Dillards, Dillard's
Terrible Working Conditions, There's Got To Be A Way To Stop Them Ripoff

My mom works at the Dillard's on Post Oak in Houston Texas (Galleria Mall). She's been there for almost 2 years, and quite frankly, I don't know how she has survived it this long. She's in the furniture sales department, where the quotas are outrageous. She has to sell an outrageous $ amount of furniture every single day just to maintain her $9 per hour salary. Woo-hoo. Big money.

When it looks like she won't make the quota, she starts to worry about how she'll survive on $7 an hour when she can barely survive on $9. I wish she would leave and find a job elsewhere, but management at Dillard's does a very good job of making their employees feel they can't do better. They constantly wear her down, belitting her for being — hold onto your hats — 3 minutes late! I kid you not, if you are 5 minutes late, you get what they call an exception. It's sorta like what they called a demerit when you were in kindergarten, remember? Lunch time starts at exactly the time your manager put you down for lunch, not a minute before or after. Her manager screams at her, she's required to lift and move heavy furniture, even after pulling a muscle in her groin and telling them she could no longer do it. Her manager told her that it was part of the job, and if she couldn't do it, she needed to move on. It's a very Hitler-ish working environment. If my mom wakes up with a headache or some other minor illness, she is required to bring in a note from a doctor, otherwise, you're out of a job. How many of you have not felt well enough to go to work, but not sick enough to go to the doctor? I'll bet it's about 99% of you. But if you work for Dillard's you can't do that. You've got to either go to work, or go to the doctor. Those are your options. Could you imagine having to work under those stressful conditions? There's so much more, but I think I've made the point.

If she is scheduled to work from 12pm-9pm, with lunch from 2-3 (schedule totally at the discretion of manager with no input from employee), she MUST wait to eat lunch from 2-3, even though there are 6-8 other sales staff on the floor.in addition, I recently learned that they now LOCK the breakroom on Sundays — Sunday is a short workday (12-6), so management wants to make sure that no one goes into the breakroom for a coke or a even a package of crackers. They expect them to work non-stop from 12-6, with no break for a drink or snack. I'm surprised they don't lock the bathrooms on Sunday too.

I can't fail to mention the large staff they have in furniture. The main reason it's nearly impossible to meet their outrageous quotas is due to the number of employees. With each employee required to sell about $day (more during holidays, etc), it's nearly impossible to meet this goal. I think part of their management strategy is to keep the employee "revolving door" moving. Then they don't have to pay benefits expenses. They just keep new employees coming through the door, while the trained, experienced employees move on.

Another very strange practice they have — when the store closes at 9pm, every single employee has to wait to be released by management. No one can leave until every department is "cashed out", which means that one employee has to wait for the Assistant Manager to give her/him permission to count the money, then wait for the ASM to sign off on it. But then, each department has to wait for every other department to finish, so so if the furniture department has finished their business of cashing out at 9:20pm, they must still wait around until the manager determines that women's clothing as cashed out too. Then, the manager calls over the loud speaker "furniture, you may leave", "lingere, you may leave", etc. Sometimes, my mom doesn't actually leave until 9:30, but she only gets paid til 9pm.

Lastly, I have to comment on the poor management of the store. I've been a customer of Dillard's for over 20 years — this particular store. Ever since my mom started working there, they treat me as if I'm a cut-rate customer. I thought about suing them for accusing me of stealing something, but my mom asked me not to. She didn't want to lose her great job... The manager came up to me and asked me to look through my bags... I kid you not.

So the next time you are shopping at Dillard's, I simply ask that you sympathize with the sales staff. Every department in the store (nearly) has these quotas. So when the sales girl asks you if she can hold onto those items while you continue shopping, please keep in mind that she's probably got a couple of kids at home to feed, and really want to make the sale so she can continue to make $7 an hour.

Company: Dillards, Dillard's
Country: USA
State: Texas
City: Houston
Address: Galleria Mall
Phone: 7136221200

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