Ever since working as a sales representative at my current job I’ve been very friendly with my manager. It’s the kind of workspace that encourages a friendly, almost family-like relationship with everyone.
Especially seeing that she lives in the building and I’m always visiting her apartment.
I’d often visit her office as well to talk to her about any & everything, ranging from personal issues to work related issues, and she would do the same.
This has been going on for almost a year now.
But recently things went downhill when we were talking about a situation where a co-worker would need to move out of a company apartment to facilitate ongoing work on our boss’s warehouse. However, that co-worker’s girlfriend had a baby a few days ago and I asked her if my boss gave him a heads up about the move.
She said no, and I responded that it would be very unreasonable to ask someone to move out of their apartment within a day without any prior notice.
She didn’t like that and said that if our boss said she needs to move out right now she has to. I told her okay, nevermind, just forget what I said because she sounded angry and I left.
The days that followed I noticed that she wasn’t talking to me (and she had a painfully attitude towards me) which was odd. So I tried to mend the friendship by talking to her and being wary of things I say which led to the next scenario.
Her sister needed a new PC for school and she wanted to get her a MacBook.
Our company is an electronic wholesaler, so she was planning on getting one from my boss but he said no, get something else.
I noticed that she was upset and I asked her do you think that’s the best idea?
I asked her, knowing about the school system in Jamaica (I'm 23, she's 32) and that MacOS isn’t compatible with some of the apps we use so I wanted her to get a Windows PC instead. She got upset and asked what’s the difference? We use MacBooks for work and it’s compatible with everything.
We all use web-based applications except for Excel and Word, so I said never mind. Forget what I said.
She then goes on to say I don’t know how to hold a conversation which I found hurtful. Because we’ve talked about a lot of things on a daily basis, especially deep and personal stuff.
Fast forward to the following weekend, I’m paid based on commission however, it’s calculated manually and she’s the one that does it.
She told me that it would be late and I said I completely understand, that was Saturday (3 weeks ago.)
The following day I noticed that all my food supply was down to nothing and I had no money.
So I texted her and asked if I could get my base pay ($7,000 JMD) which is more than enough to get food etc.
She said no and I was confused & annoyed since it didn’t need any calculation at all.( I also live 5 minutes away so going for it would be easy.)
So I turned off my phone (to not take out my frustration on anyone) and decided to search all of my pockets for money (which I did.)
I used the money to get to some food across the road.
Then I decided to take a nap, after getting up I noticed that I got a text from my manager with the breakdown of my pay. This was roughly an hour or two after I had asked her. I said okay, thanks.
The following morning, I went to work. I had to scrape together coins to buy breakfast and I had no money to buy deodorant because that was also finished. (Yeah I went to work without deodorant, it was awful and I sweat a lot.)
I told my manager & my boss good morning through the intercom and went to my office and waited for my manager to hand me my pay. She didn’t.
She came by my office several times throughout the day and didn’t say anything to me, nor did she mention my pay.
I told myself that I wouldn’t ask her for it since I’m entitled to my pay.
She also didn’t tell me that my co-worker (the other sales representative) wasn’t coming to work, so I could cover for her.
Finally at the end of the day, she came by the office to complete her paperwork. I went to her and asked for my pay.
She said that it’s by her office and I’d have to wait until she’s finished.
After collecting my pay, I decided to keep things strictly business. I ceased all friendliness and decided to be as professional as possible.
I stopped waiting for her family to leave work so I can go home with them (which sometimes takes up to an hour or more.)
I stopped visiting her apartment, I stopped everything.
I don’t even offer my assistance without her asking.