Worked at Once Upon a Child for 4 weeks and already done with it

I’ve only been at Once Upon a Child for about 4 weeks, and honestly, I already want to quit. At first, things seemed good — my interview went well, the first week was fine, and even the second week wasn’t too bad. But by the third week, everything went downhill, mainly because of my manager.

Here’s what happened: last Wednesday, I texted my manager that I couldn’t make it because the person who usually drives me (my aunt) was having car problems. I let her know I might be late but wasn’t sure how late. She never responded. I didn’t know if she even read it, so in my head, I started worrying that she might think I did a no-call/no-show — even though she obviously didn’t. Later, I found out she had read it, but she didn’t respond beyond calling for literally two seconds and then hanging up. She could have just said something like, “Okay, I hope everything works out,” but she didn’t.

I was off the next day, and when I came back on Friday, the tension was thick. Just walking in made me want to cry. She got all up in my face saying “hi” but then basically ignored me the rest of the shift unless it was to tell me what to do. She was chatting with my other coworkers and even asked them one by one if they wanted anything from the store — but didn’t even acknowledge me.

The rest of the day, she was nitpicking me. For example, when I first trained, she told me to take hangers off first, then scan the clothes. Suddenly she comes over while I’m checking someone out and tells me to scan first and take the hangers off last. That actually makes things harder, especially when customers have a ton of items, because they start pulling hangers off themselves while I’m scanning and it throws everything off. I even accidentally double-scanned because of it. The kicker? Everyone else in the store still takes the hangers off first, but she never says anything to them. Just me.

Then there’s the inconsistent scheduling — it’s all over the place, so I can’t even plan my paychecks. One week I’ll get good hours, the next week barely any. Plus, when I came in 10 minutes early one day, she told me to clock in early and start doing tasks (like vacuuming, which is awkward to do while toddlers and babies are in the store). Meanwhile, she and her daughter-in-law — who also works there — spend half their shifts on the phone, while the rest of us can’t even have ours out.

It’s just… wishy-washy. She was nice at the beginning, asking me how my day was, what I did on my off days, etc. Now? She barely says two words to me unless it’s to criticize or boss me around. The favoritism toward her daughter-in-law is obvious, and I constantly feel on edge when they’re around. Once they leave, I can actually breathe again.

Overall, it’s just not worth it. Between the double standards, inconsistent hours, and tension every time I walk in, I honestly wouldn’t recommend this place to anyone. I’m planning to quit and find something more consistent, hopefully work-from-home, because this environment is draining.