Every morning when I come to work, I spend $1.50 for a cinnamon raisin bagel. I mean, the coffee shop is right next door, and the smell of warm bagels and coffee somehow distracts me from getting to work on time. Two minutes late plus a bagel to eat makes the other 58 minutes of the first hour more enjoyable, unless your bagel is burnt and you're not having a great week.
A few weeks ago, my district manager came into town, and she was aware that I was seeking a promotion. Im a Sales Manager at Aldo - fun job, I get to dress up and sell expensive ass shoes. (They're not really that expensive, some people are just cheap. The discount is amazing btw!) Anywho, if you follow me on Snapchat, you know how I worked almost 70 hours in one week with two 16 hour shifts in addition to my regular 40 hours that I'm used to. I blame Aldo for me breaking my Lent sacrifice because I definitely had a drink (or a few) that weekend. Thats not the point here, I worked my ass off and had to releive my stress.
An old store was reopening, so my Store Manager was in the process of transferring to the new location, leaving my store without a Store Manager or Assistant Manager. My first thought was to transfer stores too so my 15 minute commute would decrease to 9 minutes to the new store, orrrrr I could just get promoted at my current store since I was working full time, so I put my big boy shoes on (get it, I work in a shoe store lol) and spoke up, and had an interview scheduled with my DM. I even mentioned how I managed a CVS store full time for three years while I was in undergrad. The interviews (yes, both interviews) went well, but two days later, one of my friends walks into the store to tell me that she had just got an offer to be the Assistant Manager..... yeah, I was pissed. However, two days after she started working, we get a new District Manager, who notices that we don't have a store manager and hints that both of us will get promoted to Store Manager and me to Assistant Manager. Cool..so I thought.
The main thing the company looks for to promote leads and managers are the percentage of your sales that are shoe care and items per transaction. Mind you, I've ranked the highest in my store for the past month, averaging over $73 per hour, bringing in almost 60% of the sales each week for the past two months.... but my shoe care is at 2.6% and the goal is 3.5%. No one wants shoe insoles or shoe cleaner that damn bad, because I would've sold more if they were. Needless to say, the entire store as a whole doesn't reach 3%, so how am I to excel if overall the whole team doesn't, thats not an excuse tho.
My thing is, if I'm doing above and beyond what I'm expected to do because we're 1) short on staff and 2) literally working 6 days a week and not allowed to take a vacation, and 3) you repeatedly notice and acknowledge me for it, then I should get paid for the work that I am doing. What makes it even worse is that overtime the DM calls my store manager, she mentions my promotion and the DM speaks on it as if it's about to happen. Y'all, its been a month. I was offered two salaried sales positions, I do not have a high interest in sales. I'm more interested on the business management and operational perspective. I wasn't sure of the best way to ask about the promotion again, so I gladly started taking my MacBook to work each day to occupy myself on Indeed, LinkedIn, Monster, USAJobs, and every other career website to begin my job search again.... while on the clock. I still get my job done, and still the top sales lead at the store, so a little paid down time won't hurt anyone, and I could honestly care less. This is where the tough part comes into play, do I need to find my own replacement before I provide a two week notice, or do I just focus on myself and do what's best for me? I'm sure I'll figure it out and make the best decision when its the right time. I'll be sure to post about my next decision as well, I mean, that's what the blog is for... right?!