Putting up with a suck up at work

ETTDDan

He's not my manager. He's a sales team leader. Had my manager of asked me, that's fine. Because he is the boss. Sales team leader is not the boss. Just a glorified sales advisor.

ETTDDan

Staff hierarchy Highest to lowest:

CEO
Managing Directors
Product Managers
Customer Service Management
Regional Managers
Manager
Assistant Manager
Sales Team Leader
Sales Advisor

Bogalot

ETTDDan wrote: »

He's not my manager. He's a sales team leader. Had my manager of asked me, that's fine. Because he is the boss. Sales team leader is not the boss. Just a glorified sales advisor.

He's your team leader, he's your manager.

You need to get over yourself. The problem here is not with other people.

ETTDDan

Yes but it states in our staff handbook, the manager is who we report to. Sales Team Leader basically should only work on the shop floor with sales. I've had many sales team leaders in the past and I've never had a problem with any of them. Because they weren't !!!! kissers. They were just regular guys who just wanted to get in, work and get out.

On my day off, he constantly spams my phone with sales figures. Even does the same on his day off.

Seriously, I need to get over myself? I have to say I don't agree with you here. If you were in my shoes, you'd understand it all. I think people in management need to get over themselves if anything. It's not as if we work for Apple, or Samsung.

ETTDDan

Bogalot, at the end of the day, I'm a person who believes in hard work and good pay. I don't believe in slave labour, poor pay for loads of work. I'm sure there will be many who agree with me and most who don't. So what? BFD.

I certainly don't think I'm better than anyone else. I'm no better and no worse. It's over quoted, to the point it's become a clich!, but this kind of reminds me of the argument about footballers being paid more than soldiers and doctors and nurses, who work much much harder. And for what? Employment isn't fair at all. Why does it have to be that way?

A little off topic, but whatever

daytona0

ETTDDan wrote: »

Bogalot, at the end of the day, I'm a person who believes in hard work and good pay. I don't believe in slave labour, poor pay for loads of work. I'm sure there will be many who agree with me and most who don't. So what? BFD.

I agree with you. I work hard and earn my keep, and don't like brown nosers per se.

But the key difference is I don't think you set the expectation bar correctly. You talk about your low income, low hours and how someone has just swanned in on a better contract (he probably made a more convincing argument than you did). You talk about how your boss gets sick of praising you (isn't that a little bit of brown nosing too?) and you seem to be a bit of a martyr in fairness..

You probably need to value yourself a bit more and not accept too many false promises, get a job with suitable wages and one where you face promotion prospects.

It is completely understandable that your motivation has dipped, but that should be a cue to do something about it. I would recommend either:

1. Finding a new job. McDonalds will give you 40+ hours a week at min wage!!

2. At the next available opportunity, possibly when someone next praises you, having a little chat and making it clear that you have earned a 40 hour contract and that you are an essential worker.

Just sounds like you are getting mugged off here, and not pushing back!

I certainly don't think I'm better than anyone else. I'm no better and no worse.

I'm better than other people. I'm much more organised, much more intelligent, much more passionate, much more driven and much more empathetic than others in general, in the jobs I have worked.

BUT other people are much better at me in a lot of other things too, and some further who have more talent in their small toe than I do (probably working at Google right now!).

I think you are better than your colleagues in some aspects too, and you shouldn't be afraid to admit that. You just also have to admit your own weaknesses and work on them.

It's over quoted, to the point it's become a clich!, but this kind of reminds me of the argument about footballers being paid more than soldiers and doctors and nurses, who work much much harder. And for what? Employment isn't fair at all. Why does it have to be that way?

A little off topic, but whatever

So true!

But you and Mr Brown Noser are in the same boat; namely you aren't professional footballers

All men are born equal.

ETTDDan

Thank you daytona0. Finally, someone who agrees somewhat. The bit about my first boss being sick of praising me, that was due to the customer service I had given a particular customer. I was just doing as I was told because I was happy to finally get a job and have a reason to get out of bed. But of course, thank you for seeing the perfectly valid reason for a dip in motivation. I'd be happy to work elsewhere, the only thing holding me back is that, although I hate my job now, it's all I'm good at. I once worked in a call centre, caused me nothing but real health issues, worked in a Wetherspoon's pub for 6 hours, because my manager at that time lied to me at interview and told me I'd be predominantly be doing 6pm to 2am shifts every night when I applied for day time work. I'm constantly somewhat afraid to find a totally new job, only to find the sales targets are more aggressive and I end up being fired.

Not too sure what to think of the McDonalds comment though. Lol.

Gavin83

ETTDDan wrote: »

I appreciate what you're saying, but to me, brown-nosing isn't my thing and it also strikes me as a weakness.

'Hello boss, I'm going to butter you up nice and smooth to get what I want, taking your attention away from the hard worker over in the corner there'.

That's how it sits with me. Our observations and opinions may be different but thats just how it is at the end of the day I guess. Thanks for your comment.

What's your definition of brown nosing or !!! kissing? What's this guy doing to make you think he fits this category? I think your worrying far too much about what this other guy is doing, sometimes it's hard to see the work that someone else does unless you manage them.

Also many people consider they work hard but sadly their employer doesn't always agree. And yes the employment world is unfair but this isn't likely to change anytime soon. Do what you need to in order to get where you want.

ETTDDan wrote: »

but this kind of reminds me of the argument about footballers being paid more than soldiers and doctors and nurses, who work much much harder. And for what? Employment isn't fair at all. Why does it have to be that way?

People aren't paid based on how hard they work, people are paid based on how much money they make for their company. Soldiers, doctors and nurses don't make much money for their company. Footballers do.

ETTDDan

Gavin83 wrote: »

What's your definition of brown nosing or !!! kissing? What's this guy doing to make you think he fits this category?

My definition of brown nosing and !!!! kissing is the deliberate intention of impressing the boss by becoming way too pally with whoever the boss is. Kind of like a teacher's pet. Always saying yes to everything or no to everything for the sake of the argument. Doing anything to appease the boss's best interest without actually doing any work whatsoever. Snitching on co workers; for example say if 'Laura' is on the till serving a customer, she makes a small mistake whilst taking a customer's details for a delivery. Maybe she spelled the surname wrong or set up the delivery the wrong way by making it next day by 9am, rather than 8am, the brown noser will go and tell the actual boss and come up with a way to challenge that accident or behaviour. Just so he or she can make themselves appear better than 'Laura'.

What makes me think this is that this particular guy, is nothing compared to the other sales team leaders I've worked with at the same company before. Every other sales team leader I've worked with, I've been fine with, regardless of their hours or how much money they make an hour. It's because they weren't brown nosing. They were just regular guys like me. They wanted to get into work, do the job and go home. They knew that people make mistakes and thats just how it is. No biggie. No disciplinaries.

Now when I come back to this particular guy, where do I start? He constantly talks about sales figures. He always posts goofy photos of himself to the group whatsapp page. On my day off, I'll be bombarded with sales sales sales from him. He even posts about them on his days off. Whenever we have visits from main people from head office, he'll floor walk with them and discuss why sales are down, pretend to laugh at their jokes, agree with everything they've said, his personality will change whenever a customer is being served. Like normally if the main people from head office aren't there, he'll serve the customers professionally, which isn't a flaw at all, greet them with a smile and say thanks for shopping with us... again, no flaw at all, however when main people are there, he'll try and offer every single till add on and extension of the sale to the customer (to no avail) until his face could turn blue (figuratively speaking). When it comes to tasks, he'll tell us to not stand around doing nothing, so we can go clean up and tidy the shop up, whilst he stands at the front or sits in the office over a coffee for an hour (no joke) with the boss to just have a nice old chat and laugh.

He loves telling people off. He must of loved it when he dragged me into the office today to have a 'formal discussion' with me. His smirky little smile that sends a turn in my stomach along with his 'well I make more money than you so.. haha' comment from today also. He actually did say that, which I was surprised at. Because fair enough, maybe he does, but it wasn't called for. I'd never say that to someone below me. Maybe I just don't like the guy. Maybe it's just me. Maybe I'm old fashioned or stubborn. But then again, maybe it is him.

Don't get me wrong, all the other people I work with, I get along with just fine and can have a laugh with. This guy though. Just makes me want to quit.

bouicca21

What you call suck up others would call 'going the extra mile'. I know which of you I'd rather employ.