Sorry for the long post but I had an interaction with management at my store i want to share with this sub. So I work for a big warehouse chain that's supposed to be worker friendly, well some of their stores are union so people think they're worker friendly but they are not. I work outside pushing carts, we do this in 80-90 degree weather and have to constantly ask management for water or they'll refuse to give it to us citing budget costs. There is animosity between the cart people and the managers. They never come out to help unless there are no carts left and people are complaining, even then they'll be outside helping for 10 mins before going back inside.
Lately the tensions have been revolving around issues of phones and earbuds being used outside. We are pushing carts for 8hrs I don't think there is anything wrong with having one earbud in while you work. Pretty much everyone has gotten a performance log for using their phone or headphones so it is a thing they like to harp on. they've gone as far as doing ear checks on workers outside to make sure no one is using them.
So yesterday(Saturday)after about a half hour of being at work I get called in to the office by a manager for what i thought was just a p-log about something dumb (p-logs are below write ups so they don't really matter) and I have been waiting for an opportunity to bring up some issues I had with management so I figured this was the perfect time to make a fuss. The manager started off with her usual power move of asking me to sit down while she stood trying to lord over me (this lady is 5ft tall so she has short bossy issues) and explained why I wasn't getting a p-log for being on my phone but that because me “wasting company time being on my phone was forcing my coworkers to work harder to pick up the slack” I was getting a write up….I almost burst into laughter when she said this. Those guys outside are not gonna “work harder” if I'm on my phone and not too sound too arrogant but I am a dam hard worker out there so I doubt me being on my phone for a minute is gonna be an issue to anyone. I asked her who and when they had seen me on my phone and she just said “management saw you yesterday(Friday) typing on your phone.”
I took a second and thought about it and was like “hmmm I wanna talk to someone about this before I sign it.” I told her I wanted to talk to my union rep before I signed, she rolled her eyes and got on her walkie to call the rep who was working. I had seen him going on his break when I was walking in so I knew it was gonna take a while. After 5 mins of her struggling to focus on her radio they told her for the 3rd time he was on break for another 10 mins. So she made me stay inside and do random tasks until they were both ready….I was inside for almost 3 hours before they sent me back outside and in those 3 hours the 4 guys outside just had to work harder because I wasn't there to help…So much for them caring about them having to work harder right?
In that time that I was inside I had met up with the union rep in his area to talk about how we were gonna handle the meeting and he pretty much told me it was very cut and dry on the cellphone issue so I was gonna probably have to take it on my record no matter what but it was more if I wanted to make noise about this issue, I told him “I like to make noise” (very lame but I thought it was cool at the time lol.) I was gonna bring up that management is constantly harassing us cart workers because they don't like us. In a previous p-log I got under a different managers skin and she basically said we are outside as a form of punishment and she told a different employee she doesn't like to put new people outside because they “learn bad habits” so I was ready to bring up my grievances and make some noise. He told me to just be calm and let them know about these issues so if it ever happens again we can call them out on it and take it to corporate if necessary.
I was pumping myself up inside while waiting for this meeting, was honestly thinking about this sub and how I was ready to walk out if they gave me shit. Then as I was thinking more and more about it, it hit me…I didn't work on Friday lol. They wrote down the wrong date on the form so they fucked up. I started walking around with a big smile on my face excited to go into that meeting. I was walking around and asked my supervisor if they wanted me to do anything else or if that manager was ready for that talk. They kept ne waiting until after my lunch then called me in and I was fucking ready.
We went into the room and the union rep came in after and she explained the form I had to sign again as soon as she was done talking I looked her right in the face as I pushed it away and said, “No I'm not signing that. I didn't even work yesterday so idk why you guys keep harassing me like this.” The expression on her face was priceless. I went on to say how they obviously don't know what's going on outside if they can't keep track of who is working on certain days and that there has been a pattern of constant discrimination and harassment against the people working outside and that we shouldn't be working outside as punishment. she acted dumb about that comment so I had to bring up how the other manager made the comment to me about it being a form of punishment and that if this continues I would pursue this with corporate. The union guy was standing behind her and he had a huge smile on his face trying to hold in a laugh. I didn't realize until after I talked to him about me not working that day so he found it funny that I got out of signing it. She was pretty red in the face and just said she would discuss the issues I brought up with the other manager and the general manager and ripped up the paper and told me to just stay on task outside and I was just like yeah sure and as I walked out of the office i told her well better luck next time hahahaha.
I felt like a fucking boss after that. My coworkers outside were all stoked about how I refused to sign it and made such a fuss about it. People from inside kept coming out to ask me about how I shut that manager up hahaha. it really made the rest of my day a lot better.
TL:DR. Manager tried to give me a write up for being on my phone but fucked up on the form and wrote the wrong date, ended up making her look like a fool.