Skull_Angel
[H]ard|Gawd
- Joined
- May 31, 2010
- Messages
- 1,664
These conditions are sadly normal for current consumer focused corporate jobs. From my experience, every worker (including floor-level management) feels immediate pressure until you hit the people directly involved with running corporate.
The worst case I was involved in was my previous employment as a receiving manager for a local package store. The 1600 sq. ft. store was run with a 3-man crew consisting of 2 manager-level employees (one store or assistant manager, and receiving or another floor manager) and a standard part-time associate.
My job was simple enough; work in the back taking in new stock, run the numbers for accuracy, get it out to the floor, then take standard manager duties when that was done. Now the problems; the backroom was no larger than a standard fast-food kitchen and I'd regularly need to fit 3-5 5x5x5 ft. pallets in there so breaking down pallets with no more than 2-3 feet of space was normal, the hand-held wasn't set up for scanning-in inventory so it was done manually with printouts and input to the server manually, the printouts were never accurate to deliveries so many emails needed to be sent out, the lack of employees for the size of the store meant I needed to put down my work to help customers a lot, temperatures weren't properly regulated due to 2 of 4 AC units being out (yes, corporate knew and we lost product regularly because of it), along with many smaller grievances like lack of store upkeep due to being purposefully understaffed.
After all that said and done in an exemplary manner, I completed my probationary period and got no normalized pay, benefits, or advance to full-time (yes, that was part of the spoken agreement, won't make that mistake again), so you can imagine I wasn't too happy. After fighting with the store manager and corporate (they made bi-weekly visits), they argued about the agreement and how I could easily be replaced, so I said fuck it and stuck to minimal duties (receive stock and run numbers) until finding a better job (not a peep from them about it for a month). What happened? They couldn't find anyone qualified or motivated enough to replace me (their words) and changed their tune when I told them I was leaving, but their offers were poor and I was already fed up with corporate. I told the area manager I'd swap places if he really wanted me to stick around, but I don't think he liked that since he just gave me a look and walked off...
Fortunately, I was able to stand up to these people, but many don't have this option for one reason or another. Their livelihood is in the hands of employers who's only cares focus on quarterly statements, and that makes the state of these positions very poor and sad.
The worst case I was involved in was my previous employment as a receiving manager for a local package store. The 1600 sq. ft. store was run with a 3-man crew consisting of 2 manager-level employees (one store or assistant manager, and receiving or another floor manager) and a standard part-time associate.
My job was simple enough; work in the back taking in new stock, run the numbers for accuracy, get it out to the floor, then take standard manager duties when that was done. Now the problems; the backroom was no larger than a standard fast-food kitchen and I'd regularly need to fit 3-5 5x5x5 ft. pallets in there so breaking down pallets with no more than 2-3 feet of space was normal, the hand-held wasn't set up for scanning-in inventory so it was done manually with printouts and input to the server manually, the printouts were never accurate to deliveries so many emails needed to be sent out, the lack of employees for the size of the store meant I needed to put down my work to help customers a lot, temperatures weren't properly regulated due to 2 of 4 AC units being out (yes, corporate knew and we lost product regularly because of it), along with many smaller grievances like lack of store upkeep due to being purposefully understaffed.
After all that said and done in an exemplary manner, I completed my probationary period and got no normalized pay, benefits, or advance to full-time (yes, that was part of the spoken agreement, won't make that mistake again), so you can imagine I wasn't too happy. After fighting with the store manager and corporate (they made bi-weekly visits), they argued about the agreement and how I could easily be replaced, so I said fuck it and stuck to minimal duties (receive stock and run numbers) until finding a better job (not a peep from them about it for a month). What happened? They couldn't find anyone qualified or motivated enough to replace me (their words) and changed their tune when I told them I was leaving, but their offers were poor and I was already fed up with corporate. I told the area manager I'd swap places if he really wanted me to stick around, but I don't think he liked that since he just gave me a look and walked off...
Fortunately, I was able to stand up to these people, but many don't have this option for one reason or another. Their livelihood is in the hands of employers who's only cares focus on quarterly statements, and that makes the state of these positions very poor and sad.