I too am a former store manager, i was terminated after 4 writeups were given, and each write up was illegitimate. We had 3 district managers in 7 months, and man what a mess. We went from a horribly bad district to a good one who quit, to a 3rd one who is the biggest joke on the planet.
The problem really began when The first district manager asked me to take the Ooltewah store as a store manager.
At that time i made The 1st dm aware that even though i had 9 years of management experience prior with other companies, i didn't have the training i needed to run a store properly for family dollar. And that i didn't want to take a store and fail because of lack of training.
She then promised to get me the training i needed if i would take the position. (iam not the only manager that she put in a store as manager and promised training and not delivered)
The entire time i was at Ooltewah i called The 1st dm on a weekly basis to ask for the training i needed, and she would reply "i'll try to get by there and train you".
Finally just before i was transferred to 2874 as a store manager i asked her again for the training she promised me, and she replied "the training you get is the training you teach yourself."
I can do that, i can train myself, but it will take costly time to teach myself the job and patience from the D.M. To allow for a store manager to train themselves.
Sometimes when you do this you get it right, sometimes not. But that's how it is when you have to learn as you go with limited guidance.
The 2nd dm took the district and i immediately upon his first visit to my store made him aware that i hadn't been properly trained and that The 1st dm was supposed to have trained me and later had said that i would have to train myself if i wanted to be trained.
The 2nd dm tried his best to provide training but with 15 stores in the district he couldn't be at my store 24/7 to train me. However with the new D.M. I felt like i might actually get some of the training i needed without having to fumble around in the dark trying to figure it out on my own.
The 2nd dm left the company and The 3rd dm took over, again i made him completely aware that i wasn't trained properly and that the 2nd dm had been trying to provide the training that The 1st dm had promised
but failed to provide.
During the 3rd dm's first week as a district manager i was written up twice the first write up was for a projected shrink estimate of 34.87 percent. Which i knew was incorrect, so i had called loss prevention and
left a message with him stating that something was wrong with my numbers.
Af called on tter calling loss prevention the 3rd dm called me saturday after and had found a huge mistake
in his calculations. He then said he would tear up the write up for the shrink.
He then had The 1st dm come and count my store and the shrink from that count was corrected at 4.77% instead of 34.87% roughly around $3,000, 00 i then told him i had two trucks that had large shortages and that the previous district manager and dc were aware. And tried to get him to look at the copies of emails i had sent the 2nd dm documenting these shortages.
The 3rd dm flatly refused saying, that "he really didn't want to see them." these shortages in truck deliveries added up to almost exactly what was missing with the 4.77% shrink.
Still i was written up again, this time for the 4.77% shrink. (this was the 3rd writeup)
The second write up i received was for missed markdowns and the store being cluttered and the stockroom being full of overstock.
I asked the 3rd dm to show me the missed markdowns so i wouldn't miss them again and he refused saying basically " he didn't have time to show them to me, that he had other stores to tend to"
When i checked for missed markdowns (scanning every shelf with the pdt gun) i found only 4 items that had been inadvertently placed behind other items. And the 3rd dm had said the missed markdowns were throughout my store. I couldn't get the 3rd dm to show me the missed markdowns so i called the 2nd dm to see if he knew where these
markdowns could be...
The 3rd dm said he didn't see any missed markdowns the two weeks prior to his leaving the district.
The other issue on the writeup being the store was cluttered. I had been told to tear down the paper stackout and build shelves for the macro remodel in my store, he used the clutter from the shelves being in the
process of being built to claim my store was cluttered. As well he said my seasonal stackouts were cluttered. The seasonal stackouts the 2nd dm had come and set those up and told us just to recover and replenish them. So how could they be so out of whack if the 2nd district had set them up?
The stock room was full of overstock due to four months of receiving more in truck shipments than we sold the weeks prior. Here's an example of one of our trucks vs sales for a week. 2nd week sales:$11,246.00 2nd week truck dollars: $18,115.59 OVER $6,869.59 the trucks came like this for four months straight!!!
And being that we are not allowed to open a box unless the whole box goes out on the shelf, and being that we were told not to use flex because flex space was going away, it had to sit on the u-boats in the stockroom. And we would work it out as best we could.
Most times having to work truck from monday - sunday just so we would have space to unload the next truck the following monday.
The 2nd dm and i went over the numbers, and had checked to see if it was our ordering system. We could only come to the conclusion of "we don't know why they are sending so much on the truck"
Inventory reset it and now they send closer to what was ordered.
Still i was written up, all the while doing everything i could to convey the issues to my district manager and prove what i knew to be right. All the while being written up and eventually terminated.
The final write up was for an estimated shrink of 18,880.00 again this is with the 3rd dm counting my store himself. It's just odd that the count was so much better when the 1st dm counted it, and both times 3rd dm has counted it, it has been astronomical in contrast.
Couple that with the fact that Glenns' first astronomical count was proven to be wrong when he was so sure he was right.
I asked the 3rd dm to have a "Hot" inventory done, i expressed my disbelief that my store could be that short in merchandise, and that i didn't trust his numbers, due to the fact that he had made a 16 thousand dollar mistake on his first inventory estimate.
You know, what do i do besides my job? And if iam not trained properly or given the time i need to teach myself the job, then how can i possibly be expected to succeed?
If the company will not provide the tools i need to be successful on my job, then can i really be expcected to succeed?
I was also fired over the phone during my vacation with my kids.
Ray
somewhere in, Georgia
U.S.A.
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