Hah. Don't we all, right? Funny thing is, I used to really like her.

I really want to rant but I don't really have any good material worth ranting about. You know how sometimes it's just the little things, that you'd otherwise just disregard, that start coming more and more often until you can't take it anymore? It's like that.

My manager, a woman in her early forties, is good at her job. She gets **** done, she's very organised, she has good business sense.

The trouble is, she has a really fiery temper. All of us have been on the recieving end of her temper at one point, but she usually just lets out her frustrations, gets it over with and then there's no hard feelings. She is generally kind to people, even if she's just had a mega-rant at them. So I can't really fault her for her temper, it's almost to be expected from a perfectionist like her.

Lately, I just feel like I'm getting the brunt of her bad temper all of the time. Occasionally my organisational skills slip, I have no trouble putting my hand up and admitting to that (although I must say that the quality of my work rarely drops) but she gives me hell for it. I understand where she's coming from but I can't help but feel she makes a mountain out of a molehill on 90% of these occasions. Nothing has actually gone wrong, and probably wouldn't even go wrong, but occasionally I wont be bang up-to-date on a particular part of my work or I've let something fall by the wayside for a few days while I've been busy with other things. Somehow this is always a disaster in her head. But I can deal with it, it's just her way.

Increasingly she has started to become offensive to me about things that do not involve work. This is where I really have to draw the line. On two previous occasions she has made remarks about the place my mother works (Tesco). She knows my mother works there, it has come up in conversation numerous times. Now my mother works her *** off there in an office position, I've witnessed this myself during my own short time there, and I just find it appalling. The first remark came during a discussion of old school friends, during which my manager remarked that she had no interest at all in keeping in touch with her old school peers because they "all just had kids and went to work for Tesco". Great, so my mother and every other person that works for Tesco isn't worth knowing. The second remark came during a discussion about foreign languages, where my manager said she was concerned about whether she'd get into university because of the requirement to have an o-level/standard grade in a foreign languague, which she consistently failed until her final year. She was freaking out: "I'll never go to university, I'm destined to be a failure working in Tesco for the rest of my life". Super. The final remark came today, while she and I were talking about the stresses of work in general. She remarked that she wishes she could get an easy job "like one in Tesco". Charming. I just cannot believe her ****. Sure enough, my mother probably doesn't earn a fraction of what she does and, while mother does get a lot of stress in her job, she probably doesn't have the kid of stress my manager does. But still, if you're going to be an ignorant **** about what my mother does for a living, how about doing it when I'm not within earshot?

Another recent beauty: there was some discussion going on about a certain subject and I opened my mouth to ask her a question about it. I noticed she had her handbag and was just about to step out for lunch after a long meeting that had overrun, so I didn't ask the question. But then she said "you look like you were about to say something". I responded that I could see she was just about to step out, and I'd talk to her later. Her response? Not "okay cool, speak later". It was in fact "I'M hungry, I'M going for my lunch, YOU'LL have to wait". Um, isn't that what I basically just said? Christ. So yeah, that basically reduced me to tears and I had to go to another room to compose myself.

Anyway, I've gone on long enough. I just needed a good healthy whinge, to be honest. I'm quitting this job in a little over five months time anyway. But the thought of actually having to stick around and put up with this **** daily until then, is making me want to just kill myself, or her, or just somebody in general. I don't want to quit just yet because this job pays well in comparison to other jobs I could get, and I want to save before I go back to education. I just ****ing hate this situation.


Um, so tell me your manager/boss woes. I'm sure there are plenty of folks who have it way worse (although I've barely scratched the surface here) so maybe hit me up and make me feel a bit better about this ****?

wow that really sucks.
i'd be so mad about the Tesco thing.
do you ever say anything when she says **** like that?
if it was me i'd say "my mom works at Tesco. what's wrong with that?" and just ****ing put her on the spot.

I never say anything when she makes those Tesco remarks, I'm so submissive like that. Next time she decides to bring it up, I probably really should just hit back with something. She's quite forgetful in general, so normally I wouldn't put it past her to have forgotten that my mum works there. But today she made that remark, stepped out for lunch, and then immediately when she came back, she asked me how my mum is getting on at work (sort of in an unrelated context, though, since my mother was off work for a while following my father's death). But surely she must remember where she works if she's even asking the question.

And that brings me to another point. While she and everyone else at work have generally been brilliant and understanding about my father's death, right now I can't believe she's being such a dick towards me. I mean, the death shouldn't be and isn't an excuse for anything I happen to get wrong at work, don't get me wrong, but I feel as though she could be a bit more gentle with me right now. I already had a talk with her about how my confidence has been pretty low since the death and I requested that I wouldn't have to go out to meet clients for the first month or so for that reason. She accommodated my request, which was excellent of her, but then she goes and kicks me when I'm down - on a daily basis. At times I actually feel like I'm utterly **** at my job and useless, and I know that is just not true.

i suspect she may have sort of forgotten it, or thinks that because your mum is working in an office position there that she's not insulting her with this.
i've made similar comments, despite my mum working as a cashier for co-op and my brother having been at tesco at the time.

it is a bit of a generic phrase for a crummy job. lots of people say 'working at macdonalds' in the same context without really thinking.

however if it offends you, say something. if after saying something she does it again, then that's out of order.

the temper though is ridiculous. i think all you can do is stick it out another 5 months, unless there's a manager above her you can tlak to, or even a deputy manager?

i used to have a cokehead boss who got major mood swings, that was awful

Ach, I'm not really bothered about trying to have her sorted out. It really is her way, she hasn't really got much else going on in life apart from work so I can understand why she gets a bit overly passionate about it. The staff have meetings where we raise problems and issues, the subject of her attitude in general has already come up and we all collectively decided that we wouldn't take it further because it will probably really hurt her and/or just fuel some kind of resentment. I just gotta deal.