Lord, Deliver Us From Bad Management

Bad Behavior, Bosses & Owners, Delivery, New Hires, Ohio, USA | Working | May 6, 2020


My cousin recently got a job as a delivery driver for a local florist. He has done a few similar jobs in the past and is taking it mainly to make ends meet while taking night classes to hopefully become an electrician. He signs all the paperwork, is welcomed aboard, and starts his first shift. However, when he is loading up the first delivery, he has this interaction.

Manager: “Oh, make sure to clock out before you go.”

Cousin: “Huh? But I just started my shift.”

Manager: *Rolls her eyes* “Yes, but we don’t pay for your commute.”

Cousin: *Dumbfounded* “I’m… not commuting. I’m driving for deliveries.”

Manager: “Yes, but we aren’t going to pay you when you aren’t working.”

Cousin: “The whole point of my job is to drive around, and you are saying you aren’t going to pay me for doing it!”

The manager just kind of scurries away and locks herself in the office, leaving my cousin with a half-loaded delivery van. Given that his delivery is going to a funeral, he decides to just drive the delivery and deal with that whole mess when he gets back. He drops it off, processes the payment like he was shown, and comes back to the shop to find the owner waiting.

Owner: “I hear you and [Manager] had a disagreement?”

Cousin: “She said that I was supposed to clock out before going out on delivery.”

Owner: “Yes.”

Cousin: *pause* “Then I guess I quit.”

And he promptly dropped off the uniform apron on the front desk and walked out. The owner called him a couple times during the next week to complain about how “unprofessional ” he was being, but he didn’t bother with answering.

He got a couple of other jobs to cover costs, and during the next couple of years, he would chuckle when he saw constantly posted ads for a delivery driver for that company. I think we can guess why they couldn’t retain drive