Judging by the perpetual state of understaffing and inventory problems at every major retail store...this is the way they like it. It maximizes profit and employee turnover. Yes, you're being pushed to quit, of course. An entire staff of part-time, no-benefit college kids is what they want. With maybe a couple weary, 55-hour-a-week managers at the top on the verge of suicide.
This is, of course, absolutely true. This is the model honed to ruthless perfection by Wal-Mart, but it's the basic system now in any big retail operation. It's the only way to make any money in a business like this. Full time, minimally competent staff are a luxury that they don't think they can afford. So Dave tells us, basically, not to expect any help or sympathy from anyone at any level of the company--As far as they're concerned, the System is Working!
But of course, it's not. They're getting increasingly desperate, hoping they can wait out this rough period by cutting every possible corner. (How long does it take us to re-order bags? Or hand soap?) But even if the economy and the industry turn around, there won't be anyone left who cares. Every store will be run by part-time twenty-year-olds, and no one will ever know where anything is.
I still, for my own part, hold out some hope that there are still some people somewhere Above us who have some institutional memory of the way things used to work, and that these people have done what they've had to do to get along, but they secretly feel horrible guilt. And when they see the startling trend at our store, they'll be sympathetic to us--because we'll be saying what they've been afraid to say.
Barring that, hopefully we can collect enough personally damning material on Our Particular Problem to insure that he won't be able to just run the store into the ground and walk away from it. He'll go down with it.
But if Dave's right, and no one who cares about the sorts of things we care about can possibly have lasted this long at the corporate level where they could make any difference, well, that just means that We're It. We're the Institutional Memory. All the enthusiastic kids coming in to replace the old and bitter people being driven out, well, they're gonna assume that this is just how things are. They're obviously going to be aware that their boss is a hideous grotesque, but they'll assume that anybody who runs a store is like that. Right up until we sit them down and explain it to them. Then we'll see.
And finally, an insider speaks. Anonymous assures us from experience that even our company can't keep things like this all of the time--we're in a uniquely inconvenient location and have uniquely awful bosses. And gives us eyewitness testimony suggesting that the war on our old store culture was and is completely intentional. Read the whole thing.
3 comments:
I believe the only way to effect change in the business world is to hit the offender in the pocketbook-i.e. customer boycott. Imagine the consequences if 653 was the only location boycotted and the protest was specific in its aim. Think back on all the times local Management, either past or present,was forced to deal directly with outraged customers. "I demand my Golden Buckeye discount!!" "The book was like this when I bought it!!" Now, multiply that several hundred fold and you might see results. May I suggest a petition listing where each signatory party now shops instead of Borders and why. Send copies up the chain of command. Stand back and watch what happens.
This would be a real kick in the pants for someone up there @ the corp. level however I just don't see it happening. Sorry maybe I am bitter and have pretty much given up any hope for the people to stand up for what they believe in. Most people in our city are to lazy to have to "drive all the way across the street!" (spoken in an annoying adult whining voice)just to prove a point. And the mall shoppers can't think past their next step alone how they feel about how this store is being run. They would probably agree with "him". "Get it for me now and faster because I am the best!!!! Also give me a discount because I'm so great!" I don't mean to be a negative nancy or downer donnie but I have lost more faith in people with each shift I work in hell. Working for the man is truly mind numbing and soul crushing. I actually cried on one of my last shifts. We need a miracle
Hi. You have to know that you are not the problem, but it is hard to think that you can be the solution. The difference between you and THEM is that you KNOW the difference. You were brought up in the retail book world caring about the books you sold and you actually read some of them! You could actually recommend books that you enjoyed with customers that enjoyed reading, too. People were glad to come into the store and be greeted by booksellers that they knew by name and perhaps, even knew something about you.
Retail just doesn't care about the employee, they just care about the almighty dollar which is getting smaller and smaller. And the little pink mans head is getting bigger and bigger. It won't be too long before his ego will make it pop! (One can only hope) I saw him in action the other day as a customer observer. He is the loudest! The most efficient! He is the most helpful! No one can do the job as well as he can! Well, go ahead, because pretty soon, you'll be the only one left!
Post a Comment