A new manager can bring lots of change, but not all is good.

So, what would you do if your manager regularly treated you harshly and made work feel increasingly uncomfortable, and not just for you, but for your coworkers, too? Would you keep dealing with the problems quietly? Or would you go over their head?

In the following story, one restaurant employee chooses the latter, and it causes even more problems. Here’s what happened.

AITA for going above my manager to the owner (small company) with a request?

I (29f) work at a small food-service business. I have been at this job for several years, and I have worked in the service industry since I was 16 years old.

Most of the people who work here are family and friends. It’s usually a great place to work, and for a while, it was the best job I ever had.

The owner, Melanie (45f), appointed her sister, Gia (34f), as the manager about eight months ago because Melanie wanted to step away from day-to-day duties to focus on expanding the business. Two months ago, a second restaurant was opened.

Gia always has something negative to say.

Gia has never been friendly toward me. She is often rude and condescending when she speaks to me. She finds fault in everything I do. She micromanages me and is hypercritical of my work.

Every day that we work together, she says something to or about me that reflects negatively on my work or person. She routinely comments on my appearance and affect, often stating that I have *** and look miserable.

When she says mean things to me, and I don’t react, she says that I don’t care and don’t respect her enough to even pretend to care. When I do respond to her comments, she says I’m childish, attitude-y, and accuses me of throwing a tantrum.

Things are so awkward that her other coworkers get uncomfortable.

Melanie still does the scheduling and often will schedule me for ten or twelve-hour shifts.

Gia routinely ignores my stop time and makes me continue working for hours past my scheduled leave. She also will often switch me from a serving shift to a hosting/bussing shift, which hurts my earning potential.

She belittles me in front of customers and employees. This has made several of my co-workers uncomfortable, and they’ve stated as much. She also routinely says unkind things about me to my co-workers in private, and, of course, they have brought these comments to me to let me know what is being said.

Fed up, she went to Melanie.

Overall, she’s taken a job I love and turned the environment into a hostile workplace. I dread having to work with her. I’ve tried to talk to Melanie about this, but she said I need to be patient with Gia because she’s still learning how to be a manager.

With Gia constantly messing with my schedule and affecting my earnings, I finally went to Melanie to request a transfer to the other restaurant.

Melanie denied my request because the other restaurant is fully staffed, and she needs me at the location I’ve always worked at.

Now, things are even worse.

When Gia found out about my request, she went berserk and accused me of going behind her back to start drama and to try to get my way. She said I’m a selfish ******* who only cares about myself and making money, and that I don’t care about the rest of the team.

Things have gone from bad to worse since then, and it is an absolutely miserable environment to work in, not just for me, but also for my co-workers, who have to deal with Gia constantly complaining about me and the tension it causes.

Several of them think I’m the ******* for going to Melanie instead of just dealing with Gia.

AITA?

Wow! That woman sounds very difficult to handle.

Let’s check out what the folks over at Reddit would do in this situation.

According to this reader, she should just leave.

For this person, she had no other choice.

This reader thinks the owner is just as bad as Gia.

Here’s someone who suggests writing a letter.

She needs to do something because this whole situation is so unfair to everyone.

If you liked that story, check out this post about a group of employees who got together and why working from home was a good financial decision.