District Manager, Love em' or Loathe em'

[Knargles]

I read a little about this from death by danny and adjective, but just wondering if there are any good DM's still out there. In my tenure I have had 9 DM's, Most of them were awful, I have had the 2 extremes, the DM who has no life outside of BB and is constantly there calling texting, essentially micromanaging the hell out of everything, and I have had lazy ones who I might see in my store every 4 months or so.

I have been with the company for about 9 years now, and have yet to have one treat with professional dignity that I would expect from a DM.

[almondSM]

my DM has indeed drank the corporate kool-aid, but she/he is a wonderful DM who stands behind me regardless of the issue.

[zooworker]

My last Dm needs to go on a diet, shakes the earth when DM comes in....

[djblade]

Originally Posted by zooworker

My last Dm needs to go on a diet, shakes the earth when DM comes in....

Do people faces go like this?



I notice a lot of DM's are overweight =\ they must pay them good lol

[itirnitii]

Someone needs to come up with a DM-less chain of command structure. Leave the store managers in charge, give them a quota of some sort for store standards, and only have the RDO's give them beef if that quota isn't consistently met -- otherwise the RDO's leave SMs and stores alone aside from an occasional visit. RDO visit could be centered around bad audit scores and stores rife with customer complaints. Blockbuster could save a ton of money this way if all the DM salaries were cut. If they're worried about store standards just have more audits or something, no DM intervention. I realize that costs money... but paying hundreds of DMs a yearly salary seems far worse to me.

I'm just throwing out a rough unedited idea here... nothing completely thought out.

I've hated DMs in every single retail place I've ever worked at, but Blockbuster was the worse. They always care about the dumbest things imaginable. I will always gloat in this forum about this, but the DM I hated got fired after she drove me to leave the company with her incessant prattling about making sure to text her constantly... I've got better things to do than text you every fucking hour. Jesus. I remember how she bragged to me about being a Blockbuster "lifer". SO MUCH FOR THAT, HUH?

[kOre]

I worked under 3 DMs in 2 years.
-One was cool as hell, but a horrible DM. She would call me at my store and gossip about the other SMs that were running bad #s and her store visits were the same way. She would come not even look at anything and gossip.
-Second DM I had lived in another city, she left minimal voice mails and had 1 conference call a week. She was also a shitty DM but she was my favorite because she left me alone, never visited my store, and allowed me to run it how I wanted.
-Third DM was a total dick head. He was the epitome of Blockbuster die hard. The guy constantly complained about anything and everything and me and him didnt get along. Anytime there was a phone call or a store visit me and him would argue. He got tired of dealing with me so he would purposely look at the compass schedule and do his visits when I wasnt there. One time he visited the store 5 times in 2 weeks and conveniently I wasnt there once (Keep in mind I was pulling 50-60+ hours a week).

1st DM was fired for arguing with customers and telling them when they were wrong.
2nd DM still works for company I believe.
3rd DM was fired for making too much money about 6 months after I left.

On a respect and professional level for me the 1st and 2nd DMs were similar both treated me well, but thought nothing of the ASMs, SLs, and CSRs. I did see firsthand the 1st DM yell and belittle other SMs though. I think that was because she knew she could get away with doing that to some of the weaker SMs. She never popped off to me and there were a few other SMs she knew she couldnt push around either. The 3rd DM was a total prick.

[abhorrent scowl]

I've had the same DM for my entire stint with BB (going on 3 years).

DM's pros: He's not lazy

DM's cons: Incapable of independent thought, willing ignorance of common sense, overall dickish attitude in situations where that is completely unwarranted, completely apathetic towards stores who exceed expectations yet burning with passion to come down on those that don't.
You know. The usual.

[Xtreme Rebel]

I actually put in my notice because I refuse to work for my district manager any more. He is quite simply a miserable human being.

[deathbydanny]

I really have no beef with my former DM. I think there was a little resentment with all the busywork she would give us, but I also saw many of you guys post similar stuff, making me believe it was corporate and not her idea. She also did get her hands dirty which meant I respected her more than I would a dm who just gave orders and ran off. I had exactly two dms in my entire BBV stint. Same lady, but we had a fill in dm when ours went on maternity leave. The fill in dm was nothing short of a blood belching hagbitch, but she was really hands off. We didn't interact with her much at all, but boy was she a bitch when you would. I was happy when our normal dm came back. As far as I know, she's still there, and as mad as everyone gets in this district with all corporate's bullshit, I really think she does a great job holding her district together. If they do phase out dms, I hope she'd get pushed up to rdo, because most of the dms suck but ours was awesome and she doesn't deserve being let go.

[getoffmybeach]

My former DM actually perjured himself to the government in order to try to spite me. Fortunately they saw him for what he really is. One woman I spoke with actually offered to send me a copy of everything he said and told me that she talks to bosses like him everyday.

The DM I had when I first started with BBV was awesome but she left when I'd only been there a few months.