Tim Hortons: The Assistant Manager from Hell

--- THIS BLOG HAS BEEN ABANDONED. OUR NEW HOME IS: THE WEASEL SOAP BOX ---

The route from the bottom of the food chain to the top can be hellish.

One must start out at the bottom. The people at the bottom of the ladder are blamed for everything that goes wrong because it is easier. These people are simply just "pond scum" and are treated like that by those above them, whether due to being in a supervisory position, or having a certain amount of seniority.

As one rises, they quickly forget how it felt to be treated like a bottom sucker.

The sense of seniority quickly gets to them; a position of authority erases the last memory of being a bottom sucker. Power is a delicate mistress, who can be the harbringer, the deceiver. This little mistress entices her new arrivals.

This is no less true for the assistant manager I had to deal with in my short time there. Not only was she not the most diplomatic person I ever met, but, I often got the feeling that she hads no qualms singling out those she didn't like and accusing them very randomly.

If something went wrong, even if you were on break, if she didn't like you, I'm sure it is why you were blamed.

I remember being blamed because there were coffee grounds that had landed outside of the garbage bin. I had been on break, and when I got back, she was sweeping up and pointed it out to me. I hadn't been the only person using that trash can, but, she singled me out anyway and had me cleaning it up instead of actually helping with the customers (and then accuses me of being "slow"...) uh-huh...

Or... the customers have stopped coming for about one minute and you want to take a breather? HAH! Forget it, she was on my case about how I needed to make sure my stocks were full. While it's ok to point out this, there is such a thing as being overzealous.

Then there's the deli... not such a bad thing until you encounter peanut butter and sweaty hands. Yes, after you apply peanut butter to a bagel, you've got to remove your gloves because there is always someone who's hyper-allergic to peanuts. So, it's busy and you've got to work solo - damn hard if youi've got to change gloves and you get no sympathy because no one gives a damn that you need help.

Of course, she doesn't help matters. Her method of helping is to demean you and make you feel like you've done nothing, even though you've tried to ask for help, explaining that your hands are sweaty and the gloves won't go on...

The little things she picks on; it must make her feel like a big woman. After all, she's going nowhere in life. As is the fate with most people in managerial positions in the service industry.

She has no concept of how to treat people fairly.

It really showed through when a nice co-worker of mine found a cigarette butt that had wound up in the fridge. My co-worker didn't name anyone because she didn't think that anyone had actually put it there. She just happened to be working in the baking area the day the assistant manager was there.

The assistant manager called me into the back, and accused me without even asking me anything before hand. She came out and accused me of smoking during work hours and then allowing for the offending cigarette to wind up inside the fridge.

My co-worker seemed surprised.

I tried to defend myself. I don't smoke and this was a serious allegation, especially given the way the company deals with people who actually DO smoke on their breaks. I heard one story where a young man was fired and was arrested... it seems extreme, but, it really did happen.

I tried to explain to the assistant manager that I don't smoke, and that the only way it could've got into the fridge was for the butt to have been on the bottom of a container.

I then added that the previous shift I had been baking and I had been refilling the fridge with the supervisor and I was bringing the containers back and forth between the fridge and the freezer OUTSIDE. I explained that it must've got stuck on the bottom after I dropped a container on the ground.

She didn't like my story and never followed up on it with the supervisor (of course she wouldn't, damn air-tight alibi, since there was someone of autority with me at the time). She then had mused out loud that it must've been another worker. She decided to accuse some young kid of sixteen, who seemed too dazed to do his job, let alone light a lighter.

I don't know what happened there, but, I imagine she got the lynch mob and went after him.

She said said she wouldn't tell the manager...

I had explained to my supervisor what she had said and he was outraged. He had been with me and knew that I didn't do anything wrong. He thought she had been very unreasonable. So did other co-workers. They found it outrageous.

She has a miserable disposition, which showed crystal clear the day I was dismissed. Before the manager had dismissed me, the assistant manager had said to me that, "no one likes you, and no one wants to work with you."

What I find the strangest of all this? When the manager was dismissing, she was not happy about it. She had told me that she tried to fight so I could stay on board. From the way she spoke, I got the impression that she had been given orders from the general manager. The GM could've influenced by the assistant manager, since the manager didn't seem like she want to dismiss me...

Moral? Assistant managers are bigger assholes than managers.

...TBC...

Related Links
Tim Hortens: Blogger's Work Experience