I work for a large corporate retail company in the United States. Relatively – it isn't a bad company to work for, and the pay isn't insulting. Our store manager left earlier this year to go to a new store, and he was the best boss and 'leader' i've ever worked for. Since he left our payroll hours had a significant cut which left some part time employees with 10 hours or less a week – so obviously most moved onto jobs with better hours and pay. Most full time employees have been reduced to shorter hours/shifts. It is hard to keep up lately. My role is a tech position, and we are very busy with services. It isn't a position that is easy to fill, and I am one of two employees who can do the work I do. We haven't been able to hire anyone in the past few months, and regardless we don't have the payroll hours anyways. I'm cross trained for almost any position or department in the store, and I work full time.
In the past week management has said two things that make me reconsider giving my time and skills to this company. The first was regarding our trucks and stocking. Some departments have one person – obviously between helping customers, cut hours, and running registers or other retail duties they can't keep up with trucks like we could 6 months ago. Management told them to just work faster. They weren't using their time efficiently. Red flag. We are short staffed, and one employee is doing the work of 3 or 4. The second was this morning and seriously irked me. When discussing metrics and credit cards in our morning meeting one manager said “if you don't want to sell/offer credit cards – we will find someone who will” – not to me directly but just to everyone on the shift. We can't hire people as is, and no one who was on the shift refuses to offer credit cards anyways. Our previous store manager would have said something like “if you have any issues with offering the credit card just come talk to me and I can give you some advice. all you have to do is ask, and tell them the benefits. If 99 say no and 1 says yes that's all we can ask”. Compound interest credit cards are basically a scam for corporate retail chains to sell debt to collection agencies – I offer them but don't press when someone says no. Someone with good credit probably won't apply for one anyways, but in some instaces the rewards points can be beneficial if you pay it off asap.
That kind of language is disrespectful to the few employees you do have who frankly give more than they are compensated for. I have been in management – that isn't how you lead. Just remember right now this is a worker's market and not an employer's. I plan on putting out applications to get better offers, and if they don't want to match it I'll leave. I'm already drafting a resignation letter depending on which way it goes, and citing everything I've said here and more. This is small potatoes compared to some of the awful disrespect and wage theft that comes up in this sub, but everyone should stand up against disrespectful employers – the job market is changing rapidly, and retail, tech, and service industry positions are readily available.