How do I get my boss fired?

No, really.

I’m a part-time sales associate at a mall Suncoast, part of the enormous corporate monstrosity known as the Musicland Group - immediately we’re Sam Goody, Media Play, and On Cue, and in a larger sense we’re also Best Buy. At my little Suncoast we’ve got four of us part-time sales associates, two assistant managers, and a general manager. We’ll call him R. We’re all quite personally close, although the problems I’m fixing to explain have become a real issue. Over him there’s a district manager and a whole bunch of people in suits.

I dearly hope that general manager isn’t reading this. I hold just a teeny bit of personal respect for him and hope he’d recognize himself.

Anyway, conditions have been getting from bad to worse at this undeniably crappy job. I mean, we’re really all too old and too educated to work at the mall, we know that. We’re here mostly for the discount. Which is sweet. Corporate policy from above is growing increasingly intolerable, however - for a while they were going to fire me for my hair color, uniforms came in, the numbers are harder and harder to meet every month, we’re forced to try to con the customer into buying more crap, the busywork we’re forced to do is completely useless and ill conceived, etc. And there’s nothing we can do about this sort of thing, although I’ve been fiddling around drafting a letter about how some of these forms and sheets we have to fill out could be dramatically improved to be helpful. But really, there’s nothing you can do when the suits decide to crap on you. And if we had good in-store management, I could handle it.

That’s kinda the problem.

Our manager sucks. It’s gotten worse over time. There’s a neat and obvious progression - for example, the assistant managers who got hired three Novembers ago got one training module and one video (out of several we’re supposed to get). The part-timer two Novembers ago got one module, no video. I, last November, got the employee handbook to sign and that’s it.

So training’s an issue. Not that I -want- to do awful training manuals at this point, but we’re supposed to. More than that is just general incompetance - R is just not a natural leader. He’s indecisive, dosen’t want to hurt people’s feelings, is incredibly inconsistent. Offers little praise and lots of mixed messages. The dress code states that if your size is unavailable in awful Suncoast polo shirts, you can wear a black collared shirt as close to the concept shirts as possible. I’m female, 5’7, 100 pounds. The shirt they sent me is a medium. And I don’t mean a woman’s medium. If I get some better option, the male assistant manager, 5’10, 175, wants my shirts. He and I do not usually swap clothes, in a normal world. But when I asked R if I could just follow the dress code (which explicitly states that clothing shall not be too loose) and wear a black shirt, said no, that he didn’t see what the problem was. Hell, I’d think that a valuable, reliable employee’s ruffled feather-smoothing would be a good enough reason for some small action on his part, right?

Other issues: R dosen’t hold up his part of the numbers, forcing us to work extra hard to carry his dead weight. R always ignores our stated availability hours. R is often late. One of our assistant managers just quit, partly to go back to school but partly becuase he couldn’t take the crap anymore. The other assistant had quite a few reservations disappear back in April, which are important to our personal numbers, and the sales tracking sheets got “lost”. When he brought it up, there was much mumbling but no actual action on R’s part. R sharks sales from us; when we sell focus items on the floor we often find that he gets the numbers. I’m sure if we were to gather and make a list, which I keep urging us to do, there’d be a lot more here.

Something has got to be done. This used to be a great, congenial workplace where I got to work with my friends. We’ve lost one of those friends (who replaced -another- assistant who got fed up and left in March), the mood is dark, the shot is rolling after dark. Who’s willing to say something? Me, I know, both the assistant who left and the one who’s here, possibly the other associates. The other associates seem reluctant to do anything to hurt anybody’s feelings, however. Assistant-still-here and I were going to say something to the district manager when he came to visit a few weeks ago, except he cancelled his visit.

My question is, how is best to present this?

We can call the DM. However, unless we all conference-called him, that would just be one or two of us and not a real represenation of the store. Plus, the reluctant ones probably wouldn’t go in for it.

We can write a letter to the DM. This was what I was planning to do. My thought was, we could come up with a general statement of concerns we all agreed upon, sign that, and attatch personal detailed statements. Thoughts on this? How to make it most effective?

Assistant-who-stayed just called me in a tizzy because he got his biannual evaluation. He’s extremely pissed. I’ll have to see it to see if he’s justified, as he’s a little exciteable, but he wants to attatched “employee’s comments” to the back as we’re allowed to do. He wants to do our protest in this manner.

Would this be more or less effective than a letter? Should we do both? The assistant who left in March is willing to offer his statement as well. What would be the most effective format for such a thing? Should we cc it to R? Should we suggest courses of action - I mean, I just want him to leave, I don’t want to get him fired. The thing is, I -like- the guy personally, I just can’t continue to work like that. Please, somebody give a hand. We’re in a quandary here, a really uncomfortable place with a whole lot of personal feelings mixed up, and my choices are to watch everybody I like quit or involve myself in a whole different ugly thing.

Welcome to the wonderful world of crappy retail jobs. My situation’s pretty much the same, so I’m interested in hearing if anyone has any good ideas.

I think you should all together talk to R. Ask for a staff meeting, maybe 45 minutes before the store opens. Don’t do it after closing because everybody wants to get the hell out of there. Be very professional. Do not attack him personally, but tell him you have concerns about how things are done.

It is very important that you make suggestions for improvement. If you say you have a problem but don’t offer a solution you’re just complaining.

Give him the opportunity to fix things…say two to three months. If things don’t improve, then go above his head.

We did this with my boss during a very stressful software switchover. She was stressed, we were stressed, nobody was talking to each other, rumors were flying everywhere. Things improved greatly after our talk and have stayed improved.

Now, granted, I don’t work in retail. But if you are a part time sales associates and things still don’t improve, I say cut your losses and find another job. It’s not worth it.

I’m not in retail (at least, not in the public side of retail) but I’ll point out a couple of things.

Do not attach your grievances to the employee review. It will look like revenge for a poor review, rather than justifiable complaints. But the idea of writing down your problems and having everyone sign it is good. Just be sure that all of your complaints are presented as being detrimental to the company, not to you personally. It really sounds like this company doesn’t really care about your working conditions, but they will want people to be following company policy.

However you are effectively trying to get this guy either fired or busted down to a regular employee. There isn’t really anything else you can hope for from the company.

Given the performance of the Musicland group in general, it may not be a problem much longer. Best Buy may be closing it all down or selling it. Or doing a major restructuring of the whole darn thing. Check out yahoo’s finance site.

And that may be your manager’s issue. He may not really feel motivated to do a good job.

Don’t get the guy fired. If you don’t like it there, leave. Retail jobs - even ones with sweet employee discounts - shouldn’t be too hard to find. Transfer to a Best Buy - perferably a “flagship” store. The managers there are on track for corporate jobs - suit jobs, but they really don’t want to miss their chance of getting to HQ.

My advice?

Stay out of it.

I have seen bad, bad things happen to people who go around screwing with other people’s jobs. Karma, man.

It’s a mall job. Let it go. Find another job if you’re so unhappy but don’t screw with someone else’s bread and butter.

Try to convert all your angst and energy over this typically stinky situation into finding a better gig. It sounds like you have been at the same store for at least 3 years–which is an accomplishment that other, better employers will recognize immediately.

In interviews, don’t bring up your feelings about management!! Instead focus on new opportunities and perhaps concerns for the future of the larger company. Sounds corny but you are telling potential employers what they want to hear.

Gotta agree with Geoduck. If you go on about management problems in the interview, the interviewer automatically labels you as “not a team player” and wonders if you’ll be disgruntled from the job you’re interviewing for.

What’s your real world goal? Keep your job but get a better mananger? Probably isn’t going to pan out that way even if you have every reason to get him fired. If he goes corporate management they (or the new manager) may well just clean house and get a new staff.

I’m with the “quit and get a better job” contingent in this situation. I really don’t see much upside for you in this. Get out.

The problem with the meeting idea is that most likely, you will either be seen as a threat, and be forced out my some means, or else it will become your job to do all those little things your manager won’t, while he will take full credit for it. I would look for another job.