|
| Thursday, November 23, 2006 |
| My Harassment Hell - Part II |
So, I did say I was going to share more of my horrendous nightmare and, for your pleasure, here it is. If you remember from my earlier post, I had been sent to a different store to do my training. I hadn't been working there long before I had members of staff coming to visit me and telling me about what was going on in my absence. It turns out, that my manager had turned around in front of my staff and said that the woman who was temporarily replacing me was a 'breath of fresh air'. To my staff. The bastard. So, of course, lots of rumours went around that I wouldn't be going back, although nothing was said to me.
During the course of the next six months, I only ever saw/heard from my manager once, and that was in the first few weeks. For ages afterwards, he never once got in touch to see how many training was going or to talk to me about my return date. Of course, towards the end of this six month period, I suspected that he was attempting to manoeuvre me out of my position (something he was well known for in other stores). With that in mind I braced myself for the inevitable.
At the end of the six month period, my Area Manager came down to see me. He was very close with my manager and thought the sun shone out of his arse. I was rather taken aback that he had come to see me and I wasn't quite sure what this was about, but I had my suspicions. Unfortunately, they turned out to be true. My AM told me that he thought it might be best if I stayed in the store I was then working in, and drop down to a sales assistant. You can imagine my reaction to this. I had developed a very good reputation amongst many store managers over the years and I was a little surprised to learn that suddenly there was an issue with my performance. I told my AM that it would not be acceptable for me to do that, particularly given my qualifications. I mean, I was 28 at this point, stepping down would be career suicide for a graduate. Why the hell should I step down just because my manager wants to get rid of me??
So I awaited the day of my return with a very real sense of dread. I knew that getting rid of me was part of my manager's grand scheme, how would he react when he discovers his plan has failed? Not only did I decide to go back to my job, I also decided I would seek employment elsewhere. I felt like this was a good way to get back at him. He tried to force me to leave on his terms, but I was intending to leave on my terms. First, I would screw up his little plan by returning, then I would hand in my notice and teach him a lesson for trying to manipulate me. Little did I know that the next five months were going to be a living hell. A hell I thought I would never escape. |
posted by korova @ 1:56 pm  |
|
|
|
|
|
