Being in Charge Really Sucks

In the beginning times...

Back in the mid 90s I was fresh out of school and just wanted to make some cash. I had recently moved to Austin Texas and really just wanted to party all weekend and make just enough money to support that. The first job I got when I moved there was stocking groceries at a local HEB.

I ended up stocking groceries at various stores over the next decade while trying to get my shit together. I eventually got a job at Dell and a semconductor manufacturer called Solectron where we 'secretly' made the mainboards for Cisco routers and Nokia phones. I say secretly because no one was supposed to know that a 3rd party was building their equipment. Too soon to talk about it?

At any rate, I moved on from Stocking and thought I'd never look back. However, it turned out that I would do it again for a few months when I first moved to Florida in the early 2000s. I had just moved to Gainesville and I was trying to get a job working in IT (Where I met Mike) and I needed a short term job. I ended up getting a job at a Publix grocery store within walking distance of my house.

I was a bit older at this point, and was no longer goofing off at work. I went in, busted my ass, stocked the shelves, cleaned up and went home. The grocery manager began to take notice of me.

I should have kept things simple

The grocery manager was this male chauvinist pig who spent all day walking running around yelling at people and coming up to you telling inappropriate jokes about female employees in the store. I mostly just ignored him and did my job. I didn't really give a shit about his nonsense or the job really, I just wanted to get paid and go home.

I think my nonchalant nature had the "Office Space" effect on him because he decided that I was management material. One day he took me to the side and said

Hey, Ricky. I've been watching you. You're a beast out there. How would you like to be manage frozen foods?

The job was pretty straightforward. I just needed to make sure to order any products that were low, and manage 3 or 4 other stockers. Basically I would just tell them where to go and what to stock. I decided it would be a good idea for me, because I was getting a raise, plus if I could manage the stockers, perhaps we could get things done more efficiently and faster.

I accepted the promotion, and started to walk away. The grocery manager called me back to him, put his arm around my should and asked me:

Him: Son, how much do think I make?

Me: $10 per hour? (I think I was getting like $7.50 or something. Not much more than minimum wage)

Him: (laughing) Higher buddy.

Me: $12?

Him: $15. 15 dollars per hour, son. You think I got to where I am today by accident? I busted my ass. You keep it up and one day you could have my job.

Me: Oh, wow. Thanks. You think so?

I walked away thinking, Jesus Christ. Is he serious? He's got to be joking. No, he is totally serious. As he walked away I heard him yell across the whole store:

Break down them boxes boys! Whew! I want see my face in those risers. I wanna be able to make love to them! I wanna put a blonde wig on those shelves. (He really did say this)

The BS Begins...

For the previous couple of months or so, I had been working next to this girl who was pretty crass. She was a white girl with corn rows and covered in gangsta tats. She was constantly informing me of how black dude had giant dongs and that no other ethnicity could satisfy her. I don't really know why she felt the need to tell me this. It was relentless though. She was constantly telling me her dirty escapades. I think she was trying to position herself as one of the dudes or something.

We used to sit in the break room and her and all the other kids working there would basically talk shit about everyone and every thing for the entire break. I would sit there and kind of laugh just listening. It was quite entertaining. I didn't completely stay out of it, but I was mostly just listening and laughing.

When I was promoted, they send the girl over with me because we seemed to work well together. I was totally happy about that because even though she talked a lot of shit, she was a bad ass worker. Probably the best stocker there.

I remember the first night as manager, I walked into the break room. On my way in, I could hear the normal shit talking. As soon as I walked in...

DEAD SILENCE.

Everyone went completely quiet. The manager is here! What the hell. They had known me for months. I had never said or done anything to make them feel uncomfortable around me. But now I had the stupid title. Whatever. I had my food and went back to work.

Later that evening, the girl came up to me and asked, "What do you want me to do next?"

I politely responded, "Could you take that pallet to the next aisle and stock the pizzas?"

She quietly nodded and walked away dejected looking. I thought it was strange, but I kept on stocking. About 30 minutes later, I went to the back to throw some cardboard in the crusher, and I heard a loud sobbing coming from the grocery manager's office. I walked over there to see what was going on, and out runs the girl with tears pouring down her face.

WTF is going on?

The grocery manager called me into his office and shut the door.

Him: Ricky, we need to have a talk. She came in here with the water works, probably on the rag, I don't know.

After getting over his sexist comments, I asked what the heck was going on.

Him: She came in here, and said you told her to move the pallet to the next aisle and stock the pizzas.

Me: Yeah, so?

Him: You have to be sensitive when you tell people to do stuff. Especially women. Their hormones get all out of whack. They get all bent out of shape. Just watch your tone when you give her directions.

I had no idea what it was that I said to piss her off. I didn't have any kind of tone as far as I could tell. I ended up really hating this job between my subordinates getting upset and everyone ignoring me and leaving me out of things. Also, the boss was such a sexist, idiotic dick.

Luckily I didn't end up working there for much longer. I finally got the tech job I had been trying to get over at the local university. It's been quite a few years now since I had that experience, and to this day I have no desire to be in charge of anyone. If I ever manage anyone ever again, it's going to be one guy who is in charge of a team. It's just not worth the drama!