#nomoreretail

Yesterday I quit my job to focus on my own business - my last day is 7/8! 

On Friday the DM tried to bully me into accepting a schedule change that she knew contradicted with my other job because we're short staffed. I told her no.

She lied and said that she’d been planning on having a meeting that day but she couldn’t make it in, and said we'd have a meeting Monday. I told her that she’d never mentioned a meeting, and that I needed to switch my schedule for Monday because of a conflict with my other job, and that a coworker was willing to trade, and that she should not schedule me for mornings, that I wasn’t available - that’s been the case all year, and she knows it. She told me I had to start working mornings, that on Monday she’d be setting the schedule for the next month while our ownership and upper level management was out of town, and that there would be no more trading of shifts, no honoring of requested days off, and no honoring of requested preferred shifts. She told me to come in at my scheduled time or not at all. I was pissed, so I rescheduled my own customers and came in. I had the weekend to think, and plan, and I when Monday came, I was prepared. 

She took me outside and tried to be all buddy-buddy. Tried to buy me a drink at Starbucks and I told her no thank you. Then she tried to make up some BS about how I'd had a bunch of customer complaints because I close ON TIME. I’d had ONE complaint. A woman came 10 min after close, the lights were off, the computers off, and demanded I let her in because she was out of dog food. I told her no, so she complained I was rude. Fuck her. I reminded my DM that she'd had my manager threaten to write me up because last fall I’d been closing too late (letting customers shop after close). She didn’t have an answer to that. I told her I take COPIOUS notes about everything a manager tells me so I always have something to refer back to. She tried to change tactics.

She then tried to tell me that she needed me to be on the new schedule because she “needs a strong customer service person in the mornings to cover (assistant manager) while she does orders.”

I replied, “So is my customer service bad, or is it good? Because it can’t be both - you can’t have it both ways.”

She got mad and was like, “Well, you always seem like you have somewhere to be when you close, so we’d rather have you open.”

I told her, “Yes, I want to go home. Or to my other appointments/obligations. You schedule me til 8. The store CLOSES AT 8, it’s on the door. But no matter what, I can’t work mornings. I have my other job. It’s MY business, and I made double to triple per hour what I make here. So if you’re not willing to work with me, I quit. In fact,” I said, handing her the letter I had brought, “This is my notice. My last day will be the 8th, which is the last day for which I’m scheduled.”

“But I’ve already done the schedules for the next month, and you’re on them.”

“Sorry, but I told you I couldn’t work mornings. You INSISTED I had to. Those schedules haven’t been posted yet, so they’re not yet official. So the last day I’m on the schedule is the 8th.”

“What about your manager? He’s leaving on Wednesday. He’s going to be very stressed, and I may not be able to cover all your shifts.”

“Sorry, but that’s your problem.”

Then she starts in, “This is why I couldn’t ever make you a manager, even though we agreed you’d be a manager when I hired you. You’re just not reliable enough. Your attitude is a problem, and you’re not willing to work hard enough.”

I told her that no, I am MORE than qualified to be a manager. I reminded her of my business degree, my two certifications, and the fact that I ran my own business for 14 years (which I closed because of health problems), and that I’ve managed two other businesses for other people. I reminded her that I had more than enough experience and education, and that 80% of our positive Yelp! and Google reviews mention just HOW GOOD my service is. I then told her I’d been keeping track of the store’s gross numbers and that since I’d started two years and 3 months ago, the store had shown 20% year over year sales gains because I’d been training staff in sales techniques, and that I personally had nearly $1million in sales for the company (a small pet store), which made me the highest grossing salesperson in the entire company (8 stores total). So if ANYONE qualified as a manager, it was me, but that she’d prevented my advancement to keep me as a cash cow on the sales floor. I’m a FUCKING RETAIL WORKER, and people refer customers to me and people MAKE APPOINTMENTS to come in and see me. I told her that, too, as a reminder. I then told her that my new business is paying me well enough even doing it part-time that I can walk away from this job TODAY, and that she should be content that I’m even giving her any notice at all. She was LIVID. I was polite, and had my best “customer service” smile on the WHOLE TIME, and I had REAL NUMBERS from the data I know she sees too. 

She then tried to tell me that it may be “hard to get my last check on time” because it’ll be in the middle of the pay cycle. I reminded her that it’s the law that she has to have that check to me within three business days of my last shift. She HATED that I knew the rules, and suddenly backtracked and said that it would be ready for pickup on time. 

I’m actually kind of regretting not just walking out, but there were people - both customers and coworkers - I wanted to be able to say good bye to. What the manager DOESN’T know, is that I’m going to mail and email a letter detailing the DM’s strong-arm tactics and company policy violations (there are a LOT), as well as federal law violations to the owners (it’s a small chain of family owned stores). I cited each violation to the section, page, and paragraph, and quoted them in my complaint.