» Bad Management

Worst job I've ever had
Sorry if this is a bit rambling and long.

I used to run a charity shop and had an awful district manager, I'll call her Mary

I worked for a different charity a few doors down, I was great at that job.
I was talking to Mary and she persuaded me to go and work for her. Her shop had no volunteers, was taking no money and she just wanted it running properly and making a profit. She said she didn't really want anything to do with it. I told her how I wanted to run the one I worked in, basically Mary Queen of Charity Shops stole my ideas. If I went working for her I could do it how i liked and she'd leave me alone. It sounded too good to be true but I belived her.

So I got the job.

A woman I would be working with, Sue, started a couple of weeks before me and left after one week.
Another woman, Anne, started on the same day as me. She got the job because they had shredded all the details of people that they had interviewed and Anne had phoned up to ask why she didn't get the job, so Mary gave it to her.
Anne could not do the job and got sacked after a month.

Something didn't seem right and after rummaging through paperwork in the office I discovered I was the 9th or 10th person to have had this job in two years

I was left running a shop on my own for the next three months. Mary said she would come as often as possible to help me and give me a day off. I think I saw her once every two weeks because her own shop was too busy. When she did come it was awful. Volunteers I had gained would change their days if they knew she was coming in. Some staff met Mary once and were never seen again.

If I had good takings one week Mary would be lovely on the phone saying well done and that I was ace, turned the shop around, she couldn't belive she was so lucky to have me. When she turned up in the shop she would change. The stock was crap, it looks shit. I need to get more good stuff in. She would then chuck half of the stock in the bin so my shop was almost empty. It was so disheartening.
If my takings dropped she would turn up, say she couldn't understand why the takings were bad and that the shop looked great, the stock was amazing etc.

Annes job was now being advertised but the number of applications was very low, but one woman, Jane, seemed ok, a good laugh and generally lovely person. She started and within a few weeks it was obvious she was drinking on the job. It took Mary six months to get rid of her. Why it took her that long I don't know. Judging by her past history she had no problem firing anybody. I think half of the people that had worked there before me had been fired.

I had had enough at this point and was looking for another job. It was depressing. I had lost all enthusiasm. Mary was getting worse and made me get rid of one lad that was on a scheme because he couldn't work the hours he was supposed to due visiting his dad who might die in hospital. I wanted to just change them but she wouldn't listen to me.

She would turn up without telling me she was coming to 'help' me with two people from the shop that she ran personally and then complain that I had too many staff in that day. Although I told her there were three more people in the building than usual every time she did this it didn't stop her.

Another time she just decided that the bins were full. One of the two was actually still empty. These were both filled to the top with unsaleable crap people had donated and emptied three times a week. She sent all the rubbish that day to the top floor. I then had to run up and down three flights of stairs to get rid of it. As the bins were constantly full it took me three weeks to get rid of it all.

Mary wouldn't do paper work of any sort. The first week I was there I told her we needed a new first aid box. I asked her again, and again. It was flagged up by the auditor twice while I was there. Still no complete first aid box. I assume they probably still don't have one now.



After Jane came Beth. She was amazing. Between us we were a formidable force. The shop was one of the highest taking charity shops in the town, 2'nd or third place I reckon. It was like a boutique.
Everything was good for about 6 months. Mary stopped being weird. We were all having a good time and getting along. I was enjoying myself again in the only job I have ever loved. We decided Mary was a changed woman.

It wasn't to last.

Mary turned up and I didn't feel well. Banging headache, tired etc. I had had half a day off in the whole year I had been there. Mary accused me of being hungover. She was horrible that day. Anything she could find that wasn't quite right she had a go about, she complained about anything and everything. She had me running up and down stairs with stuff even though she knew I didn't feel well and was going to go home at lunch.


That weekend I decided that Mary wouldn't change and I didn't want to put up with her weirdness anymore. I wrote my resignation and popped it in my bag.
Mary come to the shop on Monday telling me she had sent me a letter that I never recieved, not surprising as she is so incompetent. I said I hadn't but I had one for her.

My job was advertised within 48 hours. As I worked my notice, the head of the retail division and head of HR come from head office to try persuade me not to leave. I told them I was leaving because of Mary, it must have been relayed to her as Mary asked me not to leave and that as she had another shop to look after I wouldn't see her often any more.

The shop she took over took a decent amount of money. When she was put in charge the manager resigned, the takings plummeted and the volunteers left. How Mary manages to keep her job I do not know.

I miss the job, Beth and the volunteers. It was poorly paid but bizarre and so much fun that the pay didn't matter. It was a shame the boss was a twat.
(Tue 15th Jun 2010, 22:02, More)

» Shit Stories: Part Number Two

Shit Shop
A few years ago i started a new job as assistant manager of a charity shop.
After a few days of working there a scruffy old man who had shit himself came into the shop looking for a clean pair of pants. He looked at the trousers and left (no doubt the pants i was selling were too expensive).
During his brief visit the shit in his pants had poured from his trouser legs and covered my carpet from the door to the back of the shop.
The smell was utterly vile. I was nearly sick, customers were nearly sick and the vounteer manning the till ran upstairs to get away from the smell.
I had to close and we cleaned up.
When the floor was back to normal and the shop smelling freh, we reopened.
Unfortunatly for us Mr Shitty Pants had dumped a load on the street outside and customers just brought it all in on their shoes. Once again we had to shut and clean the carpet.
We stayed shut for the rest of the afternoon.

About a year later we had a refit. The shop looked great. The old carpet had been replaced with a new linoleum type flooring and on our first day of reopening we joked that it would be much easier to clean up diarrhoea off that than carpet.

We shouln't have tempted fate.

Later that same day a woman who it turned out had shit herself had come in the shop and bought a new clean skirt.
The woman managed to walk passed the changing room and decided to get changed in my office.
She left a pile of crap for me to clean up on the only bit of carpet left downstairs.
After heaving a few times while cleaning up and a couple of fags in the back street the woman came back in and asked the volunteer on the till if she had left her shopping in the shop!

Although it may sound like it does, this sort of thing doesn't happen very often.
(Thu 27th Mar 2008, 20:26, More)