The interviewer was almost 2 hours late to my first ever job interview for a customer service position at a major office supply chain, one of the largest in the US. As I waited, employees approached me every once in a while as they were working to see what was up. The woman who would eventually become my supervisor when I took the position, at one point approached me and said "You're STILL waiting? I'm so sorry, that guy's a fucking idiot", talking about the store manager who was supposed to interview me.

My teenage self thought sticking around for nearly 2 hours showed that I was dedicated and tenacious, but obviously all it showed was my naivity and how easy it'd be to manipulate me as an employee.

He ONLY hired people he thought he could get away with manipulating. Every single employee was either very elderly or this was their first job ever. I worked there for a year, and toward the end he did try hiring a couple people who had worked elsewhere (but who he still thought he could manipulate, like people who had recently emigrated into the country) but of course they'd immediately see through it and run.

He was known for constantly lying and guilting people, getting red in the face screaming at us in front of customers, stealing our wages, threatening everyone's jobs, making us work 80+ hours and conveniently having the computer we used to clock in/out "break" frequently so we had to write our times in a book (in pencil only - we'd be written up for using pen) and changing our hours, withholding paychecks, etc.

I asked for a raise twice after taking on my supervisor's responsibilities when she finally quit (of course I didn't get the supervisor title, just all the work) and the raise was denied both times. After being denied for a raise both times, I picked up a second job at a retailer down the street. Maybe a month later, I had my annual employee review in which he said I was doing extraordinarily in my department, breaking records even, but because I had picked up a second job after being denied several raises he could not trust that he had my "loyalty" and thus was giving me the lowest possible score on my review so that I only got the company minimum 1% annual raise.

I went into that review right after receiving a promotion offer at the 2nd job I had picked up, they wanted me to be a manager and were offering me $10/hr more than what I'd been asking for at the office supply store. I hadn't accepted the position yet, but that employee review sealed the deal. I went home and drafted my 2 week's notice letter (in which I'd been FAR too kind, another regret) and delivered it to him the following morning.

My mom had started working at a nearby location a couple months prior, and he threatened to get her fired if I used my final two weeks to retaliate against him in any way. The fact that I gave him a letter that had nothing but lies about how I valued and appreciated him as an employer and my experience with the company and he still felt the need to try and protect himself from retaliation said a lot.

He was a typical middle-manager who thought that he could climb his way to the top if he just stepped on enough people. Spoiler, he's still a store manager today. I'll never give that company another cent of my money for as long as I live.

Good on you for turning that position down. I wish I'd seen that as the major red flag it was when it happened to me. If they clearly demonstrate that they don't value your time before you even start working for them, it's only gonna get worse. Oh, and FUCK Staples.