I smile every time I hear that term...Porch Dick. Its from the Walking Dead season 6. Anywho so the phrase has a meaning to me because I am a fan of the Walking Dead.
How do I put this in words??? My DM is a porch dick. He is all smiles to your face as he is screwing you behind your back. Don't expect him to tell you the truth about anything just what he thinks will get him in and out of the store the fastest. He never visits my store or if he does its a "fly by" as he is on his way to his summer house. He hasn't done a detailed walk in my store in months. When I ask him for help I get vague answers. Nothing I can really put into action.
Let me break the last couple of months down....
In May I lost my last ASM Holly. She had an emotional/mental break down. The more I pushed her to get results for her time the worst she got...this lead into inventory. Still with no presence from my DM.
A few weeks later we got a new ASM, Chelsea. She was a new ASMIT she had been with the company since April training in Ellicot City and Arundle Mills. She was suppose to be very good at recovery and getting tasks done. I was excited. I needed help. Trying to do it all on my own was getting impossible. I was so burned out.
She comes in and starts having meeting with the associates. Ok that a good start. But these meeting are 30-45 min...I know that does not sound to bad except it is during the busiest time of the day/week when her and the associate should be helping customers and I am not there. I then start hearing from the associates that I need to watch my back. Chelsea is telling everyone she is the boss and what she says overrides what I say?? I confronted her about it and she denies....here we go. I try to give her the benefit of doubt as long as she is getting results.
I make to do list and plan out workload task...they get ignored. I ask about it and get lied to. I bring it up to my DM I get blown off. I get frustrated and have to work even harder to try to keep a float. Thanks to the new ASM we are getting behind again, We were just about there during the DMs last visit before Holly flaked out. The stockroom was all but perfect finally--his words. We still had some fixtures to deal with but over all awesome. The new Repl Mgr Mitzi was doing well but needed to work on getting POGs completed in a more timely manner---I had been doing them and the DM told me to stop I was not to be doing them. We were having issues with the replen crew I was working on hiring new associates but the application were far and few between.
So lets fast forward some...Mitzi is put on a PIP because Chelsea and the DM say so. I do as I am told and in response Mitzi quits 2 weeks later... then all of a sudden my DM says I did not manage her right and lost her. No ownership that he and Chelsea made me put her on a PIP or that they had already, with out any thoughts from me, had replaced her with my Pt CEM. All this is done behind my back and when I called the DM about it I get blown off as usual. He agrees with Chelsea's opinion on this subject. I don't know why I didn't push back...why didn't I do something? At this point I am broken...I was second guessing myself.
Once Mitzi was gone and Sarah was taking over the Repl Mgr position we worked it out that Chelsea would train all the new Workload Support associates and I would concentrate on the Customer Service associates---and with doing this she would be in charge of all of the merchandising, freight flow, POGs and SISO. We talked to the DM he thought that was a great idea.
At this point Chelsea had been with our store since June. She still was not following any plans or to do list I was leaving for her. She was still doing whatever she deemed important. I tried talking to my DM... sometimes he seemed to be listening others he made excuses.
Our ZLP visited we didn't do as wonderful as we should have. I took notes and created and action plan for everyone. Needless to say Chelsea didn't find it important to complete. The Zone Auditor popped up a couple weeks later. That visit was worse. It was a horrible debacle. Huge! Failing an Audit is very bad in our company. Chelsea hid the whole time the Auditor was there. I was left to answer for my mistakes as well as hers. I took notes and discussed the issues with him. This was the day before my vacation....I stayed until close working on the game plan to fix the issues. I was told to take my vacation and we could work together to get a plan in place for the actions that need to be taken--this was Mark my DM.
While I was on vacation with Mark's approval I had my sister Store Managers visit the store to give Chelsea support. They got to see first hand what I have been going through. She once again was not following any of the Plans I had made for the week. She was doing her own thing and blowing payroll yet... at the same time leaving other managers with no help. My sister SM reported this back to Mark. They then got to see my next issue. He had expected them to go into my store and see Super Chelsea saving my store--I was the problem she was the answer. And when they reported back what she was really doing he had the nerve to get upset with them. He truly showed his cards to them at that point. It was a waste of their time.
I have been killing myself for months--putting my own health at jeopardy for what??
All of the SM and ASM were scheduled to attend a Cascade/Failed Audit meeting. Chelsea managed to have some half unbelievable event happen that kept her from making it to the meeting. The meeting was brutal. We were told that 7 stores failed 6 SM remain of those 7 and he doesn't see 2 lasting the next 30 days. Yep I am scared. I asked him for a side meeting afterwards--I wanted witnesses to me asking once again for help. He told me I can not hold Chelsea accountable for anything. My store was a horrible mess when she got there and none of this was her fault. He has been telling me off and on since he took over my district that he did not see what my last DM saw in me. He agreed to have a meeting with all my manager the following week to help me set up a plan to get us all on the right track. I wanted to show I am trying. I need his guidance--something I have not received yet.
The ride home with my sister SMs was full of conversations of wtf was that....they tried to encourage me on how I should go back to my store and proceed.
Mark did come for the meeting I ask for. The store was not where it should be. The meeting was not a 'lets work out a plan to get the store where it needs to be' meeting. It was pointing fingers at who isn't doing their job according to what Chelsea says. We were told that Chelsea was the final word. I was pretty much just a figure head at this point. The store was were it was because I allowed it to be....I am not allowed to hold Chelsea accountable for anything. She is Mark's associate I did not have any power over her. The more I tried to defend myself the worse it got. He belittled me and told me he had been giving me chances for the last 6 months and I all I have done is disappoint him. Again I was told he never saw in me the super star that I was suppose to be. Anyone could run a P3 store. I asked about being moved to another store maybe I wasn't the right manager for this store--he literally laughed at me. This is not first time I brought up moving to another store. He laughed at me again. So if he comes back in a week and I haven't made a massive improvement I will be put on a final write up and if the following week its not perfect I will be fired. Mind you I have never received so much as a verbal warning since being in this company...I have been struggling since I took this store over and have made it known, I have reached out countless times. He has thrown some hours at me and we have used those hour to get things done. But some of the stuff that is wrong is broken routines on the workload support teams--which Chelsea has been in charge of but I can not hold her accountable ...I am in an impossible situation.
Newest twist to all of this....because I have been working myself ragged my knee has flared up. I can bare walk on it. After two appointment with in 3 days I am out on LOA for 10 days or more. So what does these mean. When I get back from LOA can he fire me. Unless Chelsea does something she hasn't done so far and steps the fuck up I am screwed. I have had to put my career in her hands. Even if I had not gone out on LOA I still would have had to depend on her...
Enough for now--this is the most I have posted in forever. I needed to get it out. May have not been the right place to do it, Time for me to go ice my knee
