Hey guys! I'm an ASM at a store in a mall and recently I've noticed that the SM at the store directly across from seems like she's actively trying to harm my career.

A few weeks ago I was closing and my store was absolutely trashed by customers and we were understaffed. A few minutes before official closing time I made the decision to go ahead and close my gates as my store was empty and I was 1.3k above goal. We close at 9pm and I locked my gates at 8:57pm. This gave a few extra minutes of peace so we could recover the store some.

They next day my DM made an unannounced visit. While she was there with the other ASM, The SM from across the hall came in and informed my coworker that I had closed 15 minutes early the night before. This came as a shock to him because there was bad blood between them stemming from when he worked for her. They hadn't spoken in 6 months before this.

Of course my DM overheard everything but she didn't say anything at the time. When I came in that day, my DM pulled me aside and asked me if I had closed early. I'm not going to lie to my DM so I said yes I had and explained my reasoning. She was satisfied with my answer but asked me not to do it again so I said I wouldn't.

Fast forward a few weeks to last night. At about 5 minutes before close I pulled my gates out but left them open. I noticed the SM pull her phone out and her flash went off. This made me uncomfortable because I felt as if she was taking my picture.

Today as I was closing, a security guard I'm friends with came in and informed me that he had been in her store the night before and witnessed her take a photo of me.

Now, I feel like this was highly inappropriate of her and makes me feel like she is targeting me specifically. She never says or does anything when my SM or my other ASM closes early or pulls out the gates. I can't imagine why she wants to do this to me because I've never actually met her. I don't think she even knows my name.

I don't feel like she'll ever say anything to my SM because they don't get along. (My SM is a lesbian and the other SM said some rather homophobic remarks to her once.)

I know this is mall drama but with the whole picture taking thing its moved into the realm of me being physically uncomfortable. It got to the point I had mall security escort me and my sales associate to our cars.

For more context, I'm rather new to the store. I was hired shortly before thanksgiving. I'm also gay myself and I'm a 23 year old male. We do not sell competing merchandise, she sells kids shoes and I sell adult size clothing and shoes.