The Nightmare of working for a hardware store.

First off, I do apologize for not continuing the venting series I originally wanted to do. I misplaced my login key and recently stumbled upon it again. Yay :)

I spent 3 years working there. I started off as a sales associate. Eventually I worked my way up to become a certified stihl mechanic.

I received approximately 25 write ups, also known as corrective actions while working there. From things such as reporting harassment from supervisors, to using protected sick days, to following policies to the exact letter, ect.

Needless to say, it was a very toxic work environment. I had enough last month when my review came around and received negative marks all around.

To delve into that a little bit, all of the other employees either quit or got fired in 2019. I was the last man standing so to speak. This meant I worked all day everyday for long stretches at a time. I received multiple compliments, supervisor keys, authority, ect. But, the caveat was that I was still just a rental associate/stihl tech.

As time went on, I was promised a promotion on several occasions, only to stay in the same position I was currently in. When my 3rd annual review rolled around, I had a stellar year. I expected to move up, get a decent raise, ect.

Unfortunately, my time at the company meant nothing at all to them. I was told they had received multiple complaints about me for being rude to customers, argumentative, insubordinate, ect. This came as a complete shock and surprise.

I asked for specific examples of any of these incidents so that I could reflect upon them to see what happened or if they really did happen. I was told not to dwell upon the past and they had no examples to offer me.

Realizing that I am being railroaded, I asked to be transferred to another department so that I could find success elsewhere. That request was swiftly denied. "We can't let you leave the service department. You are not a regular employee that can make work changes like that. You are our valued stihl tech and need to remain where you are."

"Because you missed 5 days last year, we have to put you on a personal development plan. This means you will not receive your annual raise and for the next 90 days, we can terminate you for anything." It's important to note that the 5 sick days were for reasons like taking care of my sick daughter, being sick myself, ect. Oregon has a protected sick time law of 40 hours.

Gotcha. This is where I could see that I'd never move up at all in this company. They informed me that if I wanted a different job, that the only way I'd be able to do that was to put my 2 weeks notice in and find a new job.

So I scheduled a random vacation exactly 3 weeks in advance and to my surprise it was accepted. During that time, I interviewed for a new position. I received the offer and conveniently would start as soon as my vacation ended.

So far, the new job is amazing. It's very different from what I am used to, but I love the customer service part and feel like its a match.

I dropped my keys off to the old job yesterday and it felt so freeing. I honestly haven't felt this good in the entire time I was working there.

Just wanted to get that off my chest. I'm sure others out there have gone through something similar.