Thursday, November 17, 2011

Bad Day....Into the Void


Keith isn't answering his phone and there is really no one else, so I'll write it here. Really, this needs be be remembered, she said sarcastically.

.............
Abbreviated...

A month ago, the company I work for (which I will refer to as ever, as the 666BBHS) shut down 20 stores.... three of them near ours. In the meantime they decided not to go against the normal competitor any longer (the orange people) and instead go up against our number two rival, Amazon. Yes, you heard right. End of being task oriented... only sales oriented... and out for the internet giant. This from a company that still uses DOS....

They also came out with a new thing that they believe will save the company.... a card called 'MY 666BBHS'. If you sign up there are no perks, no discounts, no benefits.... BUT, if you buy a can of paint you will forever be able to log in (if they are still in business) and see what color you bought. This is the plus they insist we tell people about.

Problem is... they haven't been very forthright in telling the little people on the floor what their vision is.... and unless you're paying strict attention, and unless you have some inside info.... you don't know that the days of blue collar wandering around half drunk, or in sloppy clothes or not really knowing your business is a thing of the past.

............

On Friday we expected a few corporate people... familiar ones. All of a sudden we were inundated and as I sat in a small office at a computer a friendly, corn-fed midwestern boy led some of our management in... saying the office needed change, shelves gone... clipboards we use to do business taken off the walls etc. I should have known when he whipped around to read my name, used it familiarly and touched me on the shoulder... it wasn't going to be good.

Later I passed Rick, the store manager who looked at his watch and said to no one in particular.... "Thank God, 4:30. Almost time to go home". He comes in around 5 a.m. but never says things like that. Might think 'em, but.....

At 8 p.m. I saw him in his coat ready to leave. I asked about leaving at 4:30 and noticed he didn't look right. His face was red but translucent... like he had recently been angry, cried or was exhausted. (Since he's military, tears in that landscape were out of the question.) He said he thought he'd work as many hours as he could, before he had no more hours to work. Knowing he was off for the weekend I told him to try to forget about the place for a while. He showed me a thick notebook and said he was taking work home.

...........

When I came in on Monday, Brandon (Rick's sort-of son... at work) cornered me and told me this might be it~ the store closing. Rick had been at the store late on Friday because the corn-fed boy had had him in a meeting... and he said he'd never in his life had a meeting like that. They threw all these figures on a board showing how badly we were doing and elaborated. He and his wife had spent the weekend clearing their house of everything that wasn't necessary.

What I must say about Rick, is that he's a taskmaster. We have always been a black sheep store... and still are, but he's gotten rid of so much baggage and made amazing changes. He's demanding but fair. Whatever they said to him, he didn't deserve.

The other thing Brandon told me was that there was an emergency meeting of all the regional store managers the following morning. With the new structuring of the company, that's well over a hundred people from all over they called into Illinois.

Meanwhile, they had Brandon tearing up the offices and hallway leading to them. In an hour, everything on Rick's walls was gone.

I have two other people I talk to at work... Eileen in cabinets and Paul, the cash office guy. Mid-day they reported on the news the 666BBHS 3rd quarterly report. We were down 44% compared to last year. Eileen said there was a way to access the video conference of the report, but for some reason... they had blocked it through our computers and my phone is apparently not Adobe Flash 5 capable.

When they announced the closing of the twenty stores in October, Paul noted that though the DOW was tanking.... the 666BBHS stock was flying high. Eileen happened to mention that her work mate had heard the past week on the news that we were closing more stores. I mentioned this to Paul. who stared at me for a moment and then told me the same thing was happening right then.

At the end of my day I went into Ricks office and told him of a conversation I'd had with a co-worker... it revolved around the Paterno situation... and my co-worker used Rick as an example of a man who would have taken not only the correct legal action... but the moral one as well. I told him I was relaying this so that he would know that whatever happened there were people in the store who respected and admired him and that he made a difference. He said, "They will always cut from the top, thinking that will fix everything."

Then he asked when Christmas trees were coming in (the bane of his managerial existence) and I said Wednesday. He replied, "Wednesday's going to be a really rough day."

I came home feeling less than hopeful.
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I went back in this morning... just wondering and having spent the day before with Prilosec... my new friend.

I ended up with Dawn, a new co-worker I don't see very often. She transferred to us from a store that's actually doing well. She told me she's looking for another job. I asked why. She went to Rick and said that she was a 44 yr. old woman with 4 kids and needed to know the truth. She knew he had to tow the corporate line, but should she be worried?

He said 'yes'.

She told me he'd had his house appraised.
...............

Later, I found my old manager alone in an office and asked him if we were even going to be there after the first of the year. He seemed certain of it ( and I usually believe in him). Said that we were still making money, which was what mattered (even though we are 10th from the bottom in the region.) He said he didn't know why, but a lot of people were worried about it all of a sudden. I'm never sure how far to go with him, so I left it at that.

..............

At 5:30 I looked at my phone and Jay had called but hadn't left a message.

We don't talk. We text or email.

I texted "Are you okay?".

No response.

I wondered if he had lost his job. I wondered if he were somewhere in a hospital.

When I got home I texted, "Should I call?"

And this is what he wrote. "I'm ok. Once unemployment kicks in I can send money again."

Fucking bastard.

In later texts I wrote that I was worried about him. He said, 'Shit happens.' and I said, 'Yeah, and it may happen here. Soon.'

He wrote, 'Crap timing, happy holidays to me.' Missed what I'd said, altogether.

Later he said he was worried about me, but that's his way of telling me he's giving up.

..................
I have never seen so many people on so many economic levels in such dire straits. Life doesn't have to be this way. I don't know why, I just know it doesn't.

2 comments:

  1. Robin…

    I read this post early this morning, but had only my iPod and I can't really manage to type much on that. Not that I know what to say or how to help, though I wish I could somehow make this better for you. I've thought about you and your situation all day, and prayed for you. I'm sure you're afraid and feeling backed up against a wall, desperate…struggling to not become broken and washed away in a flood of hopelessness.

    Somehow, I believe you're going to come out of this okay. I have faith. I can't explain it, but please be of courage. Fear is a terrible beast. Times are tough, and it sounds to me like you're in a store which isn't at the top of the list for keeping. But neither can I believe that you're going to see everything taken away. Profit is profit, after all, and in this economy a company would be foolish to ignore that without a really good reason.

    Take each day as it comes. Worry as little as you can manage. Find as much hope and joy in each and every moment as if your tomorrows were all assured…and live in as much faith as you can muster.

    I believe.

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  2. Grizz.......

    Hopelessness is a lie. Sometimes it gets almost too dark to see and I remember that.

    Hopelessness is a lie.

    It's hard to imagine that someone in Ohio has been thinking about me and mine all day... but then again, at the end I seemed to be taking breaths for my blogging friend Carmon... or flying to heaven for her.

    What do I know?

    There is some sort of strength in you that comes through in your words. Not in what you say... but, literally.

    Not pie in the sky stuff or psychological need... but some sort of gift of underpinning. I am grateful for that.

    Thank you for being here.

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