There were two store managers at the bag and luggage store in which I worked and they were both quite colorful characters. The first was one was a native New Yorker who studied retail management in college. Anyone could tell she loved the industry that much.
This woman was very driven and always saw herself going far so she exuded an uppity, conceited attitude at times. She’s the type of person who has to be right under any and all circumstances. There was really no point in reasoning with her because of this characteristic.
She was laser-focused on becoming as successful as possible no matter what the cost may turn out to be. Her person relationships suffered as a result since she spent too much time on earning a promotion, which she received a year after I started.
One thing I admired about her was her drive, but she was unfortunately a more shameless, conniving type of “Women in Retail,” than those who just thrived on gossip, rumors and talking about other people as much as possible.
Her downfall was that she too left others behind on her journey climbing the corporate ladder. She wanted everyone to follow a strict set of rules, meanwhile she couldn’t follow all of them herself.
I remember one morning I was late to opening the store with her and she proceeded to give me a lecture about tardiness. Obviously I already knew the importance of punctuality and I have given that same lecture to others during my time spent in retail.
The very next day we were both scheduled to open together again, and I was there early. She wound up arriving late and just tried to carry on a casual conversation with me about how I was. The hypocrisy of some these people has amazed me from time to time because they see themselves on a high horse, from which they never come down.
She also scolded another associate who worked at the store, someone I wound up becoming very good friends with, for being late since she was waiting on her arrival so she could leave. However, chronic lateness is a major problem, but we didn’t have that issue. She always craved the opportunity to excoriate us for such a slip, but came late to work several times herself.
Everyone is human and sometimes events in life happen that may prevent you from arriving to work on time, but if you acknowledge the issue, apologize and move on, that should be enough. It never was with this store manager.
This woman wanted to portray the image that she was always working, especially when she was at her desk in the backroom, but it couldn’t be further from the truth. She would be on the phone all the time, and they definitely weren’t work phone calls. The door to the backroom would always be closed and she would say “Hey, I’m going to close this because I have to make important calls.” Again, this could not have been further from what she was actually doing.
All problems aside, she eventually moved up that ladder and left the store, handing it off to someone who was more ill-equipped to manage the store since the store ultimately closed a little less than a year after she was installed in that role. Regardless, this woman so desperately wanted to radiate this businesswoman persona, when she truly didn’t work much at all.
quarterlifeinretail 