Another day with Susan — and honestly, I almost quit. The only thing that saved the shift was that the retail manager was on the floor and actually paying attention.
Susan has been there about five years. She is primarily a stocker. She is adequate at cash, but she has poor communication skills, rarely greets guests warmly, and moves around the store as if every step is painful. She is hard of hearing and relies heavily on lip‑reading. I have compassion for her physical challenges, but none of that makes her supervisor material. She is not a leader, not a trainer, and not someone who should be directing anyone else’s workflow. They keep her because she isn’t a threat to management and she can stock shelves. That’s it.
Yet she continues trying to control me.
Today, I was already moving toward the cash stand for a guest when Susan marched toward me and pointed at the register as if giving me an order. I was already on my way. That finger‑pointing was disrespectful. It was unnecessary. And it was not her place.
I turned to her and said, “Stop ordering me around. You are not the boss. I don’t like how you try to direct me on this floor.”
And that is the truth: I work the floor more effectively than she does, and I believe that is exactly why she tries to dominate me. This is not about helping. It is not about coaching. It is not about guest service. It is about control — dominance games, power plays, and trying to interrupt my workflow so she can feel superior.
These are repeated, unwanted behaviors. That is the definition of harassment.
She kept it up until the retail manager stepped in and told her to stop. Only then could I work independently, without her hovering, pointing, and monitoring my every move like she owns the place.
This is a pattern with these women: they want to be in charge of me, not in charge of their own responsibilities. They want the ego trip of “I’ve been here longer, so I get to tell you what to do.” It poisons the atmosphere for guests and for me.
After I confronted her, she ran to the back room. I went back there too, knocked, and the retail manager stepped out. I told her plainly:
“If Susan is going to spend the entire shift ordering me around, I don’t need to be here. If I cannot work independently — as the job requires — without her monitoring me like she’s my supervisor, then I don’t need this job.”
The manager said, “You don’t want to be coached.”
I said, “Pointing fingers and ordering me around is not coaching. It’s dominance. If I need help, I ask for it. I don’t need a peer trying to control my performance.”
The manager said she would address it. And she did. She redirected Susan to stocking, and suddenly all the finger‑pointing and micromanaging stopped. Completely. That tells me everything I need to know.
Susan has extremely poor guest‑service skills. She doesn’t greet people properly. She hollers “welcome in” from across the room. She barely moves around the store. She has admitted she is in constant pain. Again — compassion for her condition, yes. But that does not give her the right to control my job performance.
I know what is expected on each shift. I’ve been here since February 2025. I greet guests, walk the floor, watch for shoplifting, CASH out people, do side work as needed or mainly as is given to me to work at like folding, putting hangers and hanging up things, putting die tags, and stay alert with the directive of HEADS UP LOOKING AROUND. I do not watch my peers to redirect them or to direct them in their job responsibilities, only for shoplifting, and Susan was caught in doing that the last shift I worked, which I reported to the manager. That is the job. What I do not need is a peer monitoring me like she’s my supervisor, looking for something to correct, redirect, or control.
These behaviors are toxic. They are unnecessary. And they take the focus off the guests — which is the entire point of our job.
If these employees would focus on guest service instead of focusing on me, the entire store would run better.
I will add here after Susan pointed her finger toward the cash stand for me to service a guest, and I was already on my way up there because I actively monitor that position all through my shift, as well as all other positions following directives of watching for shoplifters, greeting guests, engaging with guests, I decided to just stand at the cash stand and see what Susan would say. she came up there immediately upon seeing me standing there, ignoring all the other people in the store, focusing all her energy upon me again, and said: "we are not supposed to linger at the cash stand." (as if I don't already know that I had been walking the entire floor for my entire shift). I said, do you want me in the back of the store at this point instead. I just wanted to demonstrate to her how silly her directives were, but she is not intelligent enough to know the why do what I was doing, so I just gave up on that one! I see her lingering around up there a lot of the shifts I have worked with her, and I never try to "correct her," because I am not in charge of her, and I busy myself trying to service guests instead of trying to control my peers.
No doubt in my mind, Susan would love for me to quit! And is part of the reason for her toxic behaviors, they do not add service to guests, but poison the store with negativity instead.
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