Want to change things around as a new manager? Think twice before doing it!

This employee shares how he found his way around a new manager’s policy and made the manager regret it.

Check out the full story.

My manager thought hiding my quota would make me work more.

I started working at a chain supermarket in November 2019.

I worked as a cap 2 associate; stocking shelves, unloading trucks, stuff like that. My supervisor when I started was amazing.

This is where it gets a bit tricky…

She had some higher expectations than possible for me only working there for a month but generally I would get a quota say, 8 hours, and would have to get that section done in that timeframe.

Any time exceeding the 8 hour workday I had would warrant someone getting sent over from a smaller section of our department to help me wrap it up.

Skip ahead another month and she has to go on leave for about a month, my average quota gets upped to about 14-16 hours a day, and our manager gets moved to the night shift.

In comes a new manager. This guy was a nightmare.

UH OH…

I stopped getting help in the juice and water section that I worked, and ended up with a few large pallets left at night for the overnight crews because like I said, I was getting 14-16 hour quotas to fulfill in my 8 hour shift.

Once the Dm stopped helping him make the sheets and gave him control he started pulling me to the side and constantly told me to work faster, to which I would reply “I’m working as fast as I can, I’m getting double the amount of work to do in the same amount of time.”

He doesn’t listen.

Then comes the first week of February. I check my department, still working in juice in water.

Great, my specialty.

He was extremely overworked at this point!

I look over at the quota… it’s blank. I think nothing of it, get my usual amount of pallets and don’t finish them all. This goes on for about a week before he comes up to me again.

“OP, You aren’t getting your quota done on time”

“I can’t get it done on time if I can’t see the amount of time it’s supposed to take, plus it hasn’t changed in quantity since January, I’m still getting a bunch of freight to move to the floor.”

“You really need to start finishing your quota either way, overnights are complaining.”

“Can you at least send someone over from paper and chem?”(The fastest aisles, usually done in 4 hours)

“No you have to do what you can do”

He knew he had to do something about it…

Here comes the malicious compliance I still wasn’t getting my quotas printed but everyone else was.

I timed how long it took me to unload and stock a pallet, and an Lcart (what they use to haul TVs to your vehicle and such) my average time was 1:30 for each pallet, which I had to move 2,500lb of liquids by myself onto the floor using a normal jack.

Carts took me about 30 minutes.

My average night had 2 carts and 7 -8 pallets from the gm truck and the product that gets pulled in in the morning.

He did all the necessary math.

Every day we had to unload trucks for a different department that worked at the same time as us, and take an hour lunch. That takes up about 1:20 out of my 8hour workday.

We also had to pull everything unloaded from the gm truck to the floor for overnights an hour before closing. From then on I started checking out the pallets and carts, then wrote in the time that it would take me on the quota sheets.

Still around 13 hours of labor on a light night, including unloading the other truck for the other department. I stop unloading the trucks that come in, and taking half lunches and no breaks. (They required 15 minute breaks two hours before and after lunch)

I ask my friend in the aisle next to me if they can grab the coffee, tea, syrups, anything else that was technically theirs that I still had to stock for them.

He had an extraordinary plan in mind!

They had no problem with it and it took about a full pallet and a cart away from my time. I started staying late and stopped pulling gm freight for the overnight crew.

After a large check full of overtime and scolding from higher ups on skipping my breaks, my manager finally says something.

“Why aren’t you helping out with the trucks?”

“You told me to just worry about my quota”

“You need to start helping out your coworkers. And you can’t skip breaks and lunches and work late. That gets me in trouble and you.”

“Well I need to get the quota done. You told me that’s what I had to do no matter what”

This was his time to shine1

“You need to get it done and still help”

“ I can’t do that in the time I’m given.”

“I can see I’m getting nowhere just go”

Every day after that I started getting not only quotas, but 2 additional people would be unloading juice and water pallets with me, and make me go to lunch with them and on breaks.

I quit in march to move to VA but I would never work there again.

AWESOME! That sounds rewarding!

Why would the new manager not see that coming?

Let’s find out what folks on Reddit think about this one.

This user shares how they had a similar work routine once…

This user knows this is the most common occurrence!

This user knows exactly how chain stores treat their employees.

This user knows this word doesn’t fit right…

This user thinks this guy didn’t do it right.

Somebody’s trying to find their way around a horrible manager!

If you liked that story, check out this post about an oblivious CEO who tells a web developer to “act his wage”… and it results in 30% of the workforce being laid off.