Today was an early birthday present to myself, a nice relaxing day off. I spent the day supporting my local economy.
Being at the mall in the middle of the day on a Friday is interesting. Many of the stores were stocking up for the weekend so most of the staff was on the floor working like little bees. Having worked retail myself, I know how comfortable you get in the store so I always find it interesting to listen the associates talk to each other.
So, how does this relate to HR? If you work for a company that has interaction with the public, face to face, please coach your staff on what types of conversations they should and shouldn’t be having on the floor.
Example 1: The first store I went to brought the story telling likes of Barbara and Suzy (names changed to protect the absurd). Barbara told Suzy the story of some guy she met last weekend that had never been married and said he was “saving himself for her”. Now, Suzy has apparently been married and the conversation came up during the talk with her new love interest. Barbara thought this was hilarious and poked fun at Suzy’s love interest by saying “Suzy, you were supposed to save yourself for him but you’ve been deflowered and now he don’t want you”.
I cant make this stuff up people and I refuse to tell you the rest of the conversation because I don’t think its appropriate for print.
Example 2: The second store I visited was managed by a guy who wanted to be anywhere but in the store. Dude was huffing and puffing with every action. He was paged twice in the twenty minutes I was in the store. The second time “Manager needed at register” was heard, dude stood up and cussed like he thought he was a Navy man. He did blush when he saw me so at least he knew he’d made an error in judgment. I get that he was frustrated but had I been his mother I would drug him by his ear to the soap section to wash his mouth.
I’m by no means offended by either of these scenarios, it takes a lot to offend me, but I can see how others might be. When I worked retail, part of our new hire orientation was the bit about how to act professional on the sales floor. These people clearly need another training session.
Have you worked retail and been through the same session? Have you encountered your own Barbara, Suzy or Navy Manager? Tell me your stories!
Filed under: Coaching
Does this count?
http://insideoutofmyhead.wordpress.com/2009/07/10/how-did-i-not-get-fired/
My story is more than just an inappropriate conversation.
I was working in retail one Christmas season as part-time temporary help (I wanted, not so much the extra money, the employee discount – buying a TV at cost was a big savings at this famous, but now out-of-business electronic chain).
One day I over heard the store manager and one of the fulltime employees having a “heated” argument on the sales floor. However, that wasn’t the most inappropriate thing going on. Apparently, this employee had hired a stripper to come to the store to “perform” for another fulltime employee whose birthday it was, and she was to strip on the sales floor!
The store manager, quite appropriately, put a stop to it as soon as the stripper showed up. And now this employee who had paid for the stripper wanted the store manager to refund his money!
@Charles OMG thats hysterical!
Never been in retail, but I spent years working in my parents’ small business. I was one of the first people that customers saw when they came in the door. I never had any training formally, so I just treated them like one of our family. It always went well.