Making A Display Of Themselves

(My manager tells me she needs a display made with a certain item of stock.)

Manager: *holding up Stock Item #1* “I think this will look good. You can bunch up the front like this.” *demonstrates with her hands* “Oh, and you will need to get [Stock Item #2] to go under it. I’m so glad that corporate is finally giving up on their strict ruling about these things. It doesn’t matter how we do them now.”

(I start setting the display, using the exact item she had and bunching it up the way she told me. Several people comment how good it looks.)

Manager: *coming back* “[My Name], what are you doing? That’s not the way it’s supposed to be done. You aren’t even using the right item. It’s supposed to be done only with [Stock Item #3] that corporate has specified, and it’s not supposed to be bunched up like that. It’s supposed to be tight. Haven’t you done this before? Where’s the paperwork I gave you to follow? You are supposed to be following only the rules laid out by corporate.”

Me: “You didn’t give me any paperwork and I used what you told me to use. Also, I haven’t done it for a long time especially since the new rules came in, which you told me didn’t matter anymore.”

Manager: “Well, they do matter; I’m not going to get in trouble just because you don’t want to follow the rules.”

(This happened quite often.)