Some of you may remember my bitching about this dude Mark who keeps trying to steal my job. This entire rant revolves around him and how he's been annoying the shit out of me. He seems almost relentless in his quest to drive me out and take my place; something he's really not all that coy about - having pretty much told me outright.
Back at the beginning of April I had to work on my birthday and really couldnt motivate myself. Basically i did pretty much fuck all and the store was left in a mess because I was in a hurry to get out and go celebrate my birthday etc. The area manager was not overly happy, and as such my probationary period has been extended by 1 month. Nothing to worry about apparently; they just wanted to be sure that this was just a horrible blip on my record. I totally understand where theyre coming from, I just need to keep my nose clean for a bit.
While showing Mark how to do one of my tedious tasks the other day, this is the conversation that followed
"Dave never shows me how to do stuff like this unless I really nag him"
"It's because you don't really need to know how to do it. Unless you get promoted you'll probably only have to do it maybe twice a year"
"Well i should get promoted fairly soon. Infact, if you don't make it through your probationary period then I can have your job"
At this point I sorta saw red. Rather than get pissed off and boot him out of my office I decided to crush him in a kind and reserved manner.
"I doubt thats gonna happen, mate. I had my appraisal with Dave the other day and he said that I'm far and away the best man for the job. I came here outta Wrexham and started the job knowing more than you guys, and Dave said given the choice he wouldnt replace me with any one of you"
He was in a bad mood for the rest of the day
His desperate attempts to get noticed have already got him a few enemies. He talks down at the other sales assistants and generally treats them like crap. He begrudges them having 5 minute breaks for a cigarette. When i ask if he wants to go for a break or something he just declines, trying desperately to seem like the hyper-motivated superhero. To me that should mean he forfeits his right to whine about others taking breaks, but obviously not to him.
The problem is I know for a fact he's probably thinking up ways to make me look bad. It's how he operates with the other guys, constantly snipping at them and making passive-aggressive comments about their workrate to try and make himself look like the cream of the crop. He's even slowly getting more brave to the point where he's trying to give me orders.
Part of me really wants to mention this to the store manager. He's being a dick and being
really horrible to my other staff in an attempt to make himself look better. Just today I saw a
massive improvement in the other guys just because Mark wasnt around to constantly put them down. The other benefit, obviously is that when the manager is aware he's trying to put down others to make himself look better, he'll generally be ignored when he tries it in the future. I dunno, I'm not overly sure about whether I really wanna rock the boat.
I'm on holiday for a week now, and I told the other guys that if Mark is horrible to them while I'm not there; and for some reason they cant talk to Dave about it then they can phone me and I'll sort it out. Their little faces lit up, and at that moment I thought "This is it, I've won their hearts and minds. I'm Hank Scorpio and he's Mr.Burns"
