The Mark(ings) of Zorro

The Mark(ings) of Zorro

"As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron."
H.L. Mencken

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What's the Matter with Kansas?

Friday, August 29, 2003

by El Zorro Viejo (aka; Jim)

Work Rant
Last Saturday I arrived at work and promptly had a small bomb planted in my lap. As I may or may not have related, recently our Store Manager was given the ax, and a new guy was brought in. This new guy has been in 9 store:he is a "fixer". Fixers clean up messes (real or perceived) and, in the process, they "weed" the employee base. Our new Store Manager, as one of his first acts, moved our very popular Assistant Store Manager to his old store and brought his previous Assistant Manager to this one. In other words, he is bringing in a member of "his team". He (our new Store Manager) has also gone on a hiring spree over the past few weeks. We have a whole raft of new Booksellers and Lead Booksellers. Now, the last is very interesting since we were totally up to our T/O strength in that category. The only thing having a surplus of Leads can mean is that there will not be a surplus in a few weeks or so. He is expecting some attrition here.

I mentioned a bomb place in my lap. Last Saturday, as I was looking at the daily assignment sheet to see what I was supposed to be doing and who else would be on the clock for my shift, our Store Manager requested a minute or two of my time. I said something to the effect of, "Sure, why not right now?" He then proceeded to lay out a change he had in mind for me. I am being taken off my section and being made the de facto third Head Cashier for the store. In this role, I will be responsible for "bringing a more professional tone and appearance" to the cashier area. I will also be responsible for bringing the store's percentage of Reader's Advantage sales up to the 2% mark. (That is 2% of daily number of customers.) I will also be responsible for a couple of other minor things, but they are almost ancillary and unimportant. This was all tossed out to me cold, and I was expected to come up with a response immediately.

I want to progress into management. I don't want to piss off the new PTB. I know that, were I to refuse this "opportunity", my upward mobility would be badly impaired. I don't want to be a cashier. I don't want my future to hinge upon the store making 2% sales of the discount club card ($25/year, 10% off everything but gift certificates and other memberships, 5% off online purchases...Good deal if you spend $250/year in our stores or $500/year online or any combination of the two in those proportions,) but, the offer is out there: I have to take it. Of all the criteria my job performance will be judged by, the most important, by far, will be the R/A club card sales. If we push them harder and actually bring up our sales for the next couple of months, I'm a lock for a promotion. If, on the other hand, we stay about where we are in those sales, I'll be a "Bookseller" until old age becomes an insurmountable impediment. My stress levels just went way up...not good for either my hypertension or my Diabetes II.

The worst thing about all of this is that I've never been a salesman. I have tried outside sales a couple times, and did dismally each and every time. I presented fine...just didn't go in for the kill. In other words, I have never been comfortable in sales. It has something to do with asking for the sale: I don't ask for things very well. So, once again my fate depends upon my ability to ask. Maybe God is really trying to get through to me about this asking thing. Either that or maybe I'm being told that this is not what I should be doing. There is something else fate (or whatever) has in store for me. I hope my friend (at least I think of her as that) from Baltimore reads this and gives me some feedback. (She works for the same company.) Like I said, my stress/anxiety levels have gone up over the past week.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License. ©El Zorro Viejo 2002-2005

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