Bonuses for the top

[Ghost of AtlanticVamp]

Originally Posted by yodavsjason

Dire? BBV is the Walking Dead.

I would love for the company to recover, but everyone in the company is so fucking blind to what's going on that they are doomed.

The employees are the only good thing they have, so let's fuck em. I know so many good people that have been fucked in the last 2 months that nothing makes since about this place. I say fuck them all.

One day they will discover that trained well payed employees are better than a store full of monkeys. They run off old timers that make to much money and force ill prepared people into those positions. And guess what 2 months later they fire them, great plan guys.

Which kind of feeds into my opinion that they're purposefully sabotaging the stores in order to shut them, write them off, and to pour their efforts into their digital distribution (Total Access, OnDemand, phone Apps) and kiosks. Once the stores are gone, they can plant a vending machine in front of all the supermarkets or in malls, and just have people who maintain them. The TA and OnDemand requires very little to maintain, compared to manning the stores.

But what really amuses me is that the upper management got bonuses for "financial engineering". Really? Robbing Peter to pay Paul is worthy of making a huge bonus? How about bonuses for the stores that jumped through your fucking hoops to sell whichever odd configurations of products that we simply HAD to sell, never mind that my former store had the highest check per transaction in our district, and led in bundles and PRP bundles?????!?!?!?!? FUCKWADS...

Whew. Yeah, still sensitive about that.

[abhorrent scowl]

Putting all sarcasm aside (which is not easy for me to do), there are a couple things about this that are so frustrating.

If a company is teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, nobody should be getting bonuses. Honestly, with the company's outlook, I haven't gotten too angry about the lack of bonuses/raises, because we are so deeply in the red. Then this happens. Yeah, we don't have money for any of the myraid of needs the stores have, but we can pay Keyes $400k. Hell, we can't even get yellow locks, bags, or shirts. Common sense would say if you can't afford necessities, you shouldn't be spending money on luxuries.

How about this? Pay all bonuses to the top brass in Blockbuster stock. If they do a good job and turn things around, they are handsomely rewarded. If the company fails, thens as Willy Wonka so eloquently put it,
"You lose! You get nothing! Good day, sir!"

Finally, there's the matter of the letter from our RDO that is tacked up on the door in the office. It's three quarters "rah, rah, rah", "exciting opportunities" and so on. But nestled in the last paragraph is the implication the the company's survival hinges on us meeting sales goals.
Wait, candy bundles are what's going to decide if we sink or swim? Lord forgive me, but Kaw has a point. I go into work at a video rental store, and am instructed that my number one priorty.... is selling candy.

Like Ninja said, I go to work, I don't sit on my ass, I don't steal, and I make a concerted effort to provide the customers with a positive experience (and actually do manage to sell a few things along the way). But when I realize that it will take a 133,000 candy bundles, just to cover Keyes's bonus... well how are we supposed to feel?

[yodavsjason]

Damn straight!

[Ghost of AtlanticVamp]

Originally Posted by abhorrent scowl

Putting all sarcasm aside (which is not easy for me to do), there are a couple things about this that are so frustrating.

If a company is teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, nobody should be getting bonuses. Honestly, with the company's outlook, I haven't gotten too angry about the lack of bonuses/raises, because we are so deeply in the red. Then this happens. Yeah, we don't have money for any of the myraid of needs the stores have, but we can pay Keyes $400k. Hell, we can't even get yellow locks, bags, or shirts. Common sense would say if you can't afford necessities, you shouldn't be spending money on luxuries.

How about this? Pay all bonuses to the top brass in Blockbuster stock. If they do a good job and turn things around, they are handsomely rewarded. If the company fails, thens as Willy Wonka so eloquently put it,
"You lose! You get nothing! Good day, sir!"

Finally, there's the matter of the letter from our RDO that is tacked up on the door in the office. It's three quarters "rah, rah, rah", "exciting opportunities" and so on. But nestled in the last paragraph is the implication the the company's survival hinges on us meeting sales goals.
Wait, candy bundles are what's going to decide if we sink or swim? Lord forgive me, but Kaw has a point. I go into work at a video rental store, and am instructed that my number one priorty.... is selling candy.

Like Ninja said, I go to work, I don't sit on my ass, I don't steal, and I make a concerted effort to provide the customers with a positive experience (and actually do manage to sell a few things along the way). But when I realize that it will take a 133,000 candy bundles, just to cover Keyes's bonus... well how are we supposed to feel?

All of this.

This is the sort of shit that took a toll on my mental health in the last few months of my employ with this company. This sort of "Emperor's New Clothes" attitude of "Look at my beautiful robes!" (iPhone apps, kiosks, OnDemand, exclusive deals with Warner and now Sony), all the while the world is looking at the company saying, "But, sire, you're naked!" (impending bankruptcy). Then they insist upon their employees' complimenting the "robes" (act as if it's all normal, sell sell sell!). Sounds like they're still doing it, fakin' it until they (possibly) make it.

It used to make me cry at night, to be honest with you, to work so hard and to have the dogma drummed into me via email and voice mail, EVERY DAY, several times a day. And, it's never the company's fault. It was MY fault, as sales manager, because we didn't get sales. Because we didn't reach their unrealistic goals. Never mind that the economy's down, that the company is trading on pocket change. It was my fault. To really drive it home, the previous DM was so misguided, he would personally call the stores (17 in all, before the closings started) and tell us individually how we were responsible for the failing of the company. I have kids, so I could only think of how not only I was failing the company, but by extension, I was failing my kids---if the company failed, no job, no money.

[redfay]

Weren't they supposed to give us raises this year? I've been hearing it off and on from some people, but nothing solidified from that idea... I might just be ignorant for lack of information.

Would anyone know?

[yodavsjason]

What a dick.

[Ninja]

Originally Posted by redfay

Weren't they supposed to give us raises this year? I've been hearing it off and on from some people, but nothing solidified from that idea... I might just be ignorant for lack of information.

Would anyone know?

Yeah. We WERE SUPPOSED to get raises this year. My boss joked how'd they'd give my cut to everyone else if I didn't want it haha

I'm only an SL but I feel like I do SAM/ASM work and I'm paid on the low end.
Well, I do feel I work harder than I should get paid and I'm not greedy either. Hey, when I was a four star, there was a CSR making more money than me because she got 25 cents as opposed to the 15 because our DM liked her...Oh well.

Second job, here I come. It's kind of sad, I think about a company before I apply and think to myself, in this economy, would they still be around in a year?

[Propoxy]

Don't the "employee engagement" surveys start today? All the feedback in this thread seems like it may fit in just fine there, too.

[zooworker]

Did anybody click on the chart and see the total payouts for last year , it includes 2 current and 3 former executives for 2009. Total for all five comes to over $4,000,000
WTF! No wonder they had to scrambles for refinancing.

[TheShooter87]

im in the same boat, i do most of the SM stuff to help my struggling SM (nice lady but..) and ive told her that if something doesnt happen here soon ALL the SM/ASM stuff is going to her (our store doesnt have a SAM)