tl:dr – Supervisor hadn't heard from any other employee about why they'd quit (rotten manager) so he was glad to get my report.
I'm 57, so I don't put up with shit. I got a job that promised to be physically demanding, but I was willing to give it a shot. The supervisor hired me, but he was off-site, so I reported to the shop manager.
There were 3 other employees, but one I never met because I only lasted 5 days.
The first red flag was my first day–everybody else had called off so it was just me and manager. He was pretty nice in explaining how things worked, and I felt like I did a good job. For example, he gave me a stack of boards to fix and i fixed them all by lunchtime. He commented, “Boy, i thought that would take all day! Let's go to lunch!” It was a half-hour early for lunch, but whatever. I asked if i should be back in an hour but he said, “No, come back when lunch is over at 1.”
So first day not too bad but the one big red flag was that he gossiped about all the other employees to me–right after telling me he didn't want the employees gossiping about each other. One in particular he went on and on about all his flaws–when I finally met him, the kid was great and a good worker. But of course I am just thinking, “If he talks about the others, then what will he say about me?”
Second day one other employee showed up and we spent an hour and 15 minutes sitting in manager's office before we started work. Then we worked really hard for a while and then took off early for lunch again. He did that a lot–took off for all breaks early and sat around a LOT. I'd rather work and listen to my podcasts on headphones than listen to his gossip.
It went on like this–I figured out that none of us were ever supposed to doing anything but following him around and doing exactly what he said. I prefer to know what will be expected so I can get to it, but whatever.
The 4th day is when things started to ramp up — when I showed up I sat in his office for ten minutes then asked, “Should I get back to the task I was working on yesterday?” He seemed startled–I guess a long bullshit session was standard every morning–but said yes. So off I go.
Then he gave me another job and I “made a mistake.” He told me to cut 20 boards to match the size of a board he'd already cut, so I did that. Then he told me to put them as cross-pieces on shelves, so I went to do that, but they were too long, so I told him and he said, “Well, just cut them all shorter,” so I did.
Then came the “mistake”–even though the shelves were all the exact same type and looked the same, apparently they were all different sizes, so some of the boards were now too short.
I put “mistake” in quotes because if he'd said “I need cross-pieces for all those shelves” I would have measured each one individually before I cut. But because he'd given the instructions the way he did, it never occurred to me.
Well, I told him immediately, and he didn't seem terribly annoyed–just said that some of the shelves must have stretched.
But then the next day came. I'm back doing my boring task, and all the rest are working on the other side of the shop when one of the employees comes and tells me manager wants me to come over there. So I go and he starts yelling at me about the wood I cut the wrong size. I try to answer and he just keeps interrupting me. Finally I just shut up and let him rant and when he yelled, “Do you understand?” I yelled back, “YES.” And I went back to my other task.
The rest of the two hours I lasted that day he snapped at me every time I took a step away from my task. “What are you doing?” “Why are you here?” etc. (I was going to the bathroom or getting a tool or getting a drink.)
I was sick of him by now so I grabbed my stuff and left, and sent a text to the supervisor that I would send an email detailing why I'd walked out.
I sent him a long email describing everything that had gone on and what I'd observed and he asked if I'd meet with him to explain more, so i did. When we were done, he thanked me because they'd been having lots of trouble with turnover in the shop and this was the first time anyone had every told him why they'd quit. I suggested that most of the others (mostly college students) hadn't learned to stand up for themselves yet.
I know this wasn't as bad as many others' experiences, but it was the first time I'd seen this type of horrible management.