I know some people joke about being vertically challenged, but as someone who isn’t all that tall myself, there are definitely drawbacks to being on the shorter side. It can be really hard, if not impossible to reach things that are easy for other people to reach. What makes it even worse is that tall people will never understand how frustrating this is.

In this story, one short, young woman is working at a retail store, and her coworker, who acts like her supervisor, wants her to reach something in the back that’s up on a high shelf. She really tries, but she really can’t do it.

Now, her coworker is giving her a hard time about it, and she’s wondering if she actually did mess up somehow.

Keep reading for all the details.

AITA for asking my supervisor to retrieve items she asked me to get?

I’ve (F18) just started a new job at a clothing store. This post is about my colleague, who is on the same pay grade as me, let’s call her April (F20).

She’s been there much longer than me and two days a week, we work together just her and I.

I call her my supervisor because she tells me what to do and teaches me the ropes when our manager isn’t there, even though we’re on the same pay grade.

There’s not a problem with that, it’s actually really nice of her

She had trouble completing a task.

There’s just one problem.

Today, she asked me to retrieve some items from the back to put on the floor. Some of the items were on the top hangers, so I had to get a ladder to retrieve them.

Even once on the top of the ladder, I still couldn’t reach. I managed to claw and get 2 tops off the hangers, but couldn’t retrieve the hangers and it took me 45 minutes to get the two items.

The ladder was as close as it would go too.

Being short has it’s disadvantages.

I’m 5’3 and April is about 5’9. She could easily retrieve the items. There’s about 60 we needed to get.

Whilst I was doing that, she was helping women out in the change rooms, walking the floor, processing sales etc etc.

After 45mins, I gave up on the top shelf items, and April gave me a bit of a dressing down about my lack of progress and about how two items had been stolen while I was back there.

Honestly I don’t see how that’s my fault considering she sent me out the back (which has a door that automatically closes), and she was the one working on the floor.

She provides more context about the task.

The reason I didn’t grab other items from lower hangers first is because the ladder is insanely heavy and I only wanted to move it once. Then when I was done, I could put it away and not have to get it back out again.

It also blocks all the lower hangers so I’d have to put the ladder away before retrieving anything else.

I asked for her help with the top shelf items cos I just physically couldn’t reach.

April sounds really annoying.

She gave me an exaggerated sigh and told me “it’s just not good enough”. Then she went and got them for me

It’s worth noting we’ve had this task to do when my manager and I were on shift, and my manager who is also quite tall (≈5’10) got the items and told me to stay on the floor cos she knew I wouldn’t be able to reach.

AITA?

Considering April isn’t really her supervisor, she shouldn’t feel obligated to do what she says. Instead, she needs to learn to speak up for herself right away. If she knows she can’t reach, she should say that before wasting time tying and failing to do a task she’s not tall enough to do.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about an employee who rejects a low contract offer and leaves the company instead.

Let’s see what Reddit has to say.

This person thinks she should’ve handled the task differently.

Here’s a similar comment.

Everyone seems to be saying the same thing.

This person thinks they both messed up.

Her coworker probably isn’t annoyed that she couldn’t do the task. She’s probably annoyed that she wasted so much time trying to do a task she couldn’t do. She should’ve asked for help sooner.

Blaming her for a thief was out of line though. That was clearly not her fault.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about an employee who wasn’t keen on contributing more to a coworker’s gift than originally planned.