Last night I came across the Peter Principle and I finally have a name for the disorder of management in retail stores, and other companies too.
Sorry if you already know all this, but I discovered it purely by accident and now have another piece of the puzzle that makes up Retail Hell.

So, the Peter Principle. It states that: in a hierarchy, members are promoted so long as they work competently, but they will eventually be promoted to a position at which they will be incompetent.
This explains so much! People in our store get promoted to management because they've displayed good skills in their previous position. That doesn't necessarily mean they possess the right skills to be a manager so they are no longer able to carry out their duties and the work is left to those of us who haven't reached our level of incompetence yet.
BINGO!
Although promotions are intended to reward hardworking employees with increased status and pay, it will eventually be detrimental to the company when the number of incompetent outnumber the competent. It may also lead to "creative incompetence", where people pretend to be incompetent to avoid promotion.
I don't feign incompetence, but I do avoid promotion.

I could take it one step further and refer to the Dilbert Principle. I really feel I'm being quite patronising here, but I'll explain anyway.
The Dilbert Principle (based on observations by Dilbert cartoonist Scott Adams) states that: companies tend to systematically promote their least-competent employees to management in order to limit the amount of damage they're capable of doing.
This differs from the Peter Principle because it claims that incompetent employees are promoted intentionally to withdraw them from a position where they could cause the most harm (such as reducing product quality or offending customers).

At first I thought the Dilbert Principal applied more to my store, but I don't think that's true anymore because the managers are still present on the shop floor and are therefore still capable of doing damage, if not more damage than the lower-ranking employees.
I think it's more a case of people doing a good job beforehand, then get promoted and find themselves out of their depth and panic a little. It's also sometimes down to favouritism, age, and length of time they've been with the company.
I do know of a store that does operate on the Dilbert Principle (as well as the Peter Principle) instead of just sacking the people in question and it annoys the hell out of me, and I don't even work there!

I'm just glad I found a name and explanation for something I knew of but couldn't explain beforehand . Somethings always better with a name.
Like when the term "mugging" first gained popularity, there was an increase in the number of reported muggings, because people now had a name for it. That's just something I picked up in Psychology. It might not be entirely accurate, but it is vaguely true.

Wiki: The Peter Principle
Wiki: The Dilbert Principle

Tags: explanation, retail

Sorry I haven’t been posting much. I had promised to bombard you with posts at the end of the 2 week break, but during that time I couldn’t just write a post on a whim so I forgot all the little shit I moan about and just remembered the good stuff. It was pretty good stuff though.
Plus, I’ve had 3 days off in a row this week so I haven’t had much to write about. I almost forget retail, lol. Bliss. Well, bittersweet. I spent most of Monday afternoon either sedated or recovering after a trip to the dentist. I wasn’t having teeth pulled or anything, I’m just a big wuss. So Monday was a bit of a blur, I wouldn’t have made much sense even if I had tried to write something.

Anyway, I was back in work on Wednesday and another mystery was revealed. For the past few months I’d occasionally seen a guy walking around upstairs and he’d even come into the staff cantine to ask which manager was on that night, but no matter who I asked, no one could tell me who he was. He’s pretty old....and very ugly. Imagine a surfer dude at 50 - too much sun, cigs, and still dying his hair blonde - that’s what he looks like to me. Well, I saw him again yesterday and it turns out he’s the “blind guy”. He’s not actually blind, he just comes in to sort out the blinds, as in Venetian and vertical. We think he fancies the A&C Supervisor. The only reason I found out who he was was because he came over to give her a packet of cigarettes after she’d bought him some jelly beans earlier. How romantic.

That’s really the most interesting thing that’s happened. It’s been very uneventful in the store recently. The most irate customer I’ve seen was a guy who started kicking off because he’d driven to the store twice to pick something up and was moaning about the amount of petrol he’d used. It’s not like he couldn’t have rung ahead to check if we even had it in stock first, so obviously it’s all our fault he wasted petrol. I don’t know if we gave in to him or not.
I also had to deal with a guy who claimed he’d bought a fish tank from us about a year ago and the flouresent bulb had gone and he couldn’t find a replacement anywhere. He said we still sold the product so I think he was hinting at me to give him a bulb from another tank. Before I could laugh in his face I passed him over to a duty manager so I don’t know what happened with him either.
There’s some anti-climaxes for ya.

Tags: explanation

I'v been thinking about this a lot: Why do people work in retail?

This is why I asked in the poll how long you'd been working in retail for, (not because I couldn't think of a better question, there was a reason, lol).
So, hands up who put 11-20 years! How have you put up with it for that long? Do you like your job? Maybe I only find it scary because you've been working in retail for as long as I'v been alive.

I'm not just trying to be nosey. I'll explain my situation:
I'v only ever seen working in retail as a temporary thing. Just a little weekend job I had through college and then I was all set to start a psychology degree. Then that summer I had something 2 foot short of an epiphany and I threw it all away. Hence, why I'm still in retail. My plan was to take a gap year (...or 2) and decide what I really wanted to do. I knew I'd be working some shitty job, but that was okay, because it would only make me want to go back into education more. At the time I'd just had enough of school and college. Over 40 exams in 3 years. Best years of your life? Yeah right! But I knew it could be worse, and I had to find out the hard way.
Anyway, those gap years are finally up and I'm making plans to start uni next year. There's a light at the end of a very dark tunnel. I'm not usually right about most things, but this has worked out to the letter, and has been the most enormous learning curve. I sound naive, which is probably true, but even if I hadn't been planning to go to uni, then the "capitalistic Vietnam that is the holiday season" would have driven me to it anyway.
Just the thought of having to work a few more years in retail sends shivers down my spine. Of course, people have to do it otherwise we wouldn't have shops, but a lot of those people are capable of and deserve better, and yet there's some people in top positions who don't deserve jack.

I don't know why it's bothering me so much. I think that little part of me that applied to do psychology is still around, trying to figure out the psyche of retail workers. I know where I'm at - I hate it, all of it, and it's tainting the way I see the world.
I'm just curious to know why you're still there, and how you deal with it.

Tags: explanation

Some poor GameStop employee has taken it upon himself to defend the company’s policies because he is so tired of all the GameStop bashing that goes on. You can read the whole thing here. I guess all the know-it-all abusive customers and criticising newsblogs are starting to get too much for one retail slave.

The first thing he talks about is “gutted” games. People are making a big deal of this? It’s common practice in the UK....and it makes sense. If you were to put an unopened £50 game on the shelf someone would steal it, no-matter how many security tags you put on it. Isn’t that obvious, customers? At least you can check the disk of gutted games. Just because a game is sealed, it’s no guarantee it’s going to work any better. And be thankful those gutted disks get put in plastic/paper sleaves. We don’t even do that.
Another thing is the reserves. I never gave a crap about how much I sold or how many reserves I made (which was probably none) because I was only a temp, but I know we had soooo many problems with customers wanting to reserve a Wii. I worked at **** video game store around the time the Wii was released in December 2006 and the UK (well, everywhere) had a pretty bad time of it trying to get hold of consoles. Even those who managed to reserve one weren’t happy they had to wait for it. One day there was a power outage affecting our store and a guy approaches us and kicks off because he can’t get his Wii. Helloooooo! We can’t even get in the fucking store, let alone get your Wii! Why are people so fucking stupid? They see the shop with the shutters still down at 12pm and us standing outside in the freezing cold, but the customer is always right and the customer demands they have their games right now! Sorry, I failed at Hogwarts, which is a good job for you because I would really like to transfigure you into the pile of shit that you really are!
He brings up a lot of other good points as well, like asking for ID and....trade-ins. Why do people get pissy about this? Which other stores will take in your 2 year old, manky game or console? And if you turn up your nose at a pre-owned game that you consider to be in poor condition, that’s not the fault of the employees, but due to the previous owner not looking after it properly. Blame your fellow customers.
Something I need to chuck in though is that you pay nearly half the price for games (not to mention nearly everything else) in the US compared to the UK. Grand Theft Auto IV in the US - $59.99. In the UK - £49.99 ($98.78). Rock Band in the US - $169.99. In the UK - £129.99 ($256.84). You’re getting a steal as it is, quit being a bitch about it.
Even though I only worked at a video game store for a few months, I learned that buying games and consoles can induce a state of anger in the most placid of people. If you’re not happy with the policies, take it to the guys at the top. Don’t take your frustration out on the retail slaves because they can’t change anything. You think they get paid minimum wage for drafting company policy and procedure?
One comment says:
Sorry- this just basically says one thing to me:
"The customer should conform to our practices" instead of the other way around.
Um....yeah, what’s your point? You expect us to change policy for each customer’s individual preferences? I think you need to go pinch yourself, or worse.

Tags: explanation, customers, dumb

Dear Evelyn,

I treat all customers, mentally disabled or not, with the same amount of respect. My post was not an insult to the integrity of people with mental and learning disabilities, I was just expressing my dislike for the very few caregivers who perhaps don’t do their job as best as they should. Kinda like bad parenting.
The only reason I feel “uncomfortable” when dealing with mentally disabled people is because I’m not sure how to respond to them, because they can react differently to things we take for granted, and I don’t want to be the one to cause them any distress. That is down to my own ignorance.
The company I work for employs people with mental and learning disabilities, but the difference there is I get to know their personality and character, and what they do and don’t need help with. You see?
I object to caregivers relinquishing their responsibility on to me because I am not allowed to take responsibility for anyones children, elderly relatives, possesions, even animals while they’re in the store. It is not our job. We don’t have the correct training, and yet if anything were to go wrong, who would get the blame?
I’m not referring to people with minor mental or learning disabilities who are perfectly capable of looking after themselves, only to the severly mentally handicapped, the ones who need constant supervision. How would you suggest I answer someone who’s just shouted “Nah nah nah nah nah!” at me? I did the only thing I could think of and politely say “Um, I’m sorry, I...”, at which point the carer stepped in. But with the other caregiver, who did nothing while I was asked the same question repeatedly, wasting my time and preventing me from doing my job, that was ridiculous. It was a fucking joke! And she knew it.
I’m not saying they should be discouraged from asking questions if they have any quearies about an item because I get freaked out, but it’s not a free ticket for the carer to off-load them on to me while they go shopping.
I understand I could have worded my previous post better, but like I said, there is no good way of making this point.
I hope I’ve made myself clearer now, and dragged myself out of the 9th circle of hell.

Tags: explanation