Hi Everyone,
Although the events of this blog took place over 10 years ago, I could post this blog or a variation of it at least twice a year. The reason is because I am always picking on someone (sic). This is what I mean.
Okay so for anyone who doesn’t already know, I had a seasonal job as a fragrance demonstrator/salesperson for over 15 years. I have as many good experiences as I have bad ones. This is one of them.
Nepotism is fragrances’ middle name. That is how I got in, and was hired that way more than once so I “got it”. Was I surprised when one of my fragrance reps gave her friend hours in a store I worked at a lot? Not really. Friends of fragrance reps always got the most hours, the most pay per hour, the best and most of the never ending perks.
I was surprised when I went into the store on a Saturday and looked at the weekly (sales) numbers. How were they so low? My reps friend, who was an excellent sales person, worked the last three days. It didn’t make sense so I asked a couple of questions from the counter manager. She said that although the reps friend arrived to work when she was supposed to (around 11am) she also left at about noon, and came back to work after 2, sometimes three. All of the sales staff was supposed to be on the floor between 11-3, the key selling time, pushing their products during the busiest time of the day.
So where was the sales reps friend during the key selling time? According to the counter manager, she was either getting her hair done, shopping and/or having lunch—everyday! The reason of course is because she wanted to impress the new man in her life. Apparently he had money, which she was greatly lacking. It didn’t help that her teeth were four and half times longer than her roots.
On Monday I called my rep after my temp job, and told her what my sales were for the weekend. She was pretty happy until I told her about the weekly (sales) numbers and what the counter manager told me. I stopped talking when she yelled, “Stop picking on her!” This is exactly why.
In all the years I knew my rep, I saw her in a variety of environments and circumstances, she never raised her voice once. I knew that one more word would mean I would lose my job and probably never work in fragrance again. As a single mother, (who got royally screwed on child support because in my opinion a judge could not be bothered to do what she was paid handsomely for) I needed that job. My daughter’s quality of life depended on it because it paid twice as much as the temp job I worked at Monday to Friday. One of the many perks was that I didn’t have to clock in or out. If I was “late” I would just stay later.
When my rep yelled at me, I remember feeling betrayed. Not only did she give her friend the hours that due to my sales performance I should have worked, her friend who was probably making more than me wasn’t even in the store earning her keep, and I was the “bad guy”! Seriously? All I did was state the facts. Daily computer generated sales numbers for each fragrance company don’t lie. The counter manager wasn’t going to lie either. She got commission on every sale and she wanted sales.
About two weeks later my rep called me. That is when I knew that she could not have been bothered to even call the store to see if everything was okay. Her tone of voice was friendly and up-beat like she totally “forgot” our previous conversation as she asked me to go into the store and “make up the numbers” otherwise known as, “save the sales because now MY ASS is on the line”. I guess my reps friend thought that everyone was going to be stupid forever and that she could just get paid for not working, sabotaging herself and the friend, my rep who hired her.
Exit the reps friend, enter Anna during the week.
The point of today’s blog is that there are times in each of our lives, when we just know that telling someone that the person they hired, or trusted with something, is taking them for a ride and we just have to wait it out. It’s not fun but it happens all the time in every scenario you can and cannot imagine. People like to be right even when they are wrong, and they will defend being right to the very end.
For whatever reason they can’t seem to understand that the person they hired or trusted is going to (temporarily) do exactly what they want, tell them exactly what they want to hear and be the best employee (or whatever) they have ever hired, trusted. I have wanted to say, “You are buttering their bread, of course their going to be on their best behaviour when they know they are being watched! What did you think they were going to do? Argue with you? Misbehave? Sabotage you while you are right there? Yes men always do whatever is in their best interests.” But I don’t. Or not anymore. This is why.
I don’t look good on paper; people don’t take me seriously so why bother. If they aren’t going to mind their business why should I? I am not getting paid to help them help themselves and I am not getting a consulting fee. It’s their business not mine. If they want to screw it up by not using common sense, I can’t help them. No one can. So the best thing to do is, “Stop picking on her!” Or in some cases him and possibly them.
Thank you for reading, A. Rebel’s Rant! ;D
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