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Karma Strikes Back (very long)

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  • Karma Strikes Back (very long)

    Oh hi, everyone!

    Been a long time since my last post...there's a few reasons, not least of which is the fact that I both didn't have the energy to think about my hellhole of a job, and because I quit it a few months ago, which cut down on the stories

    However, something happened recently, and now I have to revisit this story, in its entirely of more than a year and a half of absolute crap. This is the story of MSM, My Shitty Manager, and the company that just could not see that she deserved to be fired.

    The story begins with some back information; I had worked for this company, and unfortunately this person (who was a supervisor in another department) in the past; I only went back to the company because I had left on good terms, and I needed the income fast, so I swallowed my pride, and headed on back. When I returned to the hotel, it was to the Reservations department, and I was very sad to hear that my interview was with MSM. I knew she had been a shitty supervisor years before, but I was hoping that maybe she had dug her head out of her ass in the 4 years since I'd known her. MSM was the manager of both the Res department, and the PBX (phone operators) department. This is important later on.

    At first, things started off OK...there were some CS stories that got posted here, naturally, but the co-workers were awesome, and they generally just let us do our own thing without any difficulties. I worked there for a few months, and things were generally fine without any real hatreds forming. During this time, one person there was fired, but everything seemed to keep moving in a generally positive fashion...at first. Then, all of a sudden, things took a turn for the worse.

    The first sign of trouble was when someone who had been working in the hotel for over a decade vanished. She went on lunch, came back, grabbed her purse, and left; no "goodbye", no nothing...we didn't even realize she had gone home for a while. Everyone thought she had gone to the bathroom! At the same time, we all noticed MSM was starting to get snarky with us; any time we talked to her, it was like we were puppies, or small children, and were being talked down to the same way. Here's an example of the conversations I'm talking about:

    Me: We have a guest asking about (insert random query #259 about shit we don't normally do, but that I know for a fact we've done in the past).
    MSM: And what do we do when they ask for that?
    Me: I told them our policies, but they are being insistent. We've done it for guests before, so here I am.
    MSM: We've never done that before; tell them no.

    It's hard to convey over text, but let me assure you, MSM's words are dripping with condescension in every sentence. At first, it was just insulting because of the tone used; it became worse over the next month when she would first tell us no, and when the person demanded to talk with a manager, she would give them exactly what we were asking permission to give them in the first place, thus making us look like jackoffs. It was fucking brilliant, let me tell you.

    After about a month, more cracks started appearing in the dam. As MSM became more and more insulting, her behavior started to get erratic, as did her instructions. Within about 45 days of the first person walking out, 2 more people left without warning. One finished her shift, packed her things, and never came back. The other was ambushed by MSM and pulled into HR after being sick for a few days, without prior attendance issues. She spent the last hour of her shift packing her things as well. By this time, people had been hired to replace the fired person, and first walkout, although the 2nd hire was still in training. This left our department with me, awesome co-worker B, awesome trainee C, supervisor J, and MSM, who was about as useful as a dangling pair of testicles on my left shoulder. We were also entering our busiest time of the year, and suddenly all of us found ourselves on forced overtime, working 6-7 days a week.

    While MSM worked 5 days, and never hopped on the phones herself.

    This continued for about 2 weeks, with no new hires showing up. Additionally, the PBX department workers I'd mentioned before started having their morale go way downhill. They were also being treated like children/puppies/idiots, and would be told to suddenly change standards and procedures that had been in place for years. When they would mention that they had done things a certain way for years, the response from MSM was always the same: "We've never done things that way." /Facepalm. Within about another week, PBX took their first casualty when one of the operators no-called and quit, bringing us to 4 walk outs between the two departments in about 2 months.

    Back in Res, things were not getting better; with all of us being treated worse and worse, plus the schedule making us all stressed out before dealing with SCs at all, morale was diving further and further. We finally got some fresh blood (victims?) in when 3 new hires were made. This meant having to train 3 people, but that was far preferable to having no one there to do anything. We got to work, and hoped we wouldn't hit them. For reference purposes, I'll call the 3 new hires D, T, and B2 (since Awesome Co-Worker B has already been established ). I will also note now that D was black - this is going to be important in a little bit, so it must be noted.

    All three of them work out pretty well; they all work hard, like to joke around, and they all really reduce stress in the office. I get along well with D, but T and B2 and I are thick as thieves since we are all epic wiseasses. This leads to a lot of harmless joking, which helps each day move along fast. We should have known it wouldn't last.

    It didn't take MSM long to start terrorizing the new hires; within a few weeks of being hired, all three of them were offended by the way they were talked down to, and B2 and D both started talking about how they were afraid they had made a mistake. This was compounded when, right after D was hired, Awesome Co-Worker C walked out (raising us to 5 walk outs in just over 2 months). At the same time, another of the PBX Operators walked out (that's #6), and another put in a 2-weeks notice and quit (7 gone, only 1 of which gave notice). When that happened, things got even worse.

    First, MSM and I butted heads; I had gone on vacation, and 2 things happened. First, I logged in to my work email to get the schedule, and noticed that she had scheduled me working during days when I was still approved to be off. I wouldn't even be in-state, so I called in and told them they had to change it. MSM's response? "If you're not here on those days, don't show up afterward." When I noted that she herself approved those days off, all I got was a "no I didn't" and a bad attitude, and then she hung up on me. Luckily, I save every email I get from someone like that...so a quick email to her AND her boss about the schedule, including the forwarded email authorizing my days off, and suddenly everything is fixed. I mentioned in the email my offense at what I was told, since I'm copying the big boss above MSM too. Naturally, nothing happens, and I can't prove the conversation since it was just us on the phone.

    The second thing happens when I get back: waiting at my desk is a policy thing to sign that we had signed once before. What it basically said is that we can't give out any reservation info unless we verify the guest (good policy, made by MSMs former boss who xferred to a corporate job). The form itself specifically says that the only verification we accept over the phone is either the confirmation #, or the last 4 numbers of the credit card used for the reservation. It also specifically says that there are no exceptions to this policy. I sign the form, turn it in, and later that day get an SC who refuses to give out that info. After bickering with them back and forth, I connect them to MSM to shut them up, and go back to my life. Moments later, MSM comes out to the office and berates me, asking why I didn't verify their address to do something to the room. My response was simple: I just signed a form stating that I would not, under any circumstances, do anything to a room without a form of verification that we accept.

    Her response? "Everyone here knows to use the address if they are calling for a room." Instantly, B, T, and D all chime in that they have never been told that, and that they also signed the form saying that they would not. Since I made a copy of the form, I made sure I had it handy. I kept things simple, telling MSM that if she wanted us to do that, I would need it in writing as backup, so that we would not be held accountable for going against the policy. Naturally, she both refused to put it in writing, and ordered us to go against what we had signed. As a group, we decided to go against the order, and nothing ever came from it, but all of us kept copies of the form just in case we had to argue things in front of HR later. It didn't end there though...

    MSM started going after D, and it was impossible to see why. D was constantly on time, never called off, never got any complains, never did a poor job, and was basically the type of person you WANTED working for you in a hotel. She was also studying for a hospitality degree, and would've gone far had things not worked out the way they did...but MSM singled her out for everything. For instance, she saw her wearing open-toed shoes one day (which, for some reason, the hotel disallowed) and tore into her in front of all of us. 2 minutes later, she notices T has the same type of shoes on...and doesn't even comment. Any time D has to ask a question, she is rebuked and insulted for it...despite the fact that it's a perfectly good question for a trainee to ask. These are just 2 examples, there were about 14-15 different things that we saw happen in the office that, quite plainly, were complete bullshit. D finally made the statement that she honestly thought it was because she was black that all of this was happening. Obviously, enough of this was enough, and D walked out (#8, in about 3.5 months), and started an avalanche.

    When D left, she did not go quietly: she left a long email to the GM of the hotel, and the director of HR, as well as the Rooms Manager (the top 3 managers in the hotel). She also copied every member of reservations except for MSM, so we all knew exactly what was said. In the email, she accused MSM of blatant racism (can't be sure), incompetence (it was obvious to us), and a slew of other fun things. HR reacted fast, opening an investigation, and interviewing everyone in the department one-on-one.

    Now, I'll note something here: at this point, we were all praying that MSM was finally going to be fired. Every person I talked to was sure it would happen; to quote my friend, "any investigation like this is never in favor of the company. If they're doing that, they're just getting together what they need to fire her, so she'll be gone soon." Every one of us went to HR, talked to them, and told them what had happened both to us, and to D...and to the others who had walked out. Since I had gained the top seniority spot in under a year, I knew the most of anyone who went down. I also told HR they should talk to the PBX department, since the mistreatment was hardly limited to us.

    One thing I noted as well, which is important later on, is music. We had asked if we could have music in the office, and provided a ton of research on how it improves morale, work quality, etc. The response came back as a "no", and we were told it had been banned in our office by the GM when complaints had come in from guests before on past employees that the music was audible over the phone. This, I thought, was a reasonable explanation...but MSM delivered the news. MSM then went back to her office. MSM then plugged her ipod into her computer, and started playing music that was audible throughout the entire fucking office. When I called her out on this, her response was literally "it's different for managers." I simply asked her, "So your position is that having a consistent policy in the office is an incorrect thing?" "Yes." I made sure to note that, as an example of how inconsistent her entire management performance was.

    HR was quick in their response, I suppose, since it appeared their response was to do absolutely nothing. The entire "investigation" was a complete waste of time; 6 months later, they had never talked to anyone in PBX, and they never did go back and actually finish like they should have. No feedback was ever given to us, MSM remained shittily in her position, and things continued as if D had never made her complaints public. There is no problem here, move along folks.

    Within the next month, 2 more people in PBX walk out, bringing us to 10 people gone, only one of whom has given a 2 weeks notice. That number goes up a few days later when B2, who I loved, put in a 2 weeks and got the hell out as well, bringing us to 11...9 of whom left no notice.

    Things do not get better...we get 2 new hires in Res, both of whom are treated like complete shit by MSM. The first one never came back after her first day, since MSM threw her to the wolves on the phones with no training and then yelled at her for making mistakes. The second made it about 3-4 days before vanishing after telling us all "sorry, but I can't work with a bitch like that". This brings us up to 13 people who've quit.

    I should note, right now, that this is in about a 6 month period now.

    Things continue on horribly, and 2 more people leave PBX, both internally transferring to other departments. The first one made it out without incident, but the 2nd one had to fight to get out; MSM tried to write her up 3 times (since a write up disqualifies you from a transfer for 6 months), and all 3 of them were contested and thrown out. MSM tried to do one last write up, but the operator in question had already had their xfer approved, so it was too late. She escaped, but constantly told us that she would see MSM outside her new office, glaring at her through the doorway. No, I'm not joking. This brings us to 11 walk outs, 2 quitting with notice, and 2 transfers.

    Res, in the meantime, gets another new hire, J...who is the first new hire that I hated. I tried to be helpful, but she was one of those who constantly bitched loudly (while we were on the phones), was rude to people on the phone, who did no work, and who was just generally a pain in the ass. B, T, and I all despised her, but at least she took down the call volume a bit. The only solidarity we had with J was that MSM seemed to hate her as much as she did the rest of us. Things continued for a short time, when another PBX Operator left, the 14th person to quit. In under 9 months. All of us asked the same question: How does HR and the upper management not realize there is a serious problem down here, with over 100% turnover rates!? It got worse too...1 new hire in res, and one in PBX both lasted under a week, bringing us to 16 people.

    Sadly, my final straw came not much later, as MSM and I finally threw down in a big way. It was a busy day, MSM naturally was nowhere near the office that she's managing, instead running around the hotel doing god knows what. Supervisor J (who we love, but was never able to stand up to MSM) is off for the day, so I'm basically "the boss" since I'm the senior dude still. My motto is "get the job done" in this case, since I'm not being paid to be a fucking manager, so if someone has their ipod in one ear, and is working hard as hell at the same time, clearly there's not a problem. I'm the closer, which means that I'm alone for the last couple hours. It's also late night on a Saturday.

    I'm printing out reports in the last half hour or so, and when I return, MSM is standing at my desk. I thought she'd gone home, so I was a bit surprised, but had no idea what the hell she wanted. It quickly turned into a fight; she heard that "someone" was listening to music in the office (which J and B both were, not that I was going to rat them out to shitbird). I'll just give you the conversation.

    Me: And?
    MSM: What do you mean "and"?
    Me: I mean, "and?" Are you, of all people, accusing me of doing it? If so, one, I want to know why, and two, I want to know if there is music playing in your office right now.
    MSM: Neither of those matter.
    Me: You are absolutely wrong; they both matter. If you knew what you were doing, you would not be making blanket accusations at one person.
    MSM: Hotel policy says no music.
    Me: No, the GMs policy says no music in this office, other departments often have music blaring. You are a part of this office, and have music blaring audibly every day as well, not that this seems to matter.
    MSM: If people are playing music and screwing around on the internet, that's your responsibility.
    Me: (WTF!?) That's the first time you mentioned internet use, so now you're grasping for things to whine about. Secondly, my responsibility is to do my job. If you want me to do yours, quit, get the hell out of the way, and put me in the spot to do it. Otherwise, take a class or something and learn what the concepts of "lead by example" and "guidance through intelligence" mean.
    MSM: Well, since you don't want to talk about this now, we'll talk about this on Monday with HR! (Storms off)

    I'm left with about 5 minutes on my shift...and I don't know what to do. I pack up my things, take everything that's mine, log out, and go home. I spent the entire night tossing and turning, and eventually the next morning, I came to the realization that I couldn't bear to set foot in that place again. I called up J, told him what had happened, and that I would not be in that day...he understood, remarking that he was amazed I held out as long as I could. On Monday, I called back to HR, relayed the entire story, berated them for failing to act as now 17 employees in under 1 year had left, destroying a department. I also called B and T personally, and apologized to them for what had happened...but they knew why I had left.

    Some interesting things happened since then...first, within a week of me quitting, a number of fairly nagging health problems I had been having for months were suddenly gone. Stomach pains, dizziness, and some other symptoms just vanished. It didn't take long to realize that I'd been suffering from stress sickness, and hadn't realized it...the symptoms had put me in the hospital at one point, with them unable to find out why I had been in such pain.

    Other the next few months, I distanced myself...I met with T and B a couple times for drinks, but I thought about the hotel as little as possible. Then, a couple weeks ago, I looked on my phone and saw a text:

    "She's gone."

    Holy. Shit. It took 5 months, and 5 more walk outs after me, but it finally happened. One last story, and this saga ends!

    See, in Res, we got commissions for selling certain room types. They weren't huge, but it was a nice bonus at the end of each month. After I left, they changed the commissions and added a caveat: Anyone who was late or absent 3+ times in a month would now be ineligible for commissions. T and B, who both have kids, angrily objected...their point was the same: "so if we're sick two days, and get horribly sick the third day, you want us to come in and spread it around here?" Neither of them could afford to not get commissions, so that's what they started doing, and people started to get sick all over the office since the germs were being spread around accidentally so people wouldn't lose their cash. During this, one of the PBX Operators who I loved, S, transferred over to Res for more money.

    Fast forward a few months, and S has become embittered, unhappy, and generally hates her life in Res. She has some extra cash, but MSM is still a utter failure at life. One day, however, MSM called in S and told her that she had been late 5 times in May, so she would not get her commissions...about $250. S flipped out and emailed the GM, demanding a private meeting, in which she accused MSM of incompetence, lying, and illegal practices. She demanded to see her time cards for the entire month of may, and any time she was listed as late, she demanded to see the security camera footage. She also demanded to see the change log for her time card, since they used an electronic system.

    The results were not surprising: She was never once late during the entire month of May. MSM had logged in and changed her time punches on 5 days to deny her what money was rightfully hers. S got her commissions, and immediately put in her 2 weeks notice. Meanwhile, MSM was "suspended pending investigation", and was finally fired a few days later. T and B are ecstatic, as they are finally free...I don't know the new manager, but I hope it's a good one for their sake.

    MSM cost the company and her departments 2 transfers, 3 people who quit with notice, and 17 walk outs. She bungled for about 2 years with utter incompetence, despite repeated vehement complaints to upper management about her performance. She somehow managed to avoid the spotlight of her failures from being shown on her, and only managed to get fired when she was caught breaking the law (no telling on how many times she screwed people out of money on their paychecks by editing their punches).

    The sad part is, some day, MSM will probably work at another hotel, and do it all to another staff there. I just hope that the next place sees her for what she is sooner, before they lose everyone who mattered there.

    And that, friends, is the story of My Shitty Manager. May she rot in hell.
    "That's too bad. Hospitals aren't fun to fight through."
    "What IS fun to fight through?"
    "Gardens. Electronics shops. Antique stores, but only if they're classy."
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