Could I lose the opportunity of a lifetime because of 1 person – my employer?

[Agrajag]

The comes a time, in nearly every relationship, where it seems "honeymoon phase is over." Has anyone here had the feeling that the job they loved from the beginning has started to turn on them, and that they have nothing to do with it. Monday's (My Friday) are the easiest day of my work day in the bakery – we (my boss and I) spend most of the day doing extra cleaning from that week that can't be done while the store is in operation. We're usually very relaxed but speed through everything very efficiently. I'll start a typical day at 5:30am, have a lunch 30-minute paid lunch break around 10:30am or so, and go home at 2:00pm (1:30pm if granted by the boss, or if the lunch break is not taken). On a Monday, I don't tend to take the lunch-break at all and just go home when everything is finished at 1:00pm or 1:30pm, happily knowing I was being paid until 2 o'clock. My Friday of the last week was unusually difficult for me. Maybe it was because I was working the 6th day of my work week to cover someone's shift, making it the Tuesday. The boss was being unusually cranky and irritating. I put up with a lot from the bosses and they know that I am a very, very strong person – they are very aware of what I go through. I have always felt that our crew is of a true world-elite. They are the best teachers I could ask for but I don't know what to do when they start making it harder for me to do my own job. "I could have built an atom bomb in less time than it takes you to ______" and "I could have done ______ faster with my feet" are phrases I commonly hear. Mind you, he's also promised to give me tutorials after work when it starts getting a little slower around the bakery. Which, is now as of the last week. But I'm not sure I want to ask now that stress levels seem to be elevated. Aside from learning how to do the best of the best, and working as efficiently as possible – where do I draw this line? Sometimes I work 8 hours with no breaks and feel just fine – but there are time I don't get a chance to sit down or stop take a bite to eat and I feel like I'm going to die when I get home from work. I come in early and I leave late and I don't get reimbursed for the extra effort. We leave when the task is finished, not when we're off the time card. I, of course, can never contest the tasks being asked of me – who am I to say what I feel I can an cannot get done in 8 hours. (Why, he always said he could do it in 3. Idiot.)

[Relationship Coach]

Well you can always quit...or use this time as an education period. By this I mean in life, you are going to be forced to get along with difficult people, people who like to wield their power over you like a sword. Learn to take their unwarranted remarks with a grain of salt and just realize how lucky you are to be you, not them! They must have a really crappy life if they have to take out their frustrations on you. Maybe something went wrong in their day unrelated to you or the work place. Maybe he has personal issues or bad habits that you are unaware of, heck who knows maybe a bird crapped on him as he was walking down the street.

 

The bottom line is learning to deal with difficult people is an art form and sooner or later you'll rise above it or move on to a better job. There are many lessons to learn here in this real life world, the word Boss is a position, not a person so respect the position and not the person in this instance. You are learning a trade, do the best that you can and keep pushing to learn more, you're an apprentice, that's what good apprentices do. And the most important thing to learn here is how you will and will not treat your employees someday! Hang in there!

 

RC