One of my managers seems to be going on a downward spiral lately. And when things go badly under her watch, she seems more apt to blame it on the staff (us) than take responsibility for herself. She also does countless other petty things which drive me absolutely batshit, but none of those are serious enough to warrant a pit thread by themselves. However, the combination of her deflecting blame on everyone else, being unable to stay calm with angry customers, and getting in the way of those of us who are trying to do our jobs is enough to arouse my ire.
I kind of feel like she’s on the verge of a meltdown soon. On one hand, I’m rather callous about it, feeling that she’ll probably quit soon anyway either because of a mental breakdown, or because her incompetence will eventually catch up to her and she’ll get called on it by her superiors. But on the other hand, her behavior has an uncanny way of killing the morale of the staff. I swear I have never had a manager who gave off a ‘I hate this job’ aura more than this one. Since she has been manager, half a dozen staff members have quit/plan on qutting specifically because they can’t stand working with her. :mad: Most of these coworkers are the few people who have worked there as long as I have. That means virtually all the other experienced people- coworkers I was friendly with and had great workplace chemistry, are quitting. Sure, there will be more people to replace them, but they will be new, and need lots of guidance since the job is fast-paced and most people hired are working for the first time in their lives (mostly 16 year olds; makes me feel like a dinosaur at 24 ). Thus, things will be even more difficult for the other managers and myself who are trying to do their job, trying to stay cool under pressure, and let each other do our own damn jobs without telling each other what we already know we are supposed to be doing :mad:
What kind of workplace is it? Retail, where the face-to-face customer is everything? I used to have a manager who just couldn’t handle customers, even the polite & nice ones - it was downright embarrasing, and yeah - demoralizing as hell.
Best of luck!
Yeah, lots of face-to-face customer interaction. The manager has a tendency to get mentally overwhelmed (not saying she’s dumb, but rather she has a hard time calmiing down/staying calm).
If it were just me that had a problem with her, I’d probably just try not to let it get to me. But the manager is kind of a downer to everyone there, and this bothers me.
And yes, I’ve taken it up with the manager’s superiors. Ironically, while she can be kind of timid around customers, she can be very confrontational and snarky to the other managers/her superiors. So I don’t know how long I will have to put up with this (hopefully not long)
Actually, in a way, I suppose having her around is good for me. Why? Because she makes everyone unhappy to the point of motivating me to take the manager position seriously. I believe I will try harder at it because it sure beats the alternative of having to work under her (until she has the inevitable breakdown).
I could tell you dozens of mundane stories about how she interferes with my job. If I am giving a new employee advice/telling them how to do this/that, she will accuse me of ‘overwhelming’ them with information, then proceed to tell the person exactly what I just said :smack: only she speaks at like 600 words a minute so you can barely follow anything she says, and of course she gets incredibly indignant when people get confused. When someone makes a mistake, rather than call them on it, she will sit and wait for them to screw up more, then a week later give them a laundry list of all the things they are doing wrong.
). Thus, things will be even more difficult for the other managers and myself who are trying to do their job, trying to stay cool under pressure, and let each other do our own damn jobs without telling each other what we already know we are supposed to be doing :mad:
