How to not take manager's criticisms personally?
Hi! So I have been working in retail in a grocery store since the beginning of the year and have not had much to complain about. I like the work (mostly) and my coworker are also lovely. However, recently, we have been in a really stressful period due to holidays, staff on vacation and staff quitting, the heat and AC not working, and a general larger influx of customers due to renovations and modernisation efforts.
I work full time, and am often the only person in the store earlier in the day who is restocking shelves and taking care of deliveries. Recently it has been especially bad, since we have been getting huge deliveries and loads of customers in the mornings trying to avoid the heat. Managers and I have been working overtime.
Anyway, my work often consists of shelving the personal hygiene products, which means lots of small, tedious to unwrap products, and they fall over quickly so I try to tidy the shelves up instead of just tossing my products into the mess. I do my best to be efficient, but with the heat and the amount of customers standing in the way/needing assistance (especially while I'm the only person working in the store – we have been having 3-4 registers open, often with managers having to help there), it has been difficult to get things done quickly. This means I come in, get told to do the work nobody else wants to do (too tidy and tedious, gets left if we don't finish unpacking the day of delivery for me to do the next morning) and then I get told off for taking too long. Often not in the nicest tone.
It's been getting to me. I'm so stressed. I don't want to go to sleep because I know I'll go through getting assigned the work and then being yelled at for taking too long again and again, every day. I've tried talking about why I'm taking longer, but the complaints keep coming.
How do I not take this so personally? I put myself fully into my work. I am friendly, I follow the rules, I try to leave everything nice than I find it. I care to do a good job, so when my work is criticised, it feels like I am criticised personally. Like it's some attack on my values and work ethic rather than manager taking their stress out on me. I just want to feel good about work again. Any hints or help?
Much appreciated (: