Supervisor suddenly turned bitchy...advice?

[WishfulSpirit]

Ok everyone.

So one of my supervisors at work, will call her J, has suddenly gotten really bitchy. She's always been direct in her way of speaking, never really soft and fuzzy, but she had a sense of humor and was never disrespectful. That changed, suddenly, last week and continued today.

She has been barking orders, no please or thank you, and today scolded me like a child when I came up to the front area to return keys I had mistakenly taken with me (I'd missed my bus due to a set of circumstances that were nobody's fault, I noticed the keys while I was changing out of my uniform / waiting for my Uber to get me to the train station). Here's how the conversation went:

J: Why are you still here?
Me: (putting keys on the counter) I missed my bus and...
J: (cutting me off) You clocked out right?
Me: Yes I clocked out as soon as T (the night auditor) sent me home
J: well I TOLD you to clock out as soon as she got here! (snotty tone of voice like she's telling off a disobedient toddler).

Note: There was 5 minutes between when T arrived and when I clocked out. 3 of those minutes I was doing a check-in, I wasn't going to just say "oh, my shift is over, see ya later bye" in the middle of a transaction.

I was honestly shocked. This is NOT normal behavior for J, and I'm really more worried about her than how she was treating me.

So...what do I do?

Our HR lady is super sweet and might be able to gently talk to her and figure out what's going on (maybe point her towards resources), but chain of command procedures say I should talk to J or go to the FOM first, and the FOM is a guy who, while fantastic at administration, and never overtly rude, has the subtly of a stick of TNT going off in a pool full of grape jello and the emotional intelligence of a bag of rocks.

[Kittish]

Given your available options, I think I'd go with the HR lady. Just make it clear (if it is the case) that you're not complaining, but you're concerned and don't know how/don't feel comfortable trying to talk to J yourself.

[Sandman]

What kittish said.. go to HR but more of a concerned employee role that something might be going on in her personal life that is bleeding into the workplace.

[flyonthewall]

My favorite coworker got promoted and went from awesome to bitchy in 3.5(I think the stress got to her and she took is out on me because I was the nicest and most convenient target) and I legit went to HR and complained that if it continued I was peacin' out and filing a formal complaint on my way out. The bitchiness stopped but things will never be the same between us.

[WishfulSpirit]

Well...she quit. So maybe she just stopped caring?

[drunkenwildmage]

It's ether that, or she was getting ridden hard from someone above her. If I had to guess, I would say it was mostly the pressure from above that caused both the Bitchiness and her quitting.

[WishfulSpirit]

the prevailing prevailing theory in the office is that she wanted to focus more on her other job. Honestly I think it's probably a better fit for her. To make it long-term and Hospitality, at least in the area that I'm in, you have to be a pretty strong people person and that didn't seem like it was her skill set. other job is Administration in a legal office and I think that's a better fit for her personality