THERE IS A HELL! - - - IT IS CALLED RETAIL RETAIL – DEAD END CAREER? | Page 2

RETAIL – DEAD END CAREER?
cashiers and monitor their transactions (never mind the 25 things you need to get done by
Friday!). You get calls and e-mails asking if you checked every locker, trash can, break room
and dumpster for stolen merchandise. And if you say yes, and you have no evidence of any
employee stealing they say YOU JUST HAVEN'T LOOKED HARD ENOUGH!
And when you run a sale, why do you have to phone in your sales totals every two hours?
And if you are three minutes late they go nuts. Really, what can you do with those reports?
It's not like I can order some emergency advertising. The usual "inventive solutions" I get
from my DM are "put more merchandise out on the floor." If that doesn't work then, "Maybe
you can't manage very well because when I was a Store Manager I beat every goal that was
set and every sale exceeded LY and I never spent an hour more of labour than I needed
to..."
The Retail District Manager is always too busy to answer
your phone calls or return your voice mails, doesn't
respond to an e-mail unless it's an angry customer, and
insists that everything is a problem you can solve on
your own. Then when something you've been calling
and e-mailing about for months finally blows up you
hear, "WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME THIS SOONER?"
&@#$!!!
This article is about common sense. People should be nice to each other, be honest, be
restrained, be professional. And yet................
And yet the behaviour of many Retail Managers is atrocious. All sections on this page come
from personal experience or from the experience of my editor.
I can try to come up with reasons for these behaviours. Most Retail Managers learn their
trade on the job without formal leadership training. Most Retail Managers are not
appropriately compensated for the time they put in and stress they endure.
Okay, let's stop making excuses. A manager must have credibility to do a competent job.
Credibility extends beyond product information or the ability to build an end cap in 10
minutes or less. It is hinged upon how a manager is judged (yes, judged) as a person and
leader by the people he or she is charged with leading.
The goal here is to shed some light on behaviours and traits that will destroy credibility.

Lies

Lying reduces morale, looses credibility, and creates a toxic system of communication. A
manager that lies frequently will end up with a staff of liars. I've noticed that managers use
lying to motivate through fear or put off their responsibilities.
One poor technique I've encountered in several retail environments is the "visit" lie. In order
to motivate employees, managers will tell them that an executive visit is eminent. If
everything on the work list is not done, trouble will result! This is a trick used to create a
management style of fear.
dodie ste®eo p®odu©tion ™

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