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manguero
Jul 5, 2009
As of yesterday I no longer work for Gap. I was there for about 4 1/2 months, which was long enough for the customers, the management, and (especially) the corporate culture to really start wearing on me. Glad I got out now, especially with holidays coming up.

I've never felt so distrusted in my life. You're always on camera, and there are tons of little policies and rules to prevent you from stealing anything (they say half of loss comes from the inside). For example, a manager has to watch you any time you walk out of the store, and if you have a bag they have to check it. One morning when I had a terrible cold, me and a manager were the first to come in, and I immediately realized I'd left my medicine in my truck. I asked if I could go get it, but she said, "Sorry, I can't be the only one in the store." (And this was before opening, so it was definitely a LP policy.) This is probably typical retail stuff, but having never worked in that environment before, I was sort of amazed at how little trust they (meaning corporate and our particular managers) had in us.

My GM was a passive-aggressive rear end in a top hat.

As for customers, it was disgusting how entitled so many of them felt, as many stories in this thread show. And I was constantly surprised by how many returns we would get--seriously, it seems like people buy stuff intending to return it.

My biggest peeve was probably customers who interrupted me while I was talking to another customer. E.g., I am helping customer A with something, or telling them something while checking them out, etc., and customer B interrupts me mid-sentence to ask a question. God it would piss me off so much. I think because I felt forced to immediately answer their question and therefore be rude to customer A. Also it presumed a lack of a preference for politeness, whether giving or receiving, on my part.

Another big peeve for me is the customer who has their things at the register, you start ringing the items up (perhaps making conversation, or not), and the customer walks away to continue browsing. Jesus Christ, do your shopping before you get up here. If you actually want this stuff then at least hang out for the 60 seconds it takes for me to scan it, I know it's hard but you can at least try.

For me the worst customers generally weren't the confrontational ones (I had few of those, thank god), but the ones who ignored me. I would give a friendly greeting and they would not acknowledge me in the slightest. I understand if you don't want a salesperson hounding you; I'm the same way, I too am forever "just shopping." But gently caress at least have the decency to say hello back when someone says hi.

I also hated this:
:byodame:: *looking intently at jeans*
:v:: *in sweet, friendly voice* Hi, can I help you find a pair of jeans? (OR: Hi, can I help you find a size?)
:byodame:: *coldly* No, I'm just looking *demolishes carefully folded stacks to yank out a pair*

They like to train them young. A woman and her daughter (about 10 years old) came in the other day. When I asked, "What brings you in?", the daughter said, "shoes!" and the mother quickly corrected her, "She's just looking." Probably to the mother's annoyance, I recommended our city flats, which are right over there. :)

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manguero
Jul 5, 2009
Don't get me wrong, I'm totally one of those to answer, "I'm just looking around, thanks," but I do answer politely, sort of as if a live human being had politely addressed me. (edit: Unless I AM looking for something specific. Then I ask the salesperson where that thing is.) Also I try not to leave huge messes in my wake.

manguero fucked around with this message at 05:41 on Oct 27, 2010

manguero
Jul 5, 2009
When you really know you're being watched is: "Oh, a top we have over here would go GREAT with those jeans you picked out! :D"

manguero
Jul 5, 2009

Fury1671 posted:

Complete and utter insignificant bullshit that just drives me up a wall is when my co-workers say "How can I help you find something?" I don't know? Aren't you supposed to know how to help me? I know its meaningless, I know its pointless to even think about, but it just irks me so much.

This is probably because of some manager who insists on never asking customers a yes/no question. I had one of these. I guess the rationale is that the customer can't shut you down with a simple "no." You're right though; it is a stupid question. A better version would be, "What can I help you find?" Or, you know, just asking yes/no questions because the majority of customers want nothing to do with you anyway.

manguero
Jul 5, 2009
When our RM came in, our GM was nice and friendly and gave us compliments, which in turn encouraged us to do good work instead of the bare minimum. It was refreshing because it was the guy I had started working for months before. Most of the time though he pushed us to enroll more credit cards, bitched about some of his employees to their peers, and gave us with too many hours, ignoring our need to address other priorities like school.

manguero
Jul 5, 2009

The General posted:

That poo poo should be illegal. A few times I've heard that people litterally have to choose between work and school, or be fired. Bull poo poo.

I agree. (And limiting your availability to be in line with the number of hours you want risks getting too few hours, of course.) I wouldn't go so far as to say that was a choice to make at my store though.

However, when we were doing shipment our GM would talk more frankly than when the store was open and there were more sales associates around... at times like those he would say things like, why don't the people who work here approach this job the same way they do school? They don't think about work, about how to be better salespeople, when they're not on the clock, yet if they refused to think about school while they weren't in the classroom they would do very poorly or even fail. (I wanted to say, because dude, you're paying us $.25 above minimum wage.)

Another time he bitched that "we pay you the money then you do the work" (:confused:) by which he apparently meant that we didn't have enough initiative--we merely came to work and did what we were supposed to rather than taking initiative and going beyond (e.g., scrubbing toilets even though no one had ever asked you to). Yeah buddy, I'll bust rear end to think of new and innovative ways to continue being underappreciated and earning your bonus for you, meanwhile still pulling down a poo poo wage myself. I'll get right on that. :rolleyes::fh:

In that same conversation, he complained that in our area, many people in the age group they want to hire (18-25) don't have to work. And it's true; there are a ton of spoiled college kids whose parents pay their way around here, and a job for them is just a little extra play money. (As an aside I hope it bites them in the rear end when they're trying to get a job after college.) I actually sympathize with his complaint, but couldn't help but think, shouldn't you then treat the employees you do have better?


edit:

Zhentar posted:

People doing things like that are probably acting under some obsession/compulsion or emotional escape. With big numbers like that, I'll guess that a large part of it was trying to distract herself from guilt over shopping.
Honestly I felt like this was the case with returns a lot of times. It's like the customers have to get some kind of shopping fix. Later on they can return it without having worn it or anything; they didn't really need the item, just the experience of getting it. Yay consumerism.

manguero fucked around with this message at 06:06 on Oct 30, 2010

manguero
Jul 5, 2009

RottenWomb posted:

I'm not too outgoing but I'm not afraid of helping guests and showing some courtesy to my fellow employees. It just really infuriates me that they seem to expect this unnatural emotional enthusiasm for their brand. Their training was pathetic and even though I showed a quick ability to adapt to the tasks involved for hardlines and inventory, they just didn't care.

You really have to put on a persona that is happy to be at work and happy to see the customers. Well, if you want your bosses in retail to think highly of you, anyway--lord knows we've all seen plenty of retail workers who don't give a poo poo. (And of course, I don't know the exact circumstances of your getting fired.) Sounds to me like minimum wage jobs is an employer's market in your area, if they could get rid of you so easily.

It does suck that you have to be so insincere to perform your job on just a basic level though. Them's the breaks in customer service, I guess.

manguero
Jul 5, 2009

Dodgeball posted:

post Black Friday

The knowledge that the work environment and scheduling in my store was only going to get worse with the holiday season is a big part of why I quit. Goonspeed all of you who are still in retail.

manguero
Jul 5, 2009

Pops posted:

But... Both my folks work for manufacturers, and apparently it's an accepted thing in manufacturing for union sites to have big, sturdy barbed-wire fences surrounding the facility, in addition to the normal cameras and rent-a-cops you'd expect to find pretty much anywhere. Non-union sites don't have these fences. I asked about it, and apparently the purpose of the fences is to safeguard company property against union protests. The implications of that are rather off-putting. So, my jury's still out on unions.

Sounds to me like a point in favor of unions. v:shobon:v Not because I'm a big fan of violence, but because if the capitalists really had it their way we'd all be working all the time for next to nothing. Someone's gotta push back.

manguero
Jul 5, 2009

Aerofallosov posted:

Yeah, someone did this while I did support for government software. See, in Texas, you can put a checkmark in a box to donate a dollar to a school for the blind when you renew your driver's license. You have to go out of your way and CHECK THE BOX YOURSELF to do this.

One guy apparently ... did this and then changed his mind. He calls us going 'hey, I want my dollar back'. I felt a little ill that someone waits for his charges to go through then thinks, hm, you know what, gently caress blind people. They can't even SEE the money. Over one dollar. Customers and callers are some of the pettiest people on earth I guess.

Makes you wish you could at least shame the person and make them feel like the horrible person they are.

manguero
Jul 5, 2009

Dodgeball posted:

"I, personally, like how it inflates the price of the item I'm purchasing. Makes me sound richer when I tell my friends I paid 5 hundred dollars for my microwave, and it gives me that extra feeling of security knowing my investment is covered."

On my last day of work I wanted to sell the store credit card by pointing out its great features, such as increasing our shareholders' dividends.

manguero
Jul 5, 2009

Dodgeball posted:

"I, personally, LOVE that the store credit card is 100% sterile, and is incapable of giving you AIDS. You will never get AIDS from our credit card. Would you like to fill out the application?"

"One of MY favorite things about the card is that each enrollment contributes to my managers' quarterly bonuses. Oh, no ma'am, I don't get any commission."

manguero
Jul 5, 2009
This morning I pulled up to McDonald's drive-thru and they said that the drive-thru computer was down so I would have to come inside. Guessing that most people would just go somewhere else instead, I decided to chance going inside (I was on my way to work). I get in and start placing my order, and they aren't keying it in, they're writing it on a bag. Turns out all the computers were down. Regardless, they still had my food to me really fast. I was impressed and said, "That was pretty fast for doing it old-school!" They said thanks and one of them turns to the other and says "At least somebody appreciates us!" :unsmith:

manguero
Jul 5, 2009
So... have these people not heard of the library? :psyduck:

(To be fair, it would seem obvious to me, since I now work in a library and am in school to be a librarian.)

manguero
Jul 5, 2009
Sorry, this is way beside the point, but I always love to read these stories (any on SA really) and imagine the characters actually calling people by their forums names.

manguero
Jul 5, 2009

Megera posted:

For whatever reason, the rest of the store is on a speaker system, but the cosmetics area isn't. We have nothing, so we have radios to play whatever we want.

But someone was playing Christmas music last Sunday anyway. :suicide:

:lol: Man, every workplace has one of those people.

manguero
Jul 5, 2009

Sonic Dude posted:

This is sort of retail-ish.

We had a customer come in to pick up her computer from repair yesterday. She refused to pay. Why? Because she thought "someone else" should take care of it for her. I asked who would be paying then, and she said she didn't care, and that I should pick.

So, I was supposed to hand her the fixed computer for free, and tell some other random person "hey, you owe us $180 because we fixed some dumb whore's computer." And she was loving serious; she left the computer there and said she'd be back Friday. I was too stunned to respond.

Where the gently caress does she go that a plan like the would even come close to working?

And the joke's on her, because we're closed until Monday.

I'd say, well, if someone else can take care of the cost, I guess someone else can take care of picking it up too. :D

manguero
Jul 5, 2009

Craptacular! posted:

Man, I have an interview tomorrow at one of the stores frequently mentioned in this thread. :/

I think I'll just do my best and if they offer me the job, turn them down.

If nothing else an interview is practice.

manguero
Jul 5, 2009

elf pr0n posted:

edit: Does any other company rank the schedule based off of "merit"? I'm interested in hearing about this especially with commissioned positions

The store I used to work for always threatened to do this, and I think they sort of did actually. They had to have something to hold over our heads since the wage (7.50) was hardly much motivation and we didn't make commission. I can't say about company-wide; I think it was up to the GM/scheduling manager of each store.

Fake edit: I assume what you're talking about is that people who get more sales (or in our case, more store credit cards) get more hours and more say in when those hours are scheduled.

manguero
Jul 5, 2009

Der Kaktusfreund posted:

My condolences.. I wouldn't be surprised if I was fired myself for the same reason, if our store wasn't so desperate in terms of help. I don't understand this. If someone is skilled and experienced, and they can work, why not just let them work for however much they can? We're getting paid by the hour anyway.

Similarly, at my retail job the GM griped that he and the other managers were having difficulty hiring because they found that many people in our area of the age range they wanted (18-25) didn't need to work (which I guess implies a lack of flexibility, work ethic, eagerness, etc. on the part of applicants). I might've sympathized with him--yeah, there are a lot of spoiled college kids here who have mommy and daddy pay for everything--except that what I really wanted to ask him was, "Given that you are having difficulty hiring quality people, wouldn't it make sense to not treat the [quality] people you already have like poo poo? v:shobon:v"

My sympathies for y'all TheBandOffice and sarsbar. :( Good luck and goonspeed.

manguero
Jul 5, 2009

TheBandOffice posted:

:unsmith: okay....the manager I liked just called me and said he doesn't want me gone and will work around any schedule I want. He's on the same level as the manager that termed me. I'm back on for now pending a review by the manager above them. That, if it goes against me, I get to appeal again to the manager above them. And then HR.

Yay! :D Good luck with that process.

elf pr0n posted:

The place I work is hourly (no commissioned sales thank god) but instead it is corporate policy for the department managers to rank the schedule based off of merit. I'm really confused by this because, well, we don't actually make money off of our sales. Pretty much my entire job entails me cleaning up after dirty customers who can't loving put Juicy Couture gloves back in their box and getting over priced watches out of a case to show to people.


It wouldn't bother me if all the managers did it based off of job performance but it looks like they're doing it by who can brown nose the best.

That blows. At our store I think it was equally selfish on the managers' part but more pragmatic: store meeting its credit card enrollment goal for the quarter -> bonus for managers. Therefore, tools who rope in a lot of cards (or are just lucky to get suckers in their line) -> $$ in managers' pockets. It was as if sales were ancillary to those store cards (and if so I wouldn't really be surprised; clearly financial chicanery is where the real bucks are made).

manguero
Jul 5, 2009

Craptacular! posted:

So, is there any place that's good to work your first job?

Restaurants. Can't speak for fast food, as I've never worked it, but you might have to settle for that at first with no experience. My entry into restaurants (as host/togo) was backed up with lots of other work experience at least. You should be able to get a dishwasher job though, and hopefully you can move up from there, especially if you want to keep working back-of-house. Sure washing dishes is dirty work, but mostly you don't have to deal with people and time passes quickly. (As someone who had worked more abstract jobs like teaching, for me it was refreshingly concrete.) As for front of house (meaning hosting, serving, etc.), you still have to deal with customers of course, but in general they are nicer to you than in retail for several reasons, and personally I had a lot more camaraderie with my coworkers and respect from my managers.

All this is based on my admittedly limited impressions of both retail and restaurants, as I didn't have to do either for very long. I can say that I was done with retail after four months but could work in the restaurant I was at for years.

Re-edit: if you are curious about working restaurants, watch the movie Waiting. I think it does a good job showing the good and the bad.

manguero fucked around with this message at 03:51 on Dec 4, 2010

manguero
Jul 5, 2009

elf pr0n posted:

Got my hours cut from 40 to 26




ugh

Your boss is an absolute fucker.

manguero
Jul 5, 2009

Cast_No_Shadow posted:

As for what my esteemed workmate did for Mr Twatface. She decided to waive the 12p difference and give him a further discount of 12p for the trouble.

Getting even, passive aggressive style.

:golfclap:

manguero
Jul 5, 2009

Ulysses S. Grant posted:

I genuinely feel bad for him because there are more than a few people who shop at my store that flat out WILL NOT buy anything from him, and THE SHACK is heavily sales goal-oriented and we're commissioned, so losing sales always sucks.

I'm sure his DM would tell him to stop being Vietnamese. :colbert:

manguero
Jul 5, 2009

Dog Blogs Man posted:

At my company, the christmas gift is that our employee discount is 10% instead of 5%. 'Merry Christmas, now give us your money'.

Wow, what a lovely discount.

manguero
Jul 5, 2009

Megera posted:

In mid November, I returned some Macy's boots I had worn for two weeks that started falling apart. I had thrown away the box and receipt (the thought of them falling apart didn't occur to me, I was just really happy I had found sexy flat-heeled boots :unsmith:), but had purchased them on my Macy's card so the shoes should have still been able to show up. The employee helping me scanned the wrong boots ($70 instead of $60) and I hadn't remembered the price, so I didn't know anything was wrong.

Then I got called in last Tuesday about it and was suspended for it. Then I met with HR the day before Christmas Eve and got an automatic termination for it because it was "stated explicitly in the contract" that I should always be checking my card statement (I checked: no it wasn't). The official reason for being fired was: "Receiving amount other than what you paid for returned merchandise."

Yeah, I'm still pretty :psyduck: about it all.

Wow, that's lovely. But I guess corporate overlords always assume you're out to gently caress them to the same degree that they're out to gently caress you.

They couldn't just give you a writeup and dock your next paycheck $10, could they...

manguero
Jul 5, 2009

MaxDuo posted:

people who just come up and go: "HEY! YOU!" from a few feet away.

I work at a library, and I really hate when someone at a computer or a copier says "EXCUSE ME" in a demanding tone and just looks at me expectantly when I turn my head their direction. Yes, you have my attention, now what? Oh, you need some help? Well perhaps you should communicate that. (edit: Though a library has its share of aggravating employee/customer (well we call them patrons) interactions, it's got nothing on retail.)

manguero
Jul 5, 2009
One time, after my manager approved something (a return?) and walked off, the customer leaned closer to me and said, "Doesn't hurt when they're nice to look at, eh?"

I didn't feel bad about telling my manager about this later and causing her to shudder, because she was a bitch.

manguero
Jul 5, 2009

less than three posted:

(smug overly friendly retail persona)

Haha, nice.

Where I worked, I sort of enjoyed saying, "Oh, sure, my manager will probably be able to damage discount this for you. But it would be non-returnable or -exchangeable." At least half the time their face would crinkle in disgust and they would say, "Oh, I don't want it then," since apparently no one buys anything intending to actually keep it.

manguero
Jul 5, 2009
re: the break thing, I used to direct customers to people who were on the clock. "Oh, I can't help you with that, sorry, but let me show you someone who can" or "So-and-so can take care of you." I just made sure to have my helpful persona on and seem like I was genuinely interested in making sure the customer got helped. I seem to remember that most people were understanding when they realized you were on your break / on your way out / etc., but then again, this is retail we're talking about, so I'm probably wrong.

manguero
Jul 5, 2009

JamesJBuffalkill posted:

If they weren't cowardly losers they wouldn't be retail managers.

Ding! Should be the thread title.

manguero
Jul 5, 2009

MaxDuo posted:

So I assume your DM is actually a cool guy? Our DM is a gigantic rear end in a top hat. His district is known as the worst one to work for in the company. People who arrive here that weren't here before comment on never being so stressed in the company. And those who leave our district are usually like: "Wow, it's actually not as Hellish working for the company when we're out of his district."

I think when he said DM he meant department manager. It threw me too for a second.

manguero
Jul 5, 2009
When I was at my retail job, a regular customer observed I'd been there a long time. "Not really, only about four months," I said. She responded, "That's a long time for this place!" I quit soon afterward.

manguero
Jul 5, 2009

cobalt impurity posted:

The shop I worked in (PJ's, a chain out of New Orleans) taught us that a "mocha" is basically a café au lait with chocolate added, but people would order it thinking they would be getting a mocha latte or any number of cold or frozen/blended things. Every place seems to have their own definition of "mocha" and it's annoying as hell.

PJ's also doesn't sweeten their frozen coffees at all, and they're just about impossible to sweeten yourself (with something granular anyway) since it's basically a slushie. I haven't been back to one since; I'll take a CC's, thanks. (Whose mocha, btw, is sweeter than Starbucks' iirc.)

manguero
Jul 5, 2009

red19fire posted:

Auto repair places must get the worst customers ever.

It's OK; based on my experience they pretty much deserve it. I have often gotten terrible customer service from auto shops, not to mention how they are always trying to take advantage of customers' ignorance for how cars work to make more money. I know it's a stereotype, but I've also seen it too much to write it off as merely that. At least in retail when someone is trying to upsell you know whether you need the product or not--the same can't be said for most auto repair customers. In high school my auto shop teacher (who had himself worked in and managed auto shops) flatly told us that we should always try to rip off the customer. Well, he didn't put it that way, but an example is that you should charge a customer for a diagnostic even if you don't run it and just "know" what the problem is.



TShields, have you tried libraries in your area? A lot of former teachers (and other people with useless liberal arts degrees, including myself) in my area end up at the library. Libraries are great places to work, and usually for a paraprofessional position ("Library Associate," "Library Technician," etc.) you just need a bachelor's degree. (Paraprofessionals make up the bulk of the workforce; librarians, who have masters degrees, are mostly supervisors.) I would check the public library system of course but also university libraries in the area. Good luck.

manguero
Jul 5, 2009

TShields posted:

That is a fantastic idea, I'll check that tonight! I've been looking at low end government jobs too. Working for "the man" isn't that bad in NC isn't that bad from what I've heard.

I'd rather work for "the man," which is ultimately supposed to be at the service of the public, than work for fat cats to make them fatter. :chord:

Let us/me know how it goes!

manguero
Jul 5, 2009

2508084 posted:

Depends* on if the state has meal/break laws or not. If the state mirrors federal law, you don't get anything no matter how long your shift is.

Which is bullshit. And people try to say that unions have too much power.

manguero
Jul 5, 2009

Apocalypse Please posted:

My store has lost $20,000 in stolen Macbooks in the last couple months, not to mention several thousand more in SLR cameras and such. They still haven't figured out who is doing it even though they have cameras. No idea how they are this incompetent.

Internal loss maybe?

TShields posted:

We can't do that poo poo! We can't loving touch them, and they know it. Out the door, and they're home free. Hell, if I even attempted to stop them and followed them outside, I'd be fired. No doubt. I think our LP guy is more concerned with employees stealing poo poo than customers, the way the cameras are pointed. 4 cameras at the front of the store looking straight at employees, not the sales floor. Another 4 in Pharmacy doing the same thing, a couple in the stock room, the ONE in the parking lot is loving useless- pointed at employee parking, no less, I assume to see if we're running anything out to our car. We have to do employee-to-employee bag checks for purchases on camera.. Ugh.

The training video we had to watch said that half of loss was internal. I believe it. But being under such suspicion really wore on me and made me resentful, in addition to all the other crap that goes on in that kind of job.

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manguero
Jul 5, 2009

TShields posted:

loving gently caress, might be screwed. That girl last night with the fake money that I posted about- apparently the drawer she was on is supposed to be management only, to cover our own asses I guess. I remember it being mentioned when I first started, but it has never been adhered to! There are floor staff using it every day! So she has to write a statement about what happened with the customer, and the other supervisor relayed to me that I have to write a statement about why the girl was on the drawer in the first place. My biggest defense at this point is that regardless of the drawer she was on, a crime was committed, and her drawer wouldn't have prevented that! I'm not putting that in my statement, though, only if I have to defend myself. Although, going on unemployment until I land a new job would be a nice way to break free. How hosed am I?

Edit: I have camera footage of other managers letting other employees use the same register. Keep it in my pocket as a trump card if I have to defend myself?

Yeah I would plead ignorance. If the other managers are making the same mistake the it is really the fault of your supervisor for not properly training you. Or you can try to argue that at least (though I wouldn't explicitly point the finger). Good luck.

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