SoapZone Community Message Board

The years I was in manufacturing, I did not. Nor did anyone else. At Christmastime, I would usually get small gifts for my closest co-workers, and we'd all be treated to a holiday feast (at a nearby restaurant when I was at the bindery, a potluck in the lunchroom at my next job). Nobody even suggested we get supervisors or plant managers a gift.

Last year was my first year in retail. I got everyone, including my store manager, a lip balm and small hand lotion, wrapped them up and included a card. IIRC, SM gave us all gift cards...for our store. She also paid for our meal out at a nearby restaurant one Sunday night after the store was closed. This year, she doesn't have quite as much extra $$$ to spend (last year, she had a couple gift cards that helped); we're going back to the same restaurant* but we're all paying for our own meals. I believe SM is picking up drinks.

* Everyone raves about this particular restaurant and I would estimate 90% of our customers who are either coming in after a meal or heading to a meal after they shop are going there/coming from there. And it's...fine. I think it's a bit overpriced, especially because the food is fairly pedestrian but it does have a nice view of the town falls.

Anyways...this year, the SM's second in command ("B"--Big Grandma Energy) sent out a group text asking everyone to give her $10 so she could buy SM a cashmere sweater we have that SM really likes. $10 isn't really a lot of money but a) I'm already going to be shelling out a minimum of $30 to attend a dinner I don't particularly want to attend at a place I don't particularly love and b) actually, with what we get paid, $10 IS a lot of money. But I didn't want to make waves so I handed over a tenner. Funny story: the text B sent out to all of us was very specific as to which sweater she wanted to buy SM (from all of us). The next day, I was closing with "M" (85 year old firecracker) and the next thing I knew, I saw her buying the exact sweater. We didn't have another one in SM's (and M's) size, and only 46 Chico's in the entire country carry cashmere (we're the only store in OH that has it), so there's not exactly a bunch to go around. I thought maybe M was buying the sweater so nobody else would and was going to give it to B later and have B pay her back with the money she collected from all of us but after SM left for the day, M said to me "I hope this wasn't the sweater <SM> wanted!" I told her yes, yes it was. I worked with B all day today...I told her I was honestly unsure if M just forgot which sweater SM wanted, even though I'd pointed out the sweater at the start of our shift or if she was passively-aggressively sticking it to SM as they've been clashing a lot lately. At first M offered to give up the sweater, exchanging it for a different cashmere sweater...but then she started saying she really liked the one she bought and didn't like the other one quite as much and despite what B told us, she didn't recall SM "raving" about the sweater and coveting it (neither do I, tbh). She told me repeatedly throughout the shift that she felt "guilty" for messing up the big plan...but apparently she didn't feel guilty enough to surrender the sweater. I'd be more inclined to be charitable about M's actions except she's not exactly financially flush but she still buys at least one item almost every time she works. A few weeks ago, she gave me a sweater I remember her buying just last Christmas...I think she wore it twice? She jokingly says "it's a sickness!" but I really think she's addicted to shopping, at least at our store.