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So I can't get too specific about all of this since I work for a big chain place, and a lot of this is handed down by corporate. But I just am starting to get super creeped out about the place I work for. (I have a high tolerance for creepery, or I probably would have been creeped out sooner.)
The training videos had cartoon characters. They were animated cups, fries, and so on. It notably told me that sarcasm was not a way to talk to each-other. (We're sardonic at our branch all the time, which thankfully nobody has mixed up with sarcastic; "Sarcasm" is my favorite brand of humor.)
We had a mandatory meeting during the first month I was hired. It was all about how great our brand was, how great we were being treated, how great we were as a team, and then we cut out pictures from magazines and made posters of our life goals.
Then I worked cash register for the first time (that didn't last long) and I had all these programmed phrases I was told I had to work into the conversation. I had to greet them exactly the same way, point them to the special, and so on. Fairly normal, for any place, I think. This is where it gets weird: three months in, they add a new phrase we have to work in. I only took note of it when my general manager started berating a guy for "failing to work it in" for two weeks straight. He said he liked the employee a lot, but if the employee kept it up, he'd have to tell corporate, and move the employee to a position that was better suited to him.
For not saying a three word phrase. (This phrase is equivalent to "you're welcome.")
And to step it up a notch: we're expected to say it to each other. I mentioned to another girl how creepy that was, and she told me that she had told the general manager "You're welcome" and he kept repeating what he had said over and over again until she said the phrase instead of "You're welcome."
The creepy extends to the uniforms. I got a new shirt and realized shortly afterwards that one of our phrases was printed on the inside of the damn thing. Right up next to my heart. Is it supposed to bleed into my soul or something?!
There's the hypocrisy. We're expected to call in at least three hours before our shift, but they can and will cancel your shift less than twenty minutes before it. (For a while I didn't have a cell phone, and this would cause major problems, as they didn't grasp this concept, and I'd show up for my shift and they'd be confused as to why I was there.) They would always phrase it as a "would you like the day off? We can call someone else if you don't" deal. But I overheard the new manager getting trained on how to handle these calls, and what to do if someone said no. Apparently the answer is "petty revenge." Put the person on the shittiest job in the place, preferably actually cleaning the bathrooms, was the actual example given.
And my manager being crazy doesn't help matters. He's a man you can't say no to. Not without a good reason. He schedules me bizarre hours that don't make sense (like I'm trained for morning prep, but all next week, I'm scheduled to show up after the store opens. Technically during the morning prep shift, but everything will be done when I get there. Or this week, he had me scheduled into the afternoon prep schedule. I hadn't a clue what I was doing, as I was done with everything I needed to do twenty minutes into the hour.)
He regularly turns to me and goes "can you stay and do the dishes?" or "I'm gonna have to hold you an extra hour, that won't be a problem will it?" And if someone calls in, he goes around the store first and offers everyone extra shifts. I'm considered to be a pretty limited person for skills--thankfully damn good at what I do, so I can get away with a lot--so he rarely comes to me. I'm 50/50 on whether or not I say yes or no. Depends on factors. But if I say no, his reaction is damn near rote. He will throw a tantrum, remind me that I ask for more hours a lot (I haven't lately, since he schedules me every day he can), and then turn down shifts when offered them.
Despite all of this though, this job gets me away from my nuttier father, and the marina that is still teetering on the edge of collapse. And it gives me more hours. The only thing I keep weighing is: is it worth it? I know the marina will take me back if I decide to just walk away from this job. I just sometimes feel like I'm living in Office Space's reality.
Anyone else?
The training videos had cartoon characters. They were animated cups, fries, and so on. It notably told me that sarcasm was not a way to talk to each-other. (We're sardonic at our branch all the time, which thankfully nobody has mixed up with sarcastic; "Sarcasm" is my favorite brand of humor.)
We had a mandatory meeting during the first month I was hired. It was all about how great our brand was, how great we were being treated, how great we were as a team, and then we cut out pictures from magazines and made posters of our life goals.
Then I worked cash register for the first time (that didn't last long) and I had all these programmed phrases I was told I had to work into the conversation. I had to greet them exactly the same way, point them to the special, and so on. Fairly normal, for any place, I think. This is where it gets weird: three months in, they add a new phrase we have to work in. I only took note of it when my general manager started berating a guy for "failing to work it in" for two weeks straight. He said he liked the employee a lot, but if the employee kept it up, he'd have to tell corporate, and move the employee to a position that was better suited to him.
For not saying a three word phrase. (This phrase is equivalent to "you're welcome.")
And to step it up a notch: we're expected to say it to each other. I mentioned to another girl how creepy that was, and she told me that she had told the general manager "You're welcome" and he kept repeating what he had said over and over again until she said the phrase instead of "You're welcome."
The creepy extends to the uniforms. I got a new shirt and realized shortly afterwards that one of our phrases was printed on the inside of the damn thing. Right up next to my heart. Is it supposed to bleed into my soul or something?!
There's the hypocrisy. We're expected to call in at least three hours before our shift, but they can and will cancel your shift less than twenty minutes before it. (For a while I didn't have a cell phone, and this would cause major problems, as they didn't grasp this concept, and I'd show up for my shift and they'd be confused as to why I was there.) They would always phrase it as a "would you like the day off? We can call someone else if you don't" deal. But I overheard the new manager getting trained on how to handle these calls, and what to do if someone said no. Apparently the answer is "petty revenge." Put the person on the shittiest job in the place, preferably actually cleaning the bathrooms, was the actual example given.
And my manager being crazy doesn't help matters. He's a man you can't say no to. Not without a good reason. He schedules me bizarre hours that don't make sense (like I'm trained for morning prep, but all next week, I'm scheduled to show up after the store opens. Technically during the morning prep shift, but everything will be done when I get there. Or this week, he had me scheduled into the afternoon prep schedule. I hadn't a clue what I was doing, as I was done with everything I needed to do twenty minutes into the hour.)
He regularly turns to me and goes "can you stay and do the dishes?" or "I'm gonna have to hold you an extra hour, that won't be a problem will it?" And if someone calls in, he goes around the store first and offers everyone extra shifts. I'm considered to be a pretty limited person for skills--thankfully damn good at what I do, so I can get away with a lot--so he rarely comes to me. I'm 50/50 on whether or not I say yes or no. Depends on factors. But if I say no, his reaction is damn near rote. He will throw a tantrum, remind me that I ask for more hours a lot (I haven't lately, since he schedules me every day he can), and then turn down shifts when offered them.
Despite all of this though, this job gets me away from my nuttier father, and the marina that is still teetering on the edge of collapse. And it gives me more hours. The only thing I keep weighing is: is it worth it? I know the marina will take me back if I decide to just walk away from this job. I just sometimes feel like I'm living in Office Space's reality.
Anyone else?
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