I’ve had my fair share of shitty jobs, but nothing can compare to when I worked at this one retail store/pharmacy. This was a couple years ago and I was a cashier on the front. The only cashier on the front.
Basically up front it was me, my 4 customer service managers, and my store manager. The job itself was fine; i had no problem coming in for my shifts and working the register, stocking shelves, etc. My problem was with 2 of the managers that we’ll call Lucas and Bobby. You see, Lucas and Bobby were two grown men that got hired because I turned down a management position. I wanted to stay a cashier because I was planning on going back to college (I was about 20-21 at the time).
They were nice at first and we got along, but the longer they were there the more I noticed how misogynistic they would act towards me. They would get mad when they would see if had more days off then they did (I was part time though, and they were full time). Lucas was worse then Bobby though, and there was many times when Bobby would interrupt me while I was with a customer, he would leave me completely alone in the store (which was a big no-no) for hours while he took a lunch break, he would make me do the work he was supposed to do, etc. I spoke with the store manager in multiple occasions about how he basically bullied me, but she did nothing to stop it because she “hated confrontation”.
Things really came to a head when the store was switching over to a different company. And as such we had coaches come in from a different store to help train us. These people came from a completely different state and stayed with us a few weeks while we got the hang of things. And that was when Lucas started treating me worse; and he even went as far as telling these coaches that I was lazy and didn’t ever do my job right.
This made those coaches pull me outside and ask me if he had always treated me this way. And I told them yes. They asked me if I’d told our store manager, also yes. I’ll never forget when they told me he was out to get me, even though I had done literally nothing to deserve it. They said they would talk to the store manager again for me, but even though they did, still, nothing got done.
I was finally reaching a boiling point though. The misogyny, the abuse, I just couldn’t take it anymore. So, there was a day when it was just me and 2 of my managers there, the store manager was off that day. The other manager left, and so I was alone with Lucas.
I ordered my lunch that day and had it delivered to the store, and when I went to sit down and eat it I was told I wasn’t allowed to eat in the office where everyone always ate, no I had to go sit in the very back of the store. I remember being upset so I went back there and called the store manager and I told her what had happened. She told me she would take care of it. So I finished my lunch and went back up front to finish out my shift.
I don’t remember much honestly after that , but what I do remember is Lucas coming up directly beside of me and going on about how I always lied to our store manager about him and honestly he probably said more that I don’t remember… but at that point I’d had all I could take so I looked at him and said “fuck this, I’m out.” And I went to the back of the store to get my bag and as I was walking out the door he was on the phone with the store manager and all I heard was “I don’t know what to do.”
I never went back to that job. There was times I wanted to, but im glad I didn’t. I later found out that after that happened, Lucas quit his job.
And it was this situation that taught me never to take any kind of shit from any manager, no matter what. And I’ll never stay at a place like that again where I am constantly bullied and nothing is done about it.