Quote:
Originally Posted by masraum
Not quite the same, but similar. I worked at a retail auto parts store years ago. I pretty quickly worked my way up to managing a store. As a manager, you got a base salary, a monthly bonus based on controllable expenses, and a monthly sales bonus. When they gave me a store, the previous manager had let the inventory drop down to the point where an inventory only showed that we had about 70% of the part numbers in stock that were available. Monthly sales were $16k. My first month they gave me a goal of $18K, I hit 19k. Second month they gave me a goal of $20k, and I hit that one too. Third month they gave me a goal of $22k. I hit that one too. The following month they gave me a goal of something like $28k. I was no where near that. They left the goal there for a couple of months and then dropped it back down to something attainable for 2 months, then raised it back up. It quickly became obvious to me that the "monthly goals" were crap and were a way of controlling compensation. They'd let you get a few and then make sure you didn't get a few, rinse, repeat.
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You should talk to my wife - about 20 years experience in retail management before she got out and into hotels.
Retail "management goals" are a complete joke. They love to compare everything to "LY" (or "last year") numbers, modified by some (often arbitrary) percentage - they do this for sales, shrink reduction, payroll, blah blah blah - all kinds of silly metrics. The dirty little secret is quite often (depends on the company, but it's the rule rather than the exception) - the manager has
NO zip, zero, nada control over things that would allow him or her to make those numbers - they're essentially "along for the ride" on company policies decided by other people - advertising campaigns, PRICING, merchandise selection and quantity, store layout, marketing efforts, even payroll hours and rates. Therefore there's absolutely NO WAY the retail manager can control or even influence the numbers by which they're being evaluated. It's the biggest B.S. joke in the world. One of the reasons my wife got so sick of it.
When times are good and things just happen to come out okay and you hit your "LY" numbers, they give you a pat on the back and ask you why you didn't exceed them by more. When things are bad and things don't come out well in terms of the "LY" metrics, they often sack the manager to "send a message" or to "provide an example". Completely stupid and ineffective. All it does is encourage turnover and setting up more and more people for disappointment over time - and naturally destroys company morale.
Idiotic industry. I'm absolutely thrilled she finally saw the light (after her last layoff, which was completely ridiculous - new DM looking to "shake things up" even though her numbers were spectacular) and decided to say "forget it" and went into another field. Retail is a joke. Don't waste your time.