...at the florist
It's too stressful. I cannot work under this manager. It will be detrimental to my health.
She's constantly switching prices and procedure. I'm a fast learner and I have excellent memory and without the changes being posted somewhere I can refer to there is no way for me to stay on top of them. It's completely impossible. She doesn't post all the changes though. She then blames us. Or at least she blames me.
I don't think she likes me much. I never get frazzled while she's losing her head. Talking to customers appears easier for me. I suspect I'm generally a person more comfortable with myself then she is. I watch her get frazzled dealing with upset customers and she takes it personally. She's a few years younger than me and it's important to her that people like her.
At least this is my assessment and I could be bias because I'm not fond of her.
I think she really started disliking me when I quested something she said. We make confirmation calls if we have left the arrangement on the porch. I call back someone who is a pickup and redelivery. The woman picks up and says it was indeed redelivered. I ask the obvious question of is the arrangement more satisfactory-since I figure that is the goal with a pickup and redelivery. When the woman answers no, my immediate reaction is damage control. What can we do to make it better?
I know people are more likely to spread bad news about a business then good and we lose a potential customer if I don't make it right. Not to mention she is most likely going to complain to the person who bought it.
Please note that I have no idea what the arrangement is, what it is supposed to look like or what the arrangement that went out looked like. I have not memorized all the arrangements-there are hundreds and I'm flying by the seat of my pants to make sure we don't lose a potential customer, since she things the arrangement is hideous.
I finish talking to the woman on the phone and go to update the order on the computer.
Manager girl comes storming out of the office where she has been making corsages off the clock (WHYYYYYY?!?!!!... oh and teaching her friend how to make them instead of teaching me who has never made an orchid corsage and letting her friend waste company money when she messes up) basically yelling that I can't do what I just did. I'm annoyed that she's yelling when there is no reason to. Her points are valid but it in no way constitutes yelling. I understand that if we have to take the arrangement out there three times that means more work and less money for us, and that she isn't the person who ordered the arrangement... There is something that I don't understand and I attempted to ask a clarifying question. I am annoyed with her and my tone may have crossed into that realm but asking-so it doesn't matter what the recipient thinks about the flowers?- seemed reasonable to me.
I figured we have two customers really, the person who placed the order and the person who receives the order. If they are both happy, they use us again. I wasn't trained to believe differently. If I should be thinking differently, the I need clarification. Does this mean we never care about what the recipient thinks, or we only care if the person who placed the order compains, or do we not care on this order because we don't pick up and redeliver more than once, or because this order is under a certain amount?
I do have to interrupt her a little in order to ask the questions because she is continuing to yell and repeating things and it's too close to closing for me to listen to her go on and on about the same thing when all I need is a clarification. It's useless the way she repeats things anyway. It's never any different, it's like the exact same words over and over which isn't a good way to reinforce information. Instead of answering my question, she's all-"are you giving me attitude?"
Gag me. If she had been paying attention...
She never answered my question. I answered no and repeated my question and she stormed back into the office saying..well you've already TOLD the customer that. Completely unhelpful. Is it any wonder I never ask her any questions when an order is unusual. I prefer to call the other store with my questions.
I'm pretty sure she started disliking me then and now she's just being ridiculous.
As soon as I get in-she's telling me she needs to talk to me. About three things that were stupid. Nitpicky. If she ran the store better, maybe she wouldn't need to mention anything...
1. She's telling me for anything put in a vase I have to charge a fill price.
I actually know this already even though she never trained me as such. I read shit on the wall and found out from another co-worker. Manager however has said that when people buy so much flowers the vase in included in the price. Without any "and I'm the manager so I have authority to do this," behind it. I'll admit I didn't charge the guy an extra $25 on his arrangement for fill because I thought it wouldn't be necessary. After all we sell arrangements in the cooler for less then cost of flowers + fill worth. Easy assumption. I work single shifts. I have to make judgement calls when I'm the only one on shift. I'm not going to call her every single order (see above) Maybe we should be trained more throughly. Or maybe we shouldn't work single shifts. Or both. Besides no customer wants me to need to call the manager on every single detail.
2. We can't give away free bears or anything.
Um What the FUCK. I never have. She's referring to a miscommunication (I'm being nice) over Valentines day. Someone called in and wanted two bears, two arrangements and two balloons. I'm pricing for her over the phone and taking her order. The woman prefers pink bears which I don't think we have. Manager girl, in typical micromanage form (which is idiotic the friday before valentines when we are SWAMPED), says we do have pink bears and then says oh, but they have baby girl written on them. The woman decides against those.
I'm being nice and calling chalking the rest of it up to miscommunication. She probably didn't hear that the woman didn't want the pink bears. Manager girl quotes me 14.99 per bear. I had already priced them at 19.99 because that's the medium sized regular teddy. But I change the price accordingly since the manager said so. I don't know all the new Valentine's merchandise by heart, we did get new bears in and it's possible they are 14.99.
She's trying to place the blame on ME! even though SHE was the one with the wrong information. She refuses to let me tag the order, even though the person is coming in in half an hour and she's already behind on tagging. She won't teach anyone else how to tag for some reason. (Because she's an idiot micromanager). Many of the order she is tagging could have been done earlier in the week...
She yelled at me about the price and then was going to give the customer the cheaper 9.99 bears until I pointed out that she quoted me the wrong price. I know in the world of the florist that the total amount of the customer's order isn't a whole lot but shouldn't we be striving for customer loyalty? (She then left the balloon off their arrangement and I had to grab one for the customer later-I'm pretty sure this was her trying to regain the money.... so unimpressed, it was TEN bucks. And she quoted it.)
Anyhow, I don't want to hear about this crap from her, it was as much her fault as it was mine. If she hadn't been trying to interfere or micromanage, they would have been priced at 19.99.
3. Don't accept orders not in our delivery zone.
This literally came out of nowhere. I have saved some orders for Long Beach for us. Some of them the owner printed rather than wiring out because of the money. And everything else has been approved by the owner. Including the order that should have gone to the newport store because it was their delivery zone. But the customer had picked out all the flowers at the irvine store and left a card there. I called the other store and asked what would be easier for them-to pick up the flowers/card from our store or if we should make up and deliver the arrangement. She said she thought that it would be easier for us to deliver but she checked with the owner. He agreed. I still have no idea what the fuck she was talking about. If everything is owner approved...he is kind of higher up then she is.
She managed to put me i such a bad mood within ten minutes of getting on shift.
I've decided to stick it out through march because of spring break while I hunt for a job. But my last day will be the last day of march. I'll ask the scheduling manager at the theatre to ensure me five days if I open my availability and I think he would. So even if I don't have a second job I'd be alright.
And then, I file a complaint with the labor board about their labor code violations. Yes, I'm going to be a bitch about it. Their own damn fault.
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