Unfortunately living in the most unaffordable cities in the world, money has been tight and I (f27) been living pay cheque to pay cheque. Since being laid off due to COVID, my savings had run dry and sadly could only work entry level jobs since nothing else was available. I was lucky enough to eventually land a warehouse associate for a local clothing company. I was hired as the only associate supporting the manager for only 5 months until I became the manager. Ended up staying at the company for two years with a very nice raise, got put on salary, and we also had benefits. It is a small company that eventually went from 15 down to 7 and I was informed that any overtime worked, I could use in lieu for days there was less work available. Keep in mind I am the youngest one there and everyone else is a female in their late 30s to mid 40s.
Everything was great until things really weren’t for the past 6 months where new warehouse associates had come and gone faster than I could complete their training, there were lawsuits happening, large sums of money gone missing, and the owner was going through divorce. I was left by myself for most days and couldn’t take vacation as there was no one who was able to fill in if I were away. And often, others didn’t show up in the office because they wanted to go to the beach since it was a nice day out. I was overworked as the position was meant for 3 people but due to budget cuts/new hires leaving when it wasn’t what they expected, I was mostly isolated in the warehouse even though the main office was just around the corner in a different unit. I often showed up late as the physical workload was a lot too (I am a 5”4 female) where boxes were often 40-50lb. Since we mainly sold to wholesale, that meant I was carrying hundreds of boxes every day and I had to manually count everything as we didn’t have a barcode system in place either. And while being late isn’t good work ethic, being expected to do everything after emailing, texting, and asking in person for help on delivery days was always met with “sorry I am too busy” or “sorry I am too expensive to help”. With help being so little and deadlines being so tight, I still managed to get orders out within a reasonable time frame. Everything I do has a time stamp on it.
Then one day, I got pulled into a meeting under the impression is about sending inventory to a huge corporation by two people who were not managers, owners, or HR. Person 1 immediately asked me if I was happy since it was being noticed that I was often showing up late. I explained that when I do show up late, I also often stay late to make sure my hours are still equivalent to 8 hours daily. I also explained that I was under a lot of stress from having to do everything by myself and that I was burnt out. Person 2 tells me that my job is difficult but doable. Person 1 and 2 both work in the office and have zero understanding of the amount of work that is done in the warehouse. Both begin to grill me about my lack of work ethic, my lateness (which is fair I shouldn’t be late) and that orders have been incorrect, slow, and simply “not good”. I knew in that moment it was a performance review, but there was no manager or owner present so I didn’t answer any questions. Unfortunately I didn’t have my phone on my either so the conversations couldn’t be recorded. They eventually told me that my contract needed to be revised to reflect the actual amount of work that was being done. After the conversation, I immediately called the manager and asked why I was getting a performance review if everything I do has a date and time stamp record. Turn out they were doing this behind her back and she was absolutely livid and told me that she coulda we how much hard work I was putting into everything to make sure things were being completed on time. And from an HR stand point, was absolutely not okay and crossing boundaries. Manager says she’ll call the owner to see what’s going on because this was not acceptable to be conducted without her knowledge.
The next day I walk into work early and started my day as normal. I receive an oddly written email from Person 1 with the owner and Person 2 on the cc, but not the manager. It basically summarized the entire conversation from the previous day and once again mentioning that my wage needs to be reviewed. I called the manager again and asked what was going on and she had told me to look for a new job as the future for this company was not looking good and that I should run while I still can. After much debate for an hour and asking how much I could get paid out, I threw my keys and walked out.
I sent a text message to the owner saying I wasn’t coming back and that if there was n issue regarding my performance, it should have come from her or the manager as it is extremely unprofessional for two people who didn’t understand my position to be giving me a performance review. I got a response back saying she would read it later but it has been over a month now and still no response.
I am extremely lucky that I was able to find and get hired for a new job within 6 days but I couldn’t handle the random shenanigans anymore.