PC Principal thread

[Koul]

It's stuff like that that makes me think I couldn't be in higher positions cuz I would end up blowing my lid off at them. Or regional people saying labor needs to be cut more when the place is already operating with a skeleton crew

[Tymon]

It's stuff like that that makes me think I couldn't be in higher positions cuz I would end up blowing my lid off at them. Or regional people saying labor needs to be cut more when the place is already operating with a skeleton crew

Yeah.

I'm a manager where I work and our store is the model for the region, 5x sales over everyone else anywhere nearby. Of course instead of just celebrating how awesome we are, instead regional management just raised our sales goals (just us) by 10x so we now fall short of said goals. So they fire the managers for lack of production, lol.

[Yuri-G]

It does kinda burn me up whenever I see financial guys talking about how we're not meeting metrics for our bonuses at the end of the year because the company only grew in profit by X% instead of the target Y%. It's largely the reason why I blow off town hall meetings.

record profits every quarter


no money for raises, benefits get slashed


makes sense

[synistar]

For me, the division I'm employed at is profitable by a large margin but it isn't good enough because the profits cover the shortfall and losses of other divisions within the large corporation. Also the strong dollar fucked us for international sales the past year and a half or else we would have exceeded initial projections. Corporate First World Problems.

[kuronosan]

Yeah.

I'm a manager where I work and our store is the model for the region, 5x sales over everyone else anywhere nearby. Of course instead of just celebrating how awesome we are, instead regional management just raised our sales goals (just us) by 10x so we now fall short of said goals. So they fire the managers for lack of production, lol.

This is business in a nutshell. They're not counting production, only productivity... And that's a function of time worked versus work completed.

It's also skewed in favor of the overproductive, who may not necessarily be doing their job, they're just getting work done. In addition, metrics are just benchmarks that management raises to keep people from asking for compensation.

IOW, "clearly if they can meet 10%, they can do 12%" without actually quantifying the effort put in to meet 10%. Before you know it, your expectations are to do twice the work with the same resources and no increase in compensation.

[Koul]

These issues might be to please shareholders too. That's supposedly what happened at my job and why things are shitty

[NynJa]

Yeah.

I'm a manager where I work and our store is the model for the region, 5x sales over everyone else anywhere nearby. Of course instead of just celebrating how awesome we are, instead regional management just raised our sales goals (just us) by 10x so we now fall short of said goals. So they fire the managers for lack of production, lol.

You're not supposed to actually grab the brass ring, you're just supposed to reach for it.

[Xantavia]

It's stuff like that that makes me think I couldn't be in higher positions cuz I would end up blowing my lid off at them. Or regional people saying labor needs to be cut more when the place is already operating with a skeleton crew

Reminds me of some of the shitty emails we've gotten from corporate. Staff at sub-barebones level was a phrase they actually sent once, which is always followed by "but don't sacrifice for safety and security", which of course is not an acceptable answer if they ask why your payroll is high. I've seen our district manager come in, say we need to cut payroll, then five minutes later ask why the lines are long and why aren't there more people manning registers.

Personal favorite of mine was the DM telling us we really need to keep our payroll under control, since it would affect his bonus. I was this close to getting fired after he said that, wanting to reply that I cared more about the people who relied on their 25 hours a week to make ends meet than I did about his bonus.

[NynJa]

Reese was getting lambasted on social media because their xmas tree candy look nothing like trees, and they took a SJW approach to respond:
"Stop tree shaming". I love seeing SJWs choke on their own medicine

http://aplus.com/a/reeses-response-tree

[Gredival]

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/wa...rticle/2578592

Yale students sign fake petition to restrict First Amendment rights

[Yuri-G]

Personal favorite of mine was the DM telling us we really need to keep our payroll under control, since it would affect his bonus. I was this close to getting fired after he said that, wanting to reply that I cared more about the people who relied on their 25 hours a week to make ends meet than I did about his bonus.

honestly, there may come a day when I can't handle people like that anymore. I'm not sure. I feel like the balance between "I need this job to survive" and "surviving isn't worth anything if I have to deaden myself on the inside to achieve it" gets pushed further and further toward the "fuck it" side of things as I get older. what's the point of having food and shelter if the person inside the body isn't even alive anymore, if I have to bow to people like that who are nothing more than thieves dressed up in three-piece suits?


then again, not being homeless is cool so we'll see.

[Yuri-G]

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/wa...rticle/2578592

Yale students sign fake petition to restrict First Amendment rights

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING VIDEO MAY NOT BE A SAFE SPACE FOR ALL VIEWERS. <3

[Ksandra]

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/wa...rticle/2578592

Yale students sign fake petition to restrict First Amendment rights

I wish they said how many they asked. But even then 50 is about 50 too much. Dumb college kids.

[Marootsoobutsu]

honestly, there may come a day when I can't handle people like that anymore. I'm not sure. I feel like the balance between "I need this job to survive" and "surviving isn't worth anything if I have to deaden myself on the inside to achieve it" gets pushed further and further toward the "fuck it" side of things as I get older. what's the point of having food and shelter if the person inside the body isn't even alive anymore, if I have to bow to people like that who are nothing more than thieves dressed up in three-piece suits?


then again, not being homeless is cool so we'll see.

So I worked for Safeway for about 5 years. I started in the deli, then when one of my coworkers attacked me with a carving knife (he wasn't fired, though he had beaten to a pulp, off campus, the person who I was hired to replace-- the union reps backed him HARD), I transfered to another department. Then, moved, and went to bookkeeping/customer service. When a new store opened, I applied for and got the customer service manager spot. Yay! $16/hour, up from $10/hour-- which mattered, since I'd gone from $8.95/hour to $9.00/hour, and got shafted out of my 2 year pay bump of .50, because union rules said you couldn't get more than one raise per year.

Worked at the store for 6 months, getting it set up and such, while paperwork was being finished. Found out on Dec. 20th that year that, "Sorry, the negotiations with unions required that we eliminate one "manager" spot for a department, and corporate agreed to it being customer service manager spot. No back pay for you, but I'll see if I can get a merit bump to $10.00 going forward." Every person who was going to remain my subordinate in the department was making at least $15/hour, freshly hired, with no bookkeeping requirements added to their portfolio, and only one of them was a checker (and I was certified as a checker, too).

I quit the next day-- best birthday present I ever gave myself. I was literally the only person in the store who knew how to balance the books, or-- and this important, since it was Christmas season-- order more money for the store or prepare deposits for the money pick up.

Safeway has this big thing about customer service-- your bonuses and crap are all tied to your customer service reviews, even more than attendance or the like. In 5 years working for them, I had received a non-perfect review once, and I'd missed perfect by one point (and I remain 100% convinced that, since that was the $500 reward point for consecutive perfect reviews, they were instructed to find a fault, because I was running through a check list with *every single person*). I was, in short, what they said they wanted, and I was definitely what the store needed, but they screwed me over anyway. I've been self-employed or in school since.

It was a risk. I didn't have a lot in savings (like, 1 month's rent), and no immediate plans, but it was just a point of, "Screw it, and screw this."

While I firmly believe in corporate loyalty, I believe that that loyalty extends only insofar as corporate is loyal to you. Part of why I have such a huge problem with unions is my experience with the unions at Safeway: they 100% looked out for the worst workers who were there, and never once lifted a finger to help me (I was advised by a union rep not to make waves since I was only there for 45 days, while the guy who attacked me with a knife had been there for a decade). They shafted me out of a promotion, they shafted me out of a pay bump *three times*. Corporate are jerks-- but I expected that of them. But even when they tried to do right by a hard-working employee who bought into the company line, the unions acted against my interests repeatedly. Unions are just a corporate with better PR with the working stiffs.


tl;dr: Take a chance, and quit if it's soul crushing. As long as you have a marketable skill or passion, and the wherewithal to find your audience/customer base, you can at least make due. It's a risk, and it's a chance, but man. It makes a world of difference to work for yourself, or at least in a job where you love what you do and respect the people you work with and work for.

[Koul]

I'm kind of surprised you got shat on so much and you were unionized. We don't have em here in AZ. I always hear they're pretty shitty

[Melena]

It really depends on what union you fall under. My previous position I was part of seiu and they cared more about membership counts then the members. It took the county board of supervisors to convince them to forgo raises for the remaining two years of the contract then turn around and voted themselves a 10% raise for all the money they saved to nut up and negotiate a raise. Essentially seven years in a row they rolled over and did a contract extension with no raise despite the cost of living in the Bay Area increasing the entire time.

Now that I'm in management I'm in a more local union and I know several of the board members and it's much more efficient and a lot less political bullshit.

[Yuri-G]

So I worked for Safeway for about 5 years. I started in the deli, then when one of my coworkers attacked me with a carving knife (he wasn't fired, though he had beaten to a pulp, off campus, the person who I was hired to replace-- the union reps backed him HARD), I transfered to another department. Then, moved, and went to bookkeeping/customer service. When a new store opened, I applied for and got the customer service manager spot. Yay! $16/hour, up from $10/hour-- which mattered, since I'd gone from $8.95/hour to $9.00/hour, and got shafted out of my 2 year pay bump of .50, because union rules said you couldn't get more than one raise per year.

Worked at the store for 6 months, getting it set up and such, while paperwork was being finished. Found out on Dec. 20th that year that, "Sorry, the negotiations with unions required that we eliminate one "manager" spot for a department, and corporate agreed to it being customer service manager spot. No back pay for you, but I'll see if I can get a merit bump to $10.00 going forward." Every person who was going to remain my subordinate in the department was making at least $15/hour, freshly hired, with no bookkeeping requirements added to their portfolio, and only one of them was a checker (and I was certified as a checker, too).

I quit the next day-- best birthday present I ever gave myself. I was literally the only person in the store who knew how to balance the books, or-- and this important, since it was Christmas season-- order more money for the store or prepare deposits for the money pick up.

Safeway has this big thing about customer service-- your bonuses and crap are all tied to your customer service reviews, even more than attendance or the like. In 5 years working for them, I had received a non-perfect review once, and I'd missed perfect by one point (and I remain 100% convinced that, since that was the $500 reward point for consecutive perfect reviews, they were instructed to find a fault, because I was running through a check list with *every single person*). I was, in short, what they said they wanted, and I was definitely what the store needed, but they screwed me over anyway. I've been self-employed or in school since.

It was a risk. I didn't have a lot in savings (like, 1 month's rent), and no immediate plans, but it was just a point of, "Screw it, and screw this."

While I firmly believe in corporate loyalty, I believe that that loyalty extends only insofar as corporate is loyal to you. Part of why I have such a huge problem with unions is my experience with the unions at Safeway: they 100% looked out for the worst workers who were there, and never once lifted a finger to help me (I was advised by a union rep not to make waves since I was only there for 45 days, while the guy who attacked me with a knife had been there for a decade). They shafted me out of a promotion, they shafted me out of a pay bump *three times*. Corporate are jerks-- but I expected that of them. But even when they tried to do right by a hard-working employee who bought into the company line, the unions acted against my interests repeatedly. Unions are just a corporate with better PR with the working stiffs.


tl;dr: Take a chance, and quit if it's soul crushing. As long as you have a marketable skill or passion, and the wherewithal to find your audience/customer base, you can at least make due. It's a risk, and it's a chance, but man. It makes a world of difference to work for yourself, or at least in a job where you love what you do and respect the people you work with and work for.

I truly appreciate you sharing your story and while it makes me angry that you were treated that way I'm glad you stood up for yourself. It sounds like you made the right choice - you chose humanity over security. And you seem to be doing well now :D


Right now my job is soulless but not actually soul-crushing (if that makes sense) so I'll be here a bit longer. I don't care about the work nor the people I work for/with but from a purely practical perspective it's a good job for going to school (second shift, lots of downtime for homework). So I get to be practical for a few more years while I work toward a degree that I can leverage to find a position that's actually meaningful and worthwhile. Someday... I'll make it happen!

[Marootsoobutsu]

I truly appreciate you sharing your story and while it makes me angry that you were treated that way I'm glad you stood up for yourself. It sounds like you made the right choice - you chose humanity over security. And you seem to be doing well now :D


Right now my job is soulless but not actually soul-crushing (if that makes sense) so I'll be here a bit longer. I don't care about the work nor the people I work for/with but from a purely practical perspective it's a good job for going to school (second shift, lots of downtime for homework). So I get to be practical for a few more years while I work toward a degree that I can leverage to find a position that's actually meaningful and worthwhile. Someday... I'll make it happen!

Yeah, I get the difference. I can (and did) handle for a job that did next to nothing to build me as a person, but meh. It was a pay check. It was secure, and I had a Mrs. to take care of. But man... when they shafted me out of close to 10 grand, I was just done. Union wouldn't help at *all*. That was pretty much the "I cannot work with this company, any more, ever." Didn't even two weeks. Their response was priceless-- "So what, you're gonna hose us?" Exact quote from my erstwhile manager. I got screwed out of 10k, and *I* am hosing *THEM*? That confirmed it for me. I truly hope no one goes through anything like that (or worse), but it gave me the wherewithal to pursue better things.

[mahler05]

Man I've been at AT&T for 8 years now and if we didn't have the CWA union I would of been fired 3 times by now by douche bag managers who only look good by disciplining technicians over the most trite shit. When I worked at stater bros. grocery store the union there was terrible and always backed management. So it definitely matters what Union your under


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[Gredival]

Students feel entitled to being right because they are customers via tuition.

http://www.theguardian.com/higher-ed...n-me?CMP=fb_gu