Supervisor acts indifferently towards my husband

[snugglegirl05]

My husband and I work as porters. We both work for the same employer, at the same location, and we both have the same shift.

Our immediate supervisor tends to talk down to us during our daily morning meeting at 6 a.m. My husband feels that he treats him like a child.

Both of us are not completely awake at 6 a.m. during the meeting.

I found out from my husband that our immediate supervisor asked him to get the water up on the first floor of the garage that he is assigned to clean. He also had to work in the garage office located in that garage from 7 a.m. to 9:30 a.m.

The morning meeting ended around 6:30 a.m. today. There were leaves at the garage entrance that he had to clean before working in the office. After cleaning up the leaves, he did not have time to get the water up before working in the office.

He was able to get up most of the water after working in the office, but he could not get up all of it because our supervisors car was parked very close to where the water was. He was not happy that my husband 1) was not able to get up the water until after 9:30 a.m., and 2) could not get up all of the water because his car was parked very close to where the water was.

His attitude towards my husband was indifferent when he told him to have a good evening after clocking out from work today. Our immediate supervisor hardly said two words to him.

I cannot go to our immediate supervisor or the garage manager who is over the parking garages that I am responsible for cleaning. My husband has to do this, but he does not like dealing with anyone who gives him the cold shoulder treatment.

What is an effective way of dealing with a supervisor who acts like this?

[workerbee222]

Some supervisors are all business, and not friendly, and you *just have to accept that.*

He or she will expect you to be "completely awake" at the morning meeting. If you need to go to bed earlier, or get up earlier, or have more coffee to *appear* awake, you should do that. Appearances can count for a lot.

I'm guessing your husband had a shop vac and was vacuuming up water from the floor of the garage. I have used those to vacuum up water and have no trouble getting near any object, but maybe I'm misunderstanding something here.

You have my sympathies. If I had to be somewhere AT 6 am, I wouldn't make it.

[MoonCat]

I wouldn't worry about indifference. Not everybody is going to be outgoing and warm toward their employees. My concern would be if they wanted to write him up and/or discipline him in some way for "not getting his tasks done."

As always, my advice is to document everything. He should create a file on his computer or his phone for incidents like this, and save the info in case he is spoken to later and they try to imply that he's not doing this job. The he can explain why he wasn't able to remove all of the water.

When something like this happens it might be a good idea for him to ask his boss for further instructions. "Boss, I had leaves to clean up first; I got to the water ASAP when that was done. Super's car is parked right next to the water; can you ask him to move it so I can finish the job?" (Or ask the super directly if that's possible).