I’m an apprentice in a small local mechanic shop. It’s just me, the Forman, and the owners who manage the customer side. Working with him is okay, we get along fine, he knows what he’s doing. However he has quite the temper. I have to walk on eggshells around him.
Because of the season, it’s pretty slow, we only get around 2 jobs each per day. Most of the time he’s in the break room with his feet up on his phone. I don’t really care, I keep the shop tidy and have a few small projects to work on. If he sees me in the break room, he gets pissy, he’ll look at me through the window and make a fuss. But whatever I pretend to do a lot of work when it’s slow. Every once in a while, I’ll mess something up, forget to check the air pressure on a vehicle, not clear a CEL or TPMS light. But fuck every time he makes a big deal about it. I’ll get a full on yelling at, lots of visible anger. I haven’t been yelled at this much since I was a little kid.
I finally had enough the last time, right before Christmas, he came in late, I was working on an alignment, he pulls a car in and got all huffy because I didn’t top up the brake fluid reservoir on a car and a light came up on the dash (when I was working on the car, the level was low, but the pads were low too so I noted that. You aren’t supposed to top up brake fluid unless you are changing the pads), I went on the defend myself, which pissed him right off. Some shit about “do you have your red seal? Huh?” I was tired that day and straight up said “why the fuck do you talk to me like that”, which sent him right off the deep end. I can’t remember what he was eating about but the last thing he said was “IF YOU DONT LIKE IT, GET IN YOUR TRUCK AND GO HOME”.
So I did, I dropped what I was holding and went up to the Change room, got out of my coveralls and drove home. I texted the owner what happened and that I will not be disrespected like that, and I’ll see you in the new year. I have got no reply back up until yesterday when asked if Monday was a holiday. To which I got a paragraph about walking off the job is not right (fair) and that he talked to the Forman who said if I don’t like his rules, I could leave, and that I left.
So now I’m pissed off because my boss won’t even do anything about how I’m treated. I’m dreading going to work on Tuesday. I don’t know what to say, I want to have a meeting and find a happy medium where I don’t get talked to like shit. There’s a professional way to talk to fellow coworkers, and that hasn’t been happening. Might end up refreshing my resume and finding a new shop🤷️