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Stuck between the proverbial rock and hard place. Help! (ultra long)
i have a slight problem. one of my good friends at work, "matt", is a cool guy. we have lunch at school once in a while. but hes very very very anal. everything has to be done just so. his way or the highway type of deal. hes one of our two headcashiers and has been in that position for 2 years. that is longer than ive seen anyone last in that position. i myself only lasted 5 months before the sheer amount customer suckery got to me.
the other problem is "katie", who is...special. she has learning disabilities (normal, but has problems reading, and is a little slow on the uptake), but overall, she works hard and does her best.
her best is never ever good enough for matt. for example, katie moved away from her register while there was a lull in the action, and started to shelve special orders. matt immediately snapped at her to not go anywhere and to get back to her register. katie puts her head down and complies. katie is otherwise very independent and outspoken, but lets matt boss her around like this because she knows she can never win with him. matt pretty much beats her into the ground every chance he gets.
both of these people i consider my friends and hang out with them outside of work, so im really reluctant to choose sides. i was forced to at one point because matt comes to me and bitches, and katie comes to me and cries. i went to management and told them that they needed to have a talk with the both of them to get this shit straightened out because i was tired of being in the middle. management told me that they were aware of the issue and were working on it.
katie and matt get called into the office a few days later for what was supposed to be a thirty minute "you leave him alone, and you leave her alone" meeting. matt dragged it out for three hours.
three hours.
he is insistent that shes useless and should be fired. he doesnt know why we keep her. he makes comments that shes worse than our severely autistic morning shelver. calls her retarded, etc etc.
when i said that she wasnt doing anything (in reference to the "get back to your register" thing) he said that was exactly the point, that never does anything and is lazy.
i dont argue with him for 2 reasons: one is that i probably cant win against his superiority complex, and two is that id probably kill him.
it got pretty bad in the lead up to xmas. i was helping out up front when a guy came to my register and said that he was charged the wrong price for something. as i was fixing it, i pushed the "shrink" key, the button that, in essence, shorts the company money. the difference was a dollar. matt comes over and flips out that i pushed the evil button and tells me that im supposed to use the "discount-$ amount" key instead. i ask him why would i do that when the item is not discounted? the price is wrong. im changing it because its wrong. thats what its for. if we're not supposed to use it in these types of cases, why is there even a button?
he continues to throw a fit, so i just do it his way so the poor customer can be off. after the customer leaves, i argue with him a little more and he breaks out the "you should be headcashier then" card. "youre forgetting that i was a headcashier. i was smart enough to get out when it got too stressful."
"yeah, but you never had to work with katie when you were headcashier."
"umm, yeah i did. shes been here longer than both of us."
"Well, you're not supposed to use that button."
"whatever. i work the way ive been trained and the way it makes sense, not the way you think i should work with your arbitrary rules. im not katie. you cant push me around."
there was one other instance that i need to mention. matt thought he was getting an "exceeds standards" on his review. he did not. and proceeded to tell everyone that he was going to fight it. then he got mad when people starting talking.
eventually, that lead to him leaving me a nasty message on my phone saying that hes "not hanging out with people from work anymore because all they do is talk shit." so that was the end of our lunches at school for a while.
i dont think he realizes that he's alienated a lot of people. and i dont think anyone can tell him, because theyd be wrong, and hed be right.
so, the purpose of this ginormous post was to get some input. what do you all think? i'll continue to support katie any way i can, but id like to do it without butting heads with matt. im afraid of what would happen if we got into a fight.
the other problem is "katie", who is...special. she has learning disabilities (normal, but has problems reading, and is a little slow on the uptake), but overall, she works hard and does her best.
her best is never ever good enough for matt. for example, katie moved away from her register while there was a lull in the action, and started to shelve special orders. matt immediately snapped at her to not go anywhere and to get back to her register. katie puts her head down and complies. katie is otherwise very independent and outspoken, but lets matt boss her around like this because she knows she can never win with him. matt pretty much beats her into the ground every chance he gets.
both of these people i consider my friends and hang out with them outside of work, so im really reluctant to choose sides. i was forced to at one point because matt comes to me and bitches, and katie comes to me and cries. i went to management and told them that they needed to have a talk with the both of them to get this shit straightened out because i was tired of being in the middle. management told me that they were aware of the issue and were working on it.
katie and matt get called into the office a few days later for what was supposed to be a thirty minute "you leave him alone, and you leave her alone" meeting. matt dragged it out for three hours.
three hours.
he is insistent that shes useless and should be fired. he doesnt know why we keep her. he makes comments that shes worse than our severely autistic morning shelver. calls her retarded, etc etc.
when i said that she wasnt doing anything (in reference to the "get back to your register" thing) he said that was exactly the point, that never does anything and is lazy.
i dont argue with him for 2 reasons: one is that i probably cant win against his superiority complex, and two is that id probably kill him.
it got pretty bad in the lead up to xmas. i was helping out up front when a guy came to my register and said that he was charged the wrong price for something. as i was fixing it, i pushed the "shrink" key, the button that, in essence, shorts the company money. the difference was a dollar. matt comes over and flips out that i pushed the evil button and tells me that im supposed to use the "discount-$ amount" key instead. i ask him why would i do that when the item is not discounted? the price is wrong. im changing it because its wrong. thats what its for. if we're not supposed to use it in these types of cases, why is there even a button?
he continues to throw a fit, so i just do it his way so the poor customer can be off. after the customer leaves, i argue with him a little more and he breaks out the "you should be headcashier then" card. "youre forgetting that i was a headcashier. i was smart enough to get out when it got too stressful."
"yeah, but you never had to work with katie when you were headcashier."
"umm, yeah i did. shes been here longer than both of us."
"Well, you're not supposed to use that button."
"whatever. i work the way ive been trained and the way it makes sense, not the way you think i should work with your arbitrary rules. im not katie. you cant push me around."
there was one other instance that i need to mention. matt thought he was getting an "exceeds standards" on his review. he did not. and proceeded to tell everyone that he was going to fight it. then he got mad when people starting talking.
eventually, that lead to him leaving me a nasty message on my phone saying that hes "not hanging out with people from work anymore because all they do is talk shit." so that was the end of our lunches at school for a while. i dont think he realizes that he's alienated a lot of people. and i dont think anyone can tell him, because theyd be wrong, and hed be right.
so, the purpose of this ginormous post was to get some input. what do you all think? i'll continue to support katie any way i can, but id like to do it without butting heads with matt. im afraid of what would happen if we got into a fight.
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