I need a new job/boss

[Sl1pstream]

So I'm thinking about quitting my retail job, at least where I work now.

I enjoyed my job, until my boss started being a total bitch about stuff. She's mad when we're 5 minutes late, but she's always 15-20 minutes late. She tells us to do some minor stuff, but she never does those things herself even though she made it pretty clear that everyone should follow these rules. I know that I probably shouldn't complain about stuff like that because she's still the boss, but I'm tired of her shit.

After today, I'm about ready to give up. She took today and yesterday off even though store managers are only allowed to take one day off every week during Christmas season.
Her assistant fell in the bathroom last night, hit her head and had a huge headache today. She went home because she couldn't take it anymore and the doctor told her that she had a minor concussion. We called our boss to tell her this but since her phone was turned off, we left her a voicemail message. After a few hours she still hadn't called us back so we tried again. She made up some excuse about going to see a movie with her kids and since she just got in the car, she'd call us back in a few hours. She didn't.

I had to work longer again, even though she should've been there to replace the person who had to go home. Instead of that, I did another 14 hour day. I've been working more hours than her every week for 3 months now and I'm pretty fucking tired of this shit.

The horrible customers don't really bother me, I've learned to deal with them during the past 4 years, but she's not really making my life easier. I'm not the only one either. Two of my co-workers are already looking for new jobs behind her back and as far as I can tell, they liked working there before as well. I'm also sure that if her assistant quits at one point, I'll probably get that job. I really don't think that I'm going to take it if they offer it to me. Even if it does mean more money. Unless she changes her attitude, I'm going to start looking for something new.

I might as well look for an office job next time and actually do something I studied for.

I hate this crap so much.

[nnanji]

This all sounds like things that could be checked by a District Manager. Have you considered just going above her head and calling her boss? Frequently DMs are equally shitty and unwilling to do their job, but if the store's being impacted this severely, they should do something. Have the assistant manager make a statement that they are considering filing a workman's comp claim. Shit like that gets people fired quick.

[Sl1pstream]

This all sounds like things that could be checked by a District Manager. Have you considered just going above her head and calling her boss? Frequently DMs are equally shitty and unwilling to do their job, but if the store's being impacted this severely, they should do something. Have the assistant manager make a statement that they are considering filing a workman's comp claim. Shit like that gets people fired quick.

I actually like our DM. He's pretty awesome. I might not even have to go to him myself. On Wednesday, they're going to decide if our assistant gets to keep the job as assistant or not. She has already made a list of things she doesn't like about her boss and will be bringing that up if she doesn't get a permanent promotion. She's still going to quit even if she does get to keep that job (since she gets a lot of shit dumped on her too), but that would speed things up a lot for her. If that does happen, I expect that he would actually want to hear some things from other people too, in which case I'll probably add some things to it.

I don't really feel like talking to him about it before I actually know if I can find another job right now, I do still need the money and this is still better than no job at all. If she stays where she is after this is over, I'd like to have something I can fall back on. I don't think I want to be there if things get even worse. That or I could just ask to get transfered to another store. I've been in pretty much every one of our stores throughout the years and almost everyone's pretty cool.

The only problem that I have with other stores is that they're all pretty quiet compared to ours. I need a little stress to function. As crazy as it sounds, I like working during the last few months of the year. The days fly by when you're working this hard/fast.

[Doogie2K]

I wouldn't worry too much about getting fired for telling the DM that your store manager's a twat; there's no reason she has to know you did so (certainly no way to prove it unless she was explicitly told, and that's not a fireable offence, at least not here), and if she's fired over it, there's nothing she can do. But then, my first inclination was also, "call the DM and start spilling," too.

[Purple Santa]

Have you spoken to your boss about your concerns? If you haven't, if you do, make sure you do it in a professional manner. Make a list of your concerns, go over them with her. Allow her to see how she's hurting the store. However, make it seem you want to work WITH her to make this situation better. If this doesn't work, then you can go to HR with your concerns. This way it's documented properly. Then if needed, go to the DM. Again, if you do go, do it in a professional manner. It's feedback you are giving about an employee who happens to be your boss. Never get personal. It's about someone's performance.

Good luck.

[Sl1pstream]

I'm probably going to give it another week. He stops by on Wednesday, so I'm just going to see what happens with our assistant manager. If she tells him and nothing gets done, I'm probably going to ask him to get transfered or look for a new job, I'm pretty tired of this anyway. That could be her fault, but I don't know at this point. If I do decide to quit my job, I'm pretty sure that I'm not going to do it before the end of the year.

I also clocked about 140 hours of overtime since August. One of the reasons I kept this job was vacation. Working this much means overtime which means vacation. I used to take 3 week twice a year for the past 3 years. She told me that, in the future, I should limit this to 2 weeks. My first reaction was that nobody could do my job (because nobody really likes to do the games/dvd part of our store, except for one or two people), but I'm pretty sure that it's because she'd have to find someone to fill in for the 45-50 hour weeks (on a 35 hour contract) that I'm doing right now. When I told most of my co-workers today, nobody else seemed to have a problem with my vacation.

[Sl1pstream]

Have you spoken to your boss about your concerns? If you haven't, if you do, make sure you do it in a professional manner. Make a list of your concerns, go over them with her. Allow her to see how she's hurting the store. However, make it seem you want to work WITH her to make this situation better. If this doesn't work, then you can go to HR with your concerns. This way it's documented properly. Then if needed, go to the DM. Again, if you do go, do it in a professional manner. It's feedback you are giving about an employee who happens to be your boss. Never get personal. It's about someone's performance.

Good luck.

I haven't. One of my co-workers tried that a while ago and she didn't really react positively. It also didn't really help.