I’m a Year 13 student currently working a part time job at Tescos. I’ve only had 4 shifts but I feel I’ve been doing pretty well, and most of the staff are so friendly, with a lot of them being kids my age. However, when working the checkout tills, I am still under 18 and therefore have to wait for approval to sell alcohol to a customer. This either results in pressing a button so other team members with headsets can come and approve it, or, the more preferred option, which is just to ask colleagues near you for ease and quickness. One lady, who must be in mid-50s just absolutely hates me. I have really tried to nice and kind, but when asking her to approve alcohol she gets snappy and nasty with me. I didn’t know her name at the time, so would just politely say “excuse me, would you mind approving this” then thank her afterwards. I am new to this job and rather nervous, however she’s been nothing but hostile with me. Constantly giving me dirty looks, when I can assure you I barely speak to her and have made sure not to an attitude with her. Even when I didn’t know her name, I tried to be polite and appropriate.
However it all came into fruition today. I was put on a till, desperate not to be near her, her presence just feels very mean and unwelcoming. Unfortunately I got sat right next to her. When I asked her to approve some alcohol she straight up ignored me at first, I then asked again, to the point the customer she was serving noticed and was telling her. Bear in mind, approving alcohol is simply her just looking at the customer I’m serving and saying yes. It’s not a massive task and doesn’t distract her from serving her own customers, it’s also apart of her job. The managers actively encourage the older members of staff to do this. She then turned around and snapped at me, saying I had to press the button for the headset and that she didn’t want to help me. Even the customer I was serving, gave me a look as if to say “that wasn’t very nice”. I then called over my team leader to approve it, he reminded me that I could just ask the lady working with me. I then said that she didn’t wish to help me, in which she turned around and proceeded to tell my team leader I was rude, and “didn’t know how to talk to people”. I was very upset by this and was trying not to cry, as I pride myself on being a confident and friendly person and simply do not understand what I have done to cause such offence. When asking around a bit, it seems she is like this to alot of people and not very well liked, however she seems to particularly hate something about me. I now dread having another shift where I could potentially be near her. I don’t want to kick up a fuss and ask not to be sat near her, as I don’t want to be a problem or an issue. But at the same time the thought of her being unkind to me again makes me very anxious. I’m normally a tough person and can handle people being nasty to me, I’m just not used to it being an old woman. Idk if it’s relevant but there’s also a little bit of a language barrier, not much, but I don’t know if certain things I’ve done may have come across rude to her because of that. Sorry for the long story, but can anyone give me some advice?