Unrewarding

Yeah, "accountablity." He likes that word, doesn't he? And of course it sounds like a good thing. People are expected to live up their responsibilities, and if they don't, someone will call them on it. This is how the Real World is supposed to work, in theory. And it suits him to think that somehow that is what he is doing; it suits his view of himself as the Real Grown-Up and of people who care about things other than retail as undisciplined children.

But that little exchange I was writing about yesterday is perfect illustration of how that's an absurd fiction, how the sorts of things he does have nothing to do with "accountablity" and everything to do with his worst impulses. Because what do you think began that conversation? What do you think he was holding the Training Supervisor accountable for? I think maybe you've guessed already. Sign-ups! Yes! During a recent shift that she had supervised, our staff had persuaded fewer people to sign up for our fantastic customer loyalty card than had done so during one of his shifts. And as anybody reading this knows by now, this number, the number of "Sign-Ups," is the Most Important Number of All, the single most important indicator of just how well everybody is doing their job.

Well, that's bullshit. Obviously. You know it, I know it. The customers know it, by and large. Those cards...well, what can you say? They are what they are. They were a gimmick that caught on, and now any store that sells anything has to have one. Of course, that's diminished their effectiveness--we all know that everybody's wallets and keychains are so full of the things that nobody can find the one they need. (And they have to hold up the line until they find it, because they'd feel like an idiot if they had a card and didn't use it.) And how is it building loyalty, since everybody just puts our card right next to the ones from the competition? The kind of people who really like Coupons and Great Deals will do what they have to do to get them.

I'm not saying those cards are useless. They don't work on me--the only one I have is ours, because I was literally required to get one when they started the program--but they work on some people. What I'm saying is: don't pretend it's actually all that important. Don't make it the focus of everybody's day. Don't be Proud if that one particular meaningless number is high and Disappointed when it's low. And for god's sake, don't pretend you had anything to do with it either way.