Panicky Supervisor and Burnt Out Employee. Comments welcome.

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So here is the situation.


As some of you know I work on the graveyard shift at a grocery store. Well over the past two days I made a decision to step up my efforts as far as productivity is concerned. Due to the fact that I have been there for seven years and have burnout this is easier said than done.

Now for any of you who work in a grocery store or have worked in one will know this. Each night you get a delivery truck some aisles have more product in them than others. It was decided two nights ago that the heavy aisles were not for me. This I do not think was a matter of technique. It was simply a matter of me being tired. Also I suffered a back injury earlier this year which has made me more cautious about how I lift packages when putting them on the shelf. The immediate supervisor decided to take me out of the heavy aisles. He said that he did not fault me for that.

Last night I worked the light aisles and I was getting things done on time. I get down to the last aisle and started to slow up a little bit. He tells me to go faster and I do. But before that he told me that his goal was to get everybody to start pulling the merchandise forward on the shelf by 5:30 a.m. And then he said that we would have, "2.5 hours to condition." Now I exceeded those expectations and started pulling forward the merchandise on the shelf by 5:20 a.m. Ten minutes ahead of schedule. Now for those of you who don't know 'conditioning the shelves' is a term which means pulling product forward on the shelf in order to make an attractive looking display.

Anyway about 7 minutes into 'conditioning the shelves he calls me over to the aisle where he is working. He then asks me in an interrogating manner how much I got done. I told him I was conditioning the shelves like he asked. He then tells me and I quote, "This isn't working out go condition the water." Naturally I did as he instructed and put gallons of water on the shelf. Afterwards I began to pick up product that would not go on the shelf as he instructed. Afterwards I asked to talk to him. I told him I did not understand what I did wrong. I finished ahead of the time he put forth. He simply smiled and asked in a sly manner, "You haven't figured me out by now?" "I wanted you to be AHEAD of the time I put down." I picked up the product and by the time I was done it was almost 6:45 a.m. Afterwards my coworker and I proceeded to 'condition the shelves'. Now both my coworker and I ended up being 20 minutes over from the time we were supposed to leave.

I would like to further go on to say that I did not have to put gallon water on the shelf. We have somebody who can do that in the morning.

My thoughts on this situation are as follows: The immediate supervisor panicked because he thought that we would not be able to finish the product on time or he truly expected us to exceed the time limit he put down. I should also note that I have been working with this guy since April of this year.

So wait... he wanted you to be ahead of time when it comes to putting stuff up. Which you did by ten minutes, but he still complained about your effort then told you to go " condition " the water. Which you did, even though you've someone else to do it. Afterwards, when you asked about it he says that you haven't figured me out yet. I wanted you to be ahead of schedule, even though you were previously. Is there something I'm missing, or do they arbitrary make schedules? Just so you can't make it.
Because if that's the case, then that's the biggest piece of bs I've heard in a long time. This is one of the reasons of why I'm nervous about getting a job in anything. This kind of pseudo-manipulation is what irks me quite a bit.