Unfortunately, I have had several experiences with multiple shady, manipulative, and generally bad management. Here's some tips so others can avoid getting fucked over as much as possible:
1. Keep records of EVERYTHING. Take pictures of your schedules and keep them even after the week is over. If you don't have space on your phone, email them to yourself, send it to the cloud, etc. Keep that info, it very well may save your ass. Same goes for text messages. Do not delete anything ever. Screenshot if necessary. Also keep a log of your hours worked, especially if you were asked to work on a day you were not scheduled or asked to stay past your originally scheduled time/come in early. I have a list on my notepad app on my phone. I also have pics of ALL of my schedules, all the way back to when I was first hired at my first job.
1A. Take pictures of completed assignments/keep some kind of record. For example, if you were assigned to set up a display or clean up a specific area, take a picture after you are done in case customers mess it up later and your boss claims that you didn't do your assignment. (Extra helpful because pics taken on phones have date and timestamps) This is also useful for having evidence of safety violations or dishonest practices for later blackmail. Even if you never actually use it, it's good to have on hand, just in case.
2. Make a habit of only communicating through text, email or some form of written communication. NO PHONE CALLS. Why? There's no proof of what was said on phone calls and your manager can very easily lie about what was said. Personally, I'm HOH so that's the reason I give for communicating through text only, feel free to use that or something similar but believable as to why you only communicate through text. If, for some reason, you cannot avoid phone calls, record them. Or let the call go to voicemail and save the voicemail then text your response to the manager who called.
3. If you agree to something with a lead or lower manager, corroborate with the store manager to make sure they are aware of the situation as well to save your own ass. For example, if a lead or lower manager asks you to cover a shift or switch shifts, say yes to the lead and then text your store manager informing them that you are covering said shift so the store manager can't claim that they were not notified. Or else there is a chance the store manager asked someone else to cover the same shift without knowing you were supposed to cover and send you home. (it happened to me) If someone other than the store manager writes the schedule, text that person as well.
4. Set up a groupchat if your place of work doesn't already have a scheduling app or some form of mass communication between employees. If you are not a manager and/or don't have contact info, talk to a lead or manager you feel you can trust about setting one up. It's great for switching shifts and getting schedules and being kept in the loop about what's going on at work.
5. I have had good experiences with this one, but it may not work on your particular manager, so tread lightly. If your manager is refusing to cooperate with you on your availability or time off requests and you have already spoken to them directly about it and they still aren't cooperating, public shaming works wonders. For example, I had a manager schedule me outside of my availability after they confirmed my availability with me in person directly, so I wrote a note saying that x and y shifts are outside of my availability and I could not attend them and signed, dated and pinned it to the schedule on the breakroom wall and then took a picture in case my manager threw the note away and tried to pretend like it didn't exist. My manager immediately got those shifts covered.
5A. Take pictures of or photocopy your time off requests and your availability forms to have in the event you are scheduled outside of your availability. Screenshot them if your work uses a scheduling app.
6. Work to rule. Do not do anything that is asked of you that is outside of your job requirements. And if you want to voluntarily take on more work, demand to have written documentation that you will get paid overtime/bonus/etc. for doing work outside of your usual requirements. You can also play dumb on this one in some situations. I will explain. For example, I am not a manager and at my job, only management is supposed to train new hires on the register. (A previous manager told me it was a liability thing to make sure money didn't go missing, as only managers count money at the beginning and end of the day) My current manager shoved a new hire on me without notice and wanted me to train her, so I asked my manager about training pay, knowing damn well there wasn't any and then played dumb and said that I must've gotten it confused with something else, since I never train new hires, only management trained them in the past. She never asked me to train a new hire again.
6A. If a manager asks you to do something that is not allowed for non-management employees to do, especially if it is something that has a paper trail, insist that the manager do it under their employee number/log on. For example, if only management is allowed to check out employees at the register, don't ring up an employee under your login. Insist that the manager come up and check them out, even if the manager says it is ok for you to ring them up. If manager refuses to come to the register, do whatever you can to make the transaction look like a regular transaction. Input the percentage off manually rather than inputting the employee number. For example, our employee discount is 30%. Instead of inputting the employee's number and having their name come up, I simply manually apply a 30% total transaction discount. Same discount, but it doesn't look like I rang up an employee.
7. Get to know your coworkers as much as you can and listen to any drama you can. It may sound like a waste of time, but there are some instances where it is useful. For example, I overheard my coworkers gossiping about an inspection. I was completely unaware of an inspection and asked what was going on. The District and Regional Managers had planned to come in the next day. Our SM never mentioned this to the rest of us and the only reason these employees knew about it is because they work stocking and work closely with the DM. I was not scheduled that next day and my manager asked me to come in to cover a shift and I ignored the text, as the store was in shambles and I did not want to get in trouble by the DM and RM or risk having them know or recognize me in any way. Also, I'm kind of a messy bitch and I like to know the tea.
This is all I can think of for now. Maybe others in the notes will have more/better suggestions. Good luck to all employees! Don't let yourself get fucked over!
