I’ve had a screenshot of this picture for quite some time. I was having growing pains down on one of my jobs.  When I saw this picture it immediately spoke to me.  Many companies think of an employee as just a number.  Not as the individual that brings a certain candor to the organization as a whole.

I’ve had a part-time job in retail for the past two years.  It is a source of extra income and opportunity to decompress from my full time job.  I’ve meet some wonderful people and quite enjoyed the employee discount.  This past Thursday I was schedule to work with my manager.  Typically she does not work the closing shift.  About an hour into the shift she comes to me for forms to sign.  Her first statement was “Don’t be upset with me”. Now I am thinking what am I about to sign for you to place a disclaimer on our conversation.  Our parent company has decided that if you miss your sale and conversion goals within three consecutive months you are written up.  And your fourth warning comes automatic termination.  You wonder why would I be upset?  Every person is responsible for making their sales goals in order for the store to make a profit.  Yes, that is correct but why is this policy being pushed now.  These were the questions I had for my manager during our conversation:

• Why am I now finding out about this in January when you have known since October?
• What tools will home office offer me to promote our promotions?
• Can we have more of a variety of product to sell?
• Why is termination the last step especially for an employee who has never been written up before?
• Why again is this being enforced when only 24 employees out of 125 employees in the district are making sales goals?
• Why would the district manager place managers in this predicament when we are already struggling to keep associates working for us consistently?
• How am I to sell something to non-existent customers?  There are some nights when I don’t have customer from 7:30 pm to closing time.
• I’ve been a consistent worker for the past two years. I am the one who trains new hires. Doesn’t that account for something.

I understand the importance of numbers but organizations have to know how to interpret the numbers in order to keep the business afloat and the employees engaged to their very best.

~nvmitche~