Officially been promoted to customer! I wish those of you still working at this company the best of luck.
After 5 years with the company, they officially let me go. Over those five years, it was a wild roller coaster, to say the least. I went through several restructures, moving from part-time to full-time to management positions about 5 to 6 times. Over those 5 years, I have had 3 different GMs, multiple ASMs, and a district change. There was also a gap between my first and second GM where I was without a GM for 8 months and had to help run the store while also doing that big reset a few years ago.
My store is one of the oldest OD in the company it’s located in a college town so a lot of customers are college kids or young professionals that don’t have a ton of money and only come in once or twice a year for a few schools supplies or need to print a project or resumes. The store gets plenty of foot traffic and does good with sales but not so great on upsells on paper or Selects or leads because we just don’t have the customer base for it. But to DM and corporate that means the store failing even when the store has been getting the company around $5 to 6 million in revenue every year.
Here is just a small glimpse on why I was let go. A few months ago, my second GM got fired for pushback on how to run the store. Now my store has a new GM who's been with the company for over 25 years and was transferred to my store. When I tell you, this guy doesn’t have an effing clue how to be a store manager or do any store functions. This man doesn’t know how to refund a Gmail order, check someone out, order store supplies, or do a DnD pallet. For 25 years at a tier one store, he made his management team do everything for him. You ask a question about how to do something, and he goes and says, “just go email somebody,” “look at the portal,” or “look at the how-to guide. When I tell you he is way in over his head is an understatement; he went from a tier one store, which he was failing at mind you, and our DM begged him to take over. The DM already knew he didn't have the qualifications, and since he was failing at a tier one store, my DM thought it was a good idea to promote him to a tier five store, a 35k sq ft store where there isn’t an office supply store within 75 miles. Our store averages around 275-300 transactions a day, and around 550 during peak back-to-school. That is more than double the size and foot traffic of his old store.
So basically, within the first two weeks, 8 associates quit because of his antics. He made two of the associates cry in front of customers on the way he handled each situation. No one at my store can stand him; he's been forcing his objective onto everyone. But guess what? His way is the complete opposite of what the company wants. He told me straight up he gets a power rush when people quit on him or when he fires people. This guy has hated me and another ASM ever since he started. My first one-on-one with him lasted over 45 minutes, and nothing good came out of that conversation. I gave him all my input and professionally challenged him, and from the looks of it, he's never faced that before. For context, I was CPD manager; this guy doesn’t touch CPD with a 10-foot pole because he never liked deal with that department. I was written up for some pretty ridiculous stuff. When CPD customers weren’t happy and I couldn’t resolve there problem they want to talk to store manager when they did he goes “ya I don’t understand either just redo it for them, etc” but when they leave he got in face and told me “ I need you to get your CPD customers in check because those are my responsibility and he doesn’t have time to deal with them”. I was written up for trying to order too many supplies supposedly for my department; the order in question was less than $500. I was written up because one of my full-service printers lost its ability to do the ChromoCheck after the IT department messed with it, and that was somehow my fault; also for my department's numbers, like BS and paper promos, rewards, and OPC. That’s just some of the write-ups.
So I got written up for my team not meeting their metrics goals but when he said he was holding everyone accountable, I was the only one getting written up.
I was basically given two options: either get fired or improve metrics. But the metrics I was told to reach were unattainable in a realistic capacity for my department alone; they expected me and my department to get multiple business selects a day, at least 8 paper promos to help out the store, and at least 10 sign-ups a day just from my department alone. I was also basically told in a round about way I need to pad the CPD orders by up-selling them without telling them. If a customer wants basic print, charge them for the upgrade paper type or a lamination fee or something along those lines even though they didn’t want it. So either I get fired for the unrealistic metrics or get fired for doing illegal/shady stuff.
If that wasn’t enough, my DM has been trying to get me, an ASM, and an associate fired for random stuff for a while now. How do I know? He was trying to get my second GM to write us up random stuff on us, and I have receipts to prove it. Was HR contacted about it? Yes, did they do anything about it? No, they swept that sh*t under the rug! Why did my DM want us gone? tbh don’t truly know, but I can assume it was for not kissing ass and not drinking the company Kool-Aid. We were doing things that followed compliance, but it wasn’t my DMs suck-up way.
Tbh I know some people will think that I’m just a bitter former employee; that might partially be true, but the internal politics and antics were getting absolutely ridiculous, payroll being cut, idk how the company that's been stingy about payroll since the dawn of time is $3 million in debt because of payroll. They don’t want spend money on fixing up their stores that are falling apart. This company is in shambles: all the items going on clearance, being overpriced on everything, all the gimmick item being stocked, and a push to make the store basically a placeholder to boost the outside B2B side is getting absurd—the push on paper and programs that more than half the customers see no benefit from.
Tbh I’m glad it’s over; finally in a better place. I will miss my co-workers, but not this company or those entitled/incompetent customers.
Peace out, y’all!
