I'm getting worried

[Bella_Vixen]

I'm assistant manager at my store. People don't stay assistant managers very long in my company--they tend to become managers in their own right within a few months.

My boss is retiring soon. VERY soon.

Why am I worried? My boss has been with the company for almost 3 years...and he's the 2nd longest tenured manager out of 30+ stores.

[draftermatt]

Are you worried about getting promoted or getting passed over for it?

If it's actually getting promoted I know the feeling. My boss has been in the business for 40+ years, and I'll eventually take his place. (He's already 66).

But don't worry too much about it. Hopefully no one will expect you to be him right away. And the ones that do are just flat out morons anyway.

And I'm sure you'll be ready for it more than you think. You made Asst. Manager already, you must be doing something right.

[Becks]

First of all, you were going to tell me this WHEN????

OK, now that that's out of the way...

I'm sure you'll do fine. You rock as an AM.

It's kinda sad, though, that he's 2nd longest tenured. Scary, actually. indeed.

I have faith in you, big sis!!!!!!!

[BusBus]

I once worked for a store where I ended up holding the second longest tenure there. I worked there for seven months.

Can you tell it was a sucktacular place to work?

[Sofar]

When Boss-man set up my user account on our only cash-register he never took away my admin privileges, so I've been doing stuff like looking through the old user logs, and apparently in the year and a half the place has been open the place has had 34 employees. That's the three cooks whom each have worked here since we opened plus 31 cashiers.* Each user profile has a neat little hire date and term date filled out. Never have more than two cashiers been employed at the same time, many cashiers haven't lasted longer than two weeks. Six weeks ago I became the second longest tenured cashier there at three months, my coworker is the longest tenured at seven months.

Seeing as I've been here this long, it doesn't make me feel frightened as much as it indicates chronic poor judgement of character on the part of my boss.

*I'm not entirely sure what to call my occupation, I cashier but I also cook, bus tables, and clean, usually in that order.

[wagegoth]

Seeing as I've been here this long, it doesn't make me feel frightened as much as it indicates chronic poor judgement of character on the part of my boss.

My parents bought a small business for my sister and her husband. Then, my sister became pregnant and they didn't feel they could run the business. My parents decided to sell it. In the meantime, my dad is home running their own business, and my mom, who usually assists and handles all the bookkeeping, is running the new one.

I ended up volunteering to take over the new business (an ice cream, yogurt and lunch shop) until it sells. At that point my mom had been running it for six months.

**Heavy Sigh** It took another 2 years to sell. I nearly went crazy. But, in those two years, I went through fewer employees than my mom did in six months.

Sometimes you just have to go with your gut when it comes to hiring people.

[Bella_Vixen]

I'm worried because I took this job thinking that it would be a long-term career type thing that would last for many years. I don't want it to be for only a few years; that means I have wasted time that I could have been doing something else, being more productive, and having a better 401(K), etc. Basically I'm afraid that I've wasted the last 20 or so months of my life for no purpose.

[Arcade Man D]

I once worked for a store where I ended up holding the second longest tenure there. I worked there for seven months.

Can you tell it was a sucktacular place to work?

Actually, same thing happened to me at my current job, though that was due to one person quitting, and the other two employees doing some major screwups. Though we've been through more than a few replacements.

[Sofar]

Sometimes you just have to go with your gut when it comes to hiring people.

I think that's what he did with me. I just came in one day, asked for an application and he said they hadn't one. We chatted for a little while, (didn't know he owned the place yet,) and he just said, "Okay. Be here tomorrow at a quarter to eleven, we'll see how things go." It's possible he did that with pretty much everyone and had awful luck at it until I came along. Strange I'm so good at the job, he probably never woulda hired me if he knew I'd never cooked before.

[Gurndigarn]

I'm worried because I took this job thinking that it would be a long-term career type thing that would last for many years. I don't want it to be for only a few years; that means I have wasted time that I could have been doing something else, being more productive, and having a better 401(K), etc. Basically I'm afraid that I've wasted the last 20 or so months of my life for no purpose.

Not necessarily. If you do make manager and can stick it out for a while, you get the title on your resume. And at least you have the Assistant Manager title right now, which can possibly springboard you into something else.

[TNT]

Why am I worried? My boss has been with the company for almost 3 years...and he's the 2nd longest tenured manager out of 30+ stores.

It could actually be a very good thing. It may well be that managers at your stores are soon scooped up by companies that pay better and offer more opportunity.

Being a manager is a great ticket punch on the resume and makes you interesting to a lot of other employers after a relatively short time on the job. The fact remains that often the quickest and easiest way to advance a career is to switch jobs.

The same is true of the call center business. My first call center job paid $7.00 an hour, with a 3% pay increase a year and almost zero possibility of advancement. What I quickly found out was that having any call center experience opened up a lot of doors in that line of work. Within six weeks, I had a job at a different company that paid $8.50 an hour plus better benefits. A couple of months after that, I went to another company that paid $9.50. All that led (after doing something else for a few years) to my current call center job where internal advancement is better than what I can do elsewhere... in a year, I've switched positions three (or four, depending on who you ask) times and got $4.50 an hour in raises.