TLDR; I have a history of being chronically late at work. It was fireably bad last year, but they (somehow) didn't fire me. This year I've really cleaned up my act, but my manager still snipes at me some mornings and it makes the work environment feel hostile.

I'll try to make this as impartial as possible- as lord knows we're all tired of the "Am I the angel? asshole?" posts.

Full story: I, 23M, work as a school bus driver part time in the morning to help cover bills. I have various other jobs which nearly cover everything, but this has been nice because I can work 6am-9am to eek in 15hrs a week before my true day starts.

That's the first problem. To me- this is just an income. Many, if not most, of my coworkers are retirees who have settled on this as fulfilling contribution to society in their golden years. They arrive a half hour before their route starts and sit in the break room together talking and laughing- which is lovely. There's a strong feeling of community between them which I'm happy for, but that I'm just /not/ a part of. I have no issues with this, as it's a /job/ for me, but it leads to a disconnect between me and management as well. That's the issue at hand.

Last school year I was, I will be the first to admit, constantly tardy. Usually about 5 minutes, but in the coldest month of the year I was showing up 10 or 15 minutes late daily. Once or twice I even slept straight through my shift. They didn't fire me because they were wildly understaffed, but I know it made dispatches life difficult and I felt terrible about that. So after about a month of my bs, and covering shifts like crazy to make it up to dispatch, I got it under wraps. Consistently arriving 1 or 2 mins late. Still bad, but no longer an active inconvenience to my coworkers.

Around this time, we hired a new middle manager. He's not in charge of the garage, but he manages time off requests and hr-type things and fills in for dispatcher #2 from 5-7am before #2's shift starts. He's in his 50s, and is an ex-federal employee. Not sure what he used to do exactly- something about federal background checks-, but he boasted a few times about having "high level security clearance" which would still be active for a few years. He noted my consistent 1-2minute tardiness and took a disliking to me.

Flash forward to this year, and I've been really working on my tardiness habit. I usually arrive about 5 mins early in the mornings tell him "Good Morning!" (we're required to verbally check-in with dispatch) which is always met without any acknowledgement.

This winter I slipped for a week and went back to late arrivals, which was met with him "inviting me" to someone else's office (he only has a cubicle) and chewing me out. Saying "either your shitty attitude has to go or you do".

Other than that, he's hardly said a word to me all year. Only if I'm "late". Today I arrived at 6:03:22. My check in is 6:03. As I'm halfway out the door to the bus lot, he says "I'm marking you in at 6:04".

So, is he a petty tyrant? Or am I a shitty employee? I know I used to be, but I'd thought I'd demonstrated clearly I put that behavior behind me. The dispatchers like me and we shoot the shit, and I get along great with my few younger coworkers who are also here to earn income rather than find a community. The main dispatcher insists I've gotten much better and they trust me with earlier shifts again. So why can't this guy let it go? Other coworkers have problems with him too & he seems to have a shit list of people he picks on & other people he leaves alone- as well as random paper dictums he'll post about like "Do not park in the parking stalls painted white" or "Everybody is required to arrive 30mins early for their shift next monday for a mandatory emergency meeting". These 'orders' are almost never followed.

Then say he is the asshole, what do I do about it? Show up on time so he can't say anything- sure, but I've done that 151/156 days this year (I know this because he docks my pay by the minute every damn time I'm tardy). My least favorite part of every morning is trying to pretend like I'm not waiting for him to make some passive aggressive comment or dock my pay by one minute.

Fuck. Rant over.

If you've read this far you're a saint. Or you're lost in a reddit k-hole and it's time to set the phone down. /lh Either way, thanks for taking the time.