Imagine working as a manager at a retail store, and you’re in charge of a specific department. You have your preferred way of doing things, but you’re okay with helping out in other areas when needed.

Okay, that said, what would you do if another manager who is your equal and not your boss started bossing you around and giving you orders and tasks to do as if she were your boss? Would you do what she said, ignore her, or escalate the situation to your actual boss?

In this story, one manager is in this exact situation, and she went to talk to her supervisor about her. Her supervisor seems to be on her side, but the problem is that the supervisor is currently on leave and won’t be back for a while. Now, the manager is left trying to figure out how to deal with her annoying coworker in the meantime.

Let’s read the whole story.

WIBTA for not waiting for my supervisor to come back and approaching my comanager myself to tell her to treat me as an equal?

I’m a manager, mid tier. I started a few months ago.

My comanager N seems to be having some issues with sharing our departments, and I’m getting a little annoyed by it.

Here’s an example.

There have been a few times where I just came in and started to get ready for my day, check emails, prep, and I announced I was here.

My comanager N said they needed help with making the store look better, and gave me a section to work on.

As I was finishing my prep, she kept asking my location, it had only been a few minutes.

When I went out, the area wasn’t even bad.

She’s not OP’s boss.

Like I absolutely don’t mind stepping in to assist, but when she delegates me over the walkie publicly it also confuses our team.

They question why N is giving me orders if I’m a manager and on the spot I said as managers sometimes we need to jump in and support the team.

But clearly it’s obvious and confusing.

OP doesn’t like her attitude.

Example; I came in, announced my presence and began prep and she told me to clean up an area.

I did help but apparently it wasn’t fast enough (my area given to me was a disaster) and she fricking called over the walkie and was like “Op, are you okay”

I told her yeah its just that this area is especially bad.

But she asked it with some kind of attitude like why is this taking you so long kind of attitude.

OP has a system that works.

I run the beauty area, and wanted to organize by using small boxes, common in cosmetics.

I made a box of boxes, it was tossed. I made another one that said do not toss and it was tossed.

I vented to N in general about how disrespectful it was to do that, it was in a shelf that I cleared out and not in the way at all, it was neat and organized and there was no communication that it was a problem.

She tried to say that it was a shared space and maybe it was in the way.

The other manager is wrong.

And I told her it’s impossible, the space is clear, and the box is the same as the boxes we use for shipments so its made to fit.

Anyway, turns out she was tossing my boxes and didn’t own up to it. And then told me rubber bands are company policy. Which is really specific and sus.

I verified with my supervisor that it isn’t true, and she ended up getting into a debate with N about boxes and letting me to try things in my department.

Turns out she came from the beauty area and hates using boxes to organize. She prefers rubber bands.

The supervisor’s idea sounds like a good one.

That’s fine, but use them with YOUR team, not mine..

I dont go into her department and start changing things.

My supervisor told me we would have a pow wow and I would have my own departments to run alone and she can do her thing.

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But the supervisor can’t do much when she’s not there.

My supervisor is on leave now and N is frequently telling me to do things like she is my supervisor.

I want to talk to her and tell her we are on equal tiers, and that she wouldn’t delegate to another manager.

Why I might be TA: I should probably wait for my supervisor to mediate and inform everyone what departments are mine, and my word is law. But I am getting frustrated with being delegated to by N publicly, rather than privately.

Yikes! What a horrible manager! Maybe if OP stopped taking orders from N, N would have no choice but to stop giving orders. They’re equals. N is not OP’s boss.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about an employee who figured out how to stop his manager from constantly stealing his phone charger.

Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.

This is good advice.

Here’s another suggestion.

The reason her comanager thinks she can boss her around is that she’s letting her boss her around. When she says jump, OP jumps. She needs to stop.

I like the suggestion of delegating the task to someone else or asking the manager if she wants help delegating the task. Either way, she needs to make it clear that they are equals who can maybe help each other out, but it’s not a boss and employee situation.

If she wanted to give her a taste of her own medicine, she could try bossing her around and see how she likes it. When she most likely refuses to comply, she can explain that she thought that was how it worked since she’s constantly telling her what to do. It’s only fair if they both boss each other around.

I hope the supervisor returns soon. They really need someone in a position of authority to clarify the rules.