(no subject)
Today I arrive early to work. I sit upstairs at the food court and listen to music and read some more of "Dracula." It's my ritual after my main job and just my way of unwinding a bit before spending three hours at the store.
I walk in, and my boss C corners me almost immediately.
"Did J from Loss Prevention call you?"
"What?" I say. "No... was he supposed to?" The first thought that crosses my mind is that I screwed up closing that one weekend so badly that they were going to fire me.
She tells me that the term 'gaming,' which she brought up over a month ago, was being investigated. Corporate was very interested in a few transactions that took place on September 4. Apparently, C bought three pieces of chocolate three times in a row between 8:00 and 8:04, and now Corporate is suspicious that we had committed Gold Crown fraud, a fireable offense.
"Expect a call," she says. "I denied everything. I'm not going to get fired over this."
Generally, C is rule-abiding, almost to a fault. If there's anything that Corporate teaches their managers, it's how to do paperwork and how to follow the rules exactly.
And Hallmark did not put this new anti-"gaming" rule into effect until October 1, a week ago. So why they were investigating something that happened over a month ago... it just seems unfair.
After C leaves, sure enough, I get the call.
"Did J the District Manager call you to let you know I was going to call?" the guy asks.
"No," I say. I keep my tone as neutral as possible.
"Well he should have."
"Well, he didn't," I say.
He asks if my boss told me he was going to call, and I said yes, she told me.
"What did you think this was regarding?" he asks.
"Uh... honestly, I thought I was in further trouble about that weekend that I messed up closing a few times," I say.
"Did she mention anything else?" he asks.
"...She mentioned the 'gaming' thing that she told us about after the meeting about it last month," I say.
"Do you know what it is?" he asks.
"Gaming?" I say.
And I tell him, and the conversation goes on and on. He asks if I know what C bought on September 4, and I laugh out loud.
"Seriously?" I say. "No. It was a month ago."
And so it goes on. They are upset that she purchased three separate pieces of chocolate three minutes apart instead of doing it all at once. I say that I didn't know it was wrong to be a customer in her own store, paying with her own money, as many times as she would like. They inform me that it just looks suspicious, like we are trying to inflate our Gold Crown averages, and that it's wrong to do so. I tell them that well, I didn't know anything was wrong when she asked me if she could buy them, and that I'd never read anything anywhere in the Hallmark manuals that said it was a fireable offense.
They then ask why I later, at 9:00, purchased a piece of chocolate, whether C had ever wanted to inflate the Gold Crown average, and if I was sure she would never do that.
The true answers are that yes, we absolutely did it to inflate the numbers. Of course we did it. But C brings up a good point; before she had left the store, she told me that it's ridiculous for them to care so much about this, and yet when we miss goal by $5, they call her personal cell phone after hours to yell at her for not making it. It's a ridiculous double standard on the part of corporate Hallmark. Other stores in the area inflate their numbers and fabricate Gold Crown sign ups; it is a fireable offense to randomly assign someone points from a purchase made by a customer who did not want a Gold Crown Card, and now it is fireable to ask someone who does have a GCC to contribute to the pool.
There's no winning.
Yet because Hallmark is making such a whining, squalling deal out of such a bullshit little thing (he actually says to me on the phone, "She purchased three pieces of candy for forty-five cents... no wait... thirty cents with tax..."), I do not feel compelled at all to cooperate. And the fact that they are attacking us so aggressively just loses my respect. What kind of environment is this, where we have to watch our backs because every little thing is a black mark on our record? When you're expected to meet goals and get physically yelled at when you do not, why should I care? Why should I make my GC goals when we don't get commission, we don't get rewards, and we're hardly ever recognized for the effort?
At the end of the conversation he tells me I am to write a report.
"A report?" I say.
"Do you have access to a computer?" he asks.
"Now?!" I say.
"Yes, if possible."
I tell him, "I can do it first thing tomorrow morning, when I have access to my personal email."
He seems unhappy with this, but I do not budge, saying that he has taken me off the floor for fifteen minutes at least now, thus leaving only one sales associate to ring customers. He concedes and gives me his email address and phone number.
He tells me to verify everything that I said, to write a report in detail about what we had discussed, and to include what C said to me today, whether I believe she would purposely manipulate the GC average, and then everything--again, with details--that happened on the night of September 4.
So I go through the fucking inquisition and have to work for another few hours. Irritated, I just get through it. It makes me feel ridiculous, that I can waste so much time thinking and worrying about these stupid things, yet out in the world there are serious problems that need addressing... is this is what my life is always to be?
Just another night at Hallmark.
I walk in, and my boss C corners me almost immediately.
"Did J from Loss Prevention call you?"
"What?" I say. "No... was he supposed to?" The first thought that crosses my mind is that I screwed up closing that one weekend so badly that they were going to fire me.
She tells me that the term 'gaming,' which she brought up over a month ago, was being investigated. Corporate was very interested in a few transactions that took place on September 4. Apparently, C bought three pieces of chocolate three times in a row between 8:00 and 8:04, and now Corporate is suspicious that we had committed Gold Crown fraud, a fireable offense.
"Expect a call," she says. "I denied everything. I'm not going to get fired over this."
Generally, C is rule-abiding, almost to a fault. If there's anything that Corporate teaches their managers, it's how to do paperwork and how to follow the rules exactly.
And Hallmark did not put this new anti-"gaming" rule into effect until October 1, a week ago. So why they were investigating something that happened over a month ago... it just seems unfair.
After C leaves, sure enough, I get the call.
"Did J the District Manager call you to let you know I was going to call?" the guy asks.
"No," I say. I keep my tone as neutral as possible.
"Well he should have."
"Well, he didn't," I say.
He asks if my boss told me he was going to call, and I said yes, she told me.
"What did you think this was regarding?" he asks.
"Uh... honestly, I thought I was in further trouble about that weekend that I messed up closing a few times," I say.
"Did she mention anything else?" he asks.
"...She mentioned the 'gaming' thing that she told us about after the meeting about it last month," I say.
"Do you know what it is?" he asks.
"Gaming?" I say.
And I tell him, and the conversation goes on and on. He asks if I know what C bought on September 4, and I laugh out loud.
"Seriously?" I say. "No. It was a month ago."
And so it goes on. They are upset that she purchased three separate pieces of chocolate three minutes apart instead of doing it all at once. I say that I didn't know it was wrong to be a customer in her own store, paying with her own money, as many times as she would like. They inform me that it just looks suspicious, like we are trying to inflate our Gold Crown averages, and that it's wrong to do so. I tell them that well, I didn't know anything was wrong when she asked me if she could buy them, and that I'd never read anything anywhere in the Hallmark manuals that said it was a fireable offense.
They then ask why I later, at 9:00, purchased a piece of chocolate, whether C had ever wanted to inflate the Gold Crown average, and if I was sure she would never do that.
The true answers are that yes, we absolutely did it to inflate the numbers. Of course we did it. But C brings up a good point; before she had left the store, she told me that it's ridiculous for them to care so much about this, and yet when we miss goal by $5, they call her personal cell phone after hours to yell at her for not making it. It's a ridiculous double standard on the part of corporate Hallmark. Other stores in the area inflate their numbers and fabricate Gold Crown sign ups; it is a fireable offense to randomly assign someone points from a purchase made by a customer who did not want a Gold Crown Card, and now it is fireable to ask someone who does have a GCC to contribute to the pool.
There's no winning.
Yet because Hallmark is making such a whining, squalling deal out of such a bullshit little thing (he actually says to me on the phone, "She purchased three pieces of candy for forty-five cents... no wait... thirty cents with tax..."), I do not feel compelled at all to cooperate. And the fact that they are attacking us so aggressively just loses my respect. What kind of environment is this, where we have to watch our backs because every little thing is a black mark on our record? When you're expected to meet goals and get physically yelled at when you do not, why should I care? Why should I make my GC goals when we don't get commission, we don't get rewards, and we're hardly ever recognized for the effort?
At the end of the conversation he tells me I am to write a report.
"A report?" I say.
"Do you have access to a computer?" he asks.
"Now?!" I say.
"Yes, if possible."
I tell him, "I can do it first thing tomorrow morning, when I have access to my personal email."
He seems unhappy with this, but I do not budge, saying that he has taken me off the floor for fifteen minutes at least now, thus leaving only one sales associate to ring customers. He concedes and gives me his email address and phone number.
He tells me to verify everything that I said, to write a report in detail about what we had discussed, and to include what C said to me today, whether I believe she would purposely manipulate the GC average, and then everything--again, with details--that happened on the night of September 4.
So I go through the fucking inquisition and have to work for another few hours. Irritated, I just get through it. It makes me feel ridiculous, that I can waste so much time thinking and worrying about these stupid things, yet out in the world there are serious problems that need addressing... is this is what my life is always to be?
Just another night at Hallmark.