Hi! So I recently started a new job (early July) and I am 17, about to be 18. I hadn’t had any retail experience prior to this but I had an interview and the manager seemed very pleased with me and hired me! I’ve been learning so much and I just passed my 60-day trial and am now a proper retail associate. I do just about everything except returns. I work the register, stock the store, help customers, answer the phone, charge to school accounts (art supply store), make orders, do inventory, laminate, repackage, clean, organize, fill out warehouse orders, etc. etc... I am very busy at work haha! My manager has never warmed up to me but I figured because I was new and I was prone to making mistakes here and there she was just being short.

Today she came out while I was resurfacing one of the seasonal racks (we theme all of the front registers and product endcaps) and told me that I am always a mess and everything I do is messy. I know it was a long day, we are very short-staffed because we had a lot of new employees that didn’t work out. I didn’t say much but gave her a little smile and said I’d redo it. She has said things to me before but not as brute as this one, and I hear her laughing with my coworkers sometimes behind my back if I slip up.

My best trait is customer service. I love people! I’m not a perfectionist but I try my best to make everything look presentable while doing all of the tasks that are put on me to do. It is hard work to keep the store functioning while doing side stuff like decorating and cleaning. Sure I can be a little reckless but I always give exact change, get my mandatory duties done and make sure my customers find what they want.

I think she asks too much of me. And I don’t think it is right that she is angry with me, one of her only employees now besides our other managers. Nobody’s perfect, and I don’t have quite the knack yet to be doing everything up to her scale.

Help please. Should I look for a new job? Or is this how a lot of managers are?