I run the night shift in the deli at a local super market. I'm a fairly quiet guy and I tend to only speak up to my coworkers when I feel they aren't doing their job. My mindset as management is if you do your job, we have no problem. I generally have very few rules and I feel that if you're an adult, you don't need me to stand over you and tell you what to do.
I have also never been motivated by money. I've never understand the point of having lots of money. I think that being happy is much more important than having lots of money and I feel that as long as my needs are being met, I'm doing fine. It's never crossed my mind to step on people to get higher up. I know it's not the best attitude career wise but I'm okay with that. I would rather be the low paid friend who everyone wants to help out rather than the high paid asshole who is a tyrant to everyone around them. I have thought about it and if I were to win the lottery, or inherited large amounts of money or had a giant bag of money somehow show up on my doorstep, I wouldn't live like a king or try to be a celebrity, I would buy some farm land and run an animal rescue, because I know that is what would make me happy.
What I am trying to say is I'm a nice chill dude and I am quite aware of it. But something happened with one of my younger coworkers that has me shook.
When I got to work today, I got pulled aside and told that one of my employees complained about me. Last night, I was scheduled to close the deli by myself. I had only one other person working with me up until an hour before closing time and during his last hour there, I told him he needs to clean the last meat slicer and cheese slicer before he left and watch the counter while I cleaned the back area, took the trash out, cleaned the glass for the deli case, and filled some of the shelves as much as possible before he was off. Cleaning the slicers is about 10 minutes of work and he had an hour to do this. But he complained to my boss, specifically mentioning that because I stocked the shelves while he watched the counter, cleaning the slicers was me making him do too much work. Regular employees aren't expected to stock the shelves, it is something I am supposed to do as management. But, since it was slow and he was doing jack shit and was busy bullshitting with the other employees, I figured asking him to do these things was asking very little of him.
At the end of his shift today, I spoke to him about his complaint. The way he explained it to me, he feels that as a non-management employee, he thinks that there is a set amount of things he should do and once he's met his “quota”, he shouldn't be expected to do anything more. My mindset if as long as he is on the clock, he should be expected to work. He says that he was told that stocking the shelves is “optional” on my part, so I have the option of cleaning the slicers myself instead making him do them. He feels that he is only paid to do the minimum and therefore should only do a minimum amount of work.
Despite the fact that I am not motivated by money, I have never been the type of person who will only do a minimum amount of work. I like getting things done. A sense of accomplishment makes me happy. His attitude does not sit well with me at all. With every job I have ever had, I've always been asked to join management at some point and I know it is how I viewed work as the reason. When I got this job, I was burnt out on my previous job and wanted an easy job, but within three months of me doing this job, I was asked to run the night crew because quite honestly, I don't know how not to be a leader.
My current boss has told both of us that stocking the shelves isn't important. She said that if the customer needs something, they can come up to the counter and ask for it, so stocking isn't important. I know better and I know this will only result in lots of customer complaints.
I know the store director does not believe this way. There have been plently of days where I had everything planned out for the day and he showed up and blew up all my plans because there were holes out on the shelves and he wanted them filled immediately. He wants everything filled as full possible at all times.
I don't fully trust my direct manager. I don't feel like she's a good leader. I feel she only got her job through luck because when the previous manager left, as she was the only one at the time even remotely prepared to take on the job and she only got her job by default. Her asking me to accommodate this employee makes me feel like I am on crazy pills. Her siding with an employee who wants to do less work blows my mind.
This isn't the first time I've had an employee complain about me. There have been two other employees that have complained about me. One other employee was a younger guy like this employee with the exact same mindset, and he was in the habit of showing up 20 to 30 minutes late every day, he would do the bare minimum, he would argue with customers that would ask him to do what I felt were completely reasonable requests, and then he would demand to let him leave early every day. The other guy was beyond retirement age and did not give a fuck. He was a really nice guy, but he spent half his shift bullshitting with other employees and customers, and despite the fact he was only scheduled to work three days a week, he would call in at least once a week without fail. I do not understand how my manager can possibly see me as the problem in all these situations.
Today I complained to the assistant store manager who heads our department about all of this because I trust him way more than I trust my direct manager. He works with me way more than my manager does and he told me that it's quite obvious that I have my priorities in order, but of course he wants to get my manager's opinion before he makes a decision, which I am fine with.
So am I being an asshole? I honestly don't understand why this situation even came up. The whole thing just seems crazy to me.
P.S. I should mention that despite the fact I am considered management, I am still on a schedule, so if everything isn't done on time, I get a talking to by more than one person, so I feel this is a damned if I do, damned if I don't situation.