Monday, November 05, 2012
Yet another chapter
I started a new full time job yesterday, as a Sales Manager for the cell phone department of Yet Another Major Retailer. The one with the dog as a mascot. Let's call them Bullseye. I don't work for Bullseye. I actually work for another company you may have heard of that sells cell phones and other electronics that's been around for years, but doesn't have that great of a reputation. We'll call it The Hut. We operate inside the Bullseye store, even get Bullseye employee discounts, and we don't display The Hut's logo or name anywhere, so everyone thinks we work for Bullseye. Bullseye employees wear red polos. We wear black. So everyone thinks we're Bullseye management.
I fully expect to hate just about everything about this job, but I hope to be pleasantly surprised. If my company's preparation and training says anything about it, I can bank on being miserable. I went in not knowing when I'd be getting off (turned out to be a 10 hour day, thanks for the warning), the person training me kept repeating over and over again how unfair it is of them to throw me in so quickly because I really ought to be training alongside a manager at another location. Noel was nice, but... I don't know. We'll see. There will be a different person in to train me almost every day this week, so I don't expect any sort of consistency. Once the training is done, though, I'm pretty much on my own. There will be two other employees that I'll manage, but it'll be rare for us to work together.
So, a ten hour day, huh? How'd your neck and back hold up? Well I'm glad you asked. I feel like hammered shit, thank you. Honestly, I don't know if I can survive 40+ hours a week on my feet. I'll try, though.
In the meantime, Noel dropped this bomb on me: "They announced a few weeks ago that BullseyeHut lost almost $4 million last year. And things are really tense." She went on to explain that that figure isn't a fair assessment of the business because they just happened to have paid the CEO $2.7 million to quit. Why doesn't anybody pay me millions of dollars to quit my job?? Anyway, the new CEO "is really committed" to BullseyeHut's success, she informs me. One of the big things he wants to change is what we can sell. Right now, the only thing we can sell are contract phones and Otterbox cases. Nothing else--prepaid phones, minutes, accessories, etc. are all Bullseye's territory. So the CEO has laid down an ultimatum with Bullseye: BullseyeHut takes over the prepaids and accessories or we shut down completely. And The Hut is happy with this, because they say they can't be profitable without the added sales. "But don't freak out!" she said, "Because that's not going to happen until April--the decision, that is. And if they do shut us down, then you'll be able to transfer to a Hut store, or they'll pay you a really nice severance package."
My first day and they're already talking about severance packages.
I fully expect to hate just about everything about this job, but I hope to be pleasantly surprised. If my company's preparation and training says anything about it, I can bank on being miserable. I went in not knowing when I'd be getting off (turned out to be a 10 hour day, thanks for the warning), the person training me kept repeating over and over again how unfair it is of them to throw me in so quickly because I really ought to be training alongside a manager at another location. Noel was nice, but... I don't know. We'll see. There will be a different person in to train me almost every day this week, so I don't expect any sort of consistency. Once the training is done, though, I'm pretty much on my own. There will be two other employees that I'll manage, but it'll be rare for us to work together.
So, a ten hour day, huh? How'd your neck and back hold up? Well I'm glad you asked. I feel like hammered shit, thank you. Honestly, I don't know if I can survive 40+ hours a week on my feet. I'll try, though.
In the meantime, Noel dropped this bomb on me: "They announced a few weeks ago that BullseyeHut lost almost $4 million last year. And things are really tense." She went on to explain that that figure isn't a fair assessment of the business because they just happened to have paid the CEO $2.7 million to quit. Why doesn't anybody pay me millions of dollars to quit my job?? Anyway, the new CEO "is really committed" to BullseyeHut's success, she informs me. One of the big things he wants to change is what we can sell. Right now, the only thing we can sell are contract phones and Otterbox cases. Nothing else--prepaid phones, minutes, accessories, etc. are all Bullseye's territory. So the CEO has laid down an ultimatum with Bullseye: BullseyeHut takes over the prepaids and accessories or we shut down completely. And The Hut is happy with this, because they say they can't be profitable without the added sales. "But don't freak out!" she said, "Because that's not going to happen until April--the decision, that is. And if they do shut us down, then you'll be able to transfer to a Hut store, or they'll pay you a really nice severance package."
My first day and they're already talking about severance packages.
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