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  • More Adventures of Lobotomy Girl

    or the importance of following up as the manager on duty...

    One day, Lobotomy girl was asked to fill the bestsellers by Luna. Luna goes in back, as there are no customers other than the regulars sleeping in the chairs - to do paperwork.

    About an hour later - Luna comes out to the sales floor to check on everything. Here's where the fun begins.

    I walked by the bestsellers and saw Lobotomy Girl sitting on the floor with stacks of books all around her. The shelves on both the Fiction, Non-fiction and paperback bestsellers were empty save for maybe 2 books on each.

    = what I did.

    You see, the bookstore had this nifty scanner thing. You scanned a book and it told you how many you had, where it goes, and how many you were modeled for. Model means that the book has been around and the buyers never want you to have below that certain number at any time. Say if a book was modeled for 3, that meant as soon as you had one left in stock - the buyers would automatically buy 2 more to bring you back up to three.

    Now, new releases don't have models. They haven't been around long enough to develop a sales history. This is basic training for a bookseller, but Lobotomy Girl wasn't just any bookseller.

    She took it upon herself to start scanning the bestsellers. Being that they were all mostly brand new, and didn't have models, she decided they should go back to the publishers so she started pulling them off the shelves to be returned. Yes. The best sellers. Returned. Big front of store 12 foot long bookcaes - naked.

    The most horrible part is that she had gotten to the mass market bestsellers - which get the front covers ripped off to be returned. She had stripped almost half the bookcase by the time I found her.

    The hardcovers and trade paperbacks we put back on the shelf (after a long arguement about WHY we don't return the BESTSELLERS) but there was nothing saving those poor mass markets.

    She did the same thing to the special orders. I told her to make phone calls for the ones that had been sitting there. She went through and scanned them, determined that they weren't modeled (no kidding! That's why they were special orders - because we didn't CARRY them) and sent them all back. Even the ones that had just arrived and were just called. Luckily, the receiving manager called me because he recognized some of the titles on the returns shelves. He told me he was sure he had just received them as special orders. This is how I found out she was returning those.

    I had to tell her she was not allowed to return anything without permission from a manager first. Oh, that was fun.

    From then on, my in-store cell phone would ring through her entire shift.
    LG: Luna! It's LG!
    Luna: Yes, what now?
    LG: This book says we have 5* on hand, and we're modeled for one* can I return it?
    Luna: How many have we sold in the past month?
    LG: Seven*! (*Numbers made up as I can't remember things that well)
    Luna: No, you can't return them. They are selling too fast.
    LG: Okay. Just wanted to make sure.

    ring...ring..

    LG: Luna! I found another one!
    Luna: LG, aren't you covering the music department break?
    LG: I am! But I'm dashing out when no one is here and scanning one book at a time!
    Luna: Stay in there!.. Please...just..stay.
    LG: But there's no one....
    Luna: *click*

    Now the conversations aren't exact word for word but you get the idea. Finally, I forbid her to even have the damn scanner. It didn't last long b/c the old manager promoted her to sales lead, and she was required to maintain a section of the store so she needed one. She called me for every book. Every...single..book. I couldn't say she didn't follow directions b/c I told her to call a manager for returns approval.
    If you are thinking to yourself, "Hmmm, should I post this?" it should probably go HERE.

  • #2
    Quoth Luna View Post
    ...
    The most horrible part is that she had gotten to the mass market bestsellers - which get the front covers ripped off to be returned. She had stripped almost half the bookcase by the time I found her.

    The hardcovers and trade paperbacks we put back on the shelf (after a long arguement about WHY we don't return the BESTSELLERS) but there was nothing saving those poor mass markets.
    ...
    Now the conversations aren't exact word for word but you get the idea. Finally, I forbid her to even have the damn scanner. It didn't last long b/c the old manager promoted her to sales lead, and she was required to maintain a section of the store so she needed one. She called me for every book. Every...single..book. I couldn't say she didn't follow directions b/c I told her to call a manager for returns approval.
    She messes up bad enough that the store actually looses money (books being returned/unsellable as the covers are ripped off) and some idiot promotes her to Sales Lead?? Logic? Somewhere? What? If she can't do her job, why the heck is she in a position like that?

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    • #3
      In the bookstore I worked at, it wasn't general knowledge that they got stripped; the only reason I knew this is because I got enlisted to help our returns guy during a particularly heavy month of cancels.
      "I am quite confident that I do exist."
      "Excuse me, I'm making perfect sense. You're just not keeping up." The Doctor

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      • #4
        Logic? From upper-management? Shit, no! The biggest idiot always gets promoted/never gets fired...no matter what horrible things they do. They seem immune to repercussions...I'll never understand it and it's happened at just about every job I've ever had....(and has caused me to leave more than one; I get tired of having to answer to morons- or clean up after them )
        I will not shove “it” up my backside. I do not know what “it” is, but in my many years on this earth I have figured out that that particular port hole is best reserved for emergency exit only. -GK

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        • #5
          She causes that much trouble and gets *promoted*? Yeesh, I'm in the wrong business. Where is this place? I wanna work there! LOL
          I question my sanity every day. Sometimes it answers.

          Comment


          • #6
            Quoth CanadaGirl View Post
            She messes up bad enough that the store actually looses money (books being returned/unsellable as the covers are ripped off) and some idiot promotes her to Sales Lead?? Logic? Somewhere? What? If she can't do her job, why the heck is she in a position like that?
            Two words for you: Dilbert Principle.

            The gist of the Dilbert Principle is that the most moronic employees get promoted to management because this removes them from the productive flow and theoretically they can do less damage to the organization.

            I'm sure Scott Adams came up with it tongue-in-cheek, but stories such as this one tell me it's real.
            Knowledge is power. Power corrupts. Study hard. Be evil.

            "I never said I wasn't a horrible person."--Me, almost daily

            Comment


            • #7
              Quoth Severen13 View Post
              She causes that much trouble and gets *promoted*? Yeesh, I'm in the wrong business. Where is this place? I wanna work there! LOL
              Me, too. Holy orange. Oh, wait, I'm probably too competent.
              Unseen but seeing
              oh dear, now they're masquerading as sane-KiaKat
              There isn't enough interpretive dance in the workplace these days-Irv
              3rd shift needs love, too
              RIP, mo bhrionglóid

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