I work for a popular furniture retailer that caters to snotty, self-absorbed clients that often complain about the stresses of decorating their cabins in Tahoe or their houses on the beach. Well, my rant is not about them but the company itself.
They speak of themselves as being focused on their people. I have to say that I did not listen to my inner voice telling me that it was all fake and that I should go work at the liquor store in the wrong part of town before taking this job.
None the less here I am listening to the GM tell one of our full time employees that they have a choice to either step down from being full time or quit school because the one night a week that he has school is conflicting with needs of the business. Mind you that this is a company that has tuition reimbursement. I thought that for a brief moment that it was just his misdoing that a company would never ask an employee to give up on bettering themselves, I was so very wrong. This action was directed straight from our DM’s mouth. Shock and awe washed over me at that moment and knew I had made a terrible mistake by taking this job. I always have prided myself on being a type of manager that works with my employees when it comes to school and family life. Lets be real a 20 something year old is not going to make this job a career, they are cheap labor for a reason. They are looking for a job in retail because it is has more flexible hours than a 8-5 job. This just blows me away, it is not like the kid was a manager.
I have been recently been sent to a store on the other side of town to being told that they need “help out”. When I got there one of the stores managers told me that they had no idea why I was there. I spent 8 hours greeting clients as they came in. Not more then 30 minutes was spent on anything related to supervising or what is required from me to maintain my exempt standing. I could understand if I truly was needed or that there was something that I need to get done while I was there but that was not the case. The other problem with this is now they are having me work there for the next few weeks and are clearly not willing to work with me on scheduling issues. I am a single mom and do need some amount of structure to my schedule so I can plan accordingly for daycare. At my home store I was less than 15 minutes away from home or his school and now I will be atleast 40 minutes with traffic being light. Again, I was not asked to do this, I did not apply to work in that area for a reason. I knew that I would not be as flexible working in that area as compared to the area I currently work in.
This is just a drop in the sea of problems that seem to have arisen for me. I do atleast feel better with things since most of the management in the two store are looking for new jobs, well except the GMs. Which are the clones of the DM, the fake smiles, fake compliments, under handed comments, and be like “Tigger” attitudes that makes people want to throw up.
