Fresh Produce
I got a job at a grocery store in the produce section, but the manager and owner never told me about my duties or what my responsibilities would be. I asked a couple of times, but the answer was “we’ll discuss that on your first day.” So I showed up on my first day ready, excited and motivated. I reported to my department manager, made him aware that I was present and ready to start. I asked my manager if there was anything he’d like me to do or if he needed help with anything. His exact response?
” Whoa whoa whoa kid…you’ve been on the job for about 30 seconds. And you’re already asking questions? I’m not here to babysit you!”
I was a little baffled at this comment, but I just calmly and nicely told him that we should probably go over my duties and responsibilities like we discussed on my interview day so that I wouldn’t have to bug him again. He turned around, red in the face, with both fists closed and screamed at the top of his lungs so everyone in the store could hear.
“IT’S NOT WISE OF YOU TO GIVE ME ATTITUDE WHEN YOU’RE ONLY 30 SECONDS INTO THE JOB!! DON’T PISS ME OFF, YOU DON’T KNOW WHO I AM AND WHAT I CAN DO!!”
Me being 16 and him being in his mid-30′s and slightly better built, I was shaking in my boots. I calmly walked away and went into the owners office to talk about what had happened and to apologize if I did anything wrong (which I knew I didn’t). I was absolutley blown away and disgusted at what the owner hit me back with.
“Oh…so you wanted him to show you your responsibilities eh? Do you want him to hold your hand too? Maybe read you a bedtime story? This is work, not a daycare”.
I thought I was on a prank tv show with hidden cameras. But nope. This was real. I grabbed a broom and straightened things, but that took a whole 10 minutes and I still had more than three and a half hours left to go. I found myself repeating the same things over and over again. Sweep, mop, straighten, repeat. Every time I tried to help a fellow employee, they would say they didn’t have time to train me. I would try to get boxes of fruit from out back to stock the shelves and I would be told I wasn’t allowed back there. I was getting more and more attitude from my manager and my boss. Swearing, cussing, name-calling, you name it. Close to the end of my shift, my manager had another hissy fit on me and called me stupid. I took off my smock, threw it at him, took off my badge, threw that at him too and I told him to fuck off. I then went into the owners office and told him to go fuck himself as well.
I just don’t….understand. What did they expect?
me thinks it was a family owned store since the owner had the same problem.
WOW. If I had gone home at 16 with this story to my mother, she probably would have burned that store down.
I agree with K. Family run businesses are intimate…often to the point of sloppy inefficiency such as in your case.
This is beyond fucking bizarre, but, sadly, not the first time I’ve heard of weirdness like this. If that happened to me, I’d be wondering if I were being Punk’d, too.
No one deserves to be cussed at at a job, especially at that type of job. There simply can’t be anything that stressful at a grocery store to cause someone to use that type of language.
I’m impressed you were able to tell them to fuck off. I think I would have just broken down into tears at 16 if I’d been treated like that.
What about the BBB? I am assuming it was before their time but still!
Was this a little diddy in Canada?
Totally bizarre.
Haha what the hell? I love that you thought you were on a hidden camera show–I can see why you did!
yeah these people are fucking demented. I bet they have a very high turnover. I would have done the same thing and just walked out.
Good for you for not robbing them first. I would have…
Like D said, if I’d come home at 16 with that story, my mother wouldn’t have burned the store down. She’d be too busy trying to stop my father from going to the store and killing someone (and I don’t mean figuratively).
eh..that’s weird because i had to same bizzare experience too. i was working in a grocery store as a stocker, and the man looked at me like i was a complete moron, he told me to go ask questions to the other employees, then scream at me to stop. grocery managers are from BizzaroLand! :p
You should’ve played around with produce… y’know, build pyramids out of peppers or something, and then near the end of the shift, throw them all on the floor… gee… such jerks!
im a produce manager and I could of trained you better, some people are just dicks! And that was just unprofessional!