Imagine working for a company for a long time, being the senior employee, and knowing that your track record is better than anyone else’s.

What would you do if you kept applying to be the manager, but the company always chose someone else?

Would you stay in your position, or would you look for work elsewhere?

In this story, one person who works at a wedding store is in this position, and she puts up with a lot before she finally decides to see what other companies are hiring.

Let’s see how the story plays out.

I’m free! I’m out!

The rant part:

I’ve been employed at Generic Wedding Store for exactly two years today. During this time, I have averaged 20 hours a week, even in down times, and an average record of 100% to 150% productive–meaning, I make good use of my time and sew faster than company average.

Manager 1 hired me and quit about a year later. She was sweet (too easy on us), and corporate stomped all over her.

I applied for the position, but they gave it to Manager 2, who formerly worked in customer service.

But Manager 2 wasn’t a horrible boss or anything.

She was OK–she didn’t know much about sewing, but she learned quickly.

The only issue was that trainers and higher-ups kept pushing their own agendas, trying to force us to do things that weren’t company standard, and she didn’t know any better.

(For example. We pinned for about 2 months using safety pins only. Big no-no, but “training manager can’t be wrong about this !1!”)

Manager 2 quit, because corporate was stomping all over her too and lied to her about time off.

I applied for the job again and got passed over–again.

Manager 3 sounds like a nightmare.

This time, they hired Manager 3, who has worked for this location before (about 5 years ago) and “oh, there won’t be any problem training her because she knows what she’s doing.”

Two weeks in, it’s suddenly nonstop “Mejoyh2006, you’re doing this wrong, you’re doing that wrong.” Pinning wrong, sewing wrong–kid you not, Manager 3 actually chewed me out for having a higher work/time ratio than she did (meaning I sew faster than her).

THEN she went through all the work I’d done and pulled out things I’d missed.

For example. I had skipped serging three inches on a dress we’d taken up, where I had to open the side seam. It was the bottom three inches on a floor length dress. (Took longer to change the serger thread than it did to do the rest of the hem.)

So, she’s kind of fired without actually getting fired.

About a week later, our hours got cut. Guess who dropped from 20 hours a week to 4, then 0? Yep. Me.

I do have seniority. I’m the employee who’s been there the longest… continuously. The others are all way slower, and twice my age.

Manager 3’s best friend, Meryl Streep, is the one chiefly responsible for Manager 2’s issues and my current predicament.

So. I was sick of the nonsense, and the 0 hours kind of felt like a corporate version of The Finger.

Time to find a better job!

My solution was to look elsewhere for a job.

The GLORY BE

I started at the typical fast food places around town, then got a wild hair and decided, “I may as well–there’s a factory 20 min away that produces shoes, and I’ve heard good things about it.

I’m a seamstress by trade, and have the experience and the references to back it up.”

So I head over there and fill out a paper application, drop it off, and walk out the door with plans to call them back the following week and check in–see if they’re hiring yet/still…

She didn’t have to wait very long at all!

Except they called me 30 minutes later.

The magic words “15+ years sewing experience, 10+ on machine,” got me hired. On the spot. No reference check, no trick questions, just a sample for a drug test and an appointment for a prelim physical.

40 hours a week, BONUSES based on how much I can turn out in a shift (Woo! Far cry from being chewed out like Manager 3), 2 WEEKS OFF FOR CHRISTMAS AND 2 WEEKS FOR SUMMER VACATION, and BENEFITS!

This sounds like a much better job in every way possible.

Best of all: no customer interaction! I’m dealing with sewing machines, raw materials, and coworkers ONLY!

Once the sample comes back negative, which it will, I get a definite start date–as early as next Monday or Tuesday.

This is a good day.

That worked out really, really well! Sometimes a bad manager is just what an employee needs to take the leap to a much better job!

Let’s see what Reddit thought of this story.

Here’s a recommendation to not even tell them she’s quitting.

This person thinks they know what wedding store she’s talking about.

Another person wishes her luck!

It wouldn’t hurt to call corporate, but it may not help.

When your hard work isn’t appreciated, find a new job.

If you liked this post, check out this story about an employee who got revenge on a co-worker who kept grading their work suspiciously low.