Because my job stuff isn't complicated enough already... · 7:13pm Oct 21st, 2019
So as all of you know, my job stuff is always complicated. I've recently been out of work for two months because my last job CarMax, fired me for being an epileptic. Unofficially. Officially it was because I dinged a few cars, which is not something that employees are fired for. I door dinged a half dozen cars (two without damage) and am fired, while another employee runs over a mercedes with a tuck, completely totaling it, naturally, and is not fired. But I'm an epileptic, so they found their excuse.
In any case, I was out of work for two months. A stressful time, to be sure. I applied to dozens of places and did a ton of interviews, but nothing bit. Then I applied to Mattress Firm. They had me do a digital interview for a Manager-in-Training position. I wasn't sure when they'd get back to me, so I walked into my local Einstein's (a bagel place, for those of you not in the know) and asked about a job. The GM there interviewed me on the spot and told me to apply on the site as a formality, and that I would be trained as a manager. I applied, got the job, and was really excited to be making 15/hr, which was more than I was making at CarMax. Then Mattress Firm got back to me. I didn't answer because I saw that it was an out-of-state number, and 99 times out of 100, those are scams. However, this one left me a message saying it was from Mattress Firm, so I was a little disappointed that they hadn't gotten back to me sooner. Either way, I had a job.
So, day one of my time at Einstein's arrives.
On an completely unrelated note, if I took over the company, I would rename it Eisenstein's and make the logo a baby carriage going down some stairs.
In any case...
It's a Saturday, so I'm thrown into the fray. The GM has me start on the line making sandwiches and toasting bagels and whatnot. I introduce myself to my fellow employees, none of whom have been there for longer than a couple of months. Hmm. I tell them that I'm a manager in training... like the GM said that I would be. In any case the day goes by without much incident, and at the end, the GM praises me for my hard work, saying that she was impressed that I just went in and worked hard even though I was thrown into the metaphorical fire. Cool. So she likes me.
Day two arrives.
I go in and put my hoodie on the coat rack in the back, and the GM says that she wants to talk to me. She says, are you ready for this, she says that she was a little hasty in hiring me, and that she really just needed an extra body to be a baker, and that she didn't see managerial material from me because I didn't take charge and ask questions and stuff. She also said that some co-workers said that I'd told them that I was a manager. Again, she hired me to be a manager in training, which is what I told them. She finished by saying "I'm starting to regret hiring you."
After one day.
Wow.
At my first opportunity I'm on the phone with Mattress Firm, who is still interested. They set up an interview for a few days later. I do the interview, and about nine hours later I have the job as a Manager in Training at Mattress Firm.
So, then my Einstein's GM is training me to be a baker. Part of being a baker is getting up at two in the morning to make bagels. Yucky, but a job is a job. I'm just wondering when I'm going to tell this woman who is desperate for a baker that I'm leaving for a better job. On a separate note, the only baker that she did have quit in the middle of my second shift, so now it's just me. I do the job and things aren't going so poorly, other than the usual bumps that come with learning a new position. I'm due to be off at 11, but I get off at about 11:30ish. My GM says that it's okay since it was just day one.
Then day two of baker.
I'd previously mentioned in passing that I didn't have a driver's license. On day two she asks me (in a bit of a suspicious tone, for some reason) why I don't. I tell her about the epilepsy and what to do if I have a seizure. The day goes by as normal, but she's getting more and more annoyed with me for some reason. She's one of those "I'm stresses so I'm taking it out on the closest person" kind of people. It's a Saturday and the store is busy, so she doesn't have time to help me out all of the time. But I do need help. I'm on day two of a new position. This makes her upset. She snaps at me more than once.
Then the end of the day comes. I have a list of closing chores to do, which includes all of the dishes that have been piling up throughout the day. I try to do them to get out on time, as I still have more to do after that. And people keep bringing me back more dishes. The kicker is that somebody accidentally leaves the walk-in cooler's door open, and, since I'm the person closest to it, she blames me. She says that I need to be aware of my surroundings and to think outside the box if I want to be a manager. I have a ton of dishes to do and little time to do it. I'm starting to get a little stressed.
The last thing I have to do for the day is to put the frozen bagels on boards for the next day, but I don't fully remember the process of doing that. I begin to panic. I could go ask her and get my head bitten off again for being a moron, or I could not ask her and probably do it wrong and get my head bitten off for doing it wrong like a moron. I only have to last a few days before I can quit and go to Mattress Firm, though I'm not sure of when to tell her. I want to have the last few days of a paycheck.
I begin panicking more.
I start hyperventilating and rubbing the back of my neck like I do when I get really overwhelmed, and it isn't more than a minute or two before I just straight collapse. I'm having such a bad panic attack that when a co-worker finally found me a few minutes later, she got the GM who thought I was having a seizure.
Not the worst guess, given what she knows about me, but still.
The paramedics are called, and I calm down enough to be fairly lucid when they start talking to me. I decline to go to the hospital, and they agree that it was just a panic attack. My GM says that she'll stay with me until my wife can come get me.
She doesn't. After the paramedics leave, I'm alone in the back for about five to ten minutes.
When she gets back, I'm sitting on the floor and leaning against the wall with a glass of water, and she starts to begin slacking the bagels for the next day. I apologize for the bother, and she doesn't answer. I'll give her the benefit of the doubt and say that she didn't hear me. I then ask her about what to do next, and she says that she doesn't know. She's pissed at this point. She says that she never would have hired me as a baker if she'd known that I'd had epilepsy and that I had to tell her that I was an epileptic before she hired me. 1. I didn't have a seizure. 2. she hired me to be a manager in training. 3. No, no I don't.
Eventually my father-in-law arrives, and I go out to see the GM outside angrily talking to someone on the phone. I go up to her and ask about what to do next, and she says that she doesn't know. She's still pissed. I say to her that it's probably best that we go our separate ways. I know that I'll be going in the next day and it would be a disaster. She already doesn't like me. She says that she wasted a lot of time on me, that I didn't seem like I wanted to be a manager from day one, and she finished it by saying "have a nice life."
I respond. 'You didn't seem to like me from day one. You too."
Oy. Definitely one of the worst managers I've ever had. She was upset that I didn't know everything after she showed me once, she said that she regretted hiring me on day two, she left me alone in the back after a panic attack, she was cold, distant and just an unpleasant person... and now she doesn't have any bakers. And she said that she wouldn't have hired me as a baker if she'd known I'd had epilepsy.
The kicker to all of this? I received an e-mail yesterday for an exit interview. Uh-oh for her.
You should post this on r/horriblebosses.
I've run into some real scumbags myself, and it's not fun.
I'm not sure if you're in America, but a lot of what you said should be grounds for various lawsuits I'd think. Discrimination at the least.
5143270
I is a Yankee.
Hey, I worked at Einstein's too a while back, and I had a pretty good time despite it being the job that it is, but I did have a great boss that just so happened to be a family friend, and my coworkers were pretty cool (and most of which were chicks that were quite attractive which helped, lol).
However.. when a huge storm rolled through over one night and the sewer backed up into the whole store (literally several inches deep of waste throughout the place) the owner just had the place "deep" cleaned and and opened a couple days later, my boss left and I went with him.
What's an exit interview?
Dang hopefully Mattress Firm is a little better for you!
Yeah, I have a feeling her staff problems are in no small part her own fault and caustic attitude towards her own employees. Since it sounds like she can barely keep anyone there due to the stress she puts them under. But that's what you get with a labor market where most employers seem to think their own employees are their worst enemy by sucking up their money instead of an investment for their business.
I'd get in touch with a lawyer. There's a decent chance that, assuming this is a franchise, they'll just want to settle instead of getting bad press and it really looks like there's a case here.
Obviously consider what's right for you though, but if you sign off the right to sue at the exit interview the door will close
5143295
Basically an email asking about your experience and why you left the job.
That is extremely shitty. Toxic/unprofessional managers and that one coworker who never seems to get fired but is a complete dirtbag are the worst. If you have anything in writing about the manager in training offer/position you were hired for, I'd take that to a lawyer or the corporate HR office.
I hope Mattress Firm will work out for you. No one deserves that shit.
5143304
Ooh! Payback time?
I’m a non-sue person, but if you think there’s a strong case against her I don’t see why not. Only you know for sure
Huh, I wonder why a manager like that can't hold onto employees. A mystery, that...
For future reference, I suggest staying away from any food service and general merch retail jobs. Mattress firm should work out for you.
5143563
I only did it out of desperation. I'd been out of work 2 months.