Kermi said:
I'd usually drop a resume in about once every six months... the store I kept applying to had a habit of only hiring friends, or people known to the current staff... I blitzed the group interview and quit my job at Kinko's for what I perceived to be greener pastures... I was given housekeeping duties to perform after closing. I was expected to spend at least an hour vacuuming, mopping dusting, facing up shelves, and tidying up the stockroom.
Woah, you just caused a shiver down my spine.
I was promised the assistant manager position at eb and quit my better hourly rate job as a checkout chick without delay. Upon starting work, I was told that there wasn't going to be an assistant manager anymore - the store wasn't big enough for that. We were opening a brand new store. So a manager was flown in from another town. This manager was eighteen and had eight months experience working as a casual. He was also drinking buddies with the area manager.
The next day we had a new hire. One of the girls who failed the first round of interviews was a waitress at the local pub. The area manager and our new manager had recognized her when they went for a beer and, drunkenly, offered her a job.
A month later, myself and another girl had the best sale stats in the business, despite our manager generally hanging out behind the counter playing his psp and 'stealing' the results of our work by logging all trade-ins and bundle sales under his name. We knew what was going on with all the games. We knew all the top titles coming out soon and what their pre order offers were. We had stock levels and advertising under control. We assumed, foolishly, that our dedication would be rewarded.
Our manager hired his new friend to be assistant manager. This friend was also his housemate and received as many hours as he wanted so they could make rent.
Our store smashed two records for trade-Ins and preorders. Our store got a cheap paper certificate in red and yellow congratulating us. Our manager got two glass trophies, a free iPhone and a free copy of fallout 3.
Oh and the company also paid for him to attend trade shows, from which he returned with tales of how awesome it was, no actual information on new products and kept all the freebies to himself.
Disgusted, I put in for a transfer to one of the city stores for when I started uni. The other girl demanded a minimum amount of hours per week or she would leave - something she got as they couldn't afford to loose her.
I was assured of a place in one of three city stores or the new one opening since I had experience with opening and excellent stats. I got no calls. I followed up with the managers who were very friendly and welcoming and told me they had heard great things about me, but weren't sure how many hours they had until the next fortnight, etc etc.
And on and on and on.
By chance, almost half a year later, I met the douche area manager who was excited to see me and asked how my new store was going. When hearing it had fallen through, he promised to sort it out and said I should give him a call some time in the next month. Yeah, right.
Last I heard, my original manager was fired for failing to reach the same level of sales and orders he had under myself and my friend's efforts. The girl had a baby and moved to a new town with the promise of a job waiting for her, assistant manager with an eye to being manager within a year. Seven months later, they finally offered her one shift a week, with the chance of more in the busy periods.
One thing we both had was the 'key holder' position. All the responsibility of setting up, closing down, balancing the tills, tracking down people's mistakes AND cleaning, none of the pay. Those jobs were after 5.
It amazes me that it is actually legal to do that in Australia.