Workin' Man - Part XV - Am I The Asshole?

Well, I get up at seven, yeah

And I go to work at nine
I got no time for livin'
Yes, I'm workin' all the time

It seems to me
I could live my life
A lot better than I think I am
I guess that's why they call me
They call me the workin' man

'Cause I get home at five o'clock
And I take myself out an ice cold beer
Always seem to be wondering'
Why there's nothin' goin' down here

I guess that's why they call me
They call me the workin' man

"Workin' Man" - Words & Music by Lee & Lifeson 

 I started as an assistant store director (ASD) in August 2001. The ASD position varied from store to store and the exact duties depended on who the store director was, the staffing level of the store, and the personality and priorities of the ASDs themselves. Some ASDs were basically glorified grocery managers, spending most of their time ordering groceries, working new items on the shelves, and building displays. Others viewed themselves more as trainers, devoting their energies to teaching customer service seminars and sitting in their offices a lot. As I alluded to before, my predecessor was the kind of ASD who was very hands-on and didn't delegate, but did everything himself. At any rate, there was absolutely no training of any kind. If you were applying for this position it was assumed that you knew what the job was and how to do it! But no one really knew what an assistant store director did, until they did it. It was a side affect of this ignorance that when an ASD position was posted you might get a dozen people apply, most who had no experience or qualifications. It was easy to see what a department manager did - they ran their department! But the work of an ASD was kind of like the drummer or the bassist in a band - most people never noticed you until you screwed up! My approach was in line with the theory of management where I was to get things done, rather than do things. I started out my first shift by just walking around and observing. One of the things that I observed was chaos.

At my previous store I was used to the store level managers having a monthly schedule. We were allotted one weekend off a month, and shifts were covered ahead of time if someone was on vacation. At the Cornhusker Super Saver schedules were not written down, and days off were covered at the last minute. I found out on Wednesday of my first week that I was needed to work the swing shift on Friday! I got permission from Brian, the store director, to start using a written schedule and post it for several weeks in advance. This was helpful, especially since we had a few shift supervisors who worked primarily in other departments, and being able to give them their schedule well in advance helped scheduling in their main departments. 

The culture of the store was very laid back, which was great for morale, but was often bad for getting things done. There didn't seem to be any sense of urgency. The pricing team often took all day to get signs for the new ads put up. The cashiers' manager was allowed to work part time, no evenings or weekends, the night crew had overtime hours in the triple digits, the cash office had turned into a hangout, and the smokers apparently were taking breaks every hour. My management philosophy could be laid back, provided everything was getting done and everyone was being treated equally. And that was the problem - not everything was getting done, and not everyone was being treated equally. Managers who have favorites generally don't think anyone will notice that they have favorites, and usually don't notice the resentment that favoritism engenders. For every person who thought that we had the best boss in the world there was another who was angry at his tendency to let people get away with not doing their jobs. 

I viewed part of my job as a manager as straddling the line between communicating company policy and speaking up for my employees when corporate policy was unreasonable. But when corporate policy was clear, I had the responsibility to enforce that policy. Even though I have lived in Nebraska since 1980, I am still culturally a New Yorker, which means that I am direct in my communications. Nebraskans tend to be more roundabout in their interactions - and that was the conflict. The contrast between plain speaking, direct Tom, and smiling, nice guy, do whatever you want Brian, was stark.  Employees and managers simply weren't used to being accountable for their time or actions. An early example involved Charlie, our Produce Manager. The corporate office had recently decided to retire the old style box cutters in favor of a newer "safety cutter". There was a lot of pushback from veteran grocery people - that's what they were used to. (This was one of the few times when the corporate office knew what they were doing - the number of incidents of people cutting themselves with their own box cutter dropped sharply) One afternoon Patrick, my grocery manager, informed me that the Produce Manager was using the older version box cutters and was talking about how he was not going to switch. I went down to the sales floor and firmly reminded him of the new policy and confiscated his old school box cutter. Shortly thereafter the store director took me aside and chided me for "yelling" at Charlie. 

Not long after that there were three incidents in a short time period that blew up in my face. 

1. A cashier called for a price check. Someone responded. She didn't hear it. She asked for it again. Someone responded again. She still didn't hear it. Repeat a third time. I happened to be nearby on a forklift and shouted out the price for her.
2. Store Director announced at a managers' meeting that only people who were scheduled to be in the cash office, plus the manager on duty, should be in the cash office. Saw that a non-authorized person was in there one night, using the computer. I asked her to leave. She argued with me, I asked her more emphatically. 
3. We had recurring problem with our cardboard compactor jamming. The solution was to put in a small amount of trash at a time, push it down the chute with a long pole and turn on the "crusher". Repeat until all the trash was crushed. It would jam if cardboard was thrown down until the chute filled up; gravity just wasn't sufficient. The process to avoid jamming was covered with all departments. One night I found the chute full and jammed with boxes from the meat department. I found the one meat department employee on duty and showed him the jam and told him to get it unjammed. He asked me if I was going to fire him if he didn't. I repeated my instructions.

As a manager, there is one thing that was guaranteed to get me mad, possibly even to get me to transition into raising my voice, if not actual yelling, and that's arguing with me after I had given a legitimate assignment, or pointed out a problem. (The employees at this store responded to any interaction other than "good morning" by getting defensive and complaining about being yelled at)  I always told people that if I had my facts wrong, for example, if I was calling you out for being late, when the time clock showed that you weren't, then I would accept correction. But if you simply didn't like the policy, or didn't think you needed to do what I was telling you to do, then we'd have a problem. Before addressing something with an employee I had considered well whether what I had to see was legitimate, so in most cases I already knew that I was right. 

All three of the employees mentioned above had complained about me to the store director, complainer #3 right after my encounter with him. 

1. This encounter was characterized as me yelling at the checker because I didn't like the way she asked for a price check. 
2. I was criticized for kicking this employee out of the cash office because "she was such a nice girl". (I guess "nice girls" didn't need to abide by store or company policy)
3. I never found out what the meat department employee told the store director, but I'm sure my interaction was characterized as yelling.

Carlos, the meat department employee, complained to Brian the store director when he stopped in to do some shopping. I had been unaware of the other two complaints. Brian found me in the office and he - as they say - ripped me a new asshole. I had never heard him yell before, and I only did one other time. In his mind, I was terrorizing the staff, taking out my frustrations with my own crappy life (I was going through a divorce) on them. I'm sure it looked that way to a team that was used to the laissez faire management style and saw my direct approach as "yelling". At the time, I considered that maybe I was too tough with people, and signed up for some counseling through the employee assistance program. I tried to discuss my plan to soften my approach, but my conflict averse boss didn't want to talk about it - I think he was embarrassed that he lost his temper! 

An incident one Friday morning illustrated how not everyone was super-sensitive. Ron, the smokehouse manager, had one of the product demonstrators sell brats or polish dogs for a dollar every Friday. One particular morning there was some confusion regarding where we would set up and Ron barked at a few of the guys who were setting up. Since they were only doing what I told them to, I defended them. We ended up standing toe-to-toe in the office yelling (for real) at each other for about five minutes. When it was all done, we shook hands and got on with our day. He was a supporter and ally for the rest of my time in that store. 

Yet Nice Guy Brian surprised me on occasion. On every Christmas Eve that I worked with him he fired someone. I remember the first one being the Video Manager, who was having videos shipped to her home and charging them to the store, the second one was a product demonstrator who met her boyfriend and spent an hour shopping while on the clock. I don't recall who the third one was, but I found out that after he was transferred to another store, he fired someone on his first Christmas Eve! There was also an incident with a Deli employee who refused to shave according to company standards. (We were only allowed moustaches then, no beards - this guy had a thin beard that followed his jawline) Brian ignored the lack of shaving, but for some reason focused on his habit of wearing his baseball hat backwards. One evening Brian asked him nicely to put his hat on frontwards. As Brian walked away he saw the employee out of the corner of his eye flip his hat around backwards. Brian, for the second time that I was aware of, yelled, and fired the employee on the spot. He told me later that he asked himself "WWTD?" (What would Tom do?)

Throughout my whole time working with Brian I attempted to tone down my approach to people and rehabilitate my reputation as a hardass. The perception that people had of me was hurting my prospects of promotion - I had started applying for open store director positions - and the notes on my annual review referring to how I was rough with people negatively affected my chances. I worked hard at making my interactions more user friendly. Although sometimes I would just get frustrated and give up trying to do my job. Everything changed, though, when we got a new store director and HR coordinator. In short order I became the good cop to Bill and Todd's bad cops.