I am writing on behalf the managers of one of the southern california markets for Rent A Center. The marketing manager Shawn, has been known to verbally abuse his staff, give them mundane projects that are not a necessity and have them faxed to his home (where is at probably kicked back watching television and drinking a beer while his managers are working in his stores until midnight) and not stepping in to help them in situations of being short staffed or preparing for store tours. While he claims to be by the book, he has also been found to be very manipulative, abusive and will try to convince you to see things his way because the threat of termination hangs in the air.
He will address concerns for one store with every other store in the market causing a feeling of dread should he ever show up in the store for which is is talking about. He has also told stores that he is showing up only to not show. It is believed that he likes this power trip. One manager reported this marketing manager to the district manager (who happens to be his best friend) and Shawn went back to that manager and told him never to go over his head again and that anything that gets told to his boss will only be told back to the marketing manager. The company says that they have a hot line in place to accept calls from concerned employees, but no one seems to know that number.
The company also promises protection from retaliation, but unless you can get ahold of the corporate guys, you are left hanging out there on your own. It is the understanding of the store managers that Shawn was once a district manager and was demoted to a market manager. Perhaps he has a chip on his shoulder? One manager has quit, and was replaced by a person from Shawn's old market even though there were persons in his current market that were ready to be promoted. Other managers have been demoted under false pretenses. It would seem to me that the corporate powers should be a bit more concerned with the actions of their market and district managers and really should look into these matters a bit more.
The bottom line is not always the most important thing. They have almost a 60% turn over rate in that company. Is there a problem with that? I think so. Also, no one knows how many hours managers are salaried for, but most of them work in excess of 60 hours per week, sometimes more. I am asking that if a corporate person should read this, please do yourselves and everyone else a favor and look into this.
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