I was hired at Hollywood in December as a shift leader. At first the company was all about customer satisfaction and employee growth. After only 3 months as a shift leader, I was being pushed towards the store manager position. They (the store manager and our district manager at the time) discussed my possibilities for a long time without beginning my training.
In the beginning of June i was put on what was suposed to be an 8 week training schedule to be a store manager. I read a book and answered a few question and i was shown how to do things that a shift leader should already know how to do. There was an issue in another store that required the current manager to step down and some one was needed to take her place and so i was thrown into the store manager position at the store I had been training in.
As any new manager would, I had to completely rehire my staff. Then shortly after, they placed restrictions on payroll and supply ordering. There was changes in upper management almost monthly, all the way up to the CEO. There was constant change in requirements and expectations. We would just start to understand the first change when the next would come in and completely contridict the previous. Each new DM or RDO would have different expectations. As result, we were constantly asking the DM or other store managers how to keep up.
All of this lead to loads of confusion. Lack of hours lead to poor training and lack of consistancy lead to a meltdown of comunication. Even the DM wasn't clear on exactly what the expectations were until it was too late and our jobs were being threatened because we weren't performing the way they wanted. How could we push results when we didn't know what to push or in which direction or even how to track it on a store level.
We started being repremanded and our jobs threatened weekly. We were told that there were no 2nd chances. If one thing was out of place during a visit, we were fired. If an associate failed to sell in a weeks time they were to be fired. Everyone was replaceable no matter how hard they tried to meet these goals. We were even told that we needed to get all of our associates availabilities written down and weed out the ones that didnt help us.including the employees that had been with us for a while and were performing well. They muct change their availability to where it suited us or find some where else to work.
Customer service even went out the window. I remember on one confernece call my DM stated in reference to payroll cutbacks and policy changes, " We know customer service will suffer. It already has." We changed our customer loyalty program from one that most of our customers loved to one that required current customers to switch to the new program and pay an extra $10 per month for an added service that they did not want nor need.instead of allowing them to remain on their current program, they were told they had to switch and pay more or just drop the program all together. Most of my customers just left and went to another company.
After dealing with the constant threat of my job, which i felt was unfair to me becasue it was not my fault that i was pushed into my position with inadiquate training, I began to hate my job. I loved my customers. I had a wonderful friendly relationship with my customers and my employees. I tried very hard to make up for the care for them that the company itself lacked.
In the end I ended up workin 60 and 70 hour weeks to make up for the payroll restriction and the training that i didnt have the payroll to provide. I tried to juggle the cleaning, training, merchandising, shrink management, and everything else all on my own. As anyone could guess thing started slipping through. I'd try to focus on what part of my job that i was being threatened for each week but when i would get that caught up the next week something else would be the focus. God forbid I need some time off for an illness or anything of that nature because that would mean that my store was left to my minimally trained employees and i started all over again with my game of catch up when i returned.
Eventually there was constant talk amungst the store managers about fear of their job. Even the DM was worried. Another manager told me that the DM even said that she was afraid everytime the phone would ring that it was her boss to fire her.
After some time of dealing with this constant fear of my job, I beganing looking for an out. Unfortunately for the DM and a few other managers my leaving hurt them greatly. I will forever regret how it effected them but I do not believe that anyone should have to work under such conditions.
Even now, A week and a half after I have left the company, I have found out that I have been paying for dental insurance sence i became a manager however my dental coverage was canceled back in January. My most rencet pay check has cost taken out of it for dental insurance. When i call the benefits department, I constanly receive a recording saying that the person is out of tha office and to leave a message. I had a similar situation when i first became a manager. I signed up for benefits with the company once i became eligible and canceled my previous insurance only to find out that i did not have coverage and i would not begin recieveing coverage until 3 months after i was in the position eventhough the cost was already being taken out of my pay.
The lower level people are great but the constant instability in the upper management creates a work environment that is very stressful and not healthy at all. No one should go from day to day in fear of their job. It's one thing when its only one person but when every store manager in a district is concerned including the distrct manager herself, then i think there is a problem
Crystal
chesapeake, Virginia
U.S.A.
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