Conflict in the stockroom
I used to work for the retail store Gordman's the summer before my sophomore year of college. I worked around 6 am Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unloading a truck full of new supplies. I would open the boxes of supplies and then hang the clothes and tag other home supplies. I also worked at a cash register about twice a week depending on when they would schedule me. After a couple of weeks of working in the store, I was acquainted with most of the staff and new how to do my job fairly well. Working as a cashier I mostly only talked with my customers. However, on days when I unloaded the truck I would be in the same room with the same people for about 5 hours. The conflict that arose reached a critical point around a month into starting this job and involved the crew who unloaded the truck.
One of my coworkers, Gary is his alias, was in his 50's and was a lot older than the rest of us. Three of us that worked unloading the truck were about college aged and one other person was in her mid 30's. Only two of us would be basic workers unloading the truck, opening boxes, hanging clothes, and tagging items. Two others would be sorting the store room and moving things onto the floor. We had a supervisor, Angela, besides the store manager who would often come to the back to check on us and help unload boxes if it was a busy day. Her normal job was office work or walking around the store and fixing clothes on their hangers. The first couple of weeks I noticed that she would often pick on Gary for moving at a slower pace than the rest of us. At times we would not need any help, but it would seem that she came to the back to patronize him anyway. She would always complain whenever she had to work in the back opening boxes or sorting things and didn't really get along with anyone else. After a while Gary would really bad mouth Angela behind her back all the time. Gary would often complain how he had been working there longer than Angela and she had no right to be so harsh on him. I expect that Angela was wrongfully taking out stress on Gary for not moving as fast as the rest of the younger workers. One day about a month into the job it got really bad when we were really behind schedule. Angela had been in the back trying to help us pick up the pace all while patronizing Gary and complaining. Gary snapped and told Angela off and said that she needed to shut up.
Immediately after a little back and forth she left the stockroom and didn't return for the rest of my shift. After the conflict happened Gary would immediately tell Angela to shut if she would complain about him. Whenever I talked to Gary he told me he didn't want to be pushed around anymore and would not put up with her attitude. The next couple of weeks were tense as both those two got into it a couple of more times and the store manager had to figure out how to handle them. After that the store manager decided to schedule someone other than Angela to go back to the stock room to help when we were busy. My other coworkers who worked in the stockroom, myself included, acted awkward around Angela and Gary anytime after that because of the incident.
Looking back on the situation it could probably have been avoided if my coworkers or I had intervened before it reached the breaking point. I didn't really want to get involved because it was my first month and I didn't feel comfortable trying to tell someone to change their behavior. Also, in retrospect anyone of us could have talked to Angela and pointed out that she was being unnecessarily harsh on Gary. Anyone of us also could have talked to the store manager about the tension the two would cause in the stockroom and the manager could have stepped in sooner. Neither one of them lost their job because of this incident, but I am unsure how they are both doing now since I haven't worked that job since.
One of my coworkers, Gary is his alias, was in his 50's and was a lot older than the rest of us. Three of us that worked unloading the truck were about college aged and one other person was in her mid 30's. Only two of us would be basic workers unloading the truck, opening boxes, hanging clothes, and tagging items. Two others would be sorting the store room and moving things onto the floor. We had a supervisor, Angela, besides the store manager who would often come to the back to check on us and help unload boxes if it was a busy day. Her normal job was office work or walking around the store and fixing clothes on their hangers. The first couple of weeks I noticed that she would often pick on Gary for moving at a slower pace than the rest of us. At times we would not need any help, but it would seem that she came to the back to patronize him anyway. She would always complain whenever she had to work in the back opening boxes or sorting things and didn't really get along with anyone else. After a while Gary would really bad mouth Angela behind her back all the time. Gary would often complain how he had been working there longer than Angela and she had no right to be so harsh on him. I expect that Angela was wrongfully taking out stress on Gary for not moving as fast as the rest of the younger workers. One day about a month into the job it got really bad when we were really behind schedule. Angela had been in the back trying to help us pick up the pace all while patronizing Gary and complaining. Gary snapped and told Angela off and said that she needed to shut up.
Immediately after a little back and forth she left the stockroom and didn't return for the rest of my shift. After the conflict happened Gary would immediately tell Angela to shut if she would complain about him. Whenever I talked to Gary he told me he didn't want to be pushed around anymore and would not put up with her attitude. The next couple of weeks were tense as both those two got into it a couple of more times and the store manager had to figure out how to handle them. After that the store manager decided to schedule someone other than Angela to go back to the stock room to help when we were busy. My other coworkers who worked in the stockroom, myself included, acted awkward around Angela and Gary anytime after that because of the incident.
Looking back on the situation it could probably have been avoided if my coworkers or I had intervened before it reached the breaking point. I didn't really want to get involved because it was my first month and I didn't feel comfortable trying to tell someone to change their behavior. Also, in retrospect anyone of us could have talked to Angela and pointed out that she was being unnecessarily harsh on Gary. Anyone of us also could have talked to the store manager about the tension the two would cause in the stockroom and the manager could have stepped in sooner. Neither one of them lost their job because of this incident, but I am unsure how they are both doing now since I haven't worked that job since.
You have captured the sort of conflict that we want to consider in class. One part of the story wasn't clear to me. Did Gary have a supervisor other than the store manager? And by any chance was Angela Gary's supervisor?
ReplyDeleteIn the last paragraph you talked about that any of the rest of you might have talked with Angela. What about, instead, bringing the issue to the attention of the story manager?
Now the part of the story that I didn't quite get is wether any of this work was all day or if there were other task that the permanent workers did - either in the stockroom or elsewhere in the store. In other words, was Gary's interactions with Angela contained to what you saw, or might they have other exchanges elsewhere?
There is a tendency to want a bad incident to pass and how it was isolated and not recur. This hope blocks being proactive about it. When the incident does recur then some resolution is clearly needed. As a summer employee only, it probably wasn't your responsibility to solve the problem, but maybe it was your responsibility to bring it to the attention of a person in authority who could solve the problem.
I Angela and Gary had some ongoing animosity, that sounds to me a matter for the Store Manager. I don't know how he might have resolved it, but since it seemed to adversely impacting others doing there work, he did need to address it. Neglecting it, things might have gotten worse.
I usually only reported to Angela when I would be cashiering to see which lane. She was also the person I would ask for work to do if I didn;t need to be cashiering because it was slow. However, in the mornings when I worked truck I never really saw her till an hour or two after I had came into work. Also, Gary came in around thirty minutes earlier than the rest of the stockroom with the store manager to prepare for the day. So I don't think Gary reported to Angela, but she was in charge of helping in the back when we were slow. Now that you mention it bringing the conflict to the attention of the store manager would be a better solution. I think most of us were hesitant to do that, however to not be seen as a tattle tale.
DeleteI feel bad for Gary. It seems unfair to expect a guy in his fifties to be able to keep up with college age kids when it comes to manual labor. Also, the guy had obviously been there for a while, it would have been nice to show him some respect. Good for him for sticking up for himself, but I'm surprised there wasn't back lash for him telling his boss to shut up, even if it was warranted.
ReplyDeleteI liked the store manager's solution of just keeping the two away from each other. If there's one thing that I've learned from being in groups and working different jobs, it's that you won't like everyone you work with. Often times it just makes the matter worse and loses time when you try to force a positive relationship. It's also nice to see that he didn't have to fire or punish either of them. It sounds like the store supervisor saw that they were both in the wrong.