Retail managers are NOT out to screw the people below us

[TwixVoy]

Reading comments from people that suggest retail managers are out to screw everyone below us really annoys me.

I am a manager at a major retailer. (no, not wal-mart) I have never EVER told an employee they could not have a break or a lunch. In fact, the suggested corrective action for a manager that does that is termination.

I would never ever attempt to influence the way an employee voted, nor how they feel about unions. If employees wanted to talk to each other about unions I would not give a damn. Many of my peers wouldn't either.

But what really annoys me are the people who want to, how would you say, "strike out at" perhaps, retailers with out unions by coming in and screwing with the people at the bottom. The very people who they claim they want to help.

You know who the BIGGEST group of people are who stand in the way of me making sure every one of my employees gets treated with dignity? The BIGGEST group of people who have a PROBLEM with one of my employees going to break or lunch? The ONLY group that has EVER given me a problem about that? No, it's not my fellow managers. It's the freaking general populace that comes in to shop.

I have literally almost been PHYSICALLY ATTACKED over sending an employee to break/lunch. During this last fourth quarter it was hell getting every cashier a break/lunch. We would turn off the cashiers light, but ass hole after ass hole kept coming to the lane anyway and throwing their stuff on the belt. I would come over, tell them sorry but this cashier needs a break/lunch you will have to find another lane.

I would get cussed at. I would get dirty looks. I had one ass hole even threaten to attack me. But I made damn sure on my watch 100% of my team got their breaks and lunches 100% of the time.

And as to the people who want to suggest the best way to "strike back" is by going in and screwing with some of the people at the bottom, do us a favor and help by not being an ass and treating us with some respect. Trust me, it will go much further than you realize.

[inanna]

Aw, you know what?

My manager gets shit on all the time by those above him and those below him (us). But in reality, he's an awesome guy.

No, not retail, but we deal with the public all the same.

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[rwheeler31]

1. Middle manageress have no power. Some are creeps .

many ok.

[TwixVoy]

3. No ONE has any power

at the store level anymore. 15 years ago yes, but not anymore.

Even our store manager has no "power". Everything that we do is directed by corporate - to every single store.

It is to the point we LITERALLY can not put a sign a bathroom stall saying it is out of order until we call corporate and get approval to do so.

Our wages are set by corporate. Even when we write reviews for employees, we have to send them to corporate for "review" before we can actually give them.

We can not even give refunds outside of corporate guidelines. No one at any level of management has the ability to override that.

Corporate sends us "directives" through our intranet. We read them on the computer, and it basically tells us what to do for the day/week. They even tell us where and how to merchandise product. If we don't follow ALL of these instructions to the letter, when our district manager (or higher) comes in to check we are in trouble.

If you really want to effect wal-mart (or any other retailer) you will NOT do it by going to to stores. You need to go and protest outside corporate HQ if you want to even begin to get results.

[Beregond2]

8. Corporate control has gotten out of hand all right.

I was talking to a woman who is a groomer at Petco, and she said she can't even turn up the AC because the temperature is controlled at HQ!

[TwixVoy]

9. Same for us

the AC and EVEN THE LIGHTS are controlled remotely at HQ.

Also all the security cameras in the store can be watched from HQ as well.

[bushmeister0]

12. This I will confirm

When I worked at Linens n Things, we used to get complaints from the customers all the time about how stinking hot it was in the store all the time in the summer. L&T's HQ is in Jersey, so they must have known how F'in hot it was.

Nice work L&T. Make the shopping experience a living hell. Wonder why they're filing for bankrupcy!

Penny wise, pound foolish.

[bushmeister0]

13. Totally correct!

This has been going on for a long time now. I was in retail all through the 80's and 90's and after a slight return in the 00's I can attest to the fact that GMs have no power any more.

I had a GM at L&T that actually started wearing an apron because he couldn't convince the staff to wear one. His take was, "Hey, we have to wear arpons, there are secret shoppers (the lowest scum on earth) I will do it if you will."

I don't remember that level of groveling from upper mangelment in the 80's. You did what you were told back then, and if you didn't all you had to do was actually do a good job and you got a pass on stupid shit like wearing aprons.

GMs back then could approve raises and give passes based on actual good work. No more.

[FatDave]

24. I realize this isn't always an option, but...

...why not try to find a job with a locally owned company? Those often have a different set of problems (*cough* owners' adult kids *cough*) but at least all your actions aren't dictated by corporate fascists.

[SmileyRose]

28. Wish I could recommend your post

Family businesses do indeed have that particular downside. :)

[napi21]

2. Any customer who acts like that obviously never worked in retail!

But, as much as this is going to sound like I'm siding with the AH customer (and I don't!) those are the problems associated with working the the public at large. My husband has been a meat cutter almost his whole life. He doesn't have the same problems you do, BUT similar ones. The store closes at 10PM every night! They have a large self service case filled with meat, but there are ALWAYS a few customers who come in a 9:50PM and insist on haveing something ground special for them! I don't know if they don't know, or just don't care, that the grinder, slicer, cuber, etc. have all been cleaned & sanitized, and that meat cutter MUST leave on time at the end of his shift at 10PM. They too get very irrate and yell and swear at him because THEY ARE A CUSTOMER!

I'm sure every position in retail can tell you similar stories. I've come to the conclusion, after 45 years of hearing these stories, that some people are just a PIA, and you have to find a way for YOU & your employees to chalk them up as such.

[The Straight Story]

I always wondered

When something says they close at X time why they clean up things earlier, why not say they close a 1/2 before they do so they can spend that time cleaning up things (fast food places, etc)?

[TwixVoy]

5. In some areas

it is because you don't want to be in the store alone after close for long if you can help it. It is a prime setup to get robbed.

[TwixVoy]

4. It is getting worse

over the years people are getting worse in how they treat us.

One of my peers (who was VISIBLY PREGNANT) got elbowed in the stomach for being in the path of someone trying to get a deal on black friday.

[madmom]

21. I know the feeling exactly, I worked in a deli in a box store, could tell you

lots of stories about people who thought they were more important than anyone or anything else in the world!

[RB TexLa]

6. I think any retail employee should be able to legally shoot anyone complaining about

the length of the checkout lines. Any time I am in line and the person behind me complains, I simply move my shopping cart or myself and stuff behind them, if they say anything, I just say "you are obviously too damn important to wait so I got out of your way."

[Quantess]

11. Long lines get on most people's nerves, at least some of the time.

But, the line is either worth waiting in, or not. If the line's too long, then put the stuff down and leave the store. I have no problem abandoning my items if the line is just too long.

If the store thinks it's worth it to have more cashiers for customers to stand in line long enough to pay for the items, they will hire more cashiers. If the store doesn't want to employ more cashiers, and customers quit shopping at their store because of the long lines, then that is the store's choice.

It's also the customer's choice whether they really need to shop at stores with frustratingly long lines.

[tammywammy]

7. Yep!

I've been there done that. I'm extra super nice every time I step into a retail store. :)

[HubertHeaver]

10. I was in retail/retail management many years ago

Christmas has never been quite the same.
I did suspect that upper management was out to screw everyone below them.

[bushmeister0]

14. If given a choice, no one would work in retail, It's the worst shit job in the F'in world.

I wasn't like that in the olden days, but for a lot of us struggling to deal with very few options, it is now, and it's because they know you have no freakin' choice any more. It's either retail or worse.

I read alot of these DU posts about Wal-Mart and how folks should go in and F with employees about unions and such, but the folks writing this stuff from their high horses obviously have never worked retail.

Once, a while back, I was absolutly desperate for a job and I even went back to Toys R Us, a great company back when I worked for them in the 80's, but now a private concern owned by -- God knows who.

I asked for $9 p/h, based on my 5 years experience there, and the GM told me 'No way," there was a woman there who had started at the same time as me in 1986 and she was making $7.50!!!!!!

All this time, she had been making $7.50!

WTF?

The thing was with TRU, even back in the day, they'd never promote from within. They'd always have these summer cattle-calls from young MBA graduates, and they'd run them into the ground during "season" -- and if you've never been through a Christmas season at a toy store you have no appreciation -- and the ones who survived would get a job in the end and maybe a "store" because the attrition was so overwhelming.

I did the retail management thing for 19 years, I can't even begin to tell you the horror stories. I can tell you that IKEA is the living manifestation of Satan's rule on Earth.

http://thedearleader.blogspot.com/

I was a retail manager for many years and I feel your pain. The people you work with, for the most part, are great, but the people (?} you work for???? I dunno . . .

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

19. A while back there was a suggestion......

....about filling up shopping carts at Wal-Mart and leaving them for the employees to pick up.

I was amazed at the amount of "progressive" people who thought screwing with minimum wage workers was a great idea......

[TwixVoy]

25. Jesus that's worse than wal-mart

Are you saying toys r us doesn't even give annual raises?

We HAVE to give EVERY employee at least SOME raise every year. Even the poor performing ones. Literally, corporate demands it. (now it's a crap raise if you are a poor performer, but it's still something...)

[bushmeister0]

27. Well, this is what the GM was claiming anyway.

It sounded pretty off to me, too, but when you're talking about a totally private company that doesn't have to answer to stock holders, I guess, it's plausable.

I wouldn't put it beyond them.

[Berry Cool]

15. Sounds like there is a complete lack of empowerment at the store level.

Empowerment used to be a big thing in retail management years ago. Empower the worker on the floor to delight the customer and give exceptional service, even if it means breaking a few "rules" here and there, and the result will be a faithful, loyal clientele. Right?

Well, that seems to have fallen by the wayside. Now, rules from "corporate" are rules, they can never be violated, and no one has the power to do so, even in order to make the customer experience better. Wonder why? Could it be because corporations are no longer run to derive maximum profits from pleasing customers, but rather to derive the biggest profit from pleasing the shareholders (which means spending the absolute minimum on operational costs, including merchandise, employee salaries and benefits, yet still trying to make the maximum amount of money)?

It's way more important that the person on the floor try to sell the customer on purchasing a loyalty card (i.e., they will buy your loyalty by offering you the opportunity to avoid paying the hideous markups they put on their merchandise if only you shop exclusively with them), or on getting a credit card (on which they can charge 20-plus percent interest), or simply tries to get them to buy more stuff.

Forget about trying to make the shopping experience better by offering the best and widest selection of merchandise, employing enough people to prevent long lines from happening, offering decent enough pay and bennies to make good people WANT to work at your store, or offering special incentives to employees who do the best job of delighting the customer and building loyalty that way. Uh-uh. Too expensive. It's much cheaper and quicker to boost the bottom line by cutting salaries and bennies, employing fewer people, stocking cheaper merchandise with less variety, marking up the stuff so the only people who pay anything close to as little as it's really worth are the customers with loyalty cards, and getting more customers to buy on revolving credit.

Of course, the managers most likely to be successful and get ahead in this environment are not the dedicated, caring people who want to delight customers and believe that half the battle in delighting customers is motivating the people on the floor to do so by treating them decently and allowing them to have the breaks they need or to organize a union if they don't feel they are getting a fair shake from corporate. The managers most likely to get ahead are the assholes who are good at taking orders from corporate and strictly enforcing them to the point where any employee who's not a "good little soldier" about obeying orders to the letter says "F this sh--. For minimum wage, it's not worth it" and leaves if at all humanly possible. Only to be replaced by people who can't find work doing anything else, who will be similarly unmotivated.

I feel for you, TwixVoy. I don't work in retail, but I used to, and one of my relatives still does. It's a jungle out there.

[SocratesInSpirit]

16. I feel for you...

My husband is a retail manager. He's a good man who works hard and treats his employees well. If he's not getting crapped on by customers, upper management is trying to screw him over. Retail really is a hellhole industry to work in.

There is a new comic strip called "Retail" that my husband finds amusing. Perhaps you will enjoy it as well:

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/fun/retail.asp

[chemp]

17. Thank You

I am also in Retail Management. I run seven retail units in one client location. My company is very left wing, 65% unionized, and as progressive as they can be without getting walked over.
Still we get attacked. We were mentioned in an attack by O'Reilly.

We are trying to do our jobs. If my client want us closed for a holiday, I am not going to schedule employees to work. sorry. My customers work for my client. They should talk to their bosses regarding my being open.
When costs of goods go up at an alarming rate, yet I hold price increases to 10 and 20 cents, I'm trying to rip off our guests.

I will not name my company, but my location is currently in union talks, since the contract has expired. Three days now, and the union has not brought up wages. THREE DAYS. They want more personal days, they want more sick pay, they want parking fees refunded (a very valid point), but no wage increases.

I see management supporting the front line employees better than their union. yet management gets blamed. It's a shame.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

18. "Managers are slaves"

A quote from the evil District Sales Manager who ran my area.

Because they were salaried, they had to come in to cover before overtime was handed out.

Yeah, some managers have a total dick personality, but I think it comes with the job. You have to be a bit harsh because you get crapped on from above and often below too.

As far as people not letting employees break.......heck, we'd have customers walk right into our office where we ate lunch and demand we serve them.

[Prophet 451]

20. I'm sure you're one of the good ones

but don't close your eyes to the fact that some managers in the retail sector (and probably every other sector) really are complete dicks. I've worked retail and had both managers who were great people, real nice guys who'd help you out anyway they could and managers who were complete georgeos in love with their own power.

Granted, that's probably true of every sector but not everyone is as good as you are.

[baby_mouse]

22. Thank you for pointing this out.

Jobs that deal with the public are poorly understood by the public.

[orleans]

23. sorry you get such a hard time. n/t

[TZ]

26. Having worked for retail for 6 years I sympathize!

Although there are a few jerk managers, almost all that I worked for were really good about making sure you had the breaks you needed.
In fact, it was in a "professional white collar job" that I had where skipping lunch and having no break time was routinely ignored.
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