It doesn't "POP"

Joined: 15 Feb 2009 Posts: 381

My daughter last week was asked to do the Christmas display, for the gardenshop windows like she has done the last couple years. To start she and the young man assigned to assist had nothing to work with. The wrapping paper for the backdrop has not arrived, she had only one of several displays, but she still set out to do her best. The SM was not there that day, but she tried with her best artistic ability, and she is very artistic in displays to do her best. The big red tape across the door did nothing to improve the display either but they just wrote "happy holidays" across it, used a lot of fake snow, etc. Made the display look like a country Christmas using some of the domestics Christmas which she figured would help boost those items sales, and did most of it in 4 hours or less since she covered an hour that day in electronics.

Well the sm, came in, had them remove the "happy holidays" cause he feared it would offend someone, had the fake snow washed off the windows and stated to the asm this display "did not pop." Now I agree when he got through it did not pop, it simply looked like the Rudolph figure and the Abominable snowman figure was being held hostage, making me wish to free them, not buy them simply liberate them from prison. I watched my daughter's face fall when she saw it.
. I didn't see the display before he worked his magic on it but knowing my daughters talent and the statement from her assistant it was good when she left him to finish it. The ASM was planning to go to the dollar store to get some wrapping paper for the backdrop and have my daughter try to fix it so it POPS but it's hard to do with nothing. Had the other part of this team, been there IE myself, but of course they didn't want us working as a team so decided to split us into her work one day and me the next, I would have suggested she get either a sheet with snowflakes on it from domestics if we had one, or a blue tarp and paint snowflakes on it to use as a backdrop. This store manager knows nothing about using the abilities of any two people to work as a team to accomplish anything. Christmas is stocked half way, no wrapping paper, etc, and most of us are wondering just what the hell is going on with display racks coming in with nothing to put on them.

As my daughter says what gives this SM the right to critique her artistic ability when she has more ability in her little finger than he has in his whole body. She has had customers rave about displays she has done and send in their friends to look at her Mother's day display. Some even asked her what it would cost for her to come to their home and do it in their yards. I know being her Mom I'm biasted but why blame her if she has nothing to work with.

Is it necessary for this company to destroy even a person's pride in their abilities along with their financial ability to support themselves?? No one has to answer since I already know that answer from the message they gave the Department of Labor about my gardenshop abilities. It's there in black and white, in writting, that neither of us are competent to work for this company.

Joined: 18 Aug 2008 Posts: 95 Location: Massachusetts

I know its your kid so its pretty emotional and all, but maybe its not personal. Maybe your SM just thinks his/her DM won't like it and is trying ao avoid that mess? Seems like all DMs now have a mission to make every store in the country look the same and right or wrong your kid's artistic ability isn't found in every store.

Sounds like the SM made a mountain of a molehill, but I also think saying he/she is trying to crush your kid's artistic abilty or dreams is overdramatic and extreme. It's probably not personal, vindictive or malicious.

Sometimes people don't like your ideas and sometimes those people are your bosses. You don't have to agree, but you have to deal with it. That's a lesson in its own right.

Joined: 23 May 2008 Posts: 373

At Sears you can't do anything against a planagram - even if the planagram looks like poo.

In gageflames cause - her daughter was asked to do something - on her own independently - been there and done that - it was all a way to have her work her butt off and do something extra to make the store look nice - just so the manager can then squash her like a bug. It is the constant underhanded mind games managers play in this company.

Your better off not caring or even trying - I have spent way too many years - playing this mind game - and seeing people who act like lazy goof balls and getting rewarded for it.

This whole company is dysfunctional.

Joined: 13 Jun 2008 Posts: 195

I guess I'm lucky. They can't complain about my space planning skills, especially as in the last two weeks plus I've ripped apart the entire refrigerator section and set it to plan, ripped apart the entire TV run and set it to plan (which took three days...fifteen new TVs, and yes, it was that wrong), and ripped apart the entire digital camera run and set it to plan (two days and counting...over half the cameras weren't even displayed).

Gage, it's high time for you and your daughter to get out of Dodge. Leave the company, leave the city, leave the state even. If jobs are that bad in your area, it's time to find a new area. Five hours a week cannot possibly pay the bills.

I know there may not be jobs in your area, but there has to be some company out there in need of skills such as your daughter's. Languishing in KMart simply as a matter of principle is a fool's errand. Step up and make your life a better one, because no one is going to do it for you.

Joined: 06 Jul 2003 Posts: 723

Ahhhhhhhh....mennnnnn

Joined: 25 Mar 2008 Posts: 222

Joined: 15 Feb 2009 Posts: 381

-AIX, Maybe few of us can stand to stick it out as long as we have done. Just when I didn't think they could drop any lower they did it yesterday. My sister called the store at 1:30 yesterday afternoon to let me know that my father had been hospitalized with a possible heart attack and they told her I wasn't even there. I clocked in at 12 yesterday and they knew I was darn well there. I guess it all depends on who your are and whether or not you carry around and talk on a cell phone, or maybe Luis and I just lucked out and got stuck in the seventh cirlcle of hell. Either way we still are not sure what is going on with my Dad but they sure as hell should have let that call through. It isn't like my family calls me at work ever single day just to chat since they have been told not to call unless it's an emergency.

No 5 hours a week doesn't pay the bills, but the unemployment certainly helps. I guess all those lawsuits that keep cropping up aren't justified either.

There was no planagram for that display.

Joined: 26 Jan 2007 Posts: 481

Joined: 13 Jun 2008 Posts: 195

Joined: 25 Mar 2008 Posts: 222

Joined: 26 Jan 2007 Posts: 481

It's probably cause she either wants to:

Get the glorious unemployment check and take a 12 month vacation

-or-

Build up a large enough lawsuit so that she can sue the pants off of everyone and hope to come out of it with a few hundred thousand dollars in a settlement.

I'm very skeptical of any other logical reason. I know they'll be blocks and blocks of text about saving the company, the man trying to take what's rightfully hers away, the fact that the company isn't what it once was, etc, etc, etc.

At this point go work at the crappy mini mart or something, you're not entitled to anything at SHC.

Joined: 15 Feb 2009 Posts: 381

Steviesears:
Get the glorious unemployment check and take a 12 month vacation

-or-

Build up a large enough lawsuit so that she can sue the pants off of everyone and hope to come out of it with a few hundred thousand dollars in a settlement.

WRONG: Unemployment is NOT glorious, it's a royal pain in the rear to try to make ends meet. 2nd, after the harassment and BS I probably could use a 3 year vacation which I'm not likely to get.they are fortunate it isn't a nice long stay in a nice mental resort. They are lucky EEOC complaints is all they are getting since I could have been one of those employees who got tired of the crap and resorted to violence, and probably would have been if not for knowing when to back away from the abuse. 3RD suing the pants off of someone is NOT fun, it's not fabulous, since I've been there and had to do just that. No one wins in that situation, not the one doing the suing or the one getting sued. I would chose to have all my teeth pulled without numbing rather than to set foot in any courtroom ever again in this lifetime. 4th, having to apply for Food Stamps to even be able to afford to eat is not a luxury, nor is standing in line at a commodities distribution for 5 hours, in all kinds of weather, for a small box of food, or begging for help just to pay your power bill. 5th, Nor does having to worry about how the heck you are going to meet your morgage, just to keep a roof over your head, or having two jobs at stake, make for a VACATION. I've done all that in the past months, and worried every single minute of every single day, not to even mention trying to get a handle on depression, anxiety complete with full out panic attacks at just the thought of going into this place for 5 hours,problems with my vision, and high blood pressure,

But enought crap is enough. Beating people over the head with hours, and I'm certainly not the only one in this store they have done this to, or threatening them every single day with their only means of making a living is no way to run a business of any kind. Cracking jokes by management in the hearing of other employees if you are black and the associate you are talking to is black, such as "I'm glad that Hillary Clinton didn't get the Presidential spot because this country has too many stupid white female bitches" is no way for a manager to act or talk. Running people down in their huddles because they think it makes them feel better than everyone else until that person leaves just to get away from it is no way to encourage teamwork or anything else. Neither is telling an employee "if I didn't like you you would not be working here" a way to gain loyalty.

Telling someone their attitude is the problem when they get sick and tired of watching someone yap on their blasted cell phone rather than doing their job, is no solution to the problem. It does nothing to assist the customer if they have to wait 5 weeks for someone to load and drag out something they have just paid for because someone was asked to help load it and decided the old girlfriend was more important. Especially when that same person has already been blasted not once but twice by the all wonderful and all wise mystery shopper.

Now I'm happy a lot of you can sit around thinking happy happy thoughts about that kind of crap, because I cannot. I hate to see human beings treated as expendable crap. We are not all "brainwashable" nor can everyone be PROGRAMMED to be the perfect anything, not for the wages this company pays and the garbage they throw at you. I'm glad the economy is so great in your neck of the woods that jobs are just available for the asking. Now you are free to believe what Luis and I say or not, that is your right, but some of us know what we know, and most of us wish we did not.

Joined: 08 Jul 2003 Posts: 6309

gage I admire you for hanging in and following it through to the bitter end. You have to follow through on legal action because everything is documented. And what everybody has got to realize is that they benefit because your legal case can set a precedent for everyone else.

But you have to be the one to stay calm and take the high road with THE target on your back. If management literally rips apart your work like a child throwing a temper tantrum just document it. He should of asked someone to take it down in a professional manner. AND as far as I know ' happy holidays ' isn't a religious saying it's when you specify that it can be a problem like merry xmas or Happy Hanuka -that's another whole discussion.

What's even more scary is that there is no plano or that someone has to go to a dollar store in a Kmart.

To keep sain I would try to find a part-time job or some volunteer work. Don't worry about the 40 a week with benies right away in this economy you have to work your way in. You might develope contacts and leads that could lead to something more prosperous in the future.

Hang in there stay calm

Joined: 10 Sep 2003 Posts: 325

Joined: 13 Jun 2008 Posts: 195

Joined: 10 Sep 2003 Posts: 325

Joined: 15 Feb 2009 Posts: 381

I don't doubt that some of this is not going on in some of the stores some of you work in. You are very lucky if it isn't. It did not always go on in ours either. Right now I'm studying at home to learn everything I can, studying Microsoft office, etc. I trained in highschool in everything they offered in office skills, typing, filing, shorthand, etc, but my skills are obsolent and I'm trying to bring them up.

I think it's a disgrace what has been going on in some of these stores. It should not be allowed to continue, and a lot of the problems lie in those they are chosing for management. Don't think I always felt this way toward our store manager, since at one time my daughter and I were his strongest advocates. We worked with him when he was a lowly associate. We thought he would do well but after he went to Florida to take training he came back with the intent to run everyone out he could including us. It has been target one and then the next ever since, and set them up if you can. It has nothing to do either with race, since I've worked under both races in management. My favorite asm was black and he stood up for me, and I would have done anything in that store he asked of me that is if it was legal, the store manager with him was great and I worked side by side with her many nights. The DM finally suceeded in running her off.

But the problem I see right now in my store is the buddies they have in both management and personel and their attitudes. One of the prime questions personel is now asking is do you play football, baseball, etc, giving me the idea that unless you play ball you won't even be considered. Older employees are being expected to give 24/7 availability and be available at a phone call to rush in and cover, and personel is knocking herself out to cater to the younger employees and give them everything they demand.

I don't ask anyone to pity me, I do enough of that to myself, but I think a little understanding of both Luis and I would go a long way. We did not ask for this situation, we are just trying to do the best we can, and trying to tell it how it is for some of us. Meantime I will do what I have to do, what I think is right, and if that is sue the hides off of someone to stop discrimination of older people or retailiation then so be it. I just wish the task didn't fall on my shoulders. I'm not out to set a precident, but I am out to see that certain people are no longer singled out, and discriminated against because they are older white males or females.

I too, think it's scary when someone has to go from a Kmart store to a dollar store just to get a roll of wrapping paper for a backdrop. Not only is it scary it's ridiculous. It shows something is definitely wrong with the priorities in this company.

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