for christmas this year, let me tell you about the fuckery going on at the job i started in december
for some background info: i work at a bakery, selling baked goods and the occasional coffee. there's a café that's part of the location. the location's team consists of sale (me and others), service (the people tending the café) and kitchen (who are a bit of an inbetween, but mostly backing service)
(almost) everyone is talking bad about the others behind their backs. this is something i noticed on my very first day. no one has tried to get me to be on their side as of yet, but i'm honestly not planning on staying long enough for them to notice that i can't really be swayed in their "debates"
i had one colleague trying to "surprise me" after work on his day off after only having worked together 5 days in 2.5 weeks. i panic-texted my friends to call me. i have never been as scared in my life. another colleague implied that he might've seen it more naively. i am cautious.
as is sensible in a bakery during december, we sell christmas biscuits. the prices are put per 100 grams on the display. the individual bags are not exactly 100 grams. whoever made that decision should have to work 3 full weeks of shifts during the christmas market on their own. the amount of pretty pissed off comments that i got that were directed at me as though i made the prices were too many to count. worst part is that i know that the customers are correct
a woman came in (who had clearly had too much mulled wine) yelling at us, the sales staff, that her 80-something-year old mother on crutches had come in a few minutes prior, had been told that using the bathroom would be 5 euros, and was promptly asked to leave by a male colleague. the only male colleague on staff that day was one from the service team. using our bathroom as a non-guest is 1 euro and has been that way forever. while i did have some customers in the few minutes before and i don't see the second door clearly from where i work, i'm pretty sure that there wasn't an old lady on crutches. the male colleague on staff is also one of the nicest people i work with. also, once again, using our bathroom is not 5 euros, that would be criminal. the woman proceeded to vaguely yell at any and all stuff and would not take our calm attempts to deescalate the situation. she left in a huff. it was the first time that i really hated the fact that we can't yell back at customers (she wasn't evena a customer!!! she just came in to yell at us!)
i have one singular colleague (who works in the kitchen) who i trust. i told her about the situation with the colleague after work and she checked on me regularly the next shift we were working together (and ever since whenever we saw each other). she also told me to be very careful about who to trust because of what i mentioned at the very start. she said there's maybe 2 people beside her who are alright in that regard (one of them being the male colleague who wanted to "surprise me", which she acknowledged as being a difficult situation currently)
the first time i was sick, i tried calling in sick. my boss wouldn't pick up, so i called her boss (which is protocol). she didn't pick up either (i learned later that she was on vacation that day). so i call all four numbers that i have for her two deputies. i get someone on the line on the fourth number, only to have her be annoyed at me and tell me that all she can do is also try and reach my boss. i hated that
before i started, as it should be, i got sent the contract to sign. there were multiple mistakes in it (one of which being a wrong date, which would have invalidated the entire contract had it been intended and kept that way). suddenly, it was a fixed-term contract when that had never been mentioned before. "corporate" at this company pisses me off (there's also mistakes on the website)
the location i work at had different opening hours throughout december because the christmas market was going on right outside our doors. these were not put anywhere but on one little sign outside. not on instagram (a page that is regularly updated and that has the opening hours in the bio). not on the website. nowhere
job listings are, as far as i'm aware, only put out on their own website. i will never wonder again why they don't have enough staff to comfortably cover sick leave. when i applied in november, there was only one position left to be filled at the location i was applying to and now work at. there's two or three new listings as of me writing this (24th dec)
there's an app. which is like a loyalty card. there was also an advent calendar in there during december (one day would be a free pretzel, another would be getting a bread for 10% off and so on). whoever programmed the app either never tested it or majorly fucked up. because the advent calendar was supposed to only be viable on that day. the app did not indicate that to the consumer whatsoever. so we had people come in asking for a free pretzel when that had been the "prize" multiple days earlier. but the app showed it to them as being viable on that day still. i hate it here
one of the two registers killed itself twice in the roughly two weeks i've worked there. sometimes it just doesn't react to any input. good luck if that happens when you're in the middle of a customer transaction (which will almost always be the case). even better luck if you only opened one of the registers that day. best luck if the other register also decides to act up (which happens rarely, but not never)
the counter is so tall that a lot of people have difficulties seeing all our products. i can't always see the customer over it. it's exhausting and not entirely necessary
i hate that you can buy a piece of cake. just don't do it. also, don't change your decision of how many pieces of cake (or how many rolls) you want after you've told us a number already. that's shitty behaviour. i don't want to have to carefully put everything on a bigger paper plate. you don't want to have two paper plates. just think about it really hard before you tell us
yes, i know 50 cents is a lot for a paper bag. i hate it as much as you do. i don't understand why different locations do this differently, btw. i was trained at another location and they handed them out for free if your order was over 10 euros. i'm not supposed to do that at my current location. i'm a bit confused to be honest
why does the cheesecake have mandarin oranges in it. i don't understand
we all get minimum wage. any and all company loyalty is misplaced in my opinion (some people have been here for more than a decade!). also, relatedly: paying minimum wage for a job where you're stressed all the time and have to mainly stand and minimally walk all day (the shift i work most often is 8.5 hours + 30 minutes break) should be outlawed
all this to say: i have been applying and i will be applying to other jobs. i do not like working here. i don't like most of my coworkers enough to even keep in contact outside of work. one of them led to me having a panic attack. i think i'll do better at another job