Does anyone else find this weird?

A lot of you already know that I work at our (small) town's local pet shop.. which is really small. Now that I'm back in school I only work after school (on days the owner works), and on some Saturdays. The other day she asked if I was chewing gum, and I said yes, and she told me to get rid of it.. but she walks around drinking cans of pop, smoking cigarettes (and near all of the dogs), and stands around eating food that her daughter brings her.. right out of the pan. She also seems to be fine with her daugher bringing her yellow lab in.. but I can't chew a piece of gum?! Is this really odd, or am I just making a big deal out of nothing? Everyone else I've told seems to be confused as to why she got mad about it.

Some people find gum excruciatingly annoying. I cannot stand to be in the room with anyone chewing gum, even with their mouth closed, which almost nobody does. Even someone slopping it around in their mouth irritates people that really hate it. When I worked in a store that where I was front end manager, we sold candy in my department. I refused to stock gum, or order it. My manager was fine with it, he hated it,too. I fired several people for chewing gum while they were working behind the registers. The were told when they were hired it was totally against company policy.
It is her shop, so if she does not want someone chewing gum in it, she shouldn't have to.
I hope I didn't sound rude, I was just giving my opinion on why she might have gotten so mad about it. From reading your posts, you seem like a really nice person.

I agree, it is weird....and a good welcome to the world of being an employee. Bosses are strange and rules do not apply to them. Also, they make up new and wacky rules for you on the spot, possibly for their own amusement. I had a boss that refused to let me keep food in the office, but wouldn't allow me a long enough break to eat otherwise, so I did it anyway cuz I needed the few bites between classes to keep my energy up. She freaked out so much that she actually went through my stuff and threw it around the room.....meanwhile, she was drinking at work. Needless to say, that was the day I gave notice.

Unfortunately, as unfair as it is for her to eat, drink, etc and not let you chew gum, she has her reasons (whether or not they're valid is a whole other question....though gum chewing is a turn off for many people and could make a poor impression in a clerk) and she's the boss.....so you'll have to go along with her rules unless they are creating an environment that you can't work in, in which case you'd have to look for another job. Gum chewing, unless you're real name is Violet Beauregard, is probably something you can stand to do without, so I'd say get rid of the gum and smile while you wait for her next rule to pop up.
But at least you'll have a crazy boss story to share when the topic comes up at parties LOL

Originally Posted by krazy kat2

Some people find gum excruciatingly annoying.

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Well I find her excruciatingly annoying.. maybe I can ask her to "get out" when I'm there.. haha. I wasn't even chewing, either.. she had to ask me to know if I was or not, so I don't see how she could consider that "annoying"..

Originally Posted by Leli

She freaked out so much that she actually went through my stuff and threw it around the room.....meanwhile, she was drinking at work.

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Ugh.. if that happened to me, they'd be hearing a lot about it.