Thursday 18 June 2020

And that's that chapter closed

Tuesday ended 2 1/2 years in a job that was heavy sledding all the way. I walked into this store thinking my years of experience would have armed me for the the task at hand which was rescue a sh*@ pile of a store and make a success of it. It took me the first 6 months to learn the liquidation game and to understand that my usual standards of merchandising and customer service needed to basically go out the window. I battled a management team that didn't want me there, two of three had applied for my job. I learned that the customers have no regard for the work my team does and complains loudly and rudely when they don't get their way. I've been in retail management since I was 21 and have never encountered such poor behaviour from customers.
We finally started to beat targets and in two years I increased sales by $500k. I had a good team who were starting to take pride in their jobs. Let me tell you this was extremely difficult because you couldn't close the day saying all jobs got done, not once. A little over a year later my team fluctuated and I was rebuilding the team. Nonetheless we came in over target for 2019. The new year started well with good sales and plans for a new location to look forward to. Meanwhile my management team went from high level assistants that I was fast-tracking to be managers to a bunch of keyholders who rarely made a decision themselves. So mentally exhausting every day.
And then came COVID. We stayed open for three weeks after it hit until retailers were forced to close. When we finally closed I came home and collapsed. Micro-management from HO combined with possible mutiny from one of my supervisors along with trying to keep up a positive face for team and customers was too much. I cocooned with a vengeance only leaving the house once a week.
I even developed a bit of agoraphobia. The thought of returning to work at the store became abhorrent our weekly phone calls sent me in to anxiety attacks. Nonetheless the day to reopen arrived and I didn't want my staff returning without me there.I returned to half my management team and 3/4 of the rest of my team. Everyone had restrictions on what they's work and supervisors would call in at the last minute to say they weren't coming leaving me to open and close many days. The store looked like crap and sales were suffering . For some reason every other store opened and operated at a higher level than they ever had. Stores that were tanking at the beginning of the year were 25% over target and here I was eating dirt. I made adjustments to the team and when given the green light I hired people to fill the holes. This all happening in the first 3 weeks of opening. Oh, and remember my personal anxiety not only did it not go away but was compounded by all the crap going on at work.
So, three weeks of crap apparently trumps 2 1/2 years of success and I no longer work for this company. Didn't want to be there and clearly it showed. And now I'm home again starting the healing process of giving my all to yet another company that ate me up and spit me out.
I'm saying it here and you guys need to keep me to it. I'm not going to rush back into work. I've been applying for jobs for weeks now anyway but only those that really interest me. I rushed into this last job after being stressed on the previous one and look what I ended up with.
No happy, cheerful thoughts this time just an airing of my mind.