Young worker, early 20s, quits family-owned landscaping job when the 70-year-old owner of the company, whom he has never met, begins sending him scathing emails with false claims: 'Needless to say I quit the next day'

A young landscaper quit the family-owned business where he had started working after receiving an unhinged email from the owner of the company, with his manager, the owner's daughter, then pushing aside his complaints.

For all the grief we like to give corporate culture, from the impersonality of the way employees are treated, down to the canned and calculated way that everything is communicated, down to the way that all of the edges are sanded down and rounded off, well, everything. The fact remains that these things have been done intentionally, and for good reason. Removing all the personal touches that make life worth living also make is so that you aren't exposed to both the good and the bad of what makes something "unprofessional."

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  • 01

    Never work for family owned companies.

    Long story short, I took a seasonal landscaping/gardening job at a family owned company over a month ago. Great job, coworkers were great, loved being outside and my manager (the daughter of the owner) said I did. exceptional work. It started going downhill when our manager started accusing us of gossiping about her during work and about how we all were not feeling well one week, with some of us needing to take half days.
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  • 02
    Cheezburger Image 10630325760
    via Getty Images

    Image is representative, not actual subjects.

  • 03
    Final straw was when the owner of the company (my managers mom, shes like in her 70s-80s) sent me a scathing email detailing how I spent 7 hours on a property and barely got it done while her and her daughter can easily get it done in 4 hours. My notes I left for the property and my manager go into explicit detail on how
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  • 04
    She has never met me at all. I was completely confused by the whole email. When I told my manager the next day about this email which I said even the client came out and thanked me for cleaning up the mess, she said you can understand, she is a Boomer that is just how they talk and that she feels torn because this is her mom and you guys are my employees. But
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  • 05
    L
    via Jared Muller

    Image is representative, not actual subjects.

  • Working for a medium to small, to very small business means that, quite the opposite will be true. Things are going to be very personal, even when it's "Just business." And how can they not be? When things are literally being run by a single person or a single person and their immediate family members, and it's just you and them dealing with any problems that might pop up, things get very personal very quickly.

    Working for small businesses with owners who are also amazing managers and leaders is the dream. But the reality is that a great many people running small businesses give in to the intense stress of doing so and become ruthless about the company's bottom line, even when the company grows to hire employees.

    This young worker described how he took a seasonal landscaping job and enjoyed the work, being outside, and his coworkers, too. The manager, the daughter of the owner, was really great too. It had all the makings of an incredible job for a young person trying to make some money.

    Things took a weird turn when he started receiving emails from the owner of the company, his manager's mother, whom he had never met. She was throwing about wild accusations about how he was spending too long on properties and not doing a good enough job. Where she had gotten this information was entirely unclear. 

    Unfortunately, when he addressed it with his manager (again, the boss's daughter), she took her mother's side and added salt to the wound by adding that younger generations were too sensitive.

  • 06
    there was a huge mess that needed cleaned up, my manager told me to get as much as I could. And I was alone. She clearly didnt read them. Then she goes on to say that she "expects 20-30 year olds to have the physical ability to do this job without complaining about aches and pains" and that she wonders if "there is something else going on with me whether mentally or physically".
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  • 07
    the went on to say that younger generations are just getting progressively more sensitive using the example she also said that she has done this job for 4 hours while recovering after foot sur ry so we can not complain.
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  • 08
    The day I needed to take a half day was due to a throbbing headache I woke up with. I took medicine, was drinking water and taking breaks, was getting progressively more dizzy and nauseated in 80 degree heat. I couldn't finish out the last two hours and told her I needed to go home to lie down. Completely angry with me for going slow that day when I told her I might be slow but I will do my best. It was the only day I ever asked for a break.
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  • 09
    Needless to say I quit the next day. Immediately got another gardening position with increase of pay. I thought maybe I was overreacting, but I am not doing this my pain is worse than your pain martyr bulls
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