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This is a blog entry I did on February 9th, before I realized this forum existed. The general theme is women who go shopping and despite the fact that they have something else to do that day, the go to the busiest place during the busiest time of day, and expect 100% devotion from their employees. I call it Retail Jealousy. I will also label this a rant because during the whole process, I was able to forgive the SC who was more of an Annoyed Customer.
02-09
Yup. I had my first "May I speak to your manager?" today. In retrospect, it was quite funny. I mean, it wasn't, but it still was.
Today, I worked from 9 to 3 in the afternoon. I got a heck of a lot accomplished in the early hours of the day, and once it hit noon, everything seemed to speed up. A lot. I don't think to ask questions, for instance, 1) why am I the only person scheduled for a Saturday morning? 2) Why is there only one person scheduled for a Saturday night? Not my job to do the scheduling. So, that is fine. But this lady took the cake for my day.
She had been waiting very patiently for around 5 minutes (15, in SC time), like all of my other customers. We have a system: if no one else is there to help you, you wait. If a customer only has to pick something up, you take care of that customer no matter what, so they can get out of there. If the phone rings, the longest you can wait is 2 minutes, before letting the other person on the line know you are there, and ask them to "please hold" if they can. (I'm not quite sure who I am mad at here: The managers for acting so annoyed when I request their help, or the lady for not being as understanding as the other customers. Personally, I would have handled things differently if I was her. But I work in retail.)
Well, it got to miss Florance Johnson (name changed for "Google" purposes). She had her unstretched canvas lying on my counter for about 2 minutes, as I was helping her, and getting a customer's finished order out at the same time. At that point, I heard the dreaded sound: "Framing, call on line 1." Ugh. Timer starts in my head: 2 minutes. I get the other lady her order, pull out a frame to show miss Flo-Jo a sample, and she says to me, in front of the other customers who are very patiently waiting, "You know what? This is ridiculous. I have been waiting here forever. Is there somewhere else I can get this done? Can't I just go to (insert lead competitor's name here)?" Note* She does that little smile that all customers do when they think they've "egged us on" and solved their problem* As I am currently running around like a chicken with my head cut off, my retort was, "Yup, go there, do what you need to do." Well, apparently, customers don't like that once they start getting bitchy with you, you don't give a rat's ass about where their money is going. I don't make commission -- I don't care. Initially, I did, but you blew it. That was when the words were released: I'd like to speak with your manager.
I smile. "Sure!" I page both of my managers to framing. This happens to be the best part of the ordeal: since she can patiently wait to speak with my manager, I take care of all the other customers in line before either of my managers show up. Bam, bam, bam. I am now currently in the frame shop, cleaning up my messes, while Manager #1 shows up. She is younger, and of lesser authority than Manager #2. Flo-Jo pretends that she is being ignored, but she isn't a very good liar. Manager #1 helps her with her order, wondering what the heck I am doing in the back and not assisting my customer. The funny thing is, I would have gladly assisted her until a manager showed up, but she told me she was going to go somewhere else, and she wanted to let my manager know why. Fine with me. Then Manager #2 shows up, and stares. I am sure she is wondering the same thing. I just yelled from the frame shop, "I guess it's fine now." At this point, Flo-Jo realizes that Manager #2 is the one with the power. She pulls her aside to try to rip me a new one. Unfortunately, as I said, she is very bad at lying. The conversation went something like this:
M2: Is there a problem?
FJ: Yes. I have been waiting here for 15 minutes now and she keeps getting interrupted so she can't take my order. *evil glance and finger point in my direction*
M2: Well, I do apologize, we only keep one person on framing staff at a time.
FJ: Well I have a wedding to go to at 4 o'clock! (sorry 'bout your time planning skills)
M2: Was she not willing to help you? She is the framing expert here. We just run the business.
FJ: Well...yeah...she was very nice, apologetic, and even asked me if I wouldn't mind waiting. I told her it was fine. (In my head, I commend her for not lying and trying to get me in trouble.)
M2: OK... well. Why don't we take care of you then?
FJ: *defeat; easily confused with I am an adult and I get what I want when I want it syndrome.* O-kaaaaay.
I laugh in the frame shop. Whatever! I'm glad you added an extra 45-minutes to the whole process! What she did didn't even make sense to me. Maybe in her mind, she thought it was the best thing to do, but in actuality it didn't matter. What customers don't realize is that, in situations like that, their opinion has no effect. If a manager can't afford to bring more people on staff, then they don't. Plain and simple. If you come in at prime shopping time, you should know what you are in for (and managers SHOULD have more people on staff during these hours, but like I said...). After she leaves, I ask Manager #2 what that was all about. She laughed, and said, "I guess she was just annoyed that only one person was here to do the job." I said, "Hey, I get annoyed with it all the time, but I pull through. I'm the one doing the work, how does she think I feel?"
Then, I have a cigarette break. A nice, refreshing Camel Silver. It was the least I could do for running around for about 3 hours on empty. I left the shop a complete disaster. I explained to the next framer everything that went on, and she said she would take care of it. So, finally, I am home.
***
After reading through this again, I get the impression this customer was actually trying to HELP my situation. My added stress came from the 3 hours I spent running on empty, trying to help each and every customer as best as I could on a Saturday afternoon. I felt defeated when she complained, and now feel more like I was an Sucky Employee.
I guess it was a stressful time period that all retail associates endure when they just can't take it anymore. I realize now it was management's issue, and not mine.
In fact, weeks later, I think the lady has helped. In the past couple of weeks, we got a new framing manager (we hadn't had one for MONTHS), and I've been scheduled to work with at least one other person 5 times out of 7. The bad thing about this: All of our hours got cut to SHIT. I am now figuring out how to live on 13 hours a week, as opposed to my usual 25-30.
You win some you lose some, right? Ugh.
02-09
Yup. I had my first "May I speak to your manager?" today. In retrospect, it was quite funny. I mean, it wasn't, but it still was.
Today, I worked from 9 to 3 in the afternoon. I got a heck of a lot accomplished in the early hours of the day, and once it hit noon, everything seemed to speed up. A lot. I don't think to ask questions, for instance, 1) why am I the only person scheduled for a Saturday morning? 2) Why is there only one person scheduled for a Saturday night? Not my job to do the scheduling. So, that is fine. But this lady took the cake for my day.
She had been waiting very patiently for around 5 minutes (15, in SC time), like all of my other customers. We have a system: if no one else is there to help you, you wait. If a customer only has to pick something up, you take care of that customer no matter what, so they can get out of there. If the phone rings, the longest you can wait is 2 minutes, before letting the other person on the line know you are there, and ask them to "please hold" if they can. (I'm not quite sure who I am mad at here: The managers for acting so annoyed when I request their help, or the lady for not being as understanding as the other customers. Personally, I would have handled things differently if I was her. But I work in retail.)
Well, it got to miss Florance Johnson (name changed for "Google" purposes). She had her unstretched canvas lying on my counter for about 2 minutes, as I was helping her, and getting a customer's finished order out at the same time. At that point, I heard the dreaded sound: "Framing, call on line 1." Ugh. Timer starts in my head: 2 minutes. I get the other lady her order, pull out a frame to show miss Flo-Jo a sample, and she says to me, in front of the other customers who are very patiently waiting, "You know what? This is ridiculous. I have been waiting here forever. Is there somewhere else I can get this done? Can't I just go to (insert lead competitor's name here)?" Note* She does that little smile that all customers do when they think they've "egged us on" and solved their problem* As I am currently running around like a chicken with my head cut off, my retort was, "Yup, go there, do what you need to do." Well, apparently, customers don't like that once they start getting bitchy with you, you don't give a rat's ass about where their money is going. I don't make commission -- I don't care. Initially, I did, but you blew it. That was when the words were released: I'd like to speak with your manager.
I smile. "Sure!" I page both of my managers to framing. This happens to be the best part of the ordeal: since she can patiently wait to speak with my manager, I take care of all the other customers in line before either of my managers show up. Bam, bam, bam. I am now currently in the frame shop, cleaning up my messes, while Manager #1 shows up. She is younger, and of lesser authority than Manager #2. Flo-Jo pretends that she is being ignored, but she isn't a very good liar. Manager #1 helps her with her order, wondering what the heck I am doing in the back and not assisting my customer. The funny thing is, I would have gladly assisted her until a manager showed up, but she told me she was going to go somewhere else, and she wanted to let my manager know why. Fine with me. Then Manager #2 shows up, and stares. I am sure she is wondering the same thing. I just yelled from the frame shop, "I guess it's fine now." At this point, Flo-Jo realizes that Manager #2 is the one with the power. She pulls her aside to try to rip me a new one. Unfortunately, as I said, she is very bad at lying. The conversation went something like this:
M2: Is there a problem?
FJ: Yes. I have been waiting here for 15 minutes now and she keeps getting interrupted so she can't take my order. *evil glance and finger point in my direction*
M2: Well, I do apologize, we only keep one person on framing staff at a time.
FJ: Well I have a wedding to go to at 4 o'clock! (sorry 'bout your time planning skills)
M2: Was she not willing to help you? She is the framing expert here. We just run the business.
FJ: Well...yeah...she was very nice, apologetic, and even asked me if I wouldn't mind waiting. I told her it was fine. (In my head, I commend her for not lying and trying to get me in trouble.)
M2: OK... well. Why don't we take care of you then?
FJ: *defeat; easily confused with I am an adult and I get what I want when I want it syndrome.* O-kaaaaay.
I laugh in the frame shop. Whatever! I'm glad you added an extra 45-minutes to the whole process! What she did didn't even make sense to me. Maybe in her mind, she thought it was the best thing to do, but in actuality it didn't matter. What customers don't realize is that, in situations like that, their opinion has no effect. If a manager can't afford to bring more people on staff, then they don't. Plain and simple. If you come in at prime shopping time, you should know what you are in for (and managers SHOULD have more people on staff during these hours, but like I said...). After she leaves, I ask Manager #2 what that was all about. She laughed, and said, "I guess she was just annoyed that only one person was here to do the job." I said, "Hey, I get annoyed with it all the time, but I pull through. I'm the one doing the work, how does she think I feel?"
Then, I have a cigarette break. A nice, refreshing Camel Silver. It was the least I could do for running around for about 3 hours on empty. I left the shop a complete disaster. I explained to the next framer everything that went on, and she said she would take care of it. So, finally, I am home.
***
After reading through this again, I get the impression this customer was actually trying to HELP my situation. My added stress came from the 3 hours I spent running on empty, trying to help each and every customer as best as I could on a Saturday afternoon. I felt defeated when she complained, and now feel more like I was an Sucky Employee.
I guess it was a stressful time period that all retail associates endure when they just can't take it anymore. I realize now it was management's issue, and not mine.
In fact, weeks later, I think the lady has helped. In the past couple of weeks, we got a new framing manager (we hadn't had one for MONTHS), and I've been scheduled to work with at least one other person 5 times out of 7. The bad thing about this: All of our hours got cut to SHIT. I am now figuring out how to live on 13 hours a week, as opposed to my usual 25-30.
You win some you lose some, right? Ugh.