(While working on getting new full-time work, I take on a couple of extra part-time jobs so I lose money more slowly while I’m still under-employed. One of those jobs is working at a store that specializes in selling secondhand Apple devices. The store also does repairs and I am hired as a technician. At this point in my life, I’m in my thirties, I’ve already been working in IT in some form for ten years, I have a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering, and I have many industry certifications including a full CCNP. I’m interviewing for $100K+ jobs, so fixing laptops and iPhones in the backroom of a shop is more than one step back for me, but the extra money is helpful.

The manager is the only full-time position; there are two part-timers besides myself. The manager is not the most reliable person and frequently doesn’t show up or leaves and doesn’t come back for the day. He also refuses to ever turn down a repair job, leaving me to struggle at tracking down replacement parts for ten-year-old or older laptops and hope they function correctly when I install them. I’ve told him that he should insist that those customers replace their computers, but he’d rather I just repair any computer he throws at me.

Eventually, my time there is coming to an end. I have several promising interviews and need the time to prepare for them, but I agree to remain on-call until I start my new job. My boss has put out an advertisement but is quite disappointed by all the applicants he has been receiving.

This takes place after a twenty-year-old college student comes by to discuss his application with the manager and me. The guy is in college and has a little part-time experience, but he also spends a lot of time tinkering with devices he gets his hands on. I think he’d be great for the position, but my manager seems to disagree.)

Me: “What’s wrong with that guy? He’s sharp and eager to please.”

Manager: “He’s got no professional experience, no certifications, and he’s still in college!”

Me: “Are you… Wait, are you trying to find someone with my qualifications?”

Manager: *shrugs* “Something close, at least.”

Me: “[Manager]… I took this job as a temporary gig to make ends meet before starting a new professional job. You’re not going to find another 33-year-old Cisco Certified Network Professional who wants to make $16 an hour fixing iPhones. This is a job for a young, technically-minded person who’s just starting out in the job market, and quite frankly, they’d be better at it than me. I have one bad hand on top of a coordination disorder. I’m not well suited for working with tiny phone and laptop components. These kids are going to be faster than me and less likely to break things. That’s one of the reasons I switched from end-user support to networking. Yeah, he might need to use Google more often than I do, but that guy would be a great long-term replacement for me.”

(The manager still did not seem too enthusiastic despite my plea, and my last day came shortly after. The manager and the owner’s nephew were left to do all repairs themselves, but they were only experienced in fixing MacBooks and iPhones, so their ability to fix PCs was hampered without a tech. I stayed on as on-call only, but they only ever had me come in once before I accepted a new position out of state. I came by six months later when I was visiting Maryland and stopped into my old store. The manager was MIA that day, but there were two employees including the young man we interviewed before I left. Either the manager took my advice or he realized he had no choice but to hire him. I chatted and got caught up with them. The manager had been becoming less reliable since I left and would take off work to run errands or to study for a class with increasing frequency. I frankly cannot understand why the owner still keeps him around.)

I worked at an elementary school summer camp one summer with nine kids aged one to three attending the camp. There were two of us working that summer so we each had to watch four or five kids at all times. At the end of the summer, my boss asked if I’d come back the next summer to work at the camp again and I agreed, assuming it would be about the same as this year.

The following summer, I showed up for work and found out that this year we had two workers to watch nineteen kids all aged one to three. Needless to say, I’ve never been so exhausted or changed so many diapers in my life.

This happens on Black Friday weekend when we are expected to be slammed with customers. However, this weekend ends up being one of the best weather-wise weekends we’ve seen since August; therefore, everyone who should be shopping is out enjoying the weather. Well, everyone except the thirty employees who were scheduled and our general manager who has decided to make a “surprise” visit.

Our general manager usually will walk around and then leave after about 45 minutes or so. This time, he stays. And stays. 

We only have the employees in the store, and we have absolutely no customers, but we have to “look busy” because our general keeps wandering around. Because he is there, we aren’t able to send anyone home, even though had it been a normal day we would have sent about ten of us home. 

He finally leaves after being there for nine hours, and as soon as he leaves the parking lot, our managers tell those of us who are close to getting off to leave.

On the plus side, we all did get paid to gossip all day long, but it made for a very long day. The negative was that our general manager’s constructive criticism was that we should all be cleaning when we have downtime.

Corporate definitely has no clue how we are run.

This story is part of our Black Friday 2023 roundup!

Read the next Black Friday 2023 roundup story!

Read the Black Friday 2023 roundup!

Our company has brought in strict guidelines and practises, insisting that line managers inspect each store monthly. Each month it’s the same thing: the line manager visits and leaves a large list of jobs that she wants done by her next visit. The store manager usually does his own thing, ignoring the list, and doesn’t even show it to me as his second in command. If I do ask about it, I get told he’s taken it home to work out a plan of action. The line manager always visits on a Monday after I’ve had the weekend managing shift. It’s always the same thing; I get sent an email first thing on Saturday morning.

It usually says, “OMG, [Line Manager] is coming on Monday! You need to make sure you do all of these jobs,” followed by the list of jobs he was given a month ago.  

Weekends are our busiest times, so I try to get through the list as best as I can with the help of the one other staff member we have. I often work two hours past my finishing time on both Saturday and Sunday before exhaustion gets the better of me and I attempt the forty-minute drive home, desperately trying to keep awake. Every Monday, I work the afternoon shift and I always get told off.

It’s usually something like, “[Line Manager] was not happy that the list of jobs was not completed; you let me down again.”

Nothing I say or do makes any difference; he can’t understand that working on the jobs over the course of the month is a much more efficient method of getting them complete. Even telling him that I worked over four hours extra, unpaid, gets me told off as I’m not supposed to be staying back in the store on my own.

(It’s the day before an inspection of our workplace, and there’s a lot of tidying to do, especially of things that have been dumped in bins and boxes and left on the showroom floor. Our boss has no sense of priority and, instead of dealing with the dumped items — many of which he dumped there himself — he decides to rearrange the office. He’s been told over the last six or more months to do it, and he’s now in a panic. I figure he’s planning on having us do all the dumped items, but no, I get in at 8:00 am and I’m told to completely rearrange a section of our showroom — completely unnecessary at this time. I soon realise I don’t have enough fixtures to complete the job.)

Me: “I’m running out of [item] and can’t fix the shelves properly.”

Boss: “I’ve been collecting them, so I know there’s enough to do it.” *walks off*

(I keep on working and having to lay the shelf dividers loosely; after about two hours the boss brings me a bag of the items I need. I keep going but soon realise that we are still going to fall way short.)

Me: “There’s not going to be enough.”

Boss: “Of course there will be enough; I saved enough for this job.”

Me: “I need twelve [items] for each shelf.”

Boss: “There should be enough there.”

Me: “I still have a dozen shelves to do.”

Boss: “You can do it.”

(I continue on just fixing the shelves on each end with two each of the items, leaving the rest of the shelf dividers loose but being held in place by stock. The boss decides to “help” me by moving some of the stock, which really creates more work for me to do. It’s now 8:00 pm; I’ve been working on this all day.)

Me: “Can you imagine how long this would take if I had to fix every shelf divider in place?”

Boss: “Well, the way I do it is to lay and complete all the shelves first, and then put the stock there.”

(I turn and give him a look of daggers, as he knows I had to lay every line of stock individually to find the best fit.)

Boss: “Well, maybe not this time.”  

(When I finally finish, I have just six of the “we have enough” items left, which means we are only 90 short. After I replace all the items the boss “helped” me with, it is close to 9:30 pm. I actually have to ask him to leave things alone that I am not ready for. I clean up the area and start looking forward to leaving. The move has left one section empty, which I tried to talk the boss out of emptying completely, but he insisted that it should be done.)

Boss: “Do you think you could just move [another section] so that section is filled?”

(That would be at least another hour’s work, because then he would make me fill the new empty section with something, as well.)

Me: “No, I don’t think so.”

Boss: “Yeah, it’s probably time to go, or I’m going to fall asleep on the drive home.”

(He lives a whole ten minutes away; I have a forty-minute drive. We headed to pick up our personal items and I noticed that not one of those dumped bins and boxes had been touched.)