Managers

Too bad that fake smile is JUST FOR CUSTOMERS!

When i think of the word, or title, of "Manager" I can't help but think of it's equivalent, "Slime Bag".

I have worked in Customer Service most of my life. And it's not the people that piss me off as much as it is the managers. The middle man (what I like to call the customer service people) always get the short stick of every pile. First of all, we are responsible for the communication between customers and cashiers, customers and products, and customers and managers. While the manager sits in the "lunch room" for 4 hours having his "meeting" or "lunch" and we get 20 minutes with no relief to run back and forth from service desk to a bite out of our sandwich. Most likely that's all we get to eat during our 8-10hr shift while he sits on his a*@ staring at you and shaking his head the whole time. Or if he's "nice" he's at least reading the paper.

Several times I couldn't get anyone to cover my lunch break and was forced to sit off to the side of the service desk to eat my lunch. However I was never able to finish it because there would always be a customer at the service desk. There is never NOT someone standing at the damn service desk. So I punch out for lunch, grab my lunch bag and just as I'm ready to sit down. "Excuse me, can I get some help here?" "Sure." I go back and help the customer "check out" five bags worth of merchandise simply because they "don't feel like standing in line at the checkouts". Before I even finish with their purchase there are five people behind them and in comes another person with a pissed off look on their face because there is a line at the service desk. By the time I get done with everyone, my lunch hour has been over for 50 minutes already. Not only did I work threw my entire UNPAID 20 minute lunch, but I also am 30 minutes late punching back in. While I run over and throw my sandwich and apple back into my lunch bag I look up to my manager while he's clearing his throat and tilting his head towards the service counter as there are behold, three more people standing at the desk looking like no ones been there for hours. When the day is done, I explain to my manager how I didn't get a chance to punch back in after lunch until 30 minutes after it was over. His response, "That's not my problem".

No Thank You, No Help, and no understanding. But guess what happens the next day when i get called into work again, because the lady that is supposed to be working that's been there 20 years calls in sick again, though we all know she's out at Las Vegas blowing her money. I come in on my ONLY day off and as soon as I punch in, the telephone is ringing at the front desk. I answer it and it's the STORE manager yelling at me for working threw my lunch hour and off the clock. HE can get in big trouble for that. I also get scheduled 39.9 hours a week because my damn store doesn't hire full-time unless you are a manager. But low and behold i get called in to work for the millions of people that never show up because they have a hangover on a Tuesday! The next day I am getting a phone call from my STORE manager again, because "NO ONE SHOULD BE WORKING OVERTIME!" They can't afford it. Yet I have no control. But I can't win this argument.

On my first night alone on the job. I am to close down all the registers and make sure I have a set amount of money before I turn everything off. I have to make announcement of the store being closed. Print off reports lock all the doors and turn in all the keys. I had very little idea how to do all of this and the lady that was supposed to be training me on how to do this, called in sick. I was told by the manager that was there was a binder 'somewhere' that explains how to close down the service desk properly. I can start closing at 10:00pm but only after I have all the other tills in from all the other cash registers, in the WHOLE store. Well because you always have to have that "one guy" that's still in the store at 9:59pm, I couldn't start closing the front desk until he was checked out, and the register he used could then be closed down, and the money w/the till handed to me. That was at 10:15. Earlier, at 10:05, the night manager called me from the back of the store and asked me if I was "done closing?". When I told her "No, I don't have the last till yet", she loudly sighed and hung up the phone. At 10:15 when the last till was brought up, and i could lock the doors, my manager was walking up at the same time. Even though she saw me lock the doors after that last customer left, and even though she saw the cashier bring up the last till, she still felt compelled to ask me if I was "done yet?". When I said " Ah, No, I just got the last till". She raised her voice and said "Well, Hurry up, Jeez". And walked away.

I rushed threw as fast as I could double and triple checking the money to make sure I didn't screw this up. At 10:20 I was all set to go. Then she called. "Oh my God, You're still up there?!" "Uh, yeah, but I just finished". "What is taking so long?" "I am done, I'm on my way up" She hangs up on me. So I walk the cart with money, keys, and tills inside and knock on the door for her to let me in. She asks again, "What took so long?" I started to get defensive, but It was my first night on the job and I didn't want to screw this up, so I refrained from saying anything I regretted. ( Though now I wish I had just to see the look on this be-otch's face.)

I responded, "Well this is my first night alone, the person that was supposed to be training me called in sick, we had a customer that didn't leave the store until 10:15 which was the same time the cashier first brought me the till, I had to lock the doors, get all the keys...." She interrupts, "But what took so long". I didn't know what to say, I felt like I was talking to a rock here. " I don't know, I'm new at this, I needed help up there". She pulls her head back, "Are you Slow?" I asked, "What do you mean?" She replies "Are you slow?" I said, "Well, yeah, I had to read threw the close down procedures out of the binder and it's my first night here". She stares at me with disgust on her face. "No, no, no.. I mean.. are you.. S-L-O-W?" While she twirls her index finger around her temple. I felt my face turn red, my heart drop to my stomach and felt extremely nauseous. I was fighting tears hard, but just blinked a gazillion times to hold them back as I responded " No, I just had a rough night". She stared at me and then shook her head and looked away, "Let's get this done'. We put the money away in silence and she turned off the lights. Cracking jokes to other employees and acting like she never said anything to me. Everyone went home in a good mood that night, but me.. who was already planning on how to quit.

The next great experience was with the other manager I always got stuck working with (probably because everyone hated him). I think this one actually liked me. I had a great work ethic and I only missed one day (Jury Duty). But he started to open up to me far too much. One day while I was helping him organize the front of the store, he told me to help fold the T-Shirts in front of the "Fashion's Department". As we're doing so, I felt compelled to strike up a conversation and I asked him how his son was enjoying Boy Scouts. "Fine, fine." Well that was MY attempt at a conversation. A few minutes of silence, then he yells for a fellow coworker of mine to clear out the fitting rooms. He looks down in front of him and grabs a pile of shirts. "Those Damn Mexicans!" He yells. I was so embarrassed, my face was probably as red as my shirt. Plus I was pretty ticked off since my sister in law and nephew (whom I love like my own son) are both part Mexican. I offensively went, "Joe! Oh my, you can't say that!" He replies, "Well it's the truth! They come in here, mess things up and then leave. They know how to push all of my buttons." And he says this while a close-by Mexican family is shopping. Seemed like he wanted them to hear. I said, "Joe, I was at the service desk all day, and the only people I saw by these T-shirts were white people". He looks up at me, "Just keep an eye on them".

And this isn't the only time he uses racism. A few months go by and my store starts to hire people like crazy for the Holidays. My boyfriend couldn't get lucky with any overtime at his Full-time job and we needed money for Christmas. Not to mention we recently got engaged and want to start saving for our wedding/honeymoon. I mention the idea of him working in the stockroom or electronics, paint..etc.. He had prior experience in retail before he got the factory job he's in now. He goes for it and fills out an application. A few weeks go by and the store is hurting so bad for new employees they put a banner outside, inside and signs up all over the store. I got promoted to work in the money vault, but somehow more work = same amount of money. (I guess they figure the more you do there the happier you'll be but the pay will always be the same.) The HR manager starts to complain that we aren't getting many applicants, though I see at least Five every shift I work at the front desk. A numerous amount were African Americans and from the looks of their application many of them sounded perfect for the job openings. But what do we take instead? A guy (white) named "Buck" that lost his three previous jobs and spent time in jail for stealing out the cash registers. Good Choice! Well I mention to my manager that my boyfriend is looking for some extra work and her face lights up, "Tell him to apply, we'll get him in for an interview right away!". I explained to her that he already did and she looks threw the piles of applications. She couldn't find it and told me to give her a day or two to locate it and he'd be getting a phone call. We wait for 3 weeks, nothing happens. I thought maybe she forgot, but I didn't want to hassle her. After hearing her and the Store manager complain and worry about the holidays with no help I nonchalantly bring him up again. "Yeah, umm, I couldn't find his application, have him fill out a new one if he doesn't mind." So I explain to my man the situation and he agrees to fill it out again. I personally put this application on the HR managers desk. I get a phone call a few hours later and she says that the Store manager looked at his application and wants him in for an interview asap. I was so excited as soon as I got back to the service desk I gave him a call to let him know that the store might be calling and to watch the caller id. Well... you guessed it, that day never came.

Thinking to myself they must have NOT liked his application or maybe the idea of the two of us both working in the same building on similar shifts, I dropped the topic and my boyfriend gave up on the idea of working there. Which coincidentally his other job started to offer overtime again so that worked out. Being bothered by this whole ordeal, I asked the HR manager who they got for electronics since no one was applying. She must have took that as a hint and she said, "Oh I know, I know.. You're wondering about your boyfriend right?" I nodded my head. She said "I couldn't find his application, would he mind filling out another one?" She laughs, "I never done this before, I never lost an application.. at least not twice!" When i told my boyfriend about this, he just said, "Forget it". Well I couldn't, this bothered the hell out of me, so I talked to one of the "nice" managers that I barely got to work with. She told me she would look for his application because this just "didn't seem normal" to her. Within two minutes of her disappearing from where we were just standing, she paged for me to call her at such and such extension. I did so, and she says to me "I have it right here." "What? You do?!" "Yeah, it was right in her drawer, along with his first one". "Interesting".

The next day

I get to work in the early am. The jerk (racist male manager) walks up to me with a smile on his face and I knew he was up to something. *Inner thought* (Noooo, don't walk over here...NO!) "Oh, hi Joe" "Heyyyy, I heard that Julie found your boyfriends application." "Yeah, weird huh?" "And I heard his first application was in there too". " Mhmm" What was your boyfriends name again? "John *******" Ahhh, yes that explains why Jody (HR manager) didn't call him. "What? Why?" "Well", He pauses, "I think, she thinks, he's black". I stared at him and dropped my mouth. "WHAT!?" He starts laughing, "Yeah!" I said, "Well, he's not, you guys have all seen him, he's been in here a million times. I even introduced you to him a few times." Joe looks at me and shrugs, "No... I never met him, but I can't think of any other reason of why we wouldn't call him". I was pissed now. I said, "OK so, he's not black, but even if HE WAS, what difference does that make?!" He shook his head and walked away.

That same day

I was so steamed up about this (again I was ready to walk out of this job) I found Julie (the nice manager) and I explained everything to her that he just said to me (Julie hated Joe) her mouth dropped and she called him a racist "a-hole". I left it at that and only answered store related questions to Joe from then on. I was done with him.

A few weeks later

Joe marches to the front desk along with his wife (who was shopping at the time), his mother, and a few employees who he had follow him to the front desk. He gets in my face and says, "What's this I hear you telling people I'm racist?!" Hands on his hips of course. "What Joe? What do you mean?" "Yeah, I hear you telling people in the store I'm racist! I'm not racist!" His wife and mother are glaring at me. The other co-workers (some high school kids) look embarrassed but extremely interested in my response. I look at him, "Joe, remember when I went threw that whole ordeal with my boyfriend, and his application, and having him do two of them and Jody kept losing them?" Joe: "Yeah, So!?" "Well you're response to the reason why he wasn't getting called, getting hired, and Jody losing them was because his name... his LAST name sounded black. That is what you said. And the only person (he's shaking his head NO at me) I told was Julie because she's the one that found the applications". He put his finger in my face and told me "that never happened and I shouldn't make things up".

Working Outside

One of the high lites of the job, was that in the summer I got to work outside with flowers and fruits and vegetables. Though it was a trillion degrees, humid as all hell, make-up melted and hair frizzy,it was all worth it, just to get outside. A whole new world. I could care less if I had to pick up a 40# bag every few minutes to help an old man load his truck. The "Garden Manager" was Jerry. The nicest manager (next to Julie) that you'd ever meet. When I didn't know something, he taught me. If I couldn't lift something he'd help. And he always made sure I got in my breaks and lunches. I never knew I would be put in the garden center. I always thought I was strictly service desk, and the occasional cashier (usually filling in for a call -in). But one day while I'm checking the schedule I see my name under "Garden Center". I was pumped. But my first day out there. There's Joe. "You? What are YOU doing out here?" "Uhh, I was scheduled out here". Joe: "Do you know anything about flowers, plants or fertilizer?" Me: "Not really, no". Joe: " Then WHY are you out here?!" " I don't know Joe, I don't have the authority to manage my own schedule! Ask Jody." He shakes his head and walks away mumbling "She shouldn't be out here".

The "Promotion"

As I mentioned earlier I got "promoted" to the money vault in the back of the store. I thought "They must think pretty highly of me to throw me back here, seeing as there were employees trying to get back there for years, but they presented the idea to me, they came to me! What a nightmare. The lady previous to me was trained for four months back here before she was left alone to do all the work. (And believe me it's not just counting money). I was trained for 3 days and left alone. I got the money part right, that was easy, the hard part was printing all these crazy reports off for practically every employee in the store and saving certain parts and not others, figuring out what goes where and making sure this gets filed, this gets tossed and that doesn't, etc etc, and I only had a few hours to do this. Well the first few weeks of this sucked so bad. I was calling the other two ladies that normally do this a few times a day for help because none of the Managers knew how to do any of this. Nor any other employee. So when these two went on vacation I was screwed big time. And every time Joe was there asking me "Why" I "can't figure out how to fix this". Or "Why" is this certain cashier "Short $40" I don't frigging know! Why don't you Asshole!? (That's all I wanted to scream) But when I asked him nicely, "You don't know how?" His reply was "Ha, ha, NO, that's YOUR job!". He would pick on me and pick on me. It got to the point that when I came in for work an hour earlier than the store opened and he knew I was working in the vault he would go "Oh my God, YOU are back there today?! Great my whole day is shot!" I would say "Thanks" and walk away. As soon as I got my stuff put away in my locker, he'd be waiting for me in the vault with his cup of coffee and leaning against the wall asking me what I was "going to put" him "threw today". I immediately felt like crying then and there, and I knew he was picking up on that because I wouldn't face him and was quiet. Then he said, "You're not going to cry, are you? Ahhh *stretching* I could always get Stephanie to cry". With a smile on his face. (Stephanie was the girl that I was replacing).

Within three weeks of getting this lovely "promotion" I was done at 1:00pm one day, cleaned out my locker, said "Have a good day" to any fellow co-workers and never returned since. Not even to shop.