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Sometimes, speaking up at work tells you pretty quickly what kind of company you’re dealing with.

One employee learned that only a month after starting a new job at a private business.

After her manager criticized the way she handled a customer, she tried to explain herself and bring up some concerns of her own.

But instead of having a calm conversation, the manager became increasingly aggressive and sent her home early.

Then, the employee called the owner to explain what happened and ended up getting fired.

Read on for the full story.

AITA for disrespecting my manager

I started work at a private business about a month ago.

The owner of the store, Ellie, is the boss, and Mira is the manager.

All employees have had a poor history with both of them, from what I’ve heard (screaming matches, aggression from both).

She told the customer what to expect and headed back to her store.

A few days ago, I walked a customer over to the sister store (as I was trained to do) to help her find a ring she was looking for. The customer said our store’s rings were out of her budget, but she liked the style.

I took her to the store that is more affordable and has the style she likes. I complimented some of the stuff we had in the other store, let the customer know they have super cool stuff that’s more affordable in this store, and went back to my store.

Today, Mira had me go into the office to talk to her. She said what I said in the other store was extremely inappropriate and said the manager and worker in the other store were extremely offended.

Honestly, she had no idea her words offended anyone.

I was shocked and said I had no idea that’s how they felt about it. I tried to explain, but Mira stopped me and said the others’ feelings are what actually matters and I need to see outside of my own head how I affect others. I came up with a solution to try and avoid this again so I don’t accidentally step on their toes next time.

Mira accused me of being defensive and unreceptive to her coaching.

Since we were already talking, I told her I also had a few concerns.

I brought up the way Mira makes passive-aggressive remarks, how she lets her bad day affect her attitude toward us, and how employees are scared to come into work.

At this point, Mira got louder.

Mira got angry and started getting aggressive, cutting me off, and not letting me speak. She said, “Give me an example.”

I gave an example from a week ago: a customer with **** tattoos came in and was targeting one of the Black employees. Reasonably, they were very upset and weren’t talking to other customers as much when he was in there, and cried in the back when he left. Mira told them to get over it, essentially.

Before I could finish, she interrupted and said I wasn’t there, that’s not what happened, and repeated what happened, but added that it was their fault for not talking to employees and crying.

She tried to reason with Mira, but it wasn’t working.

By now, Mira was standing over me very closely, raising her voice and flailing her arms at me aggressively. So I told her that right now was a very good example, and that the aggression she exhibits creates a hostile work environment.

She said everything I was saying was gossip, laughed sarcastically, said I was disrespectful, and that I need to grow up.

I told her being able to healthily communicate is a part of growing up. She told me I had to go home early, so I left. The entire duration of the conversation, I was very mellow-toned and calm.

Unfortunately, she got the same response from the owner.

I called the owner to bring up this concern. A similar thing happened, which I expected, and then she fired me. She said if there are already so many issues in my 1 month of employment, she doesn’t see this being resolved in the future.

I told her, “Alright, I already found another job.”

We said bye.

AITA?

Geez! That sounds like a terrible place to work anyway.

Let’s take a look at what the folks over at Reddit would’ve done.

According to this person, the manager was just trying to correct her behavior.

Here’s another reader who thinks she’s in the wrong.

This person suggests posting the story somewhere else.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a researcher who complained about being excluded from a trip only to watch the university cancel the whole thing.

For this person, it was a favor.

They both could’ve done better.

For starters, the manager shouldn’t have gotten so aggressive. Generally, the more calm you can keep a conversation, the better it goes.

Yet, at the same time, it came across as if the employee was just trying to turn the situation around to take the heat off her.

In all, it sounds like the job was a bad fit for both sides, so ending the relationship was probably for the best.