husband's employer....a vent

[mstang67chic]

First, I'm not going to mention who he works for. It's a national company and I don't want to cause husband any problems or badmouth the whole company over a few idiot managers.

I mentioned in the post about difficult child attempting suicide that husband had to leave the ER and go to work. Why??? Because one of his managers wouldn't let him call in a personal day. A PERSONAL DAY!!!!! Which, I always thought, are the days you can take when something unexpected comes up. But...apparently not as he had already received a verbal warning for taking one when our water heater was acting up and someone had to be here for the repair man. Once he got to work and laid out the ENTIRE story....they felt guilty. How nice.

The day before this....husband was helping a customer. The guy he was helping suddenly dropped. He didn't lose consciousness but he went down and husband caught him and got him sat down. They called an ambulance and husband thinks that the man may have had a small stroke because his speech didn't make sense by that time. So, husband is sitting there with this guy, talking to him, keeping an eye on him, etc. One of the managers came ove and told husband that the ambulance was on it's way, the guy would be fine and husband needed to get back to work. WHAT???? OMG...these people just push my buttons with their lack of common sense and compassion.

When he first started, the rule was that if you worked a holiday, you got the next one off. husband? Uh huh....he worked FIVE straight holidays his first year. The guy doing the schedule mumbled something about "Well how was I supposed to know?" Ummm......How about by looking in the BOOK that YOU keep that has the schedule history in, you idjit!

husband will get notices from district that he has way too much vacation time accrued and needs to use some of it up. He'll put in for it (and TELL them WHY he's taking it) and instead of scheduling it as vacation, they just give him the time off so he doesn't have to use his vacation time.

This man is one of the best people they have (I've been told this by some of their customers) yet they treat him and everyone else like carp. The employees have to take periodic "tests" on their product/service knowledge. husband is one of the very, very few who consistantly get top grades on this. Do his managers acknowledge this? Well yeah, in a way. They know he's good so they make him work all the time. This weekend is the second in two months that he's had off. TWO MONTHS! I can understand wanting your best employees there as much as possible but you also have to realize that they aren't machines and actually have lives and need time to sleep. He will go in at 10 in the morning and not get home till 10 at night. Granted, he works in retail and their hours hoover but they schedule him this way all the time.

I can't WAIT till he gets his degree in a couple of months and finds another job. I won't know what to do with myself if I actually have my husband at home during the evenings and on weekends!

No replied really needed.....just needed to vent. I've been steaming about this all week.

 

[DammitJanet]

Billy works for a company that does this same thing...wonder if it is the same one! Problem is Billy is part-time but sometimes they have him work from opening to closing but then they only schedule him for one or two other days from say 6-9! It bites. Other weeks they will schedule him for just under 40 hours so they dont have to put him on full time.

I dont know why retail seems to treat their people this way.

 

[KTMom91]

Retail is not for the faint of heart. After ten years in management (2 as a DM), I'd had enough. It can be fun, it can be exciting, but some companies will drain you dry and then be a thorn in your side even after you're gone.

I started working for a regional chain here in CA. I was told they wanted a strong manager to come in, retrain, clean up the store, increase sales, and so on. Since I had DM experience, I could do this, no problem. After about four months, They were sending in secret shoppers and fussing at me about everything, including that I had left the store to walk down the mall to Carl's JR to get some iced tea, even though I was gone maybe 10 minutes and there were associates in the store. I was let go after six months. They told me that I hadn't worked 48 hours every week...true, I hadn't every single week. They told Unemployment I was terminated for gross misconduct, even though there was absolutely no disciplinary paperwork.

Sending extra strength to get your husband through till he graduates!

 

[ML]

I'm very happy to hear he is close to getting his degree and he can soon wake up from this nightmare.

 

[flutterby]

You would think they would realize that when you abuse your best employees, they are going to end up losing them; thereby shooting themselves in the foot.

The lack of compassion about that poor man is inexcusable and unforgivable. I just can't wrap my mind around that.

My son works in retail. He has missed two days in the year he's been there and one of the days I called him off during his mono when he was looking jaundiced - he was still planning on going into work when he could barely stand up!. They gave him a *really* hard time. I have since called his boss about something unrelated and let it slip that I used to work in Human Resources. So far, there hasn't been anymore problems.

I'm sorry your husband is being treated so poorly. These companies need to grow a conscience.

 

[Wiped Out]

I am so glad your husband is getting his degree and getting out of retail. I always hated retail hours but this company sounds like they have lost all sense of reason. Honestly, retail companies preach customer service and they didn't want him to stay with the customer? Geez!

 

[Star*]

Stang -

You know - it was hard for me to go in and tell my boss that I had to have a day off to take my 17 year old son to court - TWICE in 6 weeks. The second time I went to ask instead of giving him an explanation? I just said "I need a personal day and I do NOT care to discuss it with anyone."

THAT seemed to be better than me standing there going into detail - and no one asked me a thing.

Maybe you should tell husband to say "I"m taking one of my VACATION days TODAY and I DO NOT want to discuss it with anyone." and leave it at that?

Seems the nicer you are to some of these bosses - the MORE they walk on you but the people in our office that treat my boss like ka-ka? Get the golden egg......So I tried it - and voila - golden egg for me.

Hugs
Oh - and POotie has painted herself a nice shade of pink......have NO idea where she got it from - but it's all over her back legs......

 

[susiestar]

Oh, Pootie Princess was playing makeup?? What a pretty girl out Pootie is, pretty Pootie!!! Gives her some lovin from Auntie Susie - pretty pootie!!

Well, I have rarely heard of a retail company that treats its employees well. Many companies preach treating employees well but that is all from corporate. The actual locations are run by people who mistreat employees and then are stunned when people quit.

I worked for a restaurant like that. They stressed being a "family" company. Servers and cooks could take a day off once every couple of months. Let there be an emergency with a kid, well, unless they could get someone to cover they had to work anyway. NO personal days or paid vacation for over 75% of the staff. Managers got NO vacation or personal days. If you took off 2 days in 2 years they FIRED you.

I am glad your husband can get out of there soon.

 

[eekysign]

The only retail company I've heard of being kind is Hot Topic (roomie works for them). I've been way impressed with how they handle everything. At least around here, they're great about scheduling---she was VERY sick a while back, out for two months, MANY docs appts when she got back. No hassle, paid everything they were supposed to pay, seamless entry back into her old job when she came back (and they let her "ease" back into it with half-days and such).

I can't think of any real problems she's had with them, and she's worked there for years and years. The pay ain't great (ah, retail), but they do a lot with incentives that you don't HAVE to aim for, but get if you do well, and little perks like reimbursement for keeping up with modern music by going to concerts, intra-district contests sales contests for bragging rights, etc.

They are also told on no uncertain terms that if they get any hassles from their medical insurance, to contact the national HR division, who will help pressure the insurance people to get their act together.

I wish MY non-retail company was as good to their employees.

 

[Lothlorien]

If the retail company that I worked for didn't go out of business recently, I would swear he was working for them. I swear I'm having PTSD reading your post. No compassion.....sick.

 

[mstang67chic]

No compassion.....sick.

That deal about the customer collapsing....I would think that even if they didn't have compassion....they would at LEAST be worried about that magic word.

Liability.

husband was going to contact someone in corporate about it but we haven't really had time to talk about much more than difficult child lately so I'll have to see what happened.