[cloudsatall]

About 3 weeks ago, I started a part-time job in retail sales, at a higher end clothing and home department store in a mall. I work about 20 hours per week, no benefits (I started at 29 hours per week, but asked for shorter shifts and less hours, as I deal with thyroid fatigue and pain in knees from arthritis--I did not tell them about those issues, just asked for shorter shifts).

Also, the store rule book states that short hour employees are to work no more than 20 hours per week, and they tried to get away with making me work 29.5 hours a week (30 hours would qualify for benefits).

My coworker, C, is a college student in her 20s (I am about 25 years older). She is part time with benefits employee, and is responsible for training me (she is under K, one of the department supervisors). C is quite goofy, which I find annoying. I am focused and serious at work. So I realize personality differences are part of the problem. She acts goofy, going off on tangents about people who rip tags off clothing who need to be slapped and banned from coming in the store, or will just babble nonsensically about off topics.

She gets snippy with me quite often, telling me I put the sales flyers in the binder in the wrong order, or when I was walking behind her and she moved some clothing on hangars to the front of a rack, and I accidentally brushed against the rack, causing the hangars to make a noise, she turned around and accused me of moving the clothing away from the end of the rack, which we are not supposed to do, because the customers might hit their heads on the end of the rack. I did not defend myself, as I thought she was just being crabby (and unreasonable).

She also will not look at me or talk to me when I come in to work my shift and she is already at the counter, even when I say hello to her. She ignores me or talks to herself. When I arrived for work the other day, she was standing at the counter with K (the dept super) and they both stopped talking when I approached, and C would not look at me, and K was rather short with me. I have seen K correcting her, for not scanning into the system, the new coats that she put out on the floor. We are also supposed to take our breaks at the scheduled time (management reminded us of that at a meeting) but C takes her break whenever she feels like it. She takes advantage of store employee discount and made me use an email coupon also when ringing up her order, even though she was not sure if employees were to use it, and told me not to worry, that she would get written up, not me (huh?) Her boyfriend comes to the store and she will visit with him, instead of working (while I continue to work).

She has also arrived 10 minutes late for her shift (causing me to stay an extra 10 minutes). Also, she disappeared from the counter the other day, when I was waiting on customers, and another coworker started working at the counter. One of the supervisors asked me whether C had arrived at work yet, and I said she was just here and then left.

Also, the other day, it was about 15 minutes to close, and my department super told me to check the dressing rooms for clothing to put away. The women's dressing room had over 50 items of clothing, so I had to make 3 trips to the front desk to put the clothing on the rack we use for clothes that need to be put away. There is a sheet in the dressing room hall, that employees are write their initials and time of checking the rooms. C had initialed the sheet about an hour earlier. However, I think she lied and put her initials there, much earlier in the day, to "pretend" that she had checked the rooms. Because we did not have many customers in the last hour and there was no way there would have been that much clothing in the rooms with very few customers.

I don't know if I should document this incidences and report them to upper level management. I am afraid that I will get in trouble, for not working hard enough (like the dressing room incident) because of what C is not doing.

[gayleggg]

You might want to document the incidences, but I wouldn't report them to upper management, at this time. Working retail is difficult. My husband used to manage a retail store, he retired, but later on became bored and went to work for a different retail store. He went is as an assistant manager to be made manager as soon as there was a place. He ran into a similar situation as you, but with the manager. He made the mistake of telling to much to the district manager that from then on he became a target. It finally, ended with him quitting because of the pressure put on him by the manager. All this to say, if he had been quiet instead of becoming a target he would have been a manager and out from under the current manager. You don't really want to start a he said/she said atmosphere, it can get worse and I don't think you want that. Hopefully, you will not have to train under her long. I hope this helps and isn't too much of a ramble.

[healingme4me]

Sometimes, learning what not to do, is part of the training process. And when you are solo, and no longer in training, you can just do the best with your abilities, and hopefully, won't have to deal with this trainer one on one, as much.

Crossing my fingers, it gets a little better for you.

[cloudsatall]

Thank you for the above replies. Hopefully, I will get a different job in the near future. My coworker's spaciness is really annoying. Today, she had left me a note "fold the sweaters, they should be there". What the....??

Plus, she asked me how I was doing with the customers, and asked whether I was "afraid" of the customers. I said no, and she again repeated the question, and said how she used to be afraid of customers when she worked in restaurant work, and was going on and on. I admit that I am an introvert and do not like to make a lot of small talk with customers, other than what is really necessary. I don't like talking a lot because it is annoying. I consider myself a good listener and that is much more important than annoying a customer with nonstop chatter (like she does). God, I wish she would SHUT UP.....

[cloudsatall]

I am still working at this job, and the same girl is still my 'trainer'. It is not any better situation and I am actively seeking different employment. Yesterday I had a note from my supervisor, K, asking why the tank tops were marked down in price (on the price tag in ink), and whoever did this was to talk to her about using the price scanner. Well, I marked down the tank tops over a month ago, and it was because my trainer, C, told me to do so. I have no way of proving this, and my trainer C is a pet of my supervisor K. I am afraid to talk with my supervisor K about this, because she has been snippy with me in the past and not tolerant of my mistakes. I 'lost it' with my trainer C yesterday, when she asked me if I was the one who marked down the tank tops (about 100 of them), and I said that I did, and if the store wanted to fire me over this, it was their decision, and she replied something like, oh you need to know how to use the price scanner, and I said (rather angry) I KNOW how to use the scanner and I walked off (as I had clocked out and it was time to leave). My trainer K also asked me if I had put out any of the new price signs (which were to take effect the next day) and I said no, I had been busy waiting on customers and putting out new stock all day (AND, it is the duty of the EVENING shift to put out the new signs). She would have a FOUR and a HALF HOUR shift to put out the signs, and the weather was below zero and windy so there would not be many customers that evening. I've HAD it with this stupid *****.

[danvb]

Well... hold on to your hat cloudsatall, because that's the way it is everywhere regardless of where you work or what you do. My wife has a saying that seems to hold true no matter where you go: "20% of the people do 80% of the work, and it's always the same 20%". I also had a philosophy when I was working (I'm retired now)...

"THIS is JUST a job. It isn't who I am and has anything to do with me. It's just a job. I'll do my job to the very best of my ability and take pride in what I do. My personal goal is to achieve a level of excellence that I can be proud of regardless of what anyone else thinks".

But, other than that, it's just a way of making a living. I can put up with any sort of idiotic nonsense someone else might do if what they do doesn't matter to me, EVEN if it looks like it will reflect on me. I just tell myself "whatever" and walk away completely OK. I mean, what is the worst anyone can do? Fire you? OK... Go for it! I refused to be afraid for my job and I did a better job because of that fact.

There are and will be a lot of really stupid, ignorant *** kissers and incompetent people you're going to need to be able to work with, regardless of your career choice. It never pays to ruffle anyones feathers or make yourself stand out in a crowd. Actually, in my 36 year career in construction, I was famous for flying below the radar...never making waves or upsetting the apple cart... just doing my job and being invisible. I did my job superbly and with great skill, but I never made any of the stupid stuff into a big deal. There is another wonderful saying that goes something like this: "The person that tries to solve the problem is often the one that gets blamed for causing it". Solving problems is great, just so long as it doesn't involve stepping on anyone elses toes or putting yourself into the crosshairs of higher-ups. The only time you can do that, sometimes, is if YOU are the higher-up.

AND, as usual, I'm probably getting too damned wordy and carried away here, so I'll stop now.

Dan

[likewater]

Originally Posted by cloudsatall

I am still working at this job, and the same girl is still my 'trainer'. It is not any better situation and I am actively seeking different employment. Yesterday I had a note from my supervisor, K, asking why the tank tops were marked down in price (on the price tag in ink), and whoever did this was to talk to her about using the price scanner. Well, I marked down the tank tops over a month ago, and it was because my trainer, C, told me to do so. I have no way of proving this, and my trainer C is a pet of my supervisor K. I am afraid to talk with my supervisor K about this, because she has been snippy with me in the past and not tolerant of my mistakes. I 'lost it' with my trainer C yesterday, when she asked me if I was the one who marked down the tank tops (about 100 of them), and I said that I did, and if the store wanted to fire me over this, it was their decision, and she replied something like, oh you need to know how to use the price scanner, and I said (rather angry) I KNOW how to use the scanner and I walked off (as I had clocked out and it was time to leave). My trainer K also asked me if I had put out any of the new price signs (which were to take effect the next day) and I said no, I had been busy waiting on customers and putting out new stock all day (AND, it is the du)ty of the EVENING shift to put out the new signs). She would have a FOUR and a HALF HOUR

shift to put out the signs, and the weather was below zero and windy so there would not be many customers that evening. I've HAD it with this stupid *****.

We've all been there. Sometimes I think everyone at my work has a diabolical plan to drive. Me insane and it's working.