store blowout
Jan. 31, 2006 ~ 10:17 am
My manager is a bitch at times... and I say at times because at some point in her day she must fall asleep in 100% silence.
Last week she made me look like an idiot in front of two customers.
The first customer was in need of foamboard that I had waiting for her in the shop.. her husband had ran off to find other things and we were waiting for him to come back.
Shortly after, I'm asked to take a customer phone call so I answer the call just as my manager walks by and asks the original customer in front of me if she needed help.
The lady says "oh im waiting on foamboard"
(as we had already discussed)
My manager hears me answering a million questions by the phone call and says "You know, thats why we have a 'HOLD' button on the phone if you even care to help this lady here"
My mind goes blank and I give her a 'get-the-hell-outta-here' stare as she walks away, I end the phone call and we're still left standing waiting for the womans husband. He finally makes his way back, they pay for their things and leave.
At this point i'm slightly aggitated but figure i'll let it slide...
Customer #2 comes by with a print to have framed and I'm helping him out just as I hear my name paged by management to head to the stockroom.
Obviously I'm not going to leave the customer hanging so I ignore the call and figure the stockroom is right next to our shop so whoever paged me can walk their lazy asses around the corner to talk to me if its simply that urgent.
Suddenly I'm paged again in a louder, stronger tone and I'm given an extension number to call if I can't make it back their. I politely excuse myself from the customer so I can dial the number only to find she called me from a shit phone that didnt work. regardless i say "I'M WITH A CUSTOMER THANK YOU!" and hang up..
of course she didnt hear me so she comes storming around the corner throwing two frames on the counter and yelling at me for having 3 garbage cans in the back that need to be emptied. "YOU PAGE ME WHEN YOUR DONE SO WE CAN EMPTY THOSE"
and she walks off with an attitude...
...all in front of my customer.
The man at the counter simply shakes his head and obviously sees my disgust... he goes on and on about her rudeness and that i've been nothing but helpful and patient with him and apologizes on her behalf. We finish up and he tells me to stay strong because I'm a child of God.
My heart melts and I calm down a bit thanking the man as he makes his way out.
I grab the frame she threw on the counter and go to remove the glass that was stapled in with eons of staples. I head into the shop for some pliers as she so happens to walk by. She stands there with a look of "hello????" on her face and says "What are you doing? You didn't page me like I told you to!"
At this point I hold the frame up and say "I'm taking the glass out of the...."
she interrupts again that I was to page her and I snap....
"I'M NOT READY YE...... NO YOU KNOW WHAT? COME HERE CUZ YOU AND I NEED TO TALK RIGHT NOW!!"
I snap to the point where I'm in near tears rage and I ask her if she realizes how rude and belittling her attitude is and how i'm two seconds from walking off the job entirely...
My voice is carrying throughout the shop, I yell at her explaining the situation with the first customer and the phone call, and go on to say even if I hadnt already helped the woman what on earth would it cost for her to walk her manager-ass back around the counter, get the woman her foamboard and take care of it herself...
at which point her face flushes as she's finally given a chance to talk and says "well.. I don't know how to ring that up"...
.. I then continue to yell at her for customer #2 who now thinks my manager is the queen of the bitches. It's about this time she decides she wants to interrupt me with shouting of her own and I firmly tell her "IM NOT DONE YET! Do you realize that when I'm with a customer and I hear you page me I will NOT simply drop everything for YOUR sake. You know damn well if I dont answer you its not because I'm out goofing around or socializing or standing with my finger up my ass, I'M BUSY WORKING! YOU KNOW THAT! AND I'M NOT HERE TO PUT UP WITH THIS!"
at this point i'm fuming with my arms crossed (after being tired of flailing them around the whole time) and she begins yelling about the garbage bins not being emptied and all this such nonsense and that she's just so sick of it because apparently we always leave our garbage in the back.
I quietly put my hand up to stop her from talking and answer her in an eerily calm voice that I was told since day ONE at my job to leave them in back because the 'men' of the store dump them out in the morning BUT that I would take the blame for that if she realizes that she can't just go belittling everyone because she's fed up.
From there we still had to dump the garbage out so we both took a few to calm down and proceeded to work...
Now I know it seemed as though this would end in bloodshed, but I'll be honest with you, it was more a'la Lifetime endings where after a few hours later, she came up to me and acknowledged that she was wrong and that she appreciated the way I handled myself and thanked me for the constructive criticism....
... I simply told her that a part of me feels I should apologize as well but that I wouldn't simply because it had to be done.
Oddly enough she understood that and further continued to try to dry hump my leg....
... ok not really but i had to get one last kick in before ending this never-ending entry.
I'll tell you one last thing though... it felt DAMN good. I believe I walked out of work that day struttin...