Was I a sucky manager?

[king4aday]

Hey everyone:

I had a situation come up yesterday that ended poorly with my employee yesterday and it has really bothered me ever since. I mean its 2am and I have to be to work at 8am...and Im awake because this is bothering me so much.

At the store where I am an assitant manager currently our general manager has just been transferred to another store, which means I am now the most senior manager in the store, and we currently have no store manager. I am in the running for store manager, but our district manager wants to talk to me on Wednesday and Thursday about it. So that has also been stressing me out.

ANYWAYS enough back info. The following interaction between myself and my co-worker happened today. I was on 1 register checking out a customer while she was on the other register trying to check out a customer. After I was done checking out my customer I noticed she was having a problem with the register so I walked the 2 steps to see what the problem was and the following interaction took place:

ME:
CW: Co-worker

Me: whats going on?
CW: Im trying to enter the 10% off for the frequent buyers club card, and she has a coupon for $10 off a purchase of $75 or more. It wont let me do it.
Me: well...you can only do one transaction discount per transaction, otherwise you are double discounting.
CW: so what....what difference does that make?
Me: its against store policy
CW: well that policy is stupid
Me: well...its been in place ever since I started working here almost a year ago.
CW: well show me how to do 2 discounts I promised this lady 2 discounts.
Me: you cant do it...if you try to do 2 transaction discounts it will just replace the previous one.
CW: well..cant you override the prices to reflect a $10 transaction discount?
Me: Uhm...I could...but Im not going to...I like my job too much.
CW: but I NEED to give her both discounts it was a promise.
Me: and its a promise which neither you or I can keep.

now during this time the customer is standing directly across the counter from us. She has basically stated like 5 times during this conversation that she doesnt mind getting the better of the 2 discounts and she understands that we cant double discount.

after the customer left, my co-worker came up to me half way across the store where I was stocking some t-shirts and said to me:

CW: you know you REALLY put me in an awkward position and embarrased me.
ME: actually you put yourself in an awkward position promising something that you couldnt deliver.
CW: Well I dont appreciate you not standing by your employees and making them look like fools.
ME: Ok..this has gone on long enough. Remember...I am the manager of this store, and I am ultimately responsible for what happens in this store. With that said...dont EVER argue with me in front of a customer again. If you have a disagreement with a decision I make, feel free to talk to me about it in the office away from customers. If that ever happens again, you are going home immediately.
CW: well if T (our district manager) talks to me about you becoming store manager Im going to tell her it will be a cold day in hell before I will work for you as store manager because you dont stand by your employees.

and she left it at that. Now my question is...was I a sucky manager? Should I have stood by her and changed prices to reflect a $10 discount when it is something that I clearly CANT do according to policy because she promised it to a customer? Like I said. This is just totally bugging me for some reason.

Thanks for any responses. Mod's..Im sorry if this is in the wrong place...move it if you need to. Thanks!

[marasbaras]

If you have accurated described the situation, you did the right thing. Remained cool and professional in front of the customer.

Your CW (subordinate!) promised something they should not have promised. It's their own fault that they were embarrassed. Their problem, not yours.

And, you said the right thing to them regarding arguing in front of a customer. Just _not_ done. Ever. (life-and-death situations excepted)

If this moron quits because you become store manager, good riddance.

[daleduke17]

To me, you did the right thing.

The verbal owning made it even better. I would have probably said the same exact thing.

[marasbaras]

People really need to learn that when you're at work, it's NOT all about you. Unless you own the business, you are a cog in the machine and that machine doesn't care about your feelings.

If you screw up, your embarrassment is your own problem. The business should not suffer because of your mistake.

[iradney]

You handled it well. If you had gone off at the employee and said they're a dumb shit etc etc, you'd be sucky. If it's against store policy, it's against store policy. Especially if the buck stops with you.

[crazylegs]

I cannot see where there is an issue in what you have done, as you've pointed out you are the most senior member of staff in that store, and your desicion is final.

If you subordinate doesn't like it they can go huff on some paint and I'm sure they know where the front door is.

[Hyndis]

I'm curious though as to why the machines don't allow a double discount.

At the store I work at, a club card gets you access to hefty discounts, usually much greater than 10%. Ontop of that there are other coupons which can be used, and then even ontop of that are occasional $10 coupons given out for various promotions. The most recent one was a coupon that gave $10 off if you spent $50 or more, so a $50 purchase (which was probably more like $75 without the card) and the coupon turns it into a $40 purchase. Massive savings all around.

Of course, a lot of this stuff is manually input, and override scan cards are required for the checker to do this, but override scan cards are usually quite plentiful, and the lines are processed quickly and (mostly) efficiently.

[Eireann]

Your coworker has a serious attitude problem. She was embarrassed that she promised something she couldn't deliver, so she tried to make it your fault. Lucky for both of you that the customer was so understanding; the whole thing could have blown up on you because your coworker didn't know what the hell she was talking about. You simply pointed out an error and worked around it; you didn't insult, berate, or belittle her. "Standing by your employees" means backing them up when they tell a customer that they can't do something because it's illegal or against store policy; it also means backing them up when the customer goes ballistic on them for doing nothing wrong. It does NOT mean helping them to make a mistake that will cost the store money.

[nomorecarts]

the most important thing is that the customer was fine with your decision, any time the customer is willing to give you more money, and still be satisfied, take it. your subordinate was just trying to push you around if you described everything correctly. it sounds like if anything you've been too lenient to your employees(or at least this one) in the past that they would even try that. If the customer was looking upset, but not doing it in a sucky way, they will spend enough that you get the $10(or 10%) back, even with both discounts you still would have profited from the transaction assuming your markup is over 23.3%, and the customer would come back, making that an example of when policy should be overridden, but since the customer was fine with it, that means they'll probably be back to make another transaction that would qualify, and enforcing the policy is the right move

your co worker was very sucky though, I'm 17, I still work for my first employer, and even I know you don't argue with your manager in front of customers. I also know there will be times I disagree with the manager, but they are the manager, whatever they say is right(on approving discounts), because it's their decision. I do not make promises I can't keep either, this is all common sense. I bet if you would have reamed her out for arguing before the customer left she would have filed a complaint with the DM, and you would have gotten written up and screwed out of the SM job, and the only difference is you're the manager

[Applerod]

Sounds like both of you could have done a bit better. You should have directed your comments towards the customer and not your co-worker, but your co-worker shouldn't have protested store policy. Knowing your CW had accidentally promised the customer a better deal than she could give you could have taken the opportunity to inform both the customer and CW of the policy, and apologized to the customer--if necessary--for the inconvenience/misunderstanding on behalf of the business. Good managers are calm, diplomatic, impersonal, considerate, and knowledgeable.
They are also adept at problem-solving, and with regards to the 'incident' it sounds like the problem had been solved after the first time the customer indicated she understood. As a manager, you also have to be (or act) wiser and more mature than the rest of the staff. If a member of staff tosses out a remark like: "well that's a stupid policy," don't dignify such a comment with a response--particularly in front of a customer. Pick your battles.
I don't think this has to be anything beyond a learning experience. There's no substitute for experience. Think about how you might have handled the situation differently, or better.

[Arcade Man D]

If a member of staff tosses out a remark like: "well that's a stupid policy,"

As soon as he said that, he lost all right to claim ignorance on the policy, and proved he intended to directly violate the policy. As such, in my opinion, there was no suck on the part of the OP. She couldn't pull him to the back room because he was on a register mid-transaction, and it needed to be cleared right then and there.

Also, props to the customer in the story for being understanding and not trying to hold the employee to a promise he shouldn't have made!

[Becks]

You weren't sucky.

And I must give mad props to the understanding customer.

[king4aday]

Thanks for all the comments. Yesterday at work I talked to my employee again, and she apologized and blamed everything on the customer (I never saw this and I was at the cash wrap stand the entire time the customer was there). I didnt push the issue or anything I just reminded her that we dont do double discounting.

There has been a question as to why we dont do double discounting. The company I work for is a national company and they have explained it to us that there are like 1 or 2 states where double discounting is illegal and since it is illegal in those states we will not do it in any of our corporation. That way we dont have certain policies for 1 store that we dont have for others. We have this with safety standards and stuff to. We base our OSHA safety standards and stuff based on the strictist law in the country.

[bigpedaler]

K4aD, you did just the right thing; I hope you get the promotion. You deserve it! If you worked for a company I owned, you'd have the job, based just on this.

Applerod, sorry -- you tripped.

BTW, that cashier needs a day off to decide whether he/she wants to keep the job.

[Jester]

Now my question is...was I a sucky manager? Should I have stood by her and changed prices to reflect a $10 discount when it is something that I clearly CANT do according to policy because she promised it to a customer?

In situations like this, I like to side with the employee, as I have been embarrassed horribly by managers not backing me up when I needed them to.

But in this situation, I can't. She was, as she herself alluded to, a fool. Not only for not knowing the policy, but then for questioning both the policy AND you in front of the customer. You, on the other hand, were calm, rational, diplomatic, and professional. There is a large difference between backing up your employee and cutting your own throat. This was not a situation that called for you to back up your employee's mistake. And it was, in fact, a mistake.

If you ask me, you shouldn't lose any sleep over this at all.

I'm curious though as to why the machines don't allow a double discount.

At the store I work at...

I think king4aday explained it quite well. To wit, it's against store policy, period. That policy was set by people much higher up the food chain than he is, so it's not his call to violate it for an uninformed and stubborn employee.

Bringing up what YOUR store can or cannot do is irrelevant to this discussion. In King's store, the registers CANNOT do this, and it is AGAINST store policy. Period, end of story, good night, thanks for coming, drive safely.

Sounds like both of you could have done a bit better.

While King could have done a little better (addressing the customer as well, if he did not), the onus of this whole situation falls squarely on the shoulders of the dippy employee. He could have done slightly better. She could have done a truckload better. I don't think she should necessarily be fired (though I have worked with some managers who would have fired her), but I do think she was out of line and needs to be re-educated on both the policy and the manager's authority over said policy and over her, not to mention being educated on her attitude, which, to put it bluntly, sucks the big wazoo.