Today, I came upon a stunning realization. I overheard one of my coworkers saying she was tired of 'her staring over my shoulder!' I slowly approached, and asked who she was talking about. When she told me Katherine* I wasn't surprised. When she, and the other coworker in the conversation said they'd both complained about her, my mouth literally gaped open. I assumed she was still employed because everyone had fallen under the spell of the 'Bystander Effect.' To hear that they, and apparently many others have complained, and she still continued her tiraiding shocked me. How could a manager treat her employees, employees in other departments, her superiors, and even customers the way she did? They told me they feared the 'open-door policy' that we had drilled into our minds since orientation. I learned an even bigger truth-the real reason Walmart has chosen to remain Union-free. (a later blog about that to come) The coworkers said that instead, they called the 1-800 number to file a complaint, were told the incidents would be looked into. Their complaints were never further investigated. They suggested I do it too, and see just how unhelpful it is to complain. The only other option was to use the open-door policy, and that meant going up your chain of command, having no guarantee of confidentiality. This was very likely to just make everything worse. One of them said she was ready to start an alliance against her. He wanted all of us cashiers, and anyone else who has suffered her wrath.to call the number and fight back. If we all did it at the same time, they'd have to notice the correlation. We might then get an actual investigation of her behavior. When I looked hesitant, he told me a story, "You know I used to manage a Nissan dealership? Last year, I was laid off and this is the best I could get. I have a family to support! I can take the put-downs from customers, I expected that, anyway. But Katherine, that's something else. One day she, our assistant manager and I had a talk in the cash office. This was the only time I had, and will ever, confront her head-on. I was just trying to understand why she always speaks to me like I'm stupid, and what I ever did to her. By the end of the conversation, I was almost ready to cry! me! The assistant manager fell for her lies about how she just feels stressed, with such a tough job, and it's not personal. She said I must have 'misunderstood' her actions for disrespect, and she'd never treat us inappropriately. Coaching me in front of a customer sounds pretty inappropriate if you ask me!" Mind you, this is a grown man, and to hear him say that she nearly made him cry was all the convincing I need. I agreed.
Updates on our mission are to follow.
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