The Shit Sandwich

[abhorrent scowl]

Warning - the following post may contain one or more of the following:
venting, bitching, pissing, moaning, complaining, griping, bellyaching and groaning. If you find any of the above unpleasant, please exit this page and go to one of those interweb places that have cats doing cute human things with their paws.

Have you ever had one of those days at BB where you just felt like you had to eat a giant shit sandwich? Rhetorical question, I know. But yesterday was one of those days. Normally, 15 minutes after a clock out it's all in the past. But it was just so damn pervasive yesterday that my ass has yet to unclench.

There was a continuing stream of the customers from the "Customers say the darndest things" thread. First we had the blatant liar. The guy who swears that noone on his account could have checked out those movies that auto-sold. Of course, one of those people listed on the account was his teenage daughter, and the movies that sold were titles like "Mean Girls" and "John Tucker Must Die".
Hey, I'm just sayin'.
Then there was the lady who wanted us to go back in time and take the movie pass off her account 3 months ago. And once it was off her account, she still thought she should be able to get free movies. Uh, yeah.
And my personal favorite was the guy who had a movie autosell, but claimed ignorance of the rental terms (despite that little note on the account from the SAM that said otherwise). He bitched to the DM, who said credit the balance and give him a free rental. So he gets his debt cleared, he gets a free movie... and then brings it back 8 days late. He calls and is screaming into the phone about how this is bullshit and nobody told him anything about late fees.

All of this is pretty standard I suppose, but when you put it into the larger context of the current atmosphere in the store, it just feels worse. When I arrived yesterday, I see a new communication pinned up on the bulletin board. It's from one of the higher ups. Can't remember his name off the top of my head, but I think it might have been Mr. Fancypants or something like that.
It's another one of those "it's up to you (the workers) to get us out of this mess" messages. He says he doesn't care if visits are down, if the weather is nice, or if you have shit for labor hours. Sell or die. Well Ok, this is nothing we didn't know. I'm just getting a little tired of seeing these emails (or check out the blurb at the front of the current issue of The Ticket) where the success or failure of the company is exclusively related to how many candle bundles we sell... without any reference to the decisions that our leadership has made that have lead to this point. Obviously, not every problem the company has to face is Keyes and the board's fault. But wouldn't be nice if maybe, just maybe, for once they said something to the workers like "we understand at least part of the current predicament is our doing"?
Hmm. I don't think I'll hold my breath on that one.

Finally, as I'm leaving, another communication comes through. It basically spells out the threat of termination for continuing to not meet goals. Again, nothing new (other than this is the first time I remember seeing it in writing). And this is a point I made to BB482. The heavy, almost exclusive, reliance on negative reinforcement, on managing through fear, does not work in the long term. In the short term it may spur performance, but on an ongoing basis all it does is breed resentment among your workers. We know what needs to be done, and by all means, if there are employees who aren't even trying to contribute, then that needs to be dealt with. But honestly, is the thought of someone standing behind you with a gun at your head really going to be conducive to creating positive interactions with customers?

But we all know the answer to that.

All right. Bitch session is now over. Sorry about the length of the post. I'm going to go look at those LOL cats.

[Kreen-Akrore]

"And my personal favorite was the guy who had a movie autosell, but claimed ignorance of the rental terms (despite that little note on the account from the SAM that said otherwise). "

^^ this I know exactly what you mean, happened to me and the intials were mine, and he played dumb, fucking prick the worst part is me SM heard what was happening and decided to come in to help out a little in explaining, and he just went all out on her. saying things along the line of
"Who are you and why are you talking to me I wasn't talking to you"
We tell him that she is the store manager and just trying to help.

Then he tries to pull the oh I run a business too and this is no way how to treat customers and whatnot,
well if you fucking ran a business you would know how to talk to people gain some fucking manners and stop being such a prick.

/rant

[Morbid Angel]

I've said it before and I'll say it again; QUIT!!! Hell, Wal-Mart is always hiring. I know, maybe not the greatest place to work, but it's certainly better than working for a pathetic, run-down company like Blockbuster is these days. And they'll pay you a good 40% more.

[zooworker]

Originally Posted by abhorrent scowl

Warning - the following post may contain one or more of the following:
venting, bitching, pissing, moaning, complaining, griping, bellyaching and groaning. If you find any of the above unpleasant, please exit this page and go to one of those interweb places that have cats doing cute human things with their paws.

Have you ever had one of those days at BB where you just felt like you had to eat a giant shit sandwich? Rhetorical question, I know. But yesterday was one of those days. Normally, 15 minutes after a clock out it's all in the past. But it was just so damn pervasive yesterday that my ass has yet to unclench.

There was a continuing stream of the customers from the "Customers say the darndest things" thread. First we had the blatant liar. The guy who swears that noone on his account could have checked out those movies that auto-sold. Of course, one of those people listed on the account was his teenage daughter, and the movies that sold were titles like "Mean Girls" and "John Tucker Must Die".
Hey, I'm just sayin'.
Then there was the lady who wanted us to go back in time and take the movie pass off her account 3 months ago. And once it was off her account, she still thought she should be able to get free movies. Uh, yeah.
And my personal favorite was the guy who had a movie autosell, but claimed ignorance of the rental terms (despite that little note on the account from the SAM that said otherwise). He bitched to the DM, who said credit the balance and give him a free rental. So he gets his debt cleared, he gets a free movie... and then brings it back 8 days late. He calls and is screaming into the phone about how this is bullshit and nobody told him anything about late fees.

All of this is pretty standard I suppose, but when you put it into the larger context of the current atmosphere in the store, it just feels worse. When I arrived yesterday, I see a new communication pinned up on the bulletin board. It's from one of the higher ups. Can't remember his name off the top of my head, but I think it might have been Mr. Fancypants or something like that.
It's another one of those "it's up to you (the workers) to get us out of this mess" messages. He says he doesn't care if visits are down, if the weather is nice, or if you have shit for labor hours. Sell or die. Well Ok, this is nothing we didn't know. I'm just getting a little tired of seeing these emails (or check out the blurb at the front of the current issue of The Ticket) where the success or failure of the company is exclusively related to how many candle bundles we sell... without any reference to the decisions that our leadership has made that have lead to this point. Obviously, not every problem the company has to face is Keyes and the board's fault. But wouldn't be nice if maybe, just maybe, for once they said something to the workers like "we understand at least part of the current predicament is our doing"?
Hmm. I don't think I'll hold my breath on that one.

Finally, as I'm leaving, another communication comes through. It basically spells out the threat of termination for continuing to not meet goals. Again, nothing new (other than this is the first time I remember seeing it in writing). And this is a point I made to BB482. The heavy, almost exclusive, reliance on negative reinforcement, on managing through fear, does not work in the long term. In the short term it may spur performance, but on an ongoing basis all it does is breed resentment among your workers. We know what needs to be done, and by all means, if there are employees who aren't even trying to contribute, then that needs to be dealt with. But honestly, is the thought of someone standing behind you with a gun at your head really going to be conducive to creating positive interactions with customers?

But we all know the answer to that.

All right. Bitch session is now over. Sorry about the length of the post. I'm going to go look at those LOL cats.

[abhorrent scowl]

I'm back in school working on a second degree, and the only reason I'm doing this right now is to offset the cost of tuition. Up to this point, my plan had been to ride it out until the inevitable day when BB closes up shop for good. Hopefully, graduation would come first, but if not, it wouldn't be an earth-shattering development.
But now, I'm just getting so tired of this shit. I'm updating my resume as we speak, and I'm going to let my SM know that it is my intention to look elsewhere. Hell, she'll probably ask me to take her with me.
And that's the thing. I truly enjoy working with the people in my store. It's a very tight crew, inside of work and out. I really will miss seeing them, but as someone said in another thread... the joke isn't funny anymore.

[BUYMECAR]

agreed.

.

[KAWLIGA]

E X A C T L Y...

[The Omen]

when i saw the title of the thread, i thought it was a new product Jim Keyes was putting in the stores... I was wondering what the advertising slogan would be!

[abhorrent scowl]

Originally Posted by The Omen

when i saw the title of the thread, i thought it was a new product Jim Keyes was putting in the stores... I was wondering what the advertising slogan would be!

What is this "advertising" thing you speak of? Such a concept is utterly foreign to me, a lowly BB employee.

[Ninja]

Don't you get it? When it comes to advertising...we're the shit in the sandwhich.

Get it? Sandwhich board...we're the meat in it...
ahahahahaha I'm lame. I know.