u/Old-Development4238

I started a new job 2 months ago (custom framing), and thought everything had been going pretty well, I felt as though I was catching onto the work reasonably well especially in something I’ve never done before, despite only having two days of training.

One day I was at work (about a month in at this point), it was about an hour till we closed and I was working on a job that I hadn’t been trained in since I had completed everything else, so was trying to figure out how to do it. The only person available for me to ask questions was my manger who was using the saw outside, so while I waited for her to finish I asked my other coworker her opinion (she didn’t know either as this wasn’t her area of work).

I waited for about 20 minutes (still tinkering with the work) when the phone rang, I answered and it was one of my bosses. The first thing he said was ‘what the fuck are you doing?’ So I explained. ‘The longer you do nothing, the more money you are making us lose!’ He was watching me on the cameras the whole time. I knew we had cameras, but the bosses said it was due to a burglary before I started and that was the only purpose for them. I just apologised and that was that. Since that day I made sure I was doing something at all times, or at least looking like I’m doing something (there were often times where I had finished all my tasks for the day and no one had anymore work for me).

Yesterday I was pulled into their office for a chat. Apparently they are concerned about my ‘trial period’ and that I’m not where I should be. They told me they had been watching me on cameras and monitoring how quickly I complete each of my tasks, which has been too slow. He then proceeds to say I also ‘walk around too much’. He said there was a time I came off my last break at 4:15 and only finished one more task before 5 (every task is different, some take 15 some take 30 minutes). I also have been told previously to stop all work at 4:30 to clean and close up shop. I mentioned to him that knowing he is watching me all day makes me a little uncomfortable and anxious when working as I’m worried he’s watching what I’m doing and will have a problem with it.

He tells me ‘if you were doing your job properly then the cameras wouldn’t make you uncomfortable at all’ I told him that I disagreed, to which he replied ‘I have every right to watch the cameras’.

Is this true? Can my bosses watch me all day on the cameras, time my tasks, nitpick my movements around the store? I’ve never had something like this happen and feel I’m being treated unfairly. Their reasoning was that since they got the camera for security reasons it means their use of it is legal. There is nothing in my contract about CCTV or monitoring. Any advice would be amazing.

My kitten is about 7 months old now, I’ve had her since she was 3 months and we live in a small unit together. Everything has been great until the past 2 weeks or so.

Recently she has had the most intense energy she’s had in a while which has caused her to destroy everything I own. Now, I have kitten proofed my place as much as I could since I’ve gotten her but this doesn’t seem to deter her from getting her dirty little paws on things I didn’t think would be a problem. She has ripped out the caulking in my windows, ripped my posters off my walls, gone on my desk and chewed at anything she can find. It’s a nightmare.

I make sure she has DOZENS of toys around the house so that she’s less likely to be bored. She always has 3 different spots with water and food. I make sure to play with her multiple times a day with a stick toy or by playing ‘fetch’ with a little ball she likes. This works for a little bit, but she seems to only need about 10 minutes of sleep until she is back to her full energy self where she goes on a destructive rampage.

The past couple days have been rough for me. She won’t let me sleep anymore. She sleeps with me on my bed for an hour or so until she wakes up and tries to rip down anything she can. I read online that putting your cat out of your room while your sleep could work, but I’ve tried this the past couple nights and she will not have it. She’s been meowing loudly and scratching at my door until I open it- she will do this for hours on end. I’ve had about 4 hours sleep maximum each day this week.

I was planning to get her a friend because the last thing I want is her to be bored and frustrated, however I recently unexpectedly lost my job so don’t think it is a wise financial decision to adopt another cat as that alone costs $300+ (I’ve looked for free ones online too and haven’t found anyone needing to re home any cats either)

I’m at my breaking point and am feeling extremely depressed. I love my cat to bits but wish I knew how to keep her happy and satisfied. Any advice on what I can do to help the both of us?

I started a new retail job a month ago, and I was really enjoying it. My coworkers were lovely and I was learning the job quickly. The pay is pretty crap compared to the amount of work you are expected to do but I didn’t mind too much.

However, a couple days ago I made my first mistake at the job, I was adjusting a customers glasses and accidentally scratched their frames. I was extremely apologetic, my customer was super understanding and my manager ordered new glasses for her for free.

My manager then pulls me into her office, which I thought made sense, she needs to speak to me about what happened. I immediately apologised to her and told her I will never be that careless again. She drilled into me, making my small mistake feel like I committed a terrible crime.

She raised her voice and was saying that I have no clue how many people I’ve affected with this mistake, and that I am being stupid. She got angry that my customer was understanding and said ‘what if the next customer isn’t as understanding?’ I apologised again and said of course I understand not every customer will be okay with what happened and I definitely will be more mindful in the future.

I thought the conversation could end there but it didn’t. She kept repeating the same points, which made me start to get a bit upset. My eyes got glassy to which she immediately says ‘and now you’re crying’. I say ‘sorry I just feel really bad about what happened and that I upset you so much with what I did’. She stares at me for a minute and says ‘if you are gonna react that way you cannot work here’. This pushes me over the edge and I burst into tears.

She keeps staring at me blankly, not saying anything. The room felt so uncomfortable for me!! After a bit she asks me ‘why are you crying’ which I repeat is because I feel terrible. She then says ‘If you are gonna feel this bad about every mistake you cannot work here’. Which was bullshit because I only got to the point of crying because of how she was speaking to me.

She wouldn’t let me leave the room until I told her the ‘other’ reason I was crying. I told her there was no other reason, but she didn’t like this answer. She said ‘I know there is another reason, you need to tell me’. So now I’m in this extremely uncomfortable position, what am I meant to say?? After a silent break she realises I’m not going to say anything and tells me to go for a walk. She opens the door wide to customers and my colleagues, giving them a full view of me in tears.

I feel embarrassed and ask her to please shut the door so I can have a moment to collect myself. She chuckles at this and shuts the door. At this point I have a full body rash from being so upset.

A supervisor spoke to me the next day, I told him what happened and he was understanding, but told
me there was really nothing more they can do. I told him I needed the weekend off as I’m feeling really anxious about coming into work now.

This morning he messages me angry that I haven’t called him to say I wasn’t coming in, when we talked about it in person the day prior. This was my breaking point and I quit over the phone. I know this isn’t a smart decision but I cannot feel this way.

Anyone else have a similar experience? If so what did you do?