Work rant
One of the managers at my work has some kind of authority issues. She's generally quite nice, but as soon as her methods are questioned, no matter how nicely, she gets defensive and uppity.
I work at a grocery store (one of two jobs) so it's not like I'm living the high life or anything, but I do take pride in what I do. I always think that no matter what job you have, you should do it to the best of your ability. I can't stand when people say things like, "I'll never clean toilets for a job." Really? REALLY? Because that's what I do at the end of the shift, and you're pretty damned happy to have a clean bathroom, aren't you? I'll clean a thousand toilets, and I'll do a damn good job, because that's what I'm getting paid to do.
Anyway, back to the manager with issues. We have a new system for unloading new product to put on the shelves. We have to read the labels from the boxes and mark off the matching ones on the checklist that comes with it. In my personal experience, the fastest way to do so is by checking them off as you stack them to be taken away. I was helping them do this earlier tonight and suggested it. The way other people are doing it is by stacking everything, then going back and calling off all the labels. This is a pain, because you have to dismantle the stacks one by one to find the labels.
The manager said I shouldn't be doing it the way I had been and to just do it the way everyone else was. I asked her why I shouldn't, since it's the same technique, just easier for me to handle, and she told me, "Just do it."
I am very polite to all of my co-workers, and I don't give my managers lip, so when I asked her why, I wasn't trying to be annoying or argumentative. So it really pisses me off tht she'd shut me down without an actual answer. I'm not a fucking five year old, and I've been working in this store for longer than she has (she's a recent transfer) so when I ask for a reason that I have to do something in such a specific way, I'd like a reason. That's all I wanted, a simple reason for why, and I would have gone with it. But when someone talks to me like I'm too stupid to get it and then uses the logic, "Because I said so" I get really frustrated.
I've had problems with her before, because she'd thought that I was undermining her authority by giving people, who've not been properly trained, certain tasks and switching others around. I only did it because I knew exactly how long it would take to do those tasks and that I could finish up all of the closing duties if I did this. It's someting that I've been doing for the last three and a half years, which is why the closing duties have been going so well. She got mad and lectured me for it. I told her I was sorry and that I wouldn't make any more changes. I kept my word, and for the next two weeks, nothing was finished on time for closing duties. Then my schedule mysteriously went back to how it was and she left me alone.
*sigh* Sorry about that, if anyone actually read all the way through. But I needed to get it off my chest. I'm very good at my job, and I hate when people try to make me feel like I'm not worth listening to because they think I don't know how things work. I do, I just never get the chance to do them because I'm always given the same tasks night after night and treated like an idiot who was hired yeterday. >:{