Hi, I am a 17 year old student living in Edinburgh. I have applied to study medicine and have a part time job at a newly opened store on Edinburgh's Princes Street.

I am a Sales Assistant at this store and work 6 hours a week, (on a Sunday) and earn £5.50 an hour. Now, no one writes about something they are completely happy with; so of course I have some issues with my job. Now I am under no pretenses that any job is easy, yet as a hard worker (at a recent assessment of my progress I got 80% which was the highest score) a little respect wouldn't be too much to ask for? I mean, I didn't expect to be treated like royalty, but I did not expect to be treated worse than the dirt on somebody's shoe, made to feel small, unimportant and unvalued. I can see that although I am only a part time sales assistant, to the managers I am probably dispensible. Its hardly unheard of for students to be looking for a job now is it?!

There are three managers and a superviser at the store, the Shop Manager is Glinda, Assistant Manager, Lucy and the Shop Floor Manager, Suzanna. (Please note that I have changed names to protect their privacy and to cover my own ass!!). Now, I do not need these people to be my friend, it would be lovely if our relationship was friendly, but at the end of the day, I will only see these people once a week, so all I need from these, or expect rather, is a professional relationship. My relationship with Suzanna is lovely, I feel I get along best with her. I talk to her about the way the other managers treat me when it really gets to me. She is an absolutely lovely person and our relationship is very positive and when I am working with her I feel very valued, comfortable and really just happy. Lucy, our relationship can be frosty at times, however it is professional and she makes me feel valued and a part of the team. My main issue is with Glinda. She is rude, makes me feel like crap and frankly is extremely unprofessional and unpleasant. As the shop manager, I feel it is her job to keep the team gelled together and working well; and NOT creating problems.

Now, you may be thinking that I am being biased, which would be a fair opinion, however I assure you I am not being so. Here is a quick time line if you like of the incidents that have occurred...

Summer 2006:
I was offered the position and decided to work full time during the summer to earn some extra cash. The entire team worked well together getting the store ready and Glinda was lovely, she even let me have a half day to get my exam results back and was absolutely fantastic when she heard they were more than I had hoped for.

August 2006:
Here is when the problems start, I have stopped working full time and am doing the 8 hours that my contract originally said. I am working 4 hours after school on a Thursday and then 4 hours on either a Saturday or a Sunday. However the regional manager informs us that this cannot go on any more as I would have to work both weekend days as well if I was to work Thursday night. Of course I am unhappy with this as I need a day off too!! So we manage to negotiate a 6 hour contract where I only work on a Sunday. Let it be noted that it was Glinda who offered this solution.

Soon, with absolutely no warning, Glinda starts putting me on the rota for Thursday nights again, now this is extremely difficult for me due to the fact that each rota is put up on a Monday and as I am in on a Sunday, I cannot check the rota. It may also seem foolish of me to phone in and check my hours on a Thursday, since the contract they offered me was 6 hours on a Sunday, so why should I think I am working on a Thursday? So a lot of hassle starts with this, as whichever manager is in that day expects me, but I don't turn up etc.

Eventually, I talk to Suzanne about how unhappy I am with this and she manages to sort it out for me. Time passes and I being to enjoy my work again, however whenever Glinda is in, it is an absolute nightmare. One Sunday, Suzanne tells me to go for my lunch break at 3pm, so at 3 I find Suzanne, tell her I am off for my lunch and she OKs it. However at about 3:30pm, Glinda storms in; like your mum used to when you had your music turned too loud, or whatever; and yells at me, standing at the door, where both customers and my colleagues here her. She is basically yelling at me for taking my break and not asking her about it and says that because of me she is short staffed on the shop floor and I should have asked a manager first. However, is Suzanne not a manager? I tell her immediately that I asked Suzanne first and Glinda storms out.

Another incident was with clips, there are little metal clips for hanging up children's accessories, like scarfs and hats. Some customers when they want to buy something, will take this clip with them to the till and it will get taken off there, others prefer to just pull the scarf off the clip and leave it hanging on the display, others unhang the item, take the clip off themselves and just leave it on the shop floor somewhere. Now, of course it is my job to be picking these things up and keeping my section tidy, but as I've said, I'm in that section all by myself and it counts for about one third of the shop floor. There is no way, I can possibly do everything on my own!! So Glinda, comes over to me, whilst I am serving a customer and yells at me for "leaving them around", claiming that a child could put it in their mouth. Yes, that could happen, thank you very much for pointing that out, however I was in the middle of serving somebody, now I am embarressed harrassed and unhappy. I do pick these things up when I see them, but I cannot be expected to do everything myself.

There is also a DVD player in the childrens section and it is up to me to press play on the video, one time, I was putting on the DVD player for a couple's 2 year old child and she comes over accusing me of not working.

Now, as you can imagine, children are rather messy. So at the end of the day, when it is time to clear up, the Children's department as basically been trashed. I am the busiest and whenever Glinda is in, she makes me tidy up the staffroom as well. That means, sweeping the floor, wiping the table, clearing up other people's lunches and loading the dish washer. Now I don't mind doing these things as someones got to do it and I contribute to that mess, but she never seems to ask anyone else to do it. She is also extremely rude about it, it is always a radio call out to me, "Can you go tidy the staffroom now? it is a bomb site." I will usually say OK, but I am struggling to finish in kids as it is very messy, to which she will reply "What have you been doing for the last half hour? How come you are working so slowly?" This, coming through the radio, for everybody else to hear. She never treats any of the other part timers in this way and she never talks to them like that. If I'd wanted a job as a cleaner I would have got one and probably been better paid!

So that is the basic outline of how I get treated. I have to say it is very disheartening. I just feel completely unvalued.

I am sorry this has been so long...I will try to keep it brief in the future!!