Two weeks ago, I wrote an article regarding my pervious job experiences. Since then, my ex co-workers asked for a part two. Â
Behavior part 2
To pick back up from the last piece, I’ll share more examples of inappropriate behavior.Â
Exhibit A: step into my shoes and imagine it’s your third shift of the job working alongside your friend in alumni relations. On this sunny day, you’re walking around looking at a blue sky on your way to escort the team’s alumni, then it was all interrupted in agony. A berating voice caught your attention: “Don’t you ever tell that to a full time employee!” The woman was face to face with a grown man in an open area while fans were walking around. What was the mistake? My co-worker told a vendor that they were able to leave… two minutes early. My main issue with this one instance wasn’t that the full time employee felt comfortable acting this way at her place of employment. My issue was my Navy veteran over forty years old co-worker was conditioned by our work place to accept being put down by others’ egos. Initially, I assumed he would report it, kindly telling her not to speak to him in that matter, or a bystander would report it. Unfortunately, the workplace culture stance was to be quiet since reporting behavior often led to consequences.Â
Exhibit B: Say you were tasked with setting up tables outside on a windy day for a fan engagement event. Once you’re done, your point of contact goes to each table taping paper to the front (event info), basic right? Wrong. As I mentioned, it was windy outside so a few papers flew away. No worries. You catch them all except for one and your POC comes again flushing red with anger in their face saying, “how could you let a pice of paper fly away?!” Not only are you getting paid $10hr, you’re outside in the wind, a new hire, blamed, and yelled at over a piece of paper… Â
Exhibit C: one shift you’re placed in fan giveaways 30 minutes before doors open and given a simple and boring task. What do you do to pass time? People watch. While you’re doing so, you see a disabled employee who very clearly has physical health issues. They are sitting in a rolling chair usually helpful for those who cannot stand for long periods of time. As one can assume, this employee might stay seated to simply watch fans scan tickets right? Nope. Instead, their superior yells “NO,” in the luxury club lobby of the stadium right in front of a room of at least 20 people, 6 of which were volunteers.Â
As you read these three examples, you come to the realization that no matter how “serious” an organization appears, you never know how they truly operate.Â
The protected and unprotected
Before I moved forward with the hiring process, my supposed manager was fired, and months later my co-workers shared their feelings of grief. In said conversations, she was kind, a mentor, always had your back, and had a lively spirt. So speculations began: she was fired over her race or she had her foot on their necks (if you’re a black woman you know what I mean). Seemingly, it happens again this time. Let’s compare and contrast. Employee A: he was newly hired to mange a department. After working for a few months, he agrees to out for drinks with co-workers. After a while, he gets a little drunk and he calls an Uber to head home. A week later, he was fired due to “making the organization look bad”… interesting as he wasn’t in or near the stadium.
Employee B: does the same as employee A except they take it a step further. Drunk employee B apologizes profusely to a sober co-worker who she wasn’t drinking with, simply just met by a coincidence. What was she apologizing for? For making up a rumor to defame a co-worker that she was dating a taken man. She was free from the risk of losing her job despite the two instances. You may be thinking is this high school? No girl, it’s a multi-billon dollar organization full of employees who have connections and therefore suffer no consequences.Â
Storytime:
From the day I began to think about quitting (mid season), I realized everyone’s point of view of the job and experiences were completely different. I was often confused how someone could work in a mismanaged department for years alongside limited to no career growth. More specifically, with co-workers who had more STEM degrees than those in business. Another thing I realized is how important our job was to others, even if I’d grade it 2/10 and had learned nothing that applies to my future career. I’d like to share that my ex co-workers might have perceived things a little differently from what’s written above.
Honestly, I think I want to steal my co-worker’s idea to write a script and turn this mess into mass media entertainment. What do you think? Like I said last time, don’t give up your dreams of working in sports. For my girls in HR, maybe you can be the positive change in negative workplaces.Â
P.S: Here’s the pictures meant to be used for my previous article in the appearance section. When I spoke to my cousin about the shift that caused me to quit, she believes the grown women were jealous of me. I’ll leave that up to you guys. If you’re curious I titled the collage “baddie at work.”
Check out the first article here
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