A Stunning Revelation of the Obvious

[forsyth]

I had a moment of enlightenment, or something today at work. You see, sales have been slow this holiday season, so the managers have been cutting hours to meet the sales-per-hour dictated by the head office. And I had a thought. So I asked one of the managers if sales for other stores were slow too, or it was just us.

Unsurprisingly, it wasn't just us. Most of the other stores have been cutting hours and sending people home early. So, this led to the question. If it's everybody, then it's not us floor monkeys sucking, it's that the numbers were wrong. So why is it, I asked, that we get our hours cut, instead of the people who made the numbers and obviously got it wrong?

And the managers said the numbers were made up by the district managers, and the regional managers, and some people in payroll, and so on. Which isn't really an answer. I don't care who they are, they screwed it up, they should be the ones who get paid less. But on the other hand, it is an answer of a sort. There's not just one person doing it. The responsibility is spread out over several people, so there's not one person who's easy to fire. And they're all management so they'd be the ones doing the firing. And their own raises are all dependent on making the numbers in this column higher than the ones there last year.

I wonder how much consternation it would make if I sent an email to the CFO and asked him that. Probably none, 'cause I doubt any of them give a shit. If they did, they wouldn't be in management. I don't think I'd get fired or anything, either. Basically all I'd get is the satisfaction of doing it. And probably an awkward conversation with my manager after they kick it down the chain of command.

And what makes this even stupider? The employees are the customers who buy the stuff. Not just at our store, at any store. So when the stores don't sell as much, and pay their employees less because of it, then the employees don't have the money to go buy stuff, so the stores sell less, so...

House of sand again.

Comments

[the-s-guy.livejournal.com]

I've written similar things to CEOs and the like. The trick to not getting instantly dismissed is to talk their language. Instead of saying "This sucks", say "This is how you can save/make money".

Basically, if you have another way of doing things that will save or make noticeable amounts of money, and won't cost an arm and a leg to implement, someone holding the purse strings will want to know about it.

Increasing accountability and employee morale is all very well, but people at HQ have more weight when it comes to pleasing them, because they actually have a minute chance of being encountered by the executives, and executives will sacrifice twenty busloads of nuns in an instant if it means that people within immediate pummelling range of the exec's face are just that one notch happier.

Still, worth a shot.

[forsythferret.livejournal.com]

What I'm suggesting wouldn't make them money directly. It would cost them money, because they'd be paying their employees what they deserve.

And besides, if it's instantly dismissed, it'd help reinforce all my prejudices about managment, which I like. Heh.