A Shoe In
My Very Worst Job was when I started working at a retail shoe store when I was about 18. I was hired on as a “full time management trainee,” basically meaning that I would work for two weeks, then learn to close the store, do that for a week and then learn to open. I would then become an assistant manager so it sounded like a good gig for me. The day before I was to suppose to learn how to close the store my manager walked out and didnt come back. I came in the next morning waiting for the only other person who could open the store. I waited an hour past when we were supposed to open, but when he got there and let me in, he proceeded to throw up in the bathroom and then left. He didn’t come back, which should have been a sign about this place, but I really needed the money. That day I got yelled at by my district manager for not doing what the manger was suppose to do even though he left (keep in mind I had been there two weeks and still didnt know a lot). We did end up getting a new manager and another assistant manager. I didn’t get my promotion right away. It ended up being six months later and only because the assistant manager got promoted.
Looking back now it wasn’t the greatest idea to take the promotion as it came with a $45 a week increase, but lost out on commission because I had to look after the staff and do all the paperwork being a manager. Along with that, because it was just me and my manager we both had to do what they called “Slam Shifts” twice a week, which would be working 9:00 am to 11:00 pm. Along with these epic shifts I got blamed for anything the staff would do. If they called in I had to find a replacement employee, if we didnt sell enough accessories or beat our sales numbers, it was my fault. Also on top of that, being a manager, I was told that I had to stay in the store on my breaks which meant I didnt get one. If i wanted food i was suppose to get an employee to go get it for me. On those slam shifts I would be deducted a half hour break regardless if I got it or not as well as any other shift I had. My “breaks” would be spent doing paper work when I wasnt getting called out on the sales floor to deal with upset customers. I couldn’t have a sick day, my boss told me, and I quote, “Even if you’re so sick you can’t stand, we’ll put a chair at the front of the store and you can sit there and greet people.” I left the job.
“Even if you’re so sick you can’t stand, we’ll put a chair at the front of the store and you can sit there and greet people.” After hearing something like that I don’t blame you for leaving. I would have done the same thing.
I agree with TMS. Nothing irks me more than employers that expect their employees to work when they’re sick. I’m pretty “pro-boss” in my comments here, but I absolutely can’t stand the thought of a sick employee working themselves into a chronic condition. All that means is that person will be gone longer when they get worse, or work will be completely half-assed while they’re sick, or they’ll just quit and you’ll spend more money and time training their replacement.
Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of people who abuse sick days, but if your staff has the manbirdpig flu, don’t be sending your coughing employees to work just because you have a bottom line.
Being held accountable for employees mistakes, having to find replacements, working crazy shifts, not having breaks and having to work when you’re sick sounds like regular management work to me.
So sick you can’t stand and you have to work, and cheating the payroll by saying you got a break when you didn’t? That is unreasonable and sucks. But aside from those cases all of the above is pretty typical. If you can’t handle that kind of work don’t work in management.
Beth, seriously? You agree it’s unreasonable, but then insult her? Wtf?
Beth, just because the norm is shitty, cruel, and inconsiderate of another person’s being doesn’t make it right, just, or even remotely good business. My manager works long ass hours, but there is a difference when you are reaching for the bottom line after 20 years of experience building up to 12 hour days 7 days in a row than little to no experience and being taken advantage of by a poorly managed business. Oh yes, and the OP was 18. 18! Do you expect the OP to jump through flaming hoops the first try too?
No, this OP shouldn’t have to endure that. No one should. The reason successful managers pull long hours is that they have the experience to know when to take breaks, how to manage their time and others time, etc. An 18 year old lacks all of that. Coupled with they are still growing, require more sleep than adults in their 50′s…
I’m all about taking a reality pill, but I won’t accept a reality that is unnecessary and cruel.
Aren’t there, you know, laws about working and breaks and crap like that? I could always be mistaken…
Never mind the fact that if you force a sick employee to come to work, you run the risk of not only getting sick yourself, but the rest of the staff. What are you going to do when everyone is at home too sick to get out of bed, because you forced one sick employee to come in?
“I would be deducted a half hour break regardless if I got it or not as well as any other shift I had”
My friend successfully got a payout from Subway for the same thing.