I’m a medical tech in a specialized field working with a doctor other techs refuse to. The manager, who is expected to have tech knowledge and be able to fill in, has only been there for a week. She has no idea what she is doing.
Its funny bc before she told me she doesn’t think I deserve 90 cents she expressed how badly she needed me to make her look good. We talked about a common former employer, how bad they are and how I quit due to poor managevent there, how the tech job is one of two that I have and how I drive half an hour to get to work every day ($4 total in gas per day, since she made me mad enough to pick up a calculator). We talked about theGreat Resignation and how nobody is taking crap from bad bosses. I told her I only work pt bc it works better for my family (so, I am not the main breadwinner.)
I only make 13.50/hr, and the only reason I took it for that pay is bc I was getting paid medical tech training I would normally have to pay for and attend school. I mentioned that I love my other job, which is retail, and how great my managers there are. That job is 5 minutes from my house and pays a dollar less so really once you adjust for time spent traveling and wear and tear on my car and gas I actually come out a little ahead there.
Then this uppity moron starts in on me for clocking in before I put up my purse.
Now, she ran me ragged all day. She was giving me wrong info on patients and I was having to clean up after her. This woman has managed before but never been a store manager (it’s optical retail + a dr office). The doctor was double booked and I didn’t even have time to take a 15, and as a leftist with awareness of how hard other workers fought for me to have that, I am loathe to give up those breaks on principle.
And when I said “I clock in when I get in, that’s final” she had the audacity to look me in the eye and say “now do you really think you deserve to be paid for the time it takes to put up your purse?”
All I could do was smile, and then I realized I couldn’t smile any more so I just hissed “yesssss”. I know I must have looked psychotic. I did the math, after taxes that’s 90 cents. This bitch asked a woman she needs to make her look good with a family and bills living in times of unprecedented inflation if she thinks she deserves 90 cents. I wasn’t even thinking about the money, I just won’t be at work not on the clock on principle.
And she called HR to “check the policy” and how “I don’t know what happens here I just know how my old employers did it.” I guess when I said “that’s final” she didn’t know what that meant either. Also cute how she thought corporate policy would supersede federal guidelines.
Remember the part where I said we had a common former employer? Th clock in machine there is right next to the employee entrance and I never was able to clock in less than 5 minutes before I reached my work station. Oh and that store just so happens to be right next door to the store we worked in. So now she’s backpedaling from telling the person she just expressed a need for that they don’t deserve a few pennies by insulting their intelligence.
I no call no showed yesterday. Both of the other techs were out of town. Since she doesn’t think I’m worth 90 cents I’m sure she was fine and it was an easy day.
Writing the DM a letter of resignation today. I hear he’s actually not a bad guy and respects his employees so I’m sure he will understand. I’m letting him know that my other job had a bunch of hours open up and when I told management there how this manager had treated me they said she sounded like a lunatic and offered me more hours so I could quit on her.
Yeah managers like this are also “victims” of capitalism, but if you view being a manager as being an overseer whose role is to keep the other indentured servants in line, you are no longer a victim just like an adult who was abused as a kid is no longer a victim when they choose to hit their own kids. So she may very well lose her job, and if she doesn’t then she’s still going to look awful to corporate and be in damage control mode from here on out.
Don‘t put up with bullshit. Managers who push you to be more productive than is reasonable are doing so partly bc they are assholes and partly bc corporate is breathing down their necks. Well corporate does that at my other job too and my managers there know part of the deal with them being salaried is they take the heat for those of us who don’t get paid enough to deal with corporate bs (NOT THAT THOSE MANAGERS GET PAID ENOUGH EITHER!). So, be lazy. They want you to work harder and they are understaffed? Slack off. Show them how lazy you can really be.
Even if you don‘t have another job already, if you make under a living wage I know that where you work is short staffed. If you are pushed to work off the clock AT ALL, be a lazy ass and make that manager look like shit. They’re not going to fire you, they need you.
Corporate lackeys really need to learn how to read the damn room.