It doesn’t matter whether you’re a social butterfly or more of an introvert, as hard as you might try, there’s no way that you’re going to get on with everyone. Because people are people, and every person is different – we all have our own likes and dislikes, passions and pet peeves, and that is the case when it comes to people too. Sure you might be pleasant and polite around folk that aren’t your crowd, but that doesn’t mean that you’re actually going to be on the same page as them – or that they’re going to like you in return.

Recognising and accepting this is a big part of mature adult life, knowing that you can go on being yourself and others don’t have to like you for it, because plenty of folk do – and those are the people that really matter. So it was no big deal to the woman in this story who took a promotion in an easy job that she was doing before going to college. However her fellow assistant manager took a lack of acceptance for others to the next level.

Read on to find out what happened.

My coworker is OBSESSED with me

I work at one of the bottom of the barrel retail stores.

It was not my first choice of job, but with being a full time student the hours and pay were decent. It’s also a five minute drive away, and something I could do for a year until I get into a nursing program.

Very quickly after getting hired I got promoted to assistant manager.

Mary was the other assistant manager (we have two), and she really didn’t like that I got promoted so quickly, because, as she said, she’s fifty, and it took her three years, so it wasn’t fair.” Right when she said that I feared she was going to have problems with me.

For a while it seemed like that might not be the case – until it didn’t any more.

For a while I thought maybe I was wrong and it was an ‘off day’ for her. She seemed friendly at work. She joked with me.

Until one night I started getting bombarded with texts and calls from her at 11pm. She was obviously drunk and slurring her words.

She was accusing me of talking ****, trying to “one up her” “trying to replace her”. Ma’am this is a Dollar Tree. I didn’t even ask for the ASM position, I just do my job well and go home.

I’m never going to aspire to manage the store one day. I’ll be gone in a year. I blocked, ignored, left on read.

Let’s see what happened when the woman decided to bring it up with the store manager.

I told our store manager about it and he was like, “yikes yeah… she’s like that, I’ll talk to her.” That talk made things worse. This pattern repeated itself six times before I went to the district manager about it – and then when she said “we all have bad days, this job ain’t easy” I went to HR.

HR? Oh there is no person you can speak to. No email that gains replies. Some outsourced company “makes a note of it,” then you never hear anything.

The worst of it was she closed the store one night and forgot to lock up. She was nearly fired, and she had the GALL to accuse me of coming to the store in the MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT to unlock the door and frame her.

I live rent free in this woman’s head. I was three hours away CAMPING. It caused the company to launch an investigation, and she ended up only getting a slap on the wrist because no customer stole anything the morning it was unlocked.

Finally, this woman has decided to treat Mary differently.

So I decided I’m just going to fully ignore her. No hellos or goodbyes. Respectful professional communication only, and I will keep her number blocked.

She’s currently on PTO. And yet she came in tonight blitzed out of her mind, stumbling, mumbling, glaring at me. Just the dirtiest most angry glare I’ve ever seen a human produce. I ignored it and acted friendly and normal and this only seemed to enrage her more.

About thirty minutes later I got a call from the store manager saying that she just UNLOADED on him. Saying that I get special treatment and it isn’t fair, I act like I’m running the store while she’s gone (I mean I am..? It’s my role???)

She says she took “lots of revealing photos” of me breaking rules when she came in tonight, and this is finally going to get me fired.

But this employee is confident that this isn’t going to hurt anyone but Mary.

Well, I didn’t break a single rule. I thoroughly did inventory (which is her job) tonight, because it’s going to be due before she gets back from PTO and we will all get in trouble if we don’t get it finished.

I don’t go on my phone. I don’t come into work high. I study on my breaks. I’m never late. I rarely call out. I know how to perform all the actions at my job and I’m the only person who consistently does them. Not a single employee at my job has voiced a complaint about me… except her.

The district manager has had to send out multiple messages asking people to stop contacting her with complaints. It’s daily for her. I don’t know why they just haven’t fired my coworker.

Anyhow, I’ll be out of there in a few more months if I can manage it. I almost caved and sent her a message but I’m trying to stay strong.

Wow. This woman is right – Mary truly is obsessed with her.

It sucks that they can’t just be a team, that despite the fact that this isn’t the woman’s forever job, Mary is so threatened by her that she comes in on her day off to try to catch her out.

Really though, it sounds like Mary has some problems – and alcohol is only one of them.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a woman whose HR department advised her to quit if she was that unhappy, so she did and found herself in a role reversal years later.

Let’s see what the Reddit community made of this.

This person thought that the employee was handling the difficult situation well.

While others explained exactly why the managers weren’t coming down hard on Mary.

Meanwhile, this Redditor was concerned about the employee’s safety.

It’s true, who knows where Mary will stop when it comes to trying to get her revenge on her fellow assistant manager, who she seemingly is convinced is out to get her? Because the thing that is really troubling about Mary’s behaviour is the way that she behaves on her time off. Getting drunk and then being verbally abusive to the other assistant manager is absolutely not appropriate behaviour, and it is not something that the management or HR should be condoning at all.

Sure, they know that they’ll need Mary in the long term, long after the current other assistant manager is gone. But do they really need the risk of a seemingly unhinged assistant manager, whose behaviour – even within the store – is getting more and more erratic? Because if Mary, in the end, did something horrible to her fellow employee, the company could even be liable, since they knew about the issue and did nothing to help solve it. Mary is not a good person, and they should not be tolerating this.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about an employee who works fast and helps her coworkers, but is met with disapproval from her supervisor because of this practice