I worked for Dillard's for less than a year, but that was plenty for me! I started in the fall of 2003 and left in the fall of 2004. I'm sooooo glad that I got out of there!
During the training (don't get me started on that!), we were asked to fill out a form so that we could be given access to their register system and issued an ID number. Well, that ID number turned out to be our SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBERS!!! I couldn't believe it! I was (and AM), very uncomfortable with that, but, I really needed the job at the time and couldn't afford to quit because of that. Anyone looking over your shoulder when you entered it could see it! I count myself very lucky that no one has gotten hold of it (at least, not yet!).
This practice made it very difficult to get credit for sales you worked for if you weren't there (phone orders, customers who were not done shopping when your shift was over, customers who said that they would be back at a later date/time). If you were to get credit for those sales you had to do one of several things:
1—you could leave your Social Security Number with a co-worker whom you thought that you could trust and was scheduled to be there when the customer was due back (although I must point out that customers rarely came back when expected-if at all).
2—you could count on your co-workers to go to the Area Manager (like they are supposed to) who would have to stop whatever they were doing and go to the office and look up your Social Security Number in the system and then go to the appropriate register where the customer was waiting (by now, very irritated at the long wait), and process the sale themselves (because no one else was supposed to have your Social Security Number!). Let me add, this rarely-if ever-happened. Because, the customer would be in a hurry, or, the sales associate would be greedy and underhanded and take the sale themselves, or, there would be a long line and the associate would not want to hold up everyone (including some of their own sales) and have them go to a different register.
3—you could refer to your work schedule and have the customer come back only when you would be there (like I have already stated... Customers rarely came back when they said they would).
Now, this leads to the by-now-famous QUOTAS. Yes, we were hourly employees. But, we had sales quotas to meet every day and month. They were based on the hours you worked and the section that you worked in (some had higher priced merchandise than others, so their quotas were, of course, higher), and your hourly wage, as well as the stores overall quota. Well, this sort-of made sense to me in the beginning. The bad part came when the store did not meet its quota. We all thought that we would be given a 'pass'on meeting our own quotas. We were never so wrong! Even though the store did not make its quota over a specific time period... We were still expected to! When, of course, we didn't... Most of us had our pay reduced (mine went down by almost $2/hour!!! (the few that did not have their pay reduced were those associates that were hated by most others—they were the sales stealers and liers) That didn't seem fair to us so we went to the upper management about it and they said that that was the way it was, that there was nothing that they could do about it.
I've read many of the other reports about those sales associates that were hated by most of the others. The ones that would steal your sales and hog the register while not helping with the other non-sales related duties (ESPECIALLY, when it came to cleaning out your own customers dressing room when they were done! And markdowns!). I have one individual in mind that worked on my floor, and, she was revered by management and loathed by the rest of us. Of course, she had great sales numbers—because she haunted the register, as well as the high dollar areas (even if they were not her designated area). She would even steal away those customers that you were aleady helping and just happened to turn your back, or were getting something for them. No matter how many times we complained about her, and documented policy violations of hers, she was never written up—because she was the darling. Even when she was into overtime for the week and asked to leave by management, she dawdled for at least an hour by wandering around the store and talking to her son who worked on another floor. She did this on two occasions that I know of... And was not written up for it! Another sales associate told management that she witnessed this womans son entering her number (again, your Social Security Number) into the time clock to clock in because she was not there yet and didn't want to clock in late and be documented for it.
Bi-yearly inventories were a nightmare. The were done on two consecutive nights (Saturday and Sunday). The wouldn't let us do it during business hours... So we stayed most of the night to complete it. My first inventory was in January. We had a snowstorm that night and the management would not let anyone go home. If you did, you were written up for leaving before your shift was over. Some people left anyway, and that made the inventory last that much longer because we had less people. On Saturday night, they didn't even give us a meal break! The management just wheeled through the store with a cart of sodas and candy bars - throwing them to people. You ate that as you worked—no stopping! We left around 3am and had to be back Sunday eve at 5pm. We worked that night until 5am. We did get a meal break that evening. They had the local sub shop make lots of different kinds of subs. But... They did not get enough, or did not factor in the greediness of alot of the employees. We ate in shifts (the break room was too small for all of us at once). The first ones there took 2 and 3 subs at a time when you were only supposed to get one. That meant that about 40 people did not get anything to eat. The management couldn't get more because the shop was closed... So, they gave free sub coupons to those people who did not eat. Of course, they could not use those coupons until the next day-at the earliest.
The worst part about it all was that the store manager, himself, left early the night of the bad snowstorm! Now what kind of example does that make!
Then the management had the gall to schedule some of us (those that worked until 5am on Monday morning) to be in at 11am Monday for a full 8-hour shift! Many of us called in sick. We were written up and documented for it (including me). For the next inventory that we did in late summer, they were smarter about that. At least they didn't schedule as many of the inventory crew to be in early the next day (although some were). I was glad that I was scheduled for a day off after the inventory—I slept most of the day!
I have just hit a few of the highlights for you, and see how long this is already?! Well, I'll come to a close now with this...
Never work for dillard's... Even if you are solicited by a friend that works there... Run screaming!!!
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