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  • I am scared

    Cs members from a certain time may remember some stories from me about a former manager of mine, "Harry." My views on him have softened somewhat. He was, and likely still is, a jerk with no people skills andsome pretty screwy ideas on how to do things, and was having a relationship with one of his department specialists. But he did take the time to teach you things, and kept up on what was going on around the store. There was a plan for every day, and adaptations made as needed. Which is far better than the dramatic, sudden lurches from manufactured crisis to manufactured crisis we had with my last manager, and he wasn't much better than Harry in the personality department either.

    Anyhow, while he was at the swamp the position of salesfloor supervisor was created. This role was fulfilled by a woman I refer to as the purple-headed monster, so named for the ridiculously-awful, burgundy-purple dye jobs out of a box she slathered into her not particularly thick hair. She more or less served as Harry's right-hand woman.

    Purple-headed monster was arrogant when she wasn't being spooky-kooky. Not long after she arrived, she brought in a box full of musty, smelly, raggedy stuffed animals she dug out of her attic or something, with a note for us to help ourselves to whichever ones we wanted. Another night she told us her job was to "crack the whip," and that "all the boys like it when I do that." When she wasn't being creepy or a snob, she was just generally getting in the way, getting little work done.

    But she isn't a totally unsympathetic figure; Harry lied to her about the job. He told her she'd be a manager, with all the pay raises, bonuses, keys and alarm codes that went with being a manager, when in fact she was an hourly drone like the rest of us. She complained bitterly about this.

    Eventually she and Harry took to waging war on each other through the HR hotline, and they got tired of playing referee and they were both fired on the same day. And there was much rejoicing. I arrived home with my phone full of voicemails from co-workers asking if it was really true they were both gone.

    I saw Harry in the store a few times after that, and he's since faded away. Purple-headed monster, however, got a job as a vendor rep for various companies. Her job took her to several stores in town other than my own. I would see her sometimes.

    She's now been assigned to my store. As I am the backup receiving specialist, this means I will likely be dealing with her at some point. Possibly as soon as next week, because receiving specialist is taking a week of vacation.

    Knowledge is power. Power corrupts. Study hard. Be evil.

    "I never said I wasn't a horrible person."--Me, almost daily

  • #2
    Think of it this way...eventually she'll have to leave for the next store. Or you could imagine an anvil falling on her...whatever it takes...

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    • #3
      Know the feeling . . . but take heart, Irv. You only have to see her for a short time and it's YOU (or your regular Receiving Specialist) who gets to call the shots in that back room.

      I had reservations when Coca Cola changed my account manager (3rd or 4th one this year, can't keep track.) I liked the last one and we got along fine and had worked hard together to figure out ordering w/out clogging up the backroom most of the time.

      New one is a former Litter Box Ass Man . . . before that, he worked for a RTO store that I did business with over a decade ago. Guy's been in retail a LOT of years, so he knows how the game is played.


      First week he was on the route, I was on vacation. Second week was a bit rocky but I make sure I communicate regularly with him and do go over the ordering so we don't get too much of what doesn't sell, so so far we're doing fair but I keep working on it. I keep not only my reps' numbers in my iPhone, but also supervisor numbers. If any of my reps does something that's not okay and after no resolution through them, then I call a supervisor and get them involved (and have had to do that a couple of weeks ago after a sale didn't go as well as we planned and we had 3 extra pallets of 2 ltrs in the back room that we had to get rid of. One call to a supervisor and the account manager was there within 2 hrs to write up 2 pallets of excess product for pickup the next morning.)

      So on that note, just remember if Purple Haired monster gives you too hard a time when you're the one dealing with her, you can send her out the door and call her supervisor.

      I AM the Queen of my back room . . .but for the most part I think my vendors will tell you that I'm mostly a pussycat, except when I'm ticked off.
      Human Resources - the adult version of "I'm telling Mom." - Agent Anthony "Tony" DiNozzo (NCIS)

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