124
submitted 11 months ago by SmokingFurry@xalla.day to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

Let me start by saying I'm a "floor guy" at a small town hardware store. I am in training to be a manager but not one yet. I do a bunch of stuff around the store. Which leaves me busy a lot of the time.

We have a paint department that LOVES calling me and the other floor guys to do dumb things that is their job. Now, I don't mind helping here or there. However when I get called away from doing something to come pick up your empty boxes to bring them to the box crusher when you're supposed to, or to bring a box up to the register for a customer that weighs 10lbs.

I just get furious since they've been told not to do this. However they don't stop. I recently told them I'm not moving a box for them since they weren't busy. They were just playing on their phone while waiting on me.

They complained and the manager told them it's their job. Now I have multiple people mad at me because I tell them NO. When it's not my job unless they are too busy.

Am I the asshole?

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[-] Gigan@lemmy.world 78 points 11 months ago

Not the asshole, they're mad because they have to work now.

[-] thisNotMyName@lemmy.world 20 points 11 months ago

They have to find someone else to do their job now

[-] wjrii@kbin.social 6 points 11 months ago

You think that's not WORK? 🤣

[-] Seaguy05@lemmy.world 47 points 11 months ago

How do you plan to manage a bunch of people that don't respect you?

[-] Wogi@lemmy.world 50 points 11 months ago

He's "training to be a manager" which is manager speak for "I have nothing concrete to offer you, here's an empty promise"

[-] meco03211@lemmy.world 15 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Or, "take on some/all of my tasks without consideration for your current workload and with no additional compensation."

[-] SmokingFurry@xalla.day 16 points 11 months ago

Everyone is my dept respects me. They do what I say when I say it. They know I'm in charge and I'm not that bad of a manager. I actually have experience from 2 other stores. It's the girls in other dept that is so used to the other floor guys, current and old, saying YES YES YES!!! However I don't say yes which makes them mad.

In my store we have "floor guys" that do everything. We are supposed to know the store and help when and where we can. Which is why we get paid more. However just because we CAN doesn't mean we SHOULD. Even the store managers are tired of it which is why we had a meeting where they got told it's not our job. Pissed them off.

I'm not gonna be a store manager. Just someone who manages the guys and what they do. Basically make sure they aren't fucking off 90% of the day.

[-] RampantParanoia2365@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago

I just realized "floor guy" doesn't mean "flooring department guy" and now this all makes more sense.

[-] shalafi@lemmy.world 0 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Sounds like what I call Pretty Girl Syndrome. Pretty girls are never told no and are appalled when anyone does so. I can hardly hold it against them, it's just the way life has been for them, but still.

[-] Diplomjodler@feddit.de 0 points 11 months ago

Key learning opportunity right there.

[-] OhmsLawn@lemmy.world 24 points 11 months ago

No, you're right to set boundaries.

People will always want you to do stuff that's outside of your classification. The key is to be "too busy" when it doesn't advance your career, and willing to learn when it does. Ideally, you don't have to directly say no. When you hit the balance right, they stop asking.

[-] SmokingFurry@xalla.day 2 points 11 months ago

I like your advice, and it makes me think I'm on the right track. They used to call a lot more. Even for me specifically, but I got tired of it, and it made them mad, and now they call on occasion for small things like the other day.

Just it's not my job to do. Even if I'm just walking around looking for things to do either for myself or my crew. I am still working and they just don't wanna do their jobs. I'm only supposed to do it if they are busy or it's like a 5 gallon bucket of paint that needs to be brought to the front. The heavy lifting and hard work.

If I didn't love my job I'd probably find a new one. Just with 75% of the store liking me and 25% not... I think I'm good. 🤔

[-] thisbenzingring@lemmy.sdf.org 16 points 11 months ago

the trick is just learning how to tell people No

its a balancing act that takes some finesse and if you are going to be a manager soon, you might look into how it is done

Im not sure if I could explain it but it usually involves listening to the request, rewording the request and repeating it back. And then explaining the situation as you see it (why you will say no) and then when they have understanding of the situation, you explain why you are saying no.

From my personal experience, this works out pretty well but there is always that one off that blows up in your face. When that happens just face it head on and as time goes on it usually gets better and requires less work when you have to say no

[-] magnetosphere@kbin.social 16 points 11 months ago

You are not the asshole, and the people who are will, of course, make you feel like you’re being one.

[-] kux@lemm.ee 12 points 11 months ago

it might be unfair to ask as this is just based on your username but:

do they resent you for taking smoke breaks?

do they know you're a furry?

[-] SmokingFurry@xalla.day 4 points 11 months ago

I actually quit smoking 6 months ago. No only my close friends and fiancee know I'm a furry because when I call myself a "furry" it's just a persona for like anime conventions and stuff. Not huge into the community.

[-] intensely_human@lemm.ee 11 points 11 months ago

INFO: did you tell them no in a polite way or were you shitty about it?

[-] EdanGrey@sh.itjust.works 9 points 11 months ago

Not the arsehole but you do need to say no more often, you saying yes all the time is why you get badgered so much.

[-] SmokingFurry@xalla.day 1 points 11 months ago

Yeah, and I started saying no more often but the other floor guys just have the mindset "I get paid to be here. Noone is gonna tell them anything. I'll be the only one who hears it so I will just go do it." 😞

[-] Nollij@sopuli.xyz 1 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Part of me wants to make a giant spectacle of the thing. Show up with a ton of gear that you have to set down (directly in their way) while you you deal with the boxes. But I know that type of person would just complain even louder.

It sounds like you're in a different dept with a different manager. Assuming that your manager agrees, your manager should be the one to say no. That way, everyone on your team can simply say their manager won't allow it.

If that fails, the Wally Reflector is a good tactic. Tell them that you'd love to help, but they need to do something first. You can say that you're very busy, but you'll take the boxes if they flatten all of them and put them on a cart. It's still offering to help, but it requires work on their part. It also quickly reveals if the requester is just being lazy.

If that fails, treat it as a training opportunity- they must need training on a required part of their job, which is why they called you. Drag them along the whole time, explaining every detail to them. Bonus points if you explain the history of why we do it that way. Basically, make it more work for them to be lazy.

[-] GONADS125@lemmy.world 8 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Nah, definitely not the asshole. It's pretty clear that they are just upset by no longer having their laziness enabled.

One important component of assertiveness that I taught to my former clients was that everyone has an inherent right to refusal. You can say no, and you're not obligated to provide any justification.

Obviously you ought to provide context when appropriate and in work situations if you want to keep your job. But I was in similar situations where I would refuse leadership's direction on reasonable grounds/different department's duty. I would not let notorious department heads throw me under the bus, and I'd save emails to call them out on their bullshit in the email chain they lied/blamed me. I would refuse orders to over-bill and call out managers/leadership trying to push us grunts to commit medicaid fraud/waste, even in the middle of their meetings announcing the directives.

I wasn't liked by those toxic people in the organization, but they learned respect/fear me and a lot of my peers/my team would tell me they appreciated me speaking up when they were afraid to. My supervisor told me after I had her come into our boss' office with me to confront our boss over unwarranted criticism about me. Afterwards my supervisor told me: "I wish I could talk to leadership like that.. but I'm too afraid to lose my job."

I was never fired but I did leave the job when I got really sick with covid + RSV + pneumonia, a secondary bacterial infection in my lungs, pleurisy, and then long covid. The healthcare industry in my region was so strained, we had so many people quit due to toxic leadership/over-worked/burned out, and the policy was not hiring replacements and instead pushing the load on the remaining employees. I probably would've quit if I hadn't gotten sick.

But I'm proud that I always stood by my principles even when it meant disobeying/confronting superiors. My stubbornness and threshold for confrontation also made me a damn good client advocate. That was what I was most known for. I kept residential care and assisted living facilities in check, hotlining them and aiding state government investigations. It was usually stealing client funds or meds, but I also uncovered neglect and abuse.

I can be wrong and an ass at times, just like all of us. But if I feel strongly convicted about something, peer-pressure or fear of losing my job won't stop me from holding my ground.

I think you're doing the right thing standing your ground. I would appreciate you being the one to put yourself on the line for my benefit as well, if I worked in your department. That is a quality I would want in my manager. Rather than rolling over and accepting additional work/disruptions to your department's actual duties.

[-] starbreaker@kbin.social 7 points 11 months ago

No, you're not the asshole. But I'm the guy who won't do shit unless it's explicitly part of my job description.

[-] Turious@leaf.dance 6 points 11 months ago

I can't imagine a universe where what you did makes you an asshole.

[-] SmokingFurry@xalla.day 4 points 11 months ago

Well I have 4 women complaining about it. One called me a dick to my face and said "You always complain about doing your job."

One complained that I was being a smartass by saying they weren't busy so they should have done it.

One complained I called them out for giving us the wrong information on a product to load in a customer's car.

The other just doesn't like me. 😕

[-] morphballganon@lemmy.world 11 points 11 months ago

Them calling you a dick to your face for you not doing their job is an HR write-up. Do that.

You want to know why they disrespect you? Because they haven't faced any consequences for doing so.

[-] SmokingFurry@xalla.day 1 points 11 months ago

That's the thing. We don't have a HR that handles that kind of thing. It's up to the store managers, which is all family. One of the girls called my coworker a asshole for not being gentle enough with a buggy of paint. The consequences, you ask? An apology to me and my coworker. I never recieved one and my coworker never told me if he got one and refuses to talk about it because "she was probably upset so I'm not worried about it."

[-] Steinawitz@kbin.social 5 points 11 months ago

Time to find a new job. That situation won’t get better anytime soon due to family managing family.

[-] Jerb322@lemmy.world 6 points 11 months ago

Not the asshole. They are trying to get something for nothing it sounds like. You had evry right to do and say what you did. "Sorry, you have to do your own job" shouldn't be something that you have to say, but you will need to say it, probably more than once.

[-] GiddyGap@lemm.ee 5 points 11 months ago

That's a toxic work environment in the making. Always call out that kind of behavior.

[-] Illecors@lemmy.cafe 4 points 11 months ago

You need to change jobs. Obviously your coworkers are taking a piss of you and being right doesn't really matter.

[-] SmokingFurry@xalla.day 2 points 11 months ago

Yeah, but I love my job. Plus with living in such a small town. There's only a handful of places I could get a job. I'm only in my mid 20s but around here there's not much. I recently moved here too so I don't know a whole bunch of people...

[-] Aceticon@lemmy.world 4 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

No, you're not an asshole, the other person is the asshole by de facto demanding you to do their work (when people get all pissy if you say "no" for something they "asked" you for, they weren't really asking).

If you want to preemptivelly remove or reduce the risk of others accusing you in some way of "meaness" (such "asking" and the "meaness" accusation on refusal being quite a common strategy of people who were far too spoiled as kids and never really grew up - they do it because the "oh, look at poor little me" worked when they were kids to reverse adults' "no" responses), provide some kind of "yes" under conditions and a time frame entirelly defined by you, something like "I would love to help you but I'm really busy at the moment with higher priority work. If I get the time I'll come around and help you with that". From this point either go down the line of "never having the time" (i.e. you don't do it and have no intention of doing it, and if confronted just provide vague "I couldn't get around to doing it" or just "I forgot and now it's too late" reasons that can't really be disproven by the other person) and they'll eventually give up on asking you that (being pissy about people being too busy with more important work doesn't really work as well as being pissy about an outright "no"), or you go down the line of "helping others help themselves" (i.e. you do some of the work as long as they're right there also doing the work with you or take them to the right person to ask for help if there is one and wait with them while they ask and next time around when they come to you, ask them "have you asked person X already").

Personally the way I solved my own "not wanting to be seen as not nice" way back when I started working was a mix of prioritization (i.e. "I'll help you when I have the time", and I genuinelly meant it but in practice I rarelly had the time) and helping people help themselves (i.e. "I'll explain you how you do it while you do it yourself" and afterwards for subsequent requests just asked "have you tried already what I taught you last time?" and not help until they did which usually resulted in them solving the problem themselves) though this was in software development and people came to me to solve the kind of problems that had to do figuring something out, diagnosing a problem or implementing a certain kind of functionality, so I could do the whole "teach them whilst they do it themselves" thing.

[-] alienanimals@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago

Start asking them to do your work and then get upset when they don't do it. It's the only way they'll learn.

[-] monkeyman512@lemmy.world 1 points 11 months ago

They have been told it's their job. You have been told to not do their job. If they don't like it they should bitch to the manager, not you.

[-] don@lemm.ee 1 points 11 months ago

NTA, gotta set your boundaries or risk people bulldozing you

[-] dandroid@dandroid.app 0 points 11 months ago

Definitely not the asshole. I also like helping out my coworkers, and occasionally someone will take advantage of that. When I feel like I'm being taken advantage of, or I'm not enjoying helping someone anymore, I will tell them that I just don't have the time, and if they need me to do it, they will need to get approval from my boss so my boss will know why I didn't hit my deadlines on my other work. That almost always gets those people to fuck off. And if it doesn't, the extra work gets properly assigned to me, I get credit for for it, and my other deadlines get pushed back appropriately.

[-] FireTower@lemmy.world 0 points 11 months ago

If you are the asshole here it'd be because of how you relayed that.

[-] hasnt_seen_goonies@lemmy.world -2 points 11 months ago

I'm gonna agree with other people here, you were the asshole, the correct asshole, but the asshole. It sounds like the situation where one kid in a classroom reminds the teacher to give the quiz. The kid is right like you were, but everyone still hates them.

Working with people who aren't pulling their weight sucks, but throwing them under the bus to the manager also sucks.

[-] acutfjg@feddit.nl 4 points 11 months ago

Disagree with the analogy. This is more like a kid complaining that other kids want them to do their homework, while still doing their own homework.

If you've got a job you're trying to offload on others just because you don't want to do it, you're the asshole.

this post was submitted on 14 Nov 2023
124 points (81.0% liked)

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