I was a store manager for Dollar General for almost 3 years. I had been in retail managment for 28 years. I was one of hundreds that were told yo work 45 hours a week. This is the first untrue statement about that job. The least amount I worked was 60. They give you such a low amount of payroll hours the store manager has to make up the slack in order to get things done in the time allotted by the company. Store managers also work a lot of alone time, it's hard to delegate work too when it's only you. This happens on a daily basis for anywhere from 4 to 8 hours.
I was injured moving boxes of books from my back room to the sales floor to be put up. I, at the time thought it was just a strain, never being injured before, called my DM and risk management that day anyway. Went to my Dr. That day. He too thought a simple strain, put me on a weight limit of 25 lbs. No big deal. At the time I had just terminated my asst. Manager for cash issues. The keyholder quti because he did not get the asst, manager position, this was not my choice, I wanted to promote him. The dm had an issue with him that had nothing to do with his work ethic or productivity.
I was hireing and training replacements for these rolls in my store. Ther were stores in the district with 5 managers, there were training smc's. I asked for help several times, both the dm and the rgm told me no. The dm said, we have remodels going on and a corporate visit coming up, any other time, I culd send help, but not right now.
So with the injury, I worked. More hours than ever and harder than ever to keep my store open with merchandise to sell. During this time I made the largest bonus for the period and had an increase in customer satisfaction. My left arm continued to get worse. Pain from neck to shoulder to elbow and finally into my hand with my fingers going numb. The dr, again put me on more strict restrictions. It got to the point I was on NO lifting, pulling. Pushing of anything. He and the risk management person wanted me doing nothing... Not ringing a register. Finally it came down to DG's risk management person telling me to have my DR. Take me off for 2 months. My Dr. And I talked about it and decided a couple of weeks would be good to start with. Still thinking it could still be a strain, and time off not using it would be helpful. I went on workmans comp leave for 2 1/2 weeks. I came back on restrictions, and they would not follow them, worked 3 days, on the 3rd day my dm came into my store, at 10:15 am, he took a conferance call and did a few things, 15 minutes before the end of my shift, which was 1pm, he called me in the office and told me the company had decided to 'part ways' with me. THe reason... Lack of productivity before I went out on leave! I kept the shelves stocked the backroom empty and the customers happy. My bonus and the customer service satisfaction survey said it all. MY store was on the top #1 sales in the district for weeks, and never feel out of the top 3 for 4 months! LACK OF PRODUCTIVITY??? I was not suppose to lift as much as a pen. What did I not get done before I was on leave? A 16ft of wall charts you fill out daily, weekly, monthly, the monthly was not filled in 100%. My ledgers were up to date, every invoice recieved properly and filed. This has been a year ago and I am still in litagation with a workmans comp lawsuit and now a class action lawsuit for DG employees they terminated after injury. This company has to be stopped. We should not be used up and thrown away so easily.
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