Workin' Man - Part XXII - Trouble Every Day

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 

 Even though my time at Pine Lake was probably the high point of my B&R Stores career, I did manage to get myself in trouble a couple of times. In B&R Stores, once you got into trouble, the target on your back never really went away. In addition to my own experience I was aware of others who never fully recovered from one bad decision. One really stupid thing I did was play a prank on our janitor, a "special needs" adult. We'll call him Danny. Danny loved to joke around with the rest of the employees, and everyone tried to make him feel part of the team. Part of this involved the normal ribbing that employees give each other. (In retrospect this was a really stupid and insensitive thing to do, and I hesitate to include it in this review of my work life, but it is important to understand the perspective of how the corporate brass viewed me.) One afternoon, about a week before the holiday party I called Danny pretending to be the company president, Pat Raybould. I asked him if he had a necktie, which he would be required to wear during the awards ceremony. (I know -- stupid). Before I could find him and tell him that it was a prank, he had called his mother to tell her that he was receiving an award at the holiday party. Mom complained. I got written up. In person. By the company VP of Operations. (He told my store director that he couldn't be trusted to convey the seriousness of the issue). Not only was I written up, but I had to go to the employee assistance program for counseling. And I was barred from attending the holiday party. And to pour salt in the wound, I was charged $20 for not attending the party! (When we signed up to attend the annual party we had to agree to be charged $20 if we ended up not going). 

The other thing that caused a target to get permanently affixed to my back involved the store newsletter from a few years back. Once I had been removed from the editorial staff of "Nine's News" I started my own newsletter, "Words of Wisdom by Ill-Gotten Booty". After a while I turned it into a blog which garnered readers from around the company. This was attention that I should have avoided! Since the subject matter was mostly store related, I was no doubt asking for trouble. The first article that got me noticed was when the Lincoln Journal-Star included the 48th & O Super Saver night crew in a series about Lincoln after dark. The photos included in the article showed multiple violations of what I referred to as the "Schulte Doctrine", Operations VP Tom Schulte's micromanaging of night crew operations. Store Director Nick gave me a heads-up that the blog was getting attention, but nothing further was said about it. I regularly wrote humorous Top Ten lists, and featured one of the Top Ten Reasons to Attend the B&R Holiday Party, which ended up being referenced on stage at the party itself. I was never confronted about it, but it came up several years later in the aftermath of another situation and incorrectly referred to as Top Ten Reasons Not to Attend the B&R Holiday Party. You truly couldn't put your mistakes behind you at B&R Stores. 

For most store director openings the corporate office generally promoted assistant store directors or brought in someone from outside the company. And since most assistant store directors aspired to be store directors, every time a store director retired, or a new store was built, most, if not all, assistant store directors applied for the position -- including me. Over the years I applied for quite a few opening:

1. Bishop Heights Russ's
2. Bishop Heights Russ's (again)
3. 66th & O Russ's
4. Cornhusker Super Saver
5. 30th & Ames Omaha Super Saver
6. Russ's Havelock
7. Generic Super Saver (they were moving people around)
8. Russ's 33rd & Hwy 2
9. Russ's 70th & Van Dorn
10. Generic store director position that turned out to be Russ's 70th & Van Dorn (again - I got this one!) 

The first few times I was turned down it didn't bother me too much. The people who were promoted instead of me were definitely qualified. There never was a hierarchy of people "in line" for a promotion, each opening was a free-for-all. But it was when they took over a store in Omaha from another company when I began to think I wasn't even being considered. There weren't many applicants, mainly because the store was in a rough neighborhood. They ended up hiring someone from outside the company, which didn't do much for my self worth. Then, the outside director, before ever setting foot in the store, decided he didn't want the job. An evening supervisor from the Millard Super Saver had been hired as the grocery manager, and quickly promoted to assistant store director when no qualified candidates applied. Since he had been in the store from Day One, he was subsequently promoted to store director. Where the early rejections didn't sting so badly because individuals with more seniority and at least equal ability were being promoted, now I was starting to see new, less experienced assistant store directors leapfrog over me, including those whom I had trained!

I had been passed over a few more times when I finally decided to find out why I was not considered qualified for promotion. I believe that I had established a record for the number of times i applied for, and was passed over for, promotion. I cornered Operations VP Tom Schulte at the corporate office one afternoon and asked him to give me honest feedback about why I was being passed over and what I needed to do to advance. I don't think he really had a clear idea, but I'm sure he was influenced by my reputation as (1) Being rough on people - which really was a thing of the past at that point and (2) The incidents which arguably demonstrated that I did not make good decisions. In our conversation it was pretty clear that he had no idea what my management style was, or what my good points (or bad points) as a manager were. He agreed to work with me and give me feedback, which he regularly did. During this time I was passed over one more time. During the interview I was asked if I was willing to manage the Save Best store, a small, store with a total of eight employees. I responded that I would, if offered it, but that I didn't think it was a good fit for me. I was told that that answer was the main reason I was passed over. But I did not give up. 

Around Christmas 2012 at Pine Lake we were shooting for a store sales record. My projections had clearly shown that we would exceed $1 million in sales for the first time. A new Super Saver had been built in the Fallbrook neighborhood and Brian, who was the store director at 48th & O, had been named the new store director, which meant that there would be an opening there. The posting was simply for "Lincoln Store Director" - I applied, but didn't know ultimately where I would end up if offered the promotion. As it turned out, because there was a new store opening and one of the Super Saver store directors was transferred there, and another store director had retired, a merry-go-round of director reassignments resulted in the Russ's at 70th & Van Dorn being offered to me. I had applied, but hadn't been interviewed, possibly because my last application and interview hadn't been that long before. Tom Schulte showed up at the store and without any ceremony offered me the position. I accepted, with the condition that he allow me to be flexible in order to continue to officiate weddings. I started as the Russ's 70th & Van Dorn Store Director the first week of January 2013.

In a lot of ways being an assistant store director was the best of both worlds. I had a lot of authority and wrote my own schedule; I had Saturdays off to do weddings; I was somewhat shielded from corporate nonsense by my store director. But I was still somewhat ambitious and felt that I had something to prove after so many rejections. I was a little nervous about being given a store that was losing money and was notorious for being unable to make the labor budget, but figured I would somehow make it work.