Welp. So much for my first "real-life" job. I worked at that gas station from May 12 to July 31, and I honestly didn't expect to quit - at least not like this! I mean, we've heard the stories and my mom herself had seen two of our coworkers cry when the manager gets on the phone with them, but shit we were not expecting that crap to happen to us.

TL;DR ~ After three months of working at a gas station, me and my mom quit yesterday because of the manager's passive-aggressive bullying, petty threats, blatant lies, and failure to properly train and counsel me in person (waiting instead 'til I got home so she could yell at me over the phone).

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My mom was originally going to train me for the job but she had a heart-attack, so instead the manager was going to train me. That never happened (I've never worked with her for a shift the entire three months I was there) so my fellow coworkers did their best to show me that they do. Queue the entire time them telling me that I was getting better at doing my job and me fucking begging them to tell me what I wasn't doing right (because for weeks there was some ~mysterious~ "thing" that I wasn't doing right/wasn't doing at all that no one could tell me - I shit you not, no one could figure out what was wrong and I've even had my mom work shift with me so we could figure it out which we could not).

The manager didn't like putting me with this other girl because every time we worked together I'd hear about it the next day about how she "doesn't do her job" when she works with me. I have no clue what's going on there because every time I've worked with her she is up and doing shit, but apparently after three or so years she's worked there she still doesn't "get her work done" so it's not just with me. My mom has worked with her too and hasn't seen this mysterious slacking that this girl is supposedly doing when we work with her.

There is also another girl there that's been there for five years and they've been sticking her the past couple months. Her son is real sick (inflammation of the heart etc. real serious sick) and she came into a hospital bill she had to pay - well, she wasn't paying it (or couldn't, she pretty much lives paycheck to paycheck) so the collections went to the owner of the store to garnish her wages. Ok yeah. Well, the owner did not garnish it under the pleading of the employee and surprise! the bill wasn't getting paid. The owner is going to fire her for it until me mom said that would be illegal. Well now they took away this girl's closing keys and she's not allowed on the register because now they think she's stealing from the store because her night papers don't come out perfect (we're almost always under or above a few cents, which is understandable but whatever).

Now here is when it gets interesting.

Last Sunday the manager called up my mom in the afternoon to tell her that she needed to stop stacking the pepperoni rolls on the counter "because it smashes the ones on the bottom" and that the boss told her to tell my mom that. Manager also more or less threatened my mom saying "I will know if you stack them, I know everything that goes on in this store." Well, we all agree that that was when it started because me mom let her get away with that.

My mom has been in the industry for over 30 years, she was either the manager or the top district manager for years before she joined the Marines. She knows her shit. She knows how to sell and she knows how to be a real fucking manager. The only reason this woman is manager at that store is because she was there the longest - she even told my mom that she was "a manager in title only." So my mom pretty much turned the place upside-down there and the manager did not fucking like it.

Just to preface a bit: The manager does literally all her managing over the phone (making some of my coworkers break down into tears) and leaves passive-aggressive notes all around the store for us. She only works morning shift on the weekdays and usually leaves early, and buys a twelve pack every day on her way out (I've heard her many times about how she needed a drink, and apparently the boss knows her as an alcoholic anyways). These phone calls happen a couple hours after she goes home so we figure she's fucking fried and wired by the time she calls up to bitch about us.

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Now to get on to what transpired yesterday!

After the Sunday where the manager threatened my mom, the manager called yesterday wanting to talk to me personally. And let me just say, I am fine with being reprimanded. I told all those girls that if I fuck up then I fucked up, tell me and I'll do better next time etc.

So we just decided to go down there so she could counsel me in person, face to face, none of this over-the-phone crap that everyone has said she likes to do. I stand there and all she could tell me was that;

• I forgot a coffee filter.
• I made two extra ham sandwiches [I had made one extra small ham on accident and I told her three times that I did not make an extra large, which she kept saying that I did, so she lied to my fucking face and expected me to take it].
• That the trash bags belong in the trash cans and not on the floor [I told her that it's always the one at the pumps - they get jammed full of everything that by the time I lift it out of the can and drag it to the back, that I do not have the strength to lift it into the can which is almost as tall as me. She then made this petty remark on how my application didn't have any lifting restrictions and "how do you get the soda into the cooler then??" Uh. I carry it? I can't and don't heave-ho the shit on the topmost shelf.].

She also said that people were calling in and complaining about raw pizza and burnt sandwiches, and specifically said that it was ME (first she said the boss was getting the calls, then it became my coworker was getting the calls instead..?). Well she mentioned a burnt sandwich on Wednesday when me and my mom worked, and my mom stood there and said that that was HER and not me, and the manager didn't say one fucking word to my mom. She instead went on a triad about how food costs money(??).

I specifically asked her if she could please tell me what I'm not doing right because no one is telling me - and her reply was "well you've been here long enough to know that." What kind of answer is that? Apparently I DO NOT KNOW or else I wouldn't be asking, fucking be a manager and counsel me and tell me what the fuck I'm not doing right. I also don't appreciate someone in a manager position calling me "baby" and "sweetheart." :/

She watches the camera recordings every morning to scrutinize the employees - not to make sure anyone is stealing or anything, but to gather information and petty details she can use to complain about us.

She also also asked my mom if she could work last night (my mom said she couldn't) because she doesn't want me and this other girl to work together because of the mysterious slacking that happens when we're together. Manager said that I specifically work harder with my mom (we were fucking busy the last two days actually - we got out late because the rush was constant) but otherwise I apparently literally stand there and do nothing. Which is a lie as well because after you do the shit you're supposed to do then there isn't much else to accomplish (and sweeping the floors before 7 or 8pm is pointless because people are still coming in). At first she said that she had "something else" lined up for tonight and that she would have to talk to the boss about me working last night.

But ok fine, I stood there and made note of everything, and when we got back home me and my mom were both agreed that we can start fresh now and work on it. Manager called and told my bf that I could work that night and it's like, ok good. Went inside to eat breakfast and the manager calls again, this time on my personal phone line, and holy shit.

I answered the phone and she just unleashed herself. She went on a complete list of stuff but didn't really elaborate on any of it (telling that the walk-in is not "up to par" does not tell me what I'm doing wrong and how to fix it), and listing off numbered points and literally going "blah blah blah" at the end of some is not helping me either. She even had to add in a condescending remark on how she'll teach everyone how to lift with their legs and that she's gonna make a list of everything that needs to be done (FUNFACT! my mom actually made that list and after she got sick, that list ~mysteriously~ disappeared).

My parents were at the table and could hear her yelling, and she did not stop talking. I had to interrupt her twice just to ask a question that she didn't really answer. After all that then it was "gotta go now sweetheart, bye bye~" Now I know why she gets the other girls crying.

That last phone call and the fact that she could not handle me when I was standing there in person is what made our decision easy. We pretty much agree that we caught her off guard when we drove over there instead of doing the phone thing, and she more than likely steamed and brooded after we left there that she just HAD to call again and unleash her shit on me that she should have done in person. My mom said even said that when we were down there she thought I was gonna get fired (and maybe she would have if I'd talk to her over the phone in the first place, or maybe that's how she makes the other girls cry by threatening them with that, who knows!).

Anyways. After that me and mom got back into the car, drove down there, and handed her the keys. My mom originally wanted to talk to her in private but she refused to go back to the office because she was making pizzas (you're the manager, if one of your employees says "I need to talk to you in private" then maybe you should fucking pay attention). My mom just handed her the keys and after a couple seconds it dawned on her - she eventually asked "the both of you?" and my mom said yes - and when we started for the door she screamed out for all the customers to hear "thanks for leaving us in a spot!" We were trying not to cause a scene and embarrass your ass :/ And maybe you shouldn't have started this shit at the beginning of the month?

So the bullshit that the other girls have to deal with was just getting started on us, but the thing is..you can't try to abuse people who aren't gonna take it, and you can't bully employees who don't need that job and just expect them to take it (even if you need the job, please do not take that crap - it's unethical, some of that shit is illegal, and it's just downright fucked up and no one needs that). Not to mention that this manager has disliked my mom from the first week she started working there - because my mom knows more about business and how to be a manager, and this woman doesn't.

We're kinda waiting for the boss to call because they really liked my mom (heck, they kept her job when she was out for two months after her heart attack and they specifically told her that they want to keep her.) We'll be very surprised if no one calls, but if they didn't then the manager has successfully bullshitted her way out of it. We doubt she called them yesterday to let them know two employees just up and quit - she's got to think about what she can say first, just like she thought about shit from the time it took us from the store to our house.

My mom is ready to tell the boss everything though - and she's ready to tell them that if they fire that manager then she'll happily run that store and make them money. My mom is an actual manager and knows her shit, so I follow the experience.

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So all that happened and now I'm putting in applications elsewhere. At least I know a little about the cash register and handling food now. But since I'm not working currently I guess I'll open commissions now :D