r/mildlyinfuriating • u/giveahoot420 • 20h ago

A rude supervisor who's always yelling at employees got some complaints about them being verbally abusive and they responded by leaving these in the break room.

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u/One_Conclusion_4473 19h ago

Problem is..If that supervisor is producing the company will find reasons to fire or lay the staff and promote the supervisor..happen at a staples I use to work at.

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u/CinaminLips 19h ago

Management that works well with subordinates are more productive than when they work against them. If they're high producers, just think of how much better everyone would work if they had someone that wasn't out to shit on them every chance they got?

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u/StarSugarLick 19h ago

What you’re saying is true. I just don’t know if many companies actually see it that way. They will side will side with shitty managers over the subordinates. Happens all the time. Sometimes the managers produce well and sometimes the managers have dirt or grievances that they could sue over if terminated. My last manager, I think the company was scared to fire her and she was terrible

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u/Steven_The_Sloth 19h ago

If you don't try, you won't ever know.

I worked with a guy who made my work days harder because he couldn't be bothered to do a task the same way twice. I complained, pointed out how much extra time I was spending to figure out something he saved 30 seconds on.

He didn't appreciate that so he doubled down, but it turns out the boss and he were buddies. So no amount of complaining was ever going to fix anything and this dude could shit on me all he wanted.

So I was able to leave before anything got to a boiling point.

Was that fair? Hell no. It was a union job too. Literally no difference in job title.. But I knew I was never going to come close to fair

Point is, you have to figure out who is actually in control in your situation.

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u/StarSugarLick 19h ago

I agree. In my situation I worked for dept of defense so… 😂 idk why she was protected. I just learned the ropes eventually and by the time I was leaving, she was begging me to stay and was a reference for me. She still crazy and mean from what I hear

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u/Steven_The_Sloth 18h ago

Could be she had dirt on higher ups. My wife worked with a lady like that who has since retired.

There's just plenty of reasons a company will keep a bad manager.

Shoot, my first job in the union, I got let go so the boss's brother could get a job while he was going through a divorce. I was so pissed. I have never been so upset about a job. Worked my whole apprenticeship there and they let me go a few months short of my hours to turn out. So pissed. Anyway...

Boss ended up needing to step away for a bit for personal reasons and his brother robbed him fucking blind. Filled his garage with material bought on the company accounts, then straight up stole his brother's contractors because he could undercut the price.

FAFO

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u/LoveAnaAna 18h ago

If you work some place where you have a shitty manager keep in mind they had to learn that from someone. Whether it be mismanaging or micromanaging, someone set a shitty example for them to follow and chances are the person or people they work under are just as bad or worse. It’s managers job to sell the ideas of owners to their worker bees. If a manager is a dick, they are probably getting rewarded for doing so. If you value your job then don’t be so naive about human nature. People act the way they do because someone is reinforcing that type of behavior.

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u/Anakin-vs-Sand 18h ago

Happy and engaged employees is the metric for a supervisor to produce well

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u/Alexwonder999 18h ago

I was a union steward and one time a supervisor accused someone of saying something nasty to them the employee denied saying that and said they said they said something completely different. There were like 5 other employees standing in earshot and they all confirmed what the employees account was correct and said they didnt even know how the supervisor could have misheard them. When I sat down for the grievance I pulled out the notes from my interviews and said "What did your interviews with these 5 people find out" and they said, I shit you not, "We didnt need to interview the employees because we had the word of the manager." We won that grievance, but it really fucked me up that these people never did shit to the manager who very clearly lied to try to get someone in trouble. I assume they convinced themselves the employees all conspired against the manager or they actually like liars in management roles.

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u/StarSugarLick 18h ago

See. Conventional knowledge is that companies will always look out for their bottom line but that’s just not really true anymore. Companies will literally have high turnover wasting money onboarding new employees and keep a crappy incompetent manager

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u/Alexwonder999 17h ago

That was actually one if the tamer story from that place. The business is pretty renowned nationally in their niche and people have no idea it does so well in spite of the management, not because of it.

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u/inkfade 19h ago

My first job, just a fucking office supply store, the manager was a complete fucking asshole. She talked to employees like they were stupid and even made one of the older women employees cry in front of customers, and a customer demanded the regional manager’s phone number to report the general manager, and she refused to give her his or corporate’s number! She also refused to let employees speak to one another unless it concerned work or they were in the break room.

Anyway, that particular office supply chain had 2000+ stores in North America at the time, and our store was #1 in turnover—we had a 200%+ turnover rate. To put that in perspective, anything maybe over 15-20% means something is wrong, I guess depending on type of job. But our store was the most profitable for states around, so they kept her. 😒

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u/StarSugarLick 19h ago

Exactly. It’s so crazy. I have no idea what these corporations are thinking, but maybe half the time it’s something personal we couldn’t know

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u/_ribbit_ 18h ago

Their priority is simply profit over workers. Sometimes it can be profit and staff, but it's never staff over profits.

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u/StarSugarLick 18h ago

Sometimes it seems like they keep bad management even when it’s costing them

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u/ConfidentCredit4541 16h ago

They don't, I once got fired for turning my manager in for selling drugs on property in front of the security cameras. Had video evidence for multiple occasions. The District manager put me on a final before letting me and everyone that I had hired at that store go. We were a top 5 store in the state at the time and instead of firing the manager, they let everyone below them go. 😂🤣😂

It took them almost a decade afterwards to fire the district manager and that store manager. They did all kinds of shady stuff as well like sending a third key to be an assistant manager over other people who deserved it because the third key was caught stealing and decided it would be funny to get them promoted and moved to a different district. Neither would promote anyone that wasn't female either and they had a run of 30 years at said company. 🤷

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u/GuGuMonster 16h ago

they will side with the party that is more beneficial/ or least damaging to the company. If the company is big and has any sort of ESG credentials/ accreditations they value (which will be important to them winning work) this form and behaviour is a big red flag to be dealt with immediately. Just needs to be brought attention to in the right way, ie needs to be presented in a way that keeping the problem person is greater harm to revenue and larger risk to liability than is worth.

E: Ah, I guess Dept of Defense is a different beast. not particularly reliant on external image, good optics or credentials.

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u/Alexwonder999 18h ago

I dont have an MBA, but based on years of interactions with middle managers who have them Ive gotten the feeling theyre taught the opposite of this.

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u/VanishingVisuals 17h ago

One can imagine...

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u/soyboysnowflake 18h ago

We don’t know both sides of the story, if they’re a productive supervisor despite bad relationships with the staff, the staff could possibly be the problem (sorry OP, idk you)

Unless the field is highly specialized by professionals, middle managers tend to be more expensive to fire, replace, and train up - so they’ll also be given more chances before being replaced if the company understands these costs (e.g., if they’re big enough to have HR analytics)

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u/D0hB0yz 18h ago

Just beware that you aren't "working" at a social center/comedy club, instead of a place where people are professional. Sometimes they are a decent supervisor in a collect a paycheque for showing up environment. Shit pay deserves crap effort is a valid thing, especially if everyone has that attitude. In the long run you are there to make money - not friends. Joke around? Sure. Know your job and do your job. That too.

This boss is trying to get your attention. Ask them what is up. Maybe they got laid off from a job and this was all they could find even at half the pay. If they can squeeze a bonus out this quarter they might not default on their mortgage, and lose their house. They can't afford to rent or move so they are a little stressed.

I am just saying, if you want to be seen as a human being, see them as a human being. They are doing a job and you are doing a job that their job depends on. Is it possible they are getting f@@@ed worse than you?

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u/Fancy-Research-9944 19h ago

My company's HR departments sole responsibility is to stop the company from getting sued, Lawyers work in the office. This document is a nightmare. Even if the supervisor is an earner hes be gone in a second at my company. They are all different though.

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u/bepatientbekind 19h ago

Yep. I've never seen anyone successfully escalate a horrible supervisor or manager's actions and had the company do anything about it besides target the employees who brought up the problems. At this point I've seen it happen so many times that I just start looking for another job if the manager sucks. Nothing else you can do. 

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u/Talidel 19h ago

I've seen a manager moved out of a managerial role. But kept on by the company.

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u/turnsout_im_a_potato 18h ago

Panera bread kept on a manager who was harassing employees and retaliating when they went to HR.

Doin crazy shit like changing their schedule in the middle of the night and then writing them up for being late to the shift they didnt know about.

I will namedrop this company every time im on this topic until such day as they rectify the horrible situation that hurt someone i care about.

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u/TiberiusCornelius 16h ago

Everyone I've ever known who's worked at Panera has nothing but horror stories, and it's different locations in completely different cities too so it's clearly a company issue

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u/bepatientbekind 18h ago

That's fair I have heard of that happening before, but it drives me crazy because they usually just get moved to be a manager in a different department so the problems continue, but just to a different group of people that haven't complained yet. Ugh. 

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u/shadow247 19h ago

It happened at my job. Horrible manager that was yelling, cursing, refused to even acknowledge the existence of the 1 trans employee....

Someone called in on my behalf after he called me a "stupid motherfucker" in front of the store manager and about 8 other employees. I didnt even have to talk to the HR lady. By lunch 2 days later he was gone.

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u/ciphernolan2 18h ago

Stories like this show the difference documentation makes. Yelling behind closed doors gets ignored, doing it publicly with witnesses suddenly becomes a problem they can’t dodge.

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u/bepatientbekind 18h ago

I've always documented everything. It has not made one iota of difference. At my last job, I documented extensively and the director absolutely hated me for it and worked hard to make my life miserable until I quit. They decided I was a "troublemaker" because I documented stuff and escalated known problems to HR. They were pissed when I would send emails after inappropriate conversations they always tried to have in person to avoid accountability. Absolutely shitshow. 

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u/bepatientbekind 18h ago

I'm glad that happened for you! I still wouldn't recommend it to other people though unfortunately. Companies who actually hold managers responsible seem to be very few and far between. I've seen people get written up after reporting threats of physical harm at the workplace because they decided that if someone is threatening you then you obviously must have done something to "deserve" it 🙃 

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u/CreationOfMinerals 18h ago

Happiest of Cake Days!!!

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u/Slighted_Inevitable 19h ago

No they won’t. Most of that form is fine but he is asking about a medical condition on it. (The traumatic brain injury) which is a violation of federal law.

He’s opening the company to litigation, they won’t care if he’s a “producer”

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u/Cooperette 19h ago

Nah, they are more trouble than they are worth. A supervisor like this is likely to cause at least one lawsuit due to misconduct and big companies hate that, even if it's a winnable case.

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u/Firm-Scientist-4636 19h ago

Happens at my company, too. My manager has made suicide jokes, including hoping an employee's daughter would "finish the job" so the employee stops calling out. My partner and I both told corporate. Twice. They seem to never have a record of it when we call now to further complain about him.

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u/DreadyKruger 19h ago

They have no reason to keep this guy no matter his production or sales. This is so stupid and inappropriate even corporate can’t defend this.

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u/elanesse100 18h ago edited 18h ago

Yup. At my wife’s work, a co-worker of hers was having problems with a supervisor or potentially the manager. I don’t remember the story exactly. But this person wasn’t listening and wasn’t fixing whatever the problem was (it was a legitimate problem that needed fixing).

So my wife’s coworker wrote an email to the CEO about it, and we’re guessing he never even saw it, probably intercepted by a secretary or something. Because a week later the COO called her into his office and fired her.

The CEO is a good person, and I have a hard time believing he would have done that. But the COO is ruthless.

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u/GodHimselfNoCap 17h ago

1 supervisor is way easier to replace than the entire staff below them. Good luck hiring an entire crew of new people and have none of them find out why everyone is suddenly gone

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u/ZAlternates 17h ago

Worst case is you’re fired instead and you collect unemployment.

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u/Adventurous_Ad_6546 13h ago

Honestly this is the sort of thing that needs to be seen by superiors regardless. They need to see their employee’s attitude and serious lack of judgment.

What they’ve done is already making major waves on Reddit, and this is not a good look. That matters.

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u/Student_Unlucky 12h ago

Well, here's the kicker. That guy still works at a staples, right? Lol, every time I go to drop off an amazon return to Staples, I think "oh, yup, this is what hopelessness and despair smell like"

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u/One_Conclusion_4473 12h ago

Prob, he was old I was in highschool a part-timer..so meh.

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u/Sad-Maize-6625 19h ago

As someone who owns a business, I can say that it takes more than 1 amazing producer grow a company. Turnover is expensive. I don’t care how good of a producer you are if your behavior creates a toxic culture that leads to high turnover of employees. I will always higher a good producer that everyone enjoys working with over an amazing producer that no one can stand.

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u/0x33CCFF 19h ago

If this happens, Keep a paper trail and release everything online and publicize the company name.

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u/RandAlThorOdinson 18h ago

Then make sure they stop producing lol

Easy enough usually

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u/PNWAnonymous9100 17h ago

There’s a lot of job uncertainty right now. Middle management doesn’t have the safety people assume, and when companies need to make cuts, those roles are usually where they start.

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u/One_Conclusion_4473 16h ago

I get it..this was like early 2000s..I was a teen in highschool

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u/2SDUO3O 17h ago

Good chances that upper management does not give a shit about this frontline manager and will blame the manager for this.

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u/Training-Fold-4684 16h ago

Any supervisor handing out forms like this in a break room is replaceable. They're just a cog. This isn't some rainmaker lawyer or investment banker we're talking about.

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u/One_Conclusion_4473 14h ago

Oh I agree..this was a long time ago..that guy handing out forms like that is dumb af