Meeting at the Gift Store

When I wrote Evan yesterday, I alluded to my manager crossing a line (again) but didn’t go into details because I meant to blog about it… so here it is… the meeting and the PRE meeting meeting.

We were scheduled a meeting on Monday for the past week or so. I’ve been dreading it because of the current triumvirate of power( Manager, Ass’t Lm and their new buddy Ass’t K)… and I figured it would be the one note that K has of SELL!

On Friday the manager pulled me and a few of us other working stiffs (sales associates) and had a pre meeting discussion. He first mentioned that he KNEW that most of us were looking for a job and crossed into a gray area when he asked us to raise our hands as he rattled off times asking if we expect to be there in that time frame (i.e. raise your hand if you expect to be here in 4 years, in 1 year….). While I didn’t call him on this… and tried to remain silent for as much of the meeting as possible, I also didn’t raise my hand at ANY POINT. I told one of my associates that I didn’t PLAN to be at the store at any time frame; because I suck at job searches… Odds are I’ll be at the store for a while but I don’t plan it.
The manager then said that he KNEW that some people don’t like K, that he’s heard from 5 or 6 people… but it was a ‘he said, she said situation’. That was the first time I spoke up; and I pointed out that if one person complains about Joe (made sure to use a fictitious name) that’s a he said/she said but if MORE then one person complains- THAT’S collaboration. The manager then asked what he should do about K, asking us to ‘solve’ his problem, and that was my second response where I basically suggested that he makes K( and again I made sure not to use his name) to ring or otherwise do work like us… The manager didn’t seem to like this… and in fact several times defended K’s actions. He went so far as to suggest that maybe K was acting the way he was because the manager wanted K to be a ‘bad cop’ to his ‘good cop’.
AFTER the meeting- I told a co-worker that La is the ‘bad cop’- as she often points out when people are breaking the rules by like not having their shirts tucked in, K is the ‘donut cop’ who just eats a donut on the street corner. I got a couple of giggles for that.
The only other thing worth noting was that the person who spoke the most besides the manager, and she spoke so much because she wants a raise/ promotion… She pointed out that she’s been given some of the responsibilities of a supervisor but NOT the money. The manager then argued which comes first- the money or the responsibilities… that perhaps she has to PROVE herself before she gets the raise. What I thought the height of funny… is the manager ended up suggesting that perhaps K was late for his opening shift( two hours from what I hear) to test this gal and see if SHE could open.

So that was the pre-meeting, the manager knows that K is disliked and we’re unhappy but because he is friends with K- I doubt he’ll do anything about K. At this point I should mention as an aside I closed on Saturday night with K and La and it was ‘interesting’. La is anal to the extreme; which I don’t mind. My dad’s second wife was anal and I learnt to deal with it… and to be frank, it puts me at ease, as while anal retentive people raise the bar- I like knowing WHERE the bar is. I mean with La I know EXACTLY what’s expected of me, and I do it; rather then a manager who might keep changing his/her mind on what’s important or get annoyed with me because I’m doing something they didn’t ask me to… Anyway on Saturday, K was just watching his watch and wondering when we were going to leave, so he wasn’t happy when I implied that La is the SLOWEST closer that we have. Likewise he made La peeved at him as he left messes wherever he went… K seemed have a habit of doing ½ a project or not cleaning up while he did his projects… which annoyed La to no end… and she let me know that SHE is looking for a job herself.

So onto the meeting… The manager for the most part just went over the ‘basics’, what is expected of us, what our job entails and the fact that we are suppose to be in uniform when we’re on the floor. Really considering that we’re currently hiring- I felt he should’ve waited until he hired new blood. I spoke up twice- the first time because the manager mentioned that disposable cameras are a staple item for us and should be easy for the customer to find… I mentioned that they weren’t and that I often had to walk the customers to the cameras as it wasn’t easy for me to describe where they were… He ‘rewarded’ my honesty by making ME in charge of finding a good place for the cameras.
The second time I spoke up is because the manager wants to give us flair. He created a smiley face pin. He told us that he intended to give it tomorrow( Tuesday) to a worker who did a good job, and then the worker at the end of the day would have to pass it off to someone else at the end of the day and so on… The manager suggested that this was a way to reward good working habits, as he would randomly give something nice to the person wearing the pin. The manager further pointed out that the ‘prize’ would be better if there was a good story as to what you did to earn the pin. Being the snarky person that I am, and am expected to be as co-workers KNEW I was gonna ask what I did, I asked what if nobody did anything good during your shift. See what I was trying to get to- and the manager ignored, is that if you HAVE to give the pin away at the end of one shift- it doesn’t really force anyone to do a BETTER job… they know that at some point that pin’s gonna be given away. Heck all they really have to do is be nice to the person who has the pin and they might get it at the end of the shift.
Which FINALLY gets to the line that the manager crossed, I didn’t say anything to the manager at the meeting about how I felt he crossed a line… but I did call HR( and let them know that I didn’t want my name mentioned). He told us that instead of writing on the calendar when we wanted time off- we would have to fill out a form. All well and good, as at other places I’ve worked- we peons didn’t have access to the calendar and had to give written notes about when we wanted off…
However the step too far is that he wanted to know WHY we wanted the time off. See that way if more then one person wants the day off- he can decide who has the better reason for wanting the day off. WTF!!?!!? I really took issue with this as I feel that he will weigh his friends K and Lm’s requests more then us peons as they’re his friends (he has K and Lm over to his place and plays WoW with K.) I also was NOT amused at this as I had notice that for my ‘birthday weekend’ which I blocked on the calendar MONTHS ago- La is also taking that time off as she’s going to England for research on her doctorate… and K seemed to ‘just’ ask for Saturday off. Even though I was stupid enough to tell some of them that I wasn’t going to Vegas I still have NO PLAN to work that weekend.
I want to note that I spoke to my mom, on more general stuff and told her about the ‘explain why you want the time off…” and was happy that she agreed that I should talk to Human Resources about it. I did NOT tell her I had already called them. She mentioned it was too bad that there were no jewish holidays that I could ask off for my b’day. I told her it was too bad I couldn’t claim to be catholic as EVERY day is A saint’s day- seriously any date on the calendar has at least one saint… So I could then claim ANY day off as I have to celebrate X saint’s day( well boss I need this day as it’s St. Andrew’s (Nov. 30th) or this or that saint’s day…

And I’m not going to post it here unless asked… BUT as I was tired and going a bit out of my mind yesterday… I came up with TRUMP reason. Basically a reason to ask for any day off that is totally tasteless BUT I felt would be more important then anyone else’s reason to have the day off.