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It’s always funny how getting a new manager can completely change a workplace.
That’s exactly what this café employee discovered after her store finally hired a new assistant manager.
Within a few days, the woman had made enough small changes to frustrate just about the entire staff.
But when she started covering the café with labels reminding employees of their jobs, the whole thing started to feel a little over the top.
That’s when this employee decided to make a label of her own, thinking everyone would get a laugh out of it. The only problem was that it didn’t hit as intended.
Read on to see what happened when the manager saw the label.
AITA for making my new manager feel attacked over a label I made?
I work at a small cafe downtown where I live. I’ve been there for almost two years now, and we’ve been cruising without a manager/assistant manager for a few months since the last one took another job.
At the beginning of this week, we got a new assistant manager, and it’s been a rough few days because of it.
On day one of this person working at our cafe, she rearranged our bar, restocked things like cups and lids, etc. in different, seemingly random locations. She’s marked up our task lists and changed which roles are responsible for which tasks at any given time during the day.
It seems like every day is something new with the manager.
For example, she changed the stock closer from being responsible for cleaning the front drains later in the evening to our morning bar person (me most days). So, at some point during my morning shift, I now have to get on my hands and knees to clean out the drain under the bar in between making drinks, which just seems like a bad idea to me.
Also, in the three days she’s been here, she’s picked out some sort of issue she has with every one of my coworkers and has been very rude to them about what she wants them to do about it.
I’ll use what she confronted me about as an example.
It didn’t help that the manager went behind her back and badmouthed her to coworkers.
Usually, in the early mornings, we aren’t very busy. There are a few regulars who come in early that I’ll chat with while I make their drink, and if they’re having a slow morning, I’ll continue the conversation while I wait for another order to come my way.
She saw me talking to a regular and decided I was slacking. She walked up to me and asked if I needed help reading the task list she made.
She’s since talked with my coworkers about how I don’t do my job and am lazy, somehow thinking I wouldn’t hear about it from them.
When she saw all the labels, she decided to create one of her own.
Then, on Wednesday, I came in to see that the whole cafe had been inundated with Post-it notes and label-maker labels on the registers, my drink order screen behind the bar, on the inside of the doors leading to the back room, everywhere.
They all say something along the lines of, “Don’t forget to thank the customer!” or “Smile and greet the customer as soon as they walk in!”, “Use their name and smile when calling out an order!”, etc. The usual corporate/customer service stuff.
I wasn’t really upset at her putting all of them up, but I thought it was pretty over the top and honestly kind of funny.
So this morning, I used the label maker to put one up on my order screen that says, “OBEY.”
Apparently, the lady saw it and cried.
I’ve been off for a few hours now, and one of my friends/coworkers is texting me, saying how she saw it and started to cry and complain that we all hate her and are attacking her for trying to do her job.
I wasn’t even directing the label I made at her. I just thought it was silly, and everyone might have a laugh about it.
But even though she’s been pretty abrasive during her first few days here, I feel bad for making her so upset that she was crying at work over it.
AITA?
Yikes! It sounds like the manager has a lot to learn.
Let’s see how the readers over at Reddit feel about it.
That’s true to a certain degree.
Good point.
This reader has strong feelings about these types of situations.
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about an employee who totally rearranges her schedule, only to have her boss change plans last minute.
Here’s someone who found the whole thing funny.
It’s easy to understand why the employee thought the label was funny.
However, at the same time, it’s hard not to feel bad for the new manager.
Starting a new job where everyone already knows each other can’t be easy, especially when you’re trying to make changes and it feels like the whole staff is against you.
Let’s hope they’ve since moved past these issues, because it sounds like everyone got off on the wrong foot.
