Store Discord May Result in Employee Walk-Out

[M A V I C]

guitarist wrote:
Thanks for the comments M A V I C, good discussion...

Thanks. I'm not trying to shove anything down anyone's throat (though some might like to suggest I am.) I'm just trying to have a discussion. I do tend to believe people should exercise personal responsibility and especially recognize how they choices they make impact their circumstances. Someone once posted on here if I'm like this in real life - yes, I am. No, I don't have a lot of friends who I sit around and talk sports and weather with, but I do have quite a few that I have much deeper conversations and debates with. I'm the type of person who does not think an argument is inherently negative. It's just a discussion of two opposing viewpoints.

My use of the word "abuse" and "abusive" has been rejected for overstatement. An employee can feel mistreated, disrespected, or abused in the workplace without it necessarily reaching the level of a Dictionary definition of criminal abuse, or illegal conduct.

It wasn't just your use of the word. It's also the employee's use of the word and claims that the Apple store has violated labor laws. If they're saying Apple did something illegal, they should give an example or proof. In those comments, the best any employee could come up with were the two I gave.

To look at this picture fairly, I think, it's more about the climate of unease and distrust between management and staff at this Apple Store, not so much about specific acts or complaints or grievance--though those are understandably how alleged misconduct is measured--it's how the atmosphere at this store got here in the first place. The lack of communication, an atmosphere of grief between managers and staffers. This, we are to believe, is an employee problem? It's the employees fault? It may be possible, but that's certainly a hard sell.

How long have you lived in this area? That area has a real problem with an "entitlement" attitude. Many believe they should get paid more and do less. I graduated from high school in that area. I can't believe what's come of my graduating class. So when I read a manger's statement that the kids they hire don't want to work hard and complain about wages, it sounds much more believable than employees claiming they were abused.

If an employee thinks the job they took doesn't pay enough, who's problem is that? If the employee is disgruntled that better performing employees get the promotions, who's problem is that?

I'm sure the managers don't help the situation. Honestly, finding managers that can deal with those sorts of attitudes is rather tough, and likely the ARS doesn't pay enough to attract those types of managers.

I could summarize by saying, it looked to me like it would function better with a different set of managers, not a continually-replaceable set of new employees.

And that could very well be the case. I'm just saying based on the complaints the employees listed, that probably wouldn't be the case. (Unless, of course, the managers started giving promotions to the under-performing employees - which would probably create a whole new problem or two.)

It's also understandable that M A V I C's instinct would be to be skeptical of the employee complaints. And more inclined to be supportive of the managers.

Actually my initial take was the opposite. But after reading some of the details and language used, I grew skeptical. For example, I am skeptical they were abused. If they exaggerated with that language, then I bet that's not the only place.

M A V I C, your legitimate bias against young Apple Store staff members is well established, you've gotten disappointing, ill-informed, and unhelpful service from the Apple Store staff. Your view of the average Apple Store employee is pretty dim. I'd suggest the conclusions you've drawn are somewhat colored by this grievance. Not tainted by it, but certainly influenced by it.

I'd actually say the opposite. Management hired the clueless employees, they also made it so Mac support only has one long line. So I fault the managers for that. I just bring it up to point out how replaceable ARS employees are.

There is one example where I do fault the employees - when I told them exactly how to reproduce a problem and they wrote it down. When I came back, they said they couldn't reproduce the problem and proceeded to tell me all the methods they tried. When I asked if they tried the steps I told them, they said no.

Fair point, but again, I'm less concerned about "the problems cited", this isn't an analysis of a textbook labor-management case study, though from the outside, I can see how that's all there is to go on. It's the communication f the workplace, management/staff relationship in general, that concerns me. If communication was good (if management was good) in the first place, it wouldn't have unraveled to this point. It's bogus to blame employees for a poor working climate. It's management's obligation to set the tone and maintain a well-functioning workplace.

I go back to what I said above about the employees not sound that reasonable and the skill level required to handle that by management is probably not cost effective for Apple.

Yes, but you'd have fun selling Apple gear, M A V I C.

Reading the employees descriptions on how they get promoted, no, I don't think I would. Like I said, I suck at sales. I'd probably become a disgruntled employee. If I could just sit back and show people cool tricks, fix problems... I would. But if I've got to constantly be thinking "how can I get this person to buy MobileMe when I would never use it?" then I don't think it'd work for me. I'm the type of person that if asked if the i5 iMac performs as well as an i5 PC, I'd have to say Apple used slow RAM. That doesn't work for sales.

I did work a retail sales job once. I sucked at it. It wasn't for years I understood why. Now I know it's because I buy stuff based off of facts, and most people don't. So I'd present facts and expect them to sell themselves.

On a different note, I'd add... if the economy were better, the sales goals reach themselves without pressuring low-level employees to take the heat for cautious spending by burdened consumers. When I was there, before the economic meltdown, iPods and iMacs jumped off the shelves, it was Apple's best year ever, selling Apple products was virtually effortless. I achieved goals easily, not because I'm any good at sales. Though Apple is performing better than its competitors, it's still a dark season for holiday shopping in general. Could this Apple Store standoff merely be a symptom of problems with sales goals and retail unease in general? Perhaps.

Aaaaaahhhh. Bad economy = victim story. A business can't have sales employees citing external factors. Yes, they have an impact but I've seen companies fire entire sales divisions when/if this happens. A company is likely to push even harder in the bad economy. But citing excuses is not what management wants to hear from sales.