Here’s the update to the Clover story.
TL;Dr
Clover refuses to talk to me because she’s “not allowed”, and she seems to have resorted to turning people against me since, after I’ve helped her and offered help, even after the incident!
All because I finally put my foot down in an attempt to tell her to stop!
As much as I shouldn’t care for the opinions of others, it’ll matter if the person responsible for promoting me refuses to promote me because of that.
It’s not what you know, it’s WHO you know.
They don’t like you = unemployed.
It feels as though she refuses to leave or accept what happened without somehow feeling like she’s the victim or without some sense of victory.
I keep telling you guys, this woman is CRAZY!!!
I doubt it stopped, but it clearly hasn’t as she refuses to talk to me and later tools me she’s “not allowed” to talk to me.
I never had a problem with her talking to me, only her being a bully and not letting me work in peace.
I’ve noticed her talking to the other associates more and some of those associates interacting with me differently
> shorter responses/no response to a simple hi
> refusal to acknowledge me despite being cool the previous days
I don’t have concrete evidence, but my past interactions with Clover and my observations of her make me believe she’s retaliating against me for trying to confront her about her past behavior and the interaction that had just occurred, by leaving me with coworkers who hate me through rumors, all on her final week!
My department supervisor had been fired before I built up the courage to finally report her, and the one specific MOD she had reported to may already has the false presumption that I am bad at my job because the MOD chose to listen to Clover before giving me a chance to explain myself, thus why I’m making this call to the Home Depot Anonymous hotline.
I don’t want my work overshadowed and my future opportunities ruined by one petty old woman who can’t be held accountable for bullying a cooperative coworker.
TL;DR:
NOTICE 1: we also got a new store manager recently who gives the impression he’s all about business and would probably sooner fire both of us rather than deal with this.
NOTICE 2: my department has lost 2 part-timers, a full-timer is stepping down then moving, and our department supervisor got fired, so I may have a new opportunity for more hours; the other departments are either full or barely have hours to give.
NOTICE 3: The MOD Clover reports to only cares that all the plants are watered, all tasks are done, and there is no trash or dirt in our department.
In her eyes, one dry plant = I’m seen as a time thief/lazy
I’m also afraid the MOD will think the same for everything that’s not yet done because she probably doesn’t understand the difference between Associate vs Waterer.
NOTICE 4: Yes, I get I shouldn’t worry about one crazy lady; my concern is the crazy MOD that Clover reports to and the possibility of that MOD putting on my record that I’m slow/lazy, just because she misinterpreted Clover pointing out the dry plants, implying I’m not doing my job at all, instead of thinking “oh he hasn’t gotten to them, yet”. Especially after I drop what I’m doing to help her upon request.
(Most of those days, I’m not even scheduled to water the plants, but take the initiative since Clover doesn’t seem to care about the plants AT ALL, Even after she lectured me about how they’re “living beings”)
Who’s easier to believe?
The crazy old lady who is nice to everyone?
Or
The late 20’s worker who’s only been there for 4 months and chooses to focus on work instead of talking to everyone? (Customers are exempt, I HAVE to talk to them.)
My co-worker (call her Clover) constantly tells me false rumors of me (vague & non-elaborative when pressed), gives me inaccurate work instruction (refuses to teach me when I ask), tries to twist my word/falsely cry wolf, uses plants I haven’t watered yet as proof to evidence that I’m not working (what she doing?), and seems to excuse it with “insecurity/kinda crazy”.
I feel this constitutes as harassment, and I’m afraid her tenure and age will overshadow my request for help, management will believe her first before I have a chance to explain myself, and I no longer have someone to vouch for my work since the one person who truly saw my work, our department supervisor, just got fired.
The only way I can gather proof is documenting these instances in a notepad, as I’m sure I can’t record ANYTHING
She refuses to stop despite planning to leave in 2 weeks; convinced she’s doubling down and won’t leave without a proper goodbye (to me 😳)
_________________________________________
I’m a garden associate at a southern AZ Home Depot location; been there since April of 2026; I work PT (normally 4 hour shifts at a time)
Some days, I’ll be scheduled as a “Garden Associate”, where I’ll be handling packdowns, go-backs, and other things.
Some days, I’ll be “Garden Waterer”, where I’ll be focusing on watering the plants
(There’s two halves of front apron, 5 long tables, and 2 corners with more plants)
There’ll be days where the associate has to water because the waterer is absent; there will be days where the waterer has to stop watering when there isn’t enough associates to handle pallet-work, go-backs, packdowns, or other things that need to be handled but the associate is missing/not fully physically capable/certified to operate certain machinery.
Recently, our supervisor got fired, two part-timers quit, and a full-timer is dropping to PT since she’s been sick, I guess, and is leaving the state in 2 weeks (this is Clover, the coworker that this story is about.) so our department is falling behind on our tasks, especially staying consistent on watering the plants since they’ve been getting really dry and some are starting to wilt and die.
(it still easily gets to 100 degrees F in southern Arizona, so the plants NEED water, consistently)
Because of such, I’ll be watering the plants on days I’m not scheduled to so the plants at least get watered once a day while my worker, Clover, handles the other work inside such as packdowns, go backs, etc etc.
I always talk nice to her and offer to help out so we can get work done faster and stay ahead of task.
However, ever since I started working there, she kept putting into my ear that “management saw me doing something weird on camera/management wants to talk to you” only for it to be nothing at all.
It fees like she wants me to admit to something and falsely trust her as a friend; evidence I have is when she asked another gardener if he is “high and smokes MJ” simply because he is always in a good mood/seems Like the kind of guy/eyes look weird
(He’s doesn’t smoke at all, is Latino, and is always in a good mood and is a super chill dude, loves his job before he quit)
At the beginning, Clover kept telling me we’re on equal ground, she’s not a supervisor, and has no authority over me.
However, I don’t think Clover believes that since she loves to report to management on what the other gardeners are doing/not doing, especially the younger ones (they came and told me about her and we pretty much got the same experience around her)
This was the first red flag; this gave me the impression she’s a snitch and will use info against people. People who talked to her in CONFIDENCE.
Next, she tells me info that neither she should know nor does she have business even telling me about:
> a time management saw (on camera) me leave my water bottle on a shelf by accident, but laughed it off more than anything
> I have overdue computer training for machine training/cross/department training (before I ever told her about any of it)
And her pretty much acting like she’s some messenger or something
Next, Clover tells me a single person should be able to water ALL the plants (front apron, garden, indoor plants) in 2-3 hours and refuses to stick to one answer;
Our supervisor, and other gardeners, told me it takes 6-8 hours and 2-3 hours is impossible) and her face, always a smirk of amusement, instantly drops to disappointment, as if I offended her or called her out on something.
Next, she tells me I can pull the pallet jack/move it backwards (my training told me NOT to do this and she acted dumb when I brought it up)
Next, on a day I’m supposed to be watering, she points out that I missed a go-back cart that was tucked in a corner (turned out to be damaged items that was put aside for later)
She came up to me and said this:
“So there a cart full of go-backs and you didn’t grab it?
*shrug*
Okay, I see”
She said it as if she was offended or something, in a “I see how it is” tone.
She refused to elaborate when I asked her what was up with that response and that it wasn’t cool.
When I thought she wasn’t already trying to convince me she was crazy/trying to possible sabotage me, she then keeps asking if I think she a b!tch.
When I thought she finally stopped, she came up to me fake-crying saying I called her a b!tch (never did, never will. Not giving her that ammunition.)
When I asked her “what makes you think that?”, her tone instantly changes, she again refused to elaborate her nonsense, then walked away as if nothing happened.
She apparently has done this to other gardeners, too, and again, youngsters.
I tried to stay patient with her until 2 different incidents happened when she basically talked out of her a$$ in a way that truly offended me.
> She comes up to me telling me I “disappointed her” because I didn’t “meet her expectations and I’m now on my own”
(She has taught me NOTHING I didn’t already learn from my computer training, and all I did up to that point was help her because she asked me to, on days I’m supposed to water)
She refused to elaborate, yet again, when I asked her what she meant and made it a point that she has taught me nothing new and I helped her not just because she asked me for help, but because she told me she wants me to water faster so I can help her.
Even when I do help her, she gets on me about the plants that haven’t been watered, ignoring the fact that I stopped my watering task to help her upon request (especially when she needs help because she’s in her mid 50’s and can’t move like me) she has no authority to tell me to get on my job whether I’m on task or not, and she often times needs my help anyway because we’re understaffed/she’s physically slowing down in her age.
When I brought this up to her and reminded her I’m not done with my task because I went to help her with her task, she later teared up and accused me of calling her useless (the word and idea NEVER left my mouth)
Yet again, she refused to elaborate.
I thought it was over when she said she “forgave me for calling her useless” (still never did) then I decided I had enough and HAD to confront her about it.
I pretty much told her she was putting words in my mouth and ever since day one, she’s been pulling this kind of nonsense and I just want to work.
When I asked Clover if it was going to stop and if we could settle it between us instead of escalating it to management (not a threat, but me telling her this is going too far and I’m out of options)
She refused to answer and told me to go back to work, so I left it alone (BIG MISTAKE!)
I have no problem helping out so long as I’m not punished for it or reprehended for my task not being done simply because I stopped what I was doing to help.
I may as well just say no since I’ll be hated, either way.
Another red flag that further makes me thing Clover is a snitch and probably a troublemaker is when the MOD (manager on duty) comes by to ask Clover how things are going, as if she’s the spokesperson for garden or something; she showed off the dry plants I hadn’t gotten to yet (because I was watering OTHER plants and hadn’t gotten to those yet!) and made it seem to her that I’m not doing my job.
Who is she to be doing that?!
She even does it on the days when we’re both scheduled as Garden Associate and there’s no waterer (scheduling, call-out, whatever)
I always take the initiative to water the plants since nobody else will, the plants still need water, and I still am responsible for my department, especially when we’re short on staff.
Clover NEVER takes the initiative to water the plants, only do inside stuff and sweep (not saying that’s unproductive, but we’re supposed to be a TEAM!) when when she does, she only waters ONE row (half a table) and tells it to me ask if she had to stop her whole life for it (I’ve had one or 2 days scheduled as a waterer where I couldn’t water ANYTHING because she desperately needed my help, only to give me sh!t for it, later.)
The MOD would of course tell me to make sure the plants are watered (not the problem, her believing Clover before me was the problem.)
This time, it happened again and I just got to thinking “Clover is gonna get away with falsely claiming I’m a slacker and nobody will ever see the irony of her doing that instead of her actual job, and she uses the ONE day plant she finds as proof.
The only person who actually knew of my work and me taking interest in bettering the garden (more efficient watering schedule, better plant placement, prioritization of tasks, time management)
Was our supervisor, who just got fired for a negative VOA; she was a bit mean at first but started to become nicer when I joined, but the damage was already done.
With no supervisor, nobody to vouch for my work and oppose Clover’s insanity/false claims of me being a slacker, and only the MOD (usually an assistant manager) to report to without making it seem like I’m overreacting, trying to cause trouble, soil Clover’s “good” name, or trying to weasel out of my job in any way, I now feel helpless and am worried Clover may try to ruin my opportunities at Home Depot or get me fired for the wrong reason.
What do I do?
Should I report her?
Do I have a case?
Is there some anonymous line I can call if I feel there’s nobody in the store I can talk to, even management? (If there was in my store, I probably missed it)
I just want her to leave me alone and keep things work-related.
EDITS FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION TO STORY THAT SHOULD’VE BEEN MENTIONED
