Unhappy Retail Sales People

SVreX wrote: Nah...I'm salaried! Seriously- day off.

I'm not salaried, but i have the day off with pay.

Welcome 3 day weekend before 1st quarter PTO lockout.

I'll bet GRM wouldn't print the comment in the magazine.

It was inappropriate.

SVreX wrote: I'll bet GRM wouldn't print the comment in the magazine. It was inappropriate.

We've all said worse.

GRM wouldn't print 50% of what's on these boards in the magazine.

Saying worse doesn't make it appropriate.

Ok you win.

I'm not going to sit here and argue with a grown man about what words are appropriate and what words aren't.

92CelicaHalfTrac wrote: . I would take a 50% pay cut to work for someone like MitchellC. Those people just aren't out there. (There's my generalization for the day.)

Time to put your money where your mouth is. I have an opening. Come apply.

Now... back to the thread....

What is with the current "fad" of treating retail workers like trash? Why is it OK to call them names, treat them like the scum of the earth but when they get tired of YOUR attitude and they lash out they are the bad person?

<- worked many many many years dealing with shiny happy people in retail, wholesale, etc.

Bobzilla wrote: Now... back to the thread.... What is with the current "fad" of treating retail workers like trash? Why is it OK to call them names, treat them like the scum of the earth but when they get tired of YOUR attitude and they lash out they are the bad person? <- worked many many many years dealing with shiny happy people in retail, wholesale, etc.

Because it is the only job a person can get anymore? And even then, there are 50 more people behind you that want the same E36 M3ty low paying bullE36 M3 job to have a job and therefore income?

92CelicaHalfTrac wrote: Ok you win. I'm not going to sit here and argue with a grown man about what words are appropriate and what words aren't.

Poppycock!

I'm talking about the customers treating the retail people like trash. The working environment is one thing, customers that think it's OK to treat the workers like trash and it;s "cool" is what I am referring to.

In reply to Bobzilla:

It isn't alright, but the cretins know they can get away with it because anything a clerk does in return (anything at all) will get them fired. Even just saying: "Please don't talk to me that way, I am a human being, too." can get them fired if the customer makes a big enough stink about it.

Like others have said, it is an employer's market right now.

SvRex:

Each and every one of us is the CEO of our own work lives. I've left jobs before with worse words than "go Berkeley-jenson Aston-martin MGB Austin-healey yourself in the Toyota Honda Nissan Wankel engine, you Fava Bean!" to a previous employer.

Oh, the stupid jerk took a swing at me afterwards, too, which kind of tells you how toxic that environment was.

I know that many others have quit jobs in anger before, as well. It happens when you are pushed so far beyond your own personal endurance that you can't take it any more. When you're young (as I was when it happened) you sometimes lack the experience you need to be able to look 6 months or a year into the future and realize that your mental and physical health will be better if you leave a job before it gets to that point.

Other times, you're so limited by your options that you stay in a toxic environment because you just don't have a lot of other options.

There are better ways to handle it, for sure, but I can't say that what happened to me 20 years ago has any bearing at all how I perform at my job now. Heck, I can't say that it had any bearing on how I performed at my next job, a week later, for that previous employer's direct competition, who is still in business to this day. The other place, not so much, no.

First off, "thank you" to those who are defending my comments.

Bobzilla wrote: I'm talking about the customers treating the retail people like trash. The working environment is one thing, customers that think it's OK to treat the workers like trash and it;s "cool" is what I am referring to.

this

A store worker shouldn't be expected to genuflect before you because you're spending money at their workplace. I'm all for good customer service (seriously--I'm actually VERY professional and I only get visibly angry if I'm abused). If someone isn't on commission, they make the same amount of money whether or not you buy something.

The last gig I was at abutted the ghetto and was on a bus route. The clientele was ATROCIOUS. These people HATED spending their money.

The most toxic attitude in retail is that everyone is replaceable. It's true to an extent, but there's a point of diminishing returns--i.e. someone who has hunted for 20 years selling you hunting gear vs. someone who took an hour computer training selling you hunting gear. Expertise and low wages generally don't coincide.

As a result, turnover is unreal in retail. In my last gig, in 3.5 years, I went through three store managers and 4 dept managers (in my dept.). The department manager staff turned over completely around 4 times. I always avoided becoming a dept. manager because in my 16 years of retail, I could have made an actuarial chart that showed the average stint of a dept. manager is one year. I couldn't even begin to count how many different dept. managers I've worked under through the years. It's a dead-end job that pays well enough to keep them on board for a year--until they get fed up and/or get a "real" job.

Employees don't seem to be valued at all these days (a LOT of people in retail will say this). At my last gig, the district manager deemed that "full-time" meant "32 hours". At $12 an hour, those people weren't even making the living wage. Fewer hours, same or more duties. However, corporate had the temerity to have a flyer about a 401k program--as if these people who are barely living check-to-check can spare any percentage of their salary. I thought of it as a "make-believe" company.

I felt bad because I was a part-timer making more than all but 2 full-time hourlies ($16.35 an hour). When I was brought in, the hiring manager that I'd worked with previously literally said "we need the legend here". Yes, I'm good at what I do. That costs something. Sorry... Also, let's not act like $16.35/hr in 2011 is really that much money. The store manager who caused half a staff (who had been there for years) to either quit or transfer out in his first 3 months drove a new C-Class Benz and made $95k/year (confirmed).

I've worked with some incredibly competent and intelligent people. Over time, those people became less and less common as wages remained stagnant or dropped.

I've had some excellent regular customers who appreciated what I was able to do.

I've also watched bad decisions from the corporate take out an entire company (Decatlhon USA). In the final year of that company, I worked with the best team I'd ever worked with in retail. The company went under in late 2006, after a LOT of people gave up their personal lives for that place. We all knew it was going to happen, but try telling French people that the American market is different than the European market (we tried, but that didn't work).

Brett_Murphy wrote: Oh, the stupid jerk took a swing at me afterwards, too, which kind of tells you how toxic that environment was.

A boss took a swing at you?!

If that happened to me, he'd either be dead or I'd have a VERY nice settlement.

Bobzilla wrote:

92CelicaHalfTrac wrote: . I would take a 50% pay cut to work for someone like MitchellC. Those people just aren't out there. (There's my generalization for the day.)

Time to put your money where your mouth is. I have an opening. Come apply.

After hearing you bitch about your job for about 6 hours a day 5 days a week for the last 2-3 years? No thanks. You paint that place a picture at least as bad as what i'm going through right now.

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote:

92CelicaHalfTrac wrote: Ok you win. I'm not going to sit here and argue with a grown man about what words are appropriate and what words aren't.

Poppycock!

BOLLOCKS!

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote:

92CelicaHalfTrac wrote: Ok you win. I'm not going to sit here and argue with a grown man about what words are appropriate and what words aren't.

Poppycock!

BOLLOCKS!

Quadruple post! Suck it!

92CelicaHalfTrac wrote:

Bobzilla wrote:

92CelicaHalfTrac wrote: . I would take a 50% pay cut to work for someone like MitchellC. Those people just aren't out there. (There's my generalization for the day.)

Time to put your money where your mouth is. I have an opening. Come apply.

After hearing you bitch about your job for about 6 hours a day 5 days a week for the last 2-3 years? No thanks. You paint that place a picture at least as bad as what i'm going through right now.

Not from the management perspective. We have good managers that respect the employees and appreciate what we do. It's why we got paid holiday pay for a day we don't even work. as well as a a christmas party with open bar for 400 employees.....and $25 gift cards and a "grand prize" of a 55" LG 3D TV.

My problem comes from those "wonderful" customers that like to treat us like roach poop.

I used to work for CompUSA and the regional level management was horribly reactionary and not very forward thinking.
My stores General Manager - Alan - was one of the best people I have ever worked for. As one of the cogs, your time was more valuable than his was. He knew that without specific individuals, his store would collapse.
I remember I was being confronted by a customer who failed to back up their business data before their hard drive crashed. The customer was adamant that I had lost all his data. I offered to let him speak to Alan. The three of us stood in the middle of the store as I explained the situation to Alan. He asked the customer if my version of events seemed accurate. The customer agreed it was close enough to accurate. Alan asks, What would you like? How can I make this better? The customer replies, I want my data back. Alan - I can't do that. I can give you your hard drive back and recommend a clean room data recovery facility. But know that the average cost to recover data is between $3-5K. Customer - I am not paying to recover data that you lost. Alan - First, let me be clear. Your hard drive failed. Your data was gone before you brought your computer to us. (Here Alan starts getting just a little testy) So what can I do to resolve this? Do you want me to fire John? Customer - uh Alan - Ok fine. John your fired. Go clean out your locker. Now what else do you need?

About ten minutes later Alan walks into the break room, informs me that break time is over and to get back to work. It was really a great scene. Apparently the customer had refused to admit he was wrong in front of me but after the big display put on by Alan he became less hostile. After Alan had gotten the customer squared away he dropped a comment about how great an employee I was and how hard it was going to be for me to support my family. By the time Alan had him at the cash register, the customer who had been calling for my termination was asking Alan to give me my job back.

The was one other thing Alan understood that the rest of the company didn't. We offered four levels of warranty. All of them covered parts and labor but some included on site setup and training. Alan understood that I would not sell a training package to a customer who didn't need the training.

They too, had sales contests. The regional manager who had the best salesman got a harley davidson F150 with motorcycle and trailer. And a trip to Hawaii. The store manager didn't get the trip to Hawaii. The sales manager got a leather jacket. The Salesman - the top salesman in the company that the whole contest was based on - gets a T-shirt. The employee with the most direct impact gets essentially a $5 bonus. The employee with no direct impact gets over $40K in bonuses.

Boeing isn't the same. The VP of my department may not know my name, but he holds the door open for me if we show up at the same time. Most of the people in our building, he is on a first name basis with. A completely different experience.

Bobzilla wrote:

92CelicaHalfTrac wrote:

Bobzilla wrote:

92CelicaHalfTrac wrote: . I would take a 50% pay cut to work for someone like MitchellC. Those people just aren't out there. (There's my generalization for the day.)

Time to put your money where your mouth is. I have an opening. Come apply.

After hearing you bitch about your job for about 6 hours a day 5 days a week for the last 2-3 years? No thanks. You paint that place a picture at least as bad as what i'm going through right now.

Not from the management perspective. We have good managers that respect the employees and appreciate what we do. It's why we got paid holiday pay for a day we don't even work. as well as a a christmas party with open bar for 400 employees.....and $25 gift cards and a "grand prize" of a 55" LG 3D TV. My problem comes from those "wonderful" customers that like to treat us like roach poop.

You've called my bluff, but i suppose i didn't think it through. It'd be a tough decision to go back to retail.

we're more wholesale than retail....

Bobzilla wrote: we're more wholesale than retail....

LULZ.

You sell things. I don't.

I fix things.

My wife stopped working for a grocery store after five years. The manager decided it was more cost effective to have 15 part time employees than 7 full time. So they hired 8 more people and split the hours evenly. Those with most seniority got to pick shift first and then down the line and back to the beginning. Ended up with only the most senior employee making 32 hours. Within 6 months, all of the cashiers were new. Nobody could live on 20 hour work weeks. One guy showed me his check. One 8 hour shift minus taxes and union dues was less than $20. He had been making a living the week before this plan was implemented.

The manager was right too, it was more cost effective - in the short term.

Johnboyjjb wrote: My wife stopped working for a grocery store after five years. The manager decided it was more cost effective to have 15 part time employees than 7 full time. So they hired 8 more people and split the hours evenly. Those with most seniority got to pick shift first and then down the line and back to the beginning. Ended up with only the most senior employee making 32 hours. Within 6 months, all of the cashiers were new. Nobody could live on 20 hour work weeks. One guy showed me his check. One 8 hour shift minus taxes and union dues was less than $20. He had been making a living the week before this plan was implemented. The manager was right too, it was more cost effective - in the short term.

In reply to Bobzilla:

here's the deal:

Many jobs are bearable or even fulfilling despite not being a chosen career path.

Retail is not one of them. You must either like what you're pusing ALOT, or you must like customer service ALOT.

If you don't like one or the other, you will be a miserable worker.

And customers smell miserable workers a mile away. They know you're apathetic and they know the only way they'll get results outta you is to escalate being advasarial, usually rudely. Its sad, but 9 out of 10 times it works (coming from a previous sales manager for Circuit City, I can tell you about some failed policies....)

This extends to the retail management level too, and their treatment of workers. In my experience, sales and location managers for retail are among the most incompetant group of people by far. This is for 2 main reasons:

1: they are using this lower middle management job merely as a stepping stone to get out and into upper middle management. They focus only on the admin work and couldn't care less about customers or workers.

2: anyone who had a love for customer service or the product they are working with has been doing a good job, and usually have been hired away at better pay out of retail already. Any manager I knew that was worth anything got hired out of retail within 2 years, and the ones worth nothing trying to get out usually either got out or were turned over by 5 years.