Testimonial #15: Anthony, The canadian employee
I work at the new Best Buy in Toronto, #931 (so-called Leaside Legends). When I started working there, I was very naive as to the company practices; needless to say employment looked inviting, what with all the management and supervisors putting on gimmicks all weekend (opening weekend).
After some time, myself along with some of my fellow employees caught on to some developments that were infuriating us. Here's as long as list I can make without droning on, but I can provide added information upon request. Here goes:
1.I don't know about the other stores in my district, but my store was founed on Home Depot. See, the GM was a former Home Depot manager, and got to hire a bunch of his buddies to work as management and supervisors in my store. Of the 18 manager/supervisor spots, 11 belonged to former Home Depot employees, all working under the GM. Turnover since then has been astounding. Said GM was fired, then told to resign in order to save face. Before that, we lost 1 operations manager and one other manager, as well as our first sales manager. After the GM left, his best friend in the store resigns, citing not spending enough time with his newborn daughter (he by the way worked with the first GM at Home Depot.
2.Other staff who were ex-Home Depot got very preferential treatment, beginning with pay. A part-timer in my department showed me her paystub and I saw her wage at $11.70 (all figures Canadian dollars). I am a full-timer and I make $9.62. You can automatically see my disdain. Furthermore, another ex-HD employee is a full-timer with me. He used to work in Car Audio and was a frequent "late for work and no-show". What saved him was his supervisor (a non ex-HD) who felt sorry for him, and told the then GM to keep him. So he gets a transfer to my department (Media) and is automatically making 4 dollars more than me per hour, and more than both my seniors (he had the good sense of disclosing his wage in front of his fellow employees). After the first supervisor was fired, one of my seniors was promised the job by one of the managers. Instead a senior in Merchandising was promised the supervisor job by the GM before the first supervisor was fired. Needless to say, he was ex-HD, and worked directly under the then GM. So my department is run by my supervisor and his full-time buddy who get more say than my both my supervisors because they worked at Home Depot and can "merch like champions". Both myself and both my seniors would gladly do much harder work under a new supervisor, one who actually cares about us and our work. For now we work under a 21 year old who takes credit for all the hard work his underlings do (I am 23 years old if you're wondering). Oh yeah that guy who makes more than my seniors? Since he's been transferred, he's been late 8 times, a no show once, and has received only one written warning. He later commented "they should lighten up because of all the hard work I do". Maybe I'm being naive, but attendance as part of hard work was something I learned 15 years ago.
3.SOP. Ah the operating platform riddled with flaws, yet unchangeable after only months of problems. I've finally learned that SOP is based not on what is efficient and what works, SOP is based in Best Buy culture as the "Best Buy Way". Even if it doesn't work, it must work because it's the best buy way. Example. I'm at HMV one day, and I'm looking for a dvd, I don't find it so an employee there looks in a drawer underneath and finds it for me! Why can't best buy have drawers? Because it's not SOP. Sure it makes sense to have priced and ready-to-go product underneath the racks (like the rest of the merchandise in the store ie downstock), but music and dvd's? No. See best buy has their way. Receive way too much merch for media to handle, price it all, leave it on top of a HUGE table, then get part timers to stock it and not even take the time to stock it properly. Oh, if a task is not part of someone's DTL (daily task list), the merch sits there for days, and if a customer sees that we have a certain movie or dvd in an inventory scan, we have to wade through an entire table of product in order to find it (which once took 45 minutes b/c the customer had a kid crying and would not leave until it was sold to them). In short, the way the store operates is riddled with flaws, at the cost of Best Buy having their method exist for the company's pleasure.
4.Management in my store is ultimately taking my store down the shitter. I like the idea of a non-commission sales-force, but there is one big flaw to it and Best Buy uses it to a fault. I may not work on commission, but I am heavily encouraged to sell extra items when I am at work. This takes the form of PRP's and PSP's as management's add-on's to makes us try and sell. I make no extra money on items I sell, so the store in general (ie managers) take credit for it. All management cares about is being #1 in the district, that's it, that's all. Whenever a manager needs me to talk to customers about gaming consoles, I never leave without hearing something along the lines of "and attach that PRP as well". My supervisor is even saying that (by the way I had to train my department, including my supervisor on psp/prp training) now. I mention psp/prp once, and if the customer will not take it I stop trying. The opinion of many people I work with is the following: management should be happy enough to have customers patronize from Best Buy in the first place; they should not have to make us process sales quickly so we can attach psp/prp to someone else. I've even heard my sales manager say "the number one goal of this store is to be profitable". Maybe it was how I was brought up, but if a store can not be profitable by simply making customers repeat buyers, profitability should not come at the cost of employees coming across as commissioned sales people. No matter how many times an employee says they are not working on commission, it does not negate the sales practices management forces its employees to adhere to. If a PRP/PSP can't literally sell itself, it's not worth putting all the energy into. Inform the customer of the benefits; if they still don't take, tough shit for the managers. What attracts a customer to product is the price; if $70 for a replacement plan is too much in the opinion of a customer buying an XBOX, that's their opinion and their risk to take should the worst happen to the XBOX. Perhaps installment plans for psp/prp would help sell them more, but if it's not the Best Buy way, it will never happen.
5.Generally un-professional practices I've noticed in my store make it harder for me to do a serious job when I go into work. Here are a couple of practices management has made their associates take part in. First, whenever a psp/prp is sold in the store, whoever is ringing the purchase through is to go on intercom and say "ladies and gentlemen, Larry has entered the building", to which all the other staff members give the "clap" (applauding in the middle of their shift). Of course started by our sales manager, this is a store practice I have yet to participate in, solely because I believe in acting professionally while on the job. Furthermore, if customers ever found out what that meant it would do more damage than anyone would think of. I mean, I could manage all the gimmicky stuff during store kickoff (head office treating employees like kids, etc.), but blatantly clapping like seals because a customer has bought into a sales pitch is just insulting.
I've outlined only a few of the many problems I've faced during my employment with Best Buy. I work with a supervisor who cares little for his underlings who are not ex-Home Depot, a management team who above all else would rather fire those people not making the store profitable, and with all that in mind, trying to do my job knowing that pay inequities exist all over my department, as well as the rest of my store.
From my time with working at Best Buy, I can with all my honesty say the following:
"I would work any other job, for more hours, for less pay...if only I was sure I could sit down while doing it".
That sums up my on-going employment with Best Buy.
Please add this to the tally of anti-Best Buy sentiment on your site, so those not employed can know of what really goes on.
Sorry but I forgot to add this tiny tidbit of information in:
Our sales manager has on many occasions attempted to deny confirmation of a staff purchase if that employee does not purchase a psp/prp on a product. I'm sure he has succeeded on employees who really need their job, but there have been a couple of times he has made himself look like a jackass, trying to exercise authority that does not exist.