there were times that he tried to show compassion. He made beef jerky and brought it in, he would pick people up for work if their cars were having issues. Either way, it wasn’t enough to forget about any of the wrong that he did. Now the AGM was a good worker, she ran a tight ship, and she didn’t take any bullshit. She made sure that the job was done correctly, making sure her team was doing okay and helping out, unlike her superior who cut corners to save time and judged progress on work made. There were instances of him bullying employees and more intensely to the mangers. Once, he pulled a manager in front of the store that told the DM that GM was breaking rules to berrade him in front of customers and try to get him to either quit or be fired. Ultimately, nothing came out of that because he was desperate for managers to stay, since they pulled his weight and hardly complained.
Essentially what led to me quitting was a meltdown from employees and managers. People had been getting sick, and one of those people were me. Grew up a sick kid, but I was always able to bounce back. Regardless, I busted my ass when I was there, not having the slightest idea about anything farm related. I was eager to learn and I believe that if you are getting good benefits from your job, it isn’t the worst thing to put in a little extra work. People were getting sick and called in left and right, even though we knew one of the people who was calling in was faking it, with our GM not taking the slack like he’s supposed to, resulting in three over worked managers getting fed up with the call ins and taking it to the DM who said call-ins for any reason are subject to a write up.
One morning 2 weeks later, I’m feeling sick and I think to myself “do I verbally accept a write-up over the phone or do I just go back to sleep and sign the write up in the next shift? Ultimately, I chose the latter and thought nothing of it. Employees were quitting left and right, we couldn’t hold on to new hires for longer than 3 weeks, and we even had a guy just not come back after he went on break his 3rd shift (not to mention the call-ins he had to two of his other shifts after he just started.) So with that information, I figured it was the least amount of conflict and I’d still have my job.
I come in the next morning to find out the AGM and the GM got into an argument, firstly about my “no call no show” and the AGM was like “he only did that because he knew he’d get written up regardless” (which she wasn’t wrong but that’s such a stupid rule.) But my GM DEFENDED me and said he didn’t blame me, and that she had just as many sick days used and that he would have to write her up! Then they got into it about a process for taking inventory, and it led to the two getting angry and she walked out on him. She couldn’t handle his attitude and decided to put in her notice that she was resigning right there, and he accepted it.
The crew was not happy that she was gone, as she kinda kept everything together. Some were leaving, others felt obligated to stay, and every one that was working there at the time suddenly got a drastic increase in hours. At first it was fine, but then I was having like 1 day off after working 7 days when I signed up for part time. We also find out that our GM was putting in his two weeks and refuses to tell anyone where he was hired. He was going to leave the store with 3 employees and 2 shift managers. One day, I call in because I’m not feeling well, and boss is like “alright fine.” Later, I’m at my other job (which is at a library and minimal labor, so wear a mask and doable) and he texts me guilting me into coming in since “I would have made a coworker work the whole day” and that made me MAD because I had already called in for not feeling well, and he has the audacity to try to guilt trip me. So I text my GM back and say “yeah I’m gunna go ahead and let you know I quit.” I was not about to deal with that hot mess. Shitty boss and it was even shittier of him to drive away his good employees over his carelessness. Hope you’re hating your new job, dick.
TLDR: new job lead to me uncovering shitty manager and i quit via text.