Annoyed with my Boss

janeseemore

Hi everyone,

Well I work for a fairly known retail company, as a sales assistant. I am annoyed with my manager.

For example on Saturday in the afternoon, when I started my shift, the manager and another colleague decided on going outside together to get there lunch. And then going back upstairs to have there lunch together. Leaving me alone for a complete hour on the shop floor, on one of the busiest days of the week.

They spent like 15-20 mins outside, leaving me to manage the shop myself alone! and then even after their lunch they both went in the back office for another good hour. They both get on like a house on fire, esp as they both are good friends and communicate outside of work.

They also went out of the shop again later on together for another 15 minutes!!

But I get very angry when they do this, i think its not right, and how could the store manager leave me in the store alone! This is also not the first time this has happened!

I am thinking of reporting this to the senior area manager. As i think its not fair. What do you all think?

Zazen999

I'd do a bit of digging first.....

What are the company procedures about being in the shop alone for any length of time?

Is it usual for any staff member to be left alone during lunch breaks?

If you go straight to your senior area manager you would end up with very difficult working conditions, so think it through first - what procedures and customs have been broken, and can you approach your manager to ask her that it doesn't happen again.

Did you get a lunch break?

Do they do this often?

How long have you worked there?

Pssst

Perhaps you need to start wandering off or busying yourself with other matters whilst they are on the shop floor,then they can deal with the customers? Dont get mad,get even.

Lord_Blue

Talk to your boss about it. That's the only way you will get a reasonable outcome from this.

viktory

Pssst wrote: »

Perhaps you need to start wandering off or busying yourself with other matters whilst they are on the shop floor,then they can deal with the customers? Dont get mad,get even.

That way lies the dole queue (and I hear it is quite a long queue).

Perhaps instead of acting in a childish tit for tat manner the OP should look at resolving this situation in a mature manner. As has already been suggested, look at the policies and procedures that are in place to see if any have actually been breached. Then, armed with the relevant knowledge the OP can approach the people in question. If there is no joy there, they can then go to their manager.

I have to say, some of the OP's post sounds like petty jealousy; they may be friends outside of work, but that is not relevant.

bingy_burge

I would be loath to report both of them to senior manager its two senior staff against you. I would suggest unless you have been there alot longer and are squeeky clean super employee it could backfire badly.

I had a manager who I wasn't getting on with but I kept my head down, so anyway one day he was really off with me and taking the pee I ignored it but another manager heard and made a complaint to this guys boss.

So my manager had a telling off and decided to pull in all the staff I worked with into a room and told them I had made a complaint about bullying and that since they may have laughed at some of the stuff he said all there jobs where at risk. They where then told to email them anything that I didn that they didn't like.

So he got email everytime I sneezed from me taking my lunch break at 12:45 to me reversing a little fast in the car park etc.

He then set me rediculous targets questioned my internet usage agrued and question every single thing I did. One night he waited till I went home and then he went through everything on my desk and draws and questioned me about. He dragged me into a displinery put all the emails and my supposed lack of performance to his stupid targets argued every decision I made was wrong. He set me a performance plan but since all the work I did was to certain degree subjective he never liked my choice. In the end I had to resign as there was a risk I would of been sacked for poor performance.

wontfallforit

It's a tricky situation.

The one real mistake I ever made at work (in a very similar situation, and a similar job), was (politely) telling my manager that I was dissatisfied with her and her assistant leaving me alone for an hour on the shop floor, having to deal with literally dozens of customers at once.

I'm pretty unflappable, I didn't really care that I had all that pressure, but I felt for the customers. The company was struggling a little, and seeing people walk out rather than wait to be served was not good for that situation.

Anyway, I went away on a few days' holiday and forgot about it (I apologised to my boss firstly, though I was more than polite and reasonable in my approach). When I returned, I was hauled into a meeting with none other than the managing director of the company (it's a fairly small chain). I got absolutely railroaded! I was accused of being negative, disrespecting authority, and all sorts, and with one stroke of a pen, I was due to be moved to another store.

I was really shocked, as I'd never been in any kind of trouble before, and there was absolutely no indication that my manager was going to take things that far! I had done SO much for my manager, on both a professional and personal basis (including taking on management duties for weeks at a time, with no extra pay). Other people were really taking the biscuit at work, and were committing sackable offences on a daily basis, which my manager turned a blind eye to.

My suspicion was that my manager had got so fed up with things that were going on in the company at that time, that she had to take her frustration out on somebody, and that somebody was me.

Thankfully we patched things up (and I artfully avoided a written warning), and things were great ever since. The only mark against me in my disciplinary log was that I was to consult with my manager if I had any more problems (well, d'uhh, that's what I did in the first place!!), and the comments were disregarded after 6 months.

I went on to work there for another year, never had another similar problem, and got a gleaming reference when I moved on.

I guess my advice is to please be careful when it comes to criticising your manager and their actions. A polite word with them (explaining the detriment to the business, i.e. fewer staff on the floor = less satisfied customers) might be the best course of action to take first.

Mankysteve

I'am afraid it properly a case of put up and start looking for a new job tbh.

Pssst

viktory wrote: »

That way lies the dole queue (and I hear it is quite a long queue).

Perhaps instead of acting in a childish tit for tat manner the OP should look at resolving this situation in a mature manner. As has already been suggested, look at the policies and procedures that are in place to see if any have actually been breached. Then, armed with the relevant knowledge the OP can approach the people in question. If there is no joy there, they can then go to their manager.

I have to say, some of the OP's post sounds like petty jealousy; they may be friends outside of work, but that is not relevant.

Yes..having thought about it..i do wonder if OP is perhaps jealous of the relationship? Maybe she doesnt feel part of the in crowd? Perhaps some efforts in that direction might prove fruitful?

wontfallforit

Pssst wrote: »

Yes..having thought about it..i do wonder if OP is perhaps jealous of the relationship? Maybe she doesnt feel part of the in crowd? Perhaps some efforts in that direction might prove fruitful?

Given that the point the OP was making was that she was left alone on the shop floor, on a Saturday, I don't see how it's relevant whether or not the OP is "jealous".

In a retail environment, it's not professional for 2 managers to take a break at the same time, especially if it means leaving just one person alone to deal with the Saturday crowd. In my experience in retail, there have been policies stating that a mamber of management must be on the shop premises at all times. I don't know if that's the case in the OP's company, but it's a fairly standard policy.

Honestly, if you walked into a busy high street shop on a Saturday and saw just one member of staff trying to tend to several customers at once, what would you do? I'd walk out and come back later - if I came back at all - and I've been the lone shop floor worker.

HOWEVER, the OP does need to be careful in her approach in dealing with this. She shouldn't be left alone when it isn't necessary, but try finding the best way to tell a manager that .

Whether the manager and her asst. are friends or not should be irrelevant to the whole matter. In fact, they shouldn't really bring their friendship into work. They're there to work, not socialise at the expense of others.

SueC_2

I'd ignore it. Whether you like it or not, you are the junior employee and it's not your position to manage the performance of your boss and colleagues.

So long as you do the job you are paid to do, and do it well and efficiently, you are beyond reproach. If a queue builds up, or customers walk out, because you are the only one on the shop floor, that's not your fault or problem. Serve each customer as quickly and efficiently as you can, and move on to the next one.

Your manager is paid to ensure that, amongst other things, staffing levels are adequate to meet the needs of the business. If he/she is failing to do this, then it will ultimately be reflected in tangibles like sales figures and customer feedback, and brought to the Area Manager's attention that way.

You have nothing to gain by 'causing trouble' for your manager, and potentially a lot to lose.

Concentrate on making yourself look good by looking good, not by trying to make others look bad.