Had my entire view of my workplace destroyed in 3 minutes
19M Bit of setup, Im a stocker at Publix. Since the start Ive absolutely hated it, Ive dreaded going in every single day, and the only thing that kept me being able to force myself up was everyone telling me I was one of the better stockers. They give me an average of 16 hours a week which is so little that since working there Ive lost nearly all my savings. Ive continuously begged for hours, asked if other departments needed help, offered to go anywhere or do anything if I can just get an extra day or two a week. Every single time theyve told me that they hate that they cant give me more hours but if they get any extra theyll offer them to me. They have constantly reassured that Im doing exactly what they want me to be doing. Ive even had one tell me and a different coworker that in their ideal day Id be one of the closers.
That was until yesterday. I was called into the store managers office, where he proceeded to tear that apart. He told me that my aisles never look good (Im consistently told they look good, Id even been called the best by other managers or coworkers at several of them,) that my end tasks were never done (I had never heard anything bad) and that Im 'bringing down the Publix standard.' He said he had told my other managers to talk to me about it but no one had said anything previously except about calling out because I have nerve issues and cant work sometimes (about 1 callout per month.) He also told me that this was the reason I wasnt getting any hours, and when I told him Id only heard good things he made me tell him who said I was doing well and said he'd go talk to them so theyll stop. He also told me that Im asked to do very easy tasks and yet Im still 'burdening the day crew who already have to do most of the work.' (Ive worked days before, you just unload a float or two and stand around until you leave) had been working on consistently getting what I thought were good aisles but all he said was that mine are just 'consistently bad.'
Now honestly.. I wouldnt mind if he had told me that there were things I needed to improve on. My issue is that if what he said is true then everyone has been lying straight to my face every single day, and that even when they watched me struggle they just let it happen when they knew how it could be fixed. I live an hour and a half from the store and during times where I worked back to back days it was often that I couldnt afford to go home and would have to stay in my car during the winter to conserve gas money. I had told them about this, they were fully aware that I was sometimes choosing between eating a meal or going home some days. Yet when I asked for more hours, instead of telling me the actual reason why they threw pity at me and told me how 'unfortunate' it was that I couldnt work more. Theyd tell me to just wait another couple weeks and Id get more. Every single time, every single department Id tried to go into. So I listened like an idiot and lost almost every dollar I have while intentionally giving me less and less hours.
I dont even know what to believe any more, because he even told me that my coworkers aisles looked "10x better" than mine but I went through both of our aisles and counted misaligned or missing items and mine were objectively better, so I genuinely dont know what Im supposed to be doing. Hes never really liked me, he doesnt talk to me at all like he does the others and he told me when hiring me that he was hesitant so Im not sure if its just bias or if its something Im not seeing but I dont think so because Ive had other managers come to me to vent about how my other coworkers dont do their jobs, and I get asked to stay late to help others finish their work basically every single day meanwhile I havent had a complaint on my aisles since my second week of working.I have today off thankfully but I genuinely dont know how Im gonna be able to go in tomorrow. I dont know whether I should just quit or do something else, Ive been applying to other jobs looking for a second one to work but no ones gotten back to me so far. I have 300 dollars to my name right now, (when I started working I had 2.5k) so I cant just quit either. I want a remote job but have no degree and my nerve issues caused vocal problems so I cant do sales, any ideas of what I should do? Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated.
Posted Feb 21, 2026, 5:33 PM UTC