by Mo
(Illinois)
I was a dept. manager over foods for this co. over a year. I was working a departments merchandise not mine, when another dept.manager called me and said I needed to get my merchandise off of a checklane shelf because a vendor was here to set new merchandise. So I stopped what I was doing went over and started working on that. A few minutes later an assistant manager called me on the intercom phone, I answered, she asked what I was working on, I told her, she told to go back and work on the other depts. merchandise before I started any other projects, by then I was a little frustrated, the usual too much to do etc. I said FINE! and hung up the phone. Went back and worked the merch. in the other dept. A few minutes later she walked by and motioned me to follow her into the office, where there was another asst. mangr. She told me to have a seat,I did and she started with “I didn’t appreciate you hanging the phone up on me” I said I didn’t, she said YES, you did. Then she said also when I told you to do hba depts. merchandise you said FINE!, what was that? I told her i had a lot of other things to do and I was sick and tired of doing everybody else’s work on top of my own I was feeling pressured to get my work done too. Then she said in a smart alec tone “Its your job” I knew then she had made this personal, because of the phone deal. She didn’t really want to know what the problem was, she wanted to put me in my place, to let me know she was the boss, to humiliate me in front of the other asst.mngr. This asst.has a reputation for this kind of thing. Any way I stood up, threw my badge on the counter,and told her she needed to find a new dept.mngr., I started to leave, she yelled SIT DOWN!, I looked at her and walked to the door I needed to get out of there, she said “If you walk out that door!”, Implied WHAT?,I’ll slap your hand , NO!-but that your FIRED!, so I went to the restroom to compose myself, and thought Holy crap! what just happened?, I guess I’m fired, so being mad and upset I left work and went home.
Hi Mo,
What is it you want to know exactly? I changed your title because the state first needs to determine who exactly was the “moving party”.
This is how I see it.
The employer actually gave you a choice. She told you if you left you were fired .. and I’ll complete the reason for the discharge as insubordination .. as far as the employer is concerned. But it’s very possible the state will see this as a voluntary quit by job abandonment.
Do you want to know how a bully manager gets away with being harassing and disrespectful to subordinates? They make us lose our tempers and when we lose our tempers we react irrationally.
Have you filed for unemployment?
Did you have previous warnings and if so, for what?
Had you ever complained about the management to a higher authority. Was this type of treatment an ongoing thing for YOU .. personally?
Help me out here Mo .. remember .. I’m the one who says it’s always easier to collect unemployment if we act in a reasonable manner by first trying to correct the problems with the work. Not by giving tit for tat back to a bully boss.