Career Coach Coworkers creating Tension and Toxicity in the workplace.

Anonymous

September 22,2023 at 1:27PM UTC

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Career Coach Coworkers creating Tension and Toxicity in the workplace. The Career Coach team is made up of all women. The power trips are so strong that it is making me not want to come to work. Our manager and coordinator both males pretend like this doesn't exist. The job is not difficult and the work life balance / flexibility is unmatched. At this point, I don't want to leave but I'm tired of the pettiness and mess. Can anyone relate to this? Any advice?

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Amanda SalamaSeptember 22,2023 at 6:02PM UTC
document everythin
AnonymousSeptember 22,2023 at 6:05PM UTC
I work for a private owned business retail store.
Yes I work with all women and the owner of our company is a male.
I love my job, but check this situation out below.
I recently had a challenging experience with the Assistant manager. So one of my coworkers asked if I could cover her shift one day I said sure no problem.
The employee decided to go to the assistant manager and telling her she needed the day off.
The manager took the shift. I asked or let her know that the coworker was giving me the hours. The assistant manager basically took the hours, not to mention she works way more hours than I do I’m part time only and I explained the situation to her and she got kinda snippy in a text message saying if I need more hours maybe I should go look for a full time job!!! WTH!!!
I was polite and said, well there must be a misunderstanding or something to that effect, I said I thought we were team players and we help one another out. thought, once again she basically told me go find a new job, and after that, the text message got worse from her.
Once again I was very polite considerate left it with a thank you have a good weekend and she sent a nasty message back to me now they’ve cut my hours to two days a week when I used to work 4 to 5.
I have no clue what to do. I can’t go to the owner it seems to be a no win situation it like bias situation very frustrating .
AnonymousSeptember 24,2023 at 6:14PM UTC
This is common in retail. Wait a week or two to see if it blows over. If it does not, see if you can transfer to another team, or location. If that doesn't work, look for another job, either as a second job, or just change jobs. Part time in retail is horrible. Your hours can fluctuate from something like 8 hours a week to 30 hours a week depending on "need."
Do what you need to do to take care of yourself.
AnonymousSeptember 22,2023 at 6:26PM UTC
Wow! This is very unfortunate. Power trip amongst coaches is counter intuitive! I don't know the whole story so difficult to answer your question entirely. But is it possible for you to bring this up with your HR team (even if it is anonymously) or if possible have an open discussion about it with your manager and HR head? If it is causing stress and affecting the mental well being of employees it definitely needs to be addressed and dealt with.
In the meanwhile, for your own sanity, (and if your job does not require you to), is it possible for you to reduce your interaction with the women in question and just focus on your work?
Another way I have dealt with toxic people in the past (Since there is no guarantee that even if you were to leave, your next job will not have toxic ppl) is to take a deep breath in and tell myself that 'this is not mine' and then breathe out and let go of the tension. Remind yourself why you are choosing to work there and focus on the good things keeping you in this job. Also, remember to check in with yourself and ask if it is worth it.