My new boss is a jackass, but I like the job.

[MercuryMorrison1971]

Hey everyone. This is a bit of a read, but bare with me on it.

 

I just started a new job as a wholesale delivery driver for a local liquor company. I just want to share an experience and see if anyone can relate.

 

So basically long story short. My job consist of two parts (Primary part) is driving a delivery van to various local bars and restaurants to deliver whatever alcohol it is that they've ordered for the evening. I really enjoy this aspect of my job, I love driving and being on my own at work. Also some of the people I deal with at these place's seem pretty cool and on top of that a normal delivery run can soak up between two and three and hours of your day and on busy days I may do between three to four of these runs, meaning that my work day usually seems to go by pretty fast. Now the (Secondary part) of my job working in a warehouse stamping various bottles of liquor and boxing them up for shipment, this is something all drivers are responsible for when they aren't on a run. If we are slow, I may spend two or more hours in the warehouse doing just this.

 

So that's my job in a simplified nutshell.

 

Now to my mini rant. On my third day of work at this business I was sent out on my own for the first time. My run went really smoothly, I double checked all my math for those that paid with a cash or check, I completed my run in a timely manner and when I came back to the warehouse I was beaming with happiness because I felt confident that I had done everything correctly.

 

Now to give some perspective of what actually went wrong.

 

So this business has a keg delivery service. Many of these bars and restaurants order kegs of beer which we deliver and then take their empty keg hulls back to the warehouse so they can be shipped off and reused. Well on the four ride along's I went on with three separate drivers of my first two days none of the routes we went on required kegs, so this was an aspect of my job that I didn't receive any training on nor was it explained to me what I should do in this event. Basically I told the bar tender that gave me the kegs that this was my first time on my own and she explained to me (to the best of her knowledge) how the service works. So in my mind, I thought oh okay that makes sense.

 

So I return the warehouse and find my boss (who has to check all of our invoice's before we are allowed to return to work). He goes through all my paper work and says, Okay! Everything looks good, your moneys all in order and everything's neat and orderly, you're free to go back to work.

 

So at this point, I went back outside to my delivery van and started unloading the empty kegs to bring back into the warehouse, as I'm rolling them in I cross paths with my boss in the warehouse, he stops me and asks, where did those come from? So I gave him the bar name and explained to him what had happened.

 

This is where it all goes bad, He stares at me blankly for a moment, and then in front of every single one person on shift that day asks me (You're not stupid are you?) I honestly almost laughed because I was so caught off guard by his inexplicable reaction, he then proceeds to tell me, You can't be that stupid dude, ALWAYS show people how smart you are, not how STUPID you are, this wasn't written down on your run sheet that you were returning 4 kegs? Where was it? huh? where was it? I didn't see it? C'mon dude, this is how things work here and this is how things have ALWAYS worked here if you're not smart enough to grasp that then I don't have time to waste on this situation nor do I have time to waste on you.

 

This was literally my third day on the job and first real mistake which in the grand scheme of things I realize (now that the process has been explained to me) would have amounted to a minor inconvenience for the ladies who do the book keeping.

 

I wasn't a fan of being called stupid in front of all of my new coworkers but I basically shrugged it off, right after this encounter one of the coworkers that I had done a ride along with came up to me and said don't fret it man, its not a big deal, its just a big deal him and he's got little man syndrome anyway. Just blow it off.

 

So I was grateful for that and it helped abolish some of the embarrassment I felt. Upon further conversations with my coworkers though, I've learned that this is apparently a regular thing for our boss to fly off the handle and be personally insulting to his workers, even over the simplest of mistakes. He apparently also has a habit of telling people that he could do their job faster and more efficiently than they could.

 

It sucks, because otherwise I enjoy the the delivery part and it pays decently. Being stuck in the warehouse was already kind of boring, but now I realize that I have to tip toe around my jackass boss. Which give's me even more incentive to go on runs as absolutely often as possible.

 

My fiancee's been very supportive and has reassured me that he's problem and not me. I'm very grateful for her.

 

My goal is just to fly as under the radar as possible. Anyone else have experience's like this? Am I overreacting to his reaction?

 

Thanks for reading!

Edited March 26, 2019 by MercuryMorrison1971

[Mr. Lucky]

My new boss is a jackass !

 

Agreed. About the worst way he - or anyone else - could handle a teachable moment. Good for you in keeping your cool.

 

People like him, in this day and age, have a tendency to self-destruct, often in fairly spectacular fashion. If you like the job, continue to learn and grown while you see how things play out...

 

Mr. Lucky

[Marc878]

I learned more from bad bosses than good ones.

 

Take this as a learning experience. Those underneath you can make or break you.

[d0nnivain]

He's a bad boss. That is all there is to it. But since you like the job & now understand the process just write down everything that is going out or coming back & there should be no future problems.

[preraph]

Well, I'm glad your coworker told you not to worry about it. That guy probably was a drill sergeant at some point. Hah. As long as you know this is business as usual, no biggie. But do make a phone call to someone next time something you're not trained on comes up before you do it.

 

I had a floor manager at an auto dealership who enjoyed berating the salespeople, and I would openly laugh at him (I'd seen far worse in the record business) and he'd bellow, "Preraph thinks it's funny when I yell!" and then just keep right on going. I know he was ex-military. That's probably where he got it.