It
didn’t take long during the interview before I was offered the job, which was a
good sign. I came out of the shop smiling from ear to ear. I was buzzing with glee,
and even more nerves than before because, the interview was only the beginning.
The
Range is a massive warehouse like store, full of practically everything you’d
need for the household, from arts and crafts to armchairs, from pet food and
toys to garden equipment and potted plants. With so much stuff just in one
section alone, during my first day a customer with over £200 worth of stuff
passed through. Thankfully I had help with processing that amount of stuff, and
I was given a compliment on how well I handled that, given how it was a lot to
take in straight from the off.
Before
I continue, I will state that I had absolutely no official retail experience whatsoever
before going to The Range. I did do a two-week period in WHSmiths, but that was
just putting stock on the shelves, helping customers find a specific item –
nothing remotely equivalent to operating the till, because I was only sixteen
at the time and so understandably too young to touch any button on the till for
fear of the managers falling on top of me and the staff members like a tonne of
bricks. I told the manager at The Range, clearly, that I had very little to no
retail experience, yet she still took me on. My first day at The Range, behind
the till, was quite literally my first day in retail, and so needed to be
trained up from scratch – or in other words, from the very bottom, a place
where I’m sure the manager was at once as well.
After
four months, the manager asked me into the meeting room to discuss my
performance, and that’s when thing started to make less and less sense.
Needless to say, they dismissed me after the meeting.
I
will explain their reasoning why my performance was less than adequate. Then
explain the truth of what actually happened to make them believe they have
justifiable reasons.
1. I was going to slow, therefore letting the queues build up and not getting
the customers out the door quick enough to keep things flowing smoothly. I was
also told that a member of the team at Customer Services was able to get
through four customers by the time I had finished processing one. I will also
add in the point of letting the queues build up instead of a steady flow of
people coming through my till.
2. Not keeping an eye on the tills so when they do get busy I am not there.
This also includes leaving the tills when there are queues.
3. Making too many mistakes. One mistake I did make, and did understand
could have gone a lot worse if the customer hadn’t noticed, was give them the
wrong change. This happened only once, and I made efforts into making sure it
never happened again, such as counting out the change in my head to the exact
amount. This method worked splendidly, and a member of the customer service
team did comment on how I had improved on that particular mistake.
4. Standing around looking like I’m not doing anything.
5. They do not believe that I am ready to handle the Christmas rush.
I will now explain to
you the truth of what really happened.
1. I was going to slow:
When on the tills, I am customer lead. This means that if a
customer so wishes to not purchase a particular item once I have already
scanned it, they have the right to do so. I do not have the authority to void
an item off my till, so I have to call Customer Services for them to come and
take it off. This also goes for price changing when necessary, for example: When
the till displays one price, but the item says another due to in-store
reduction. When the store is at its busiest, long queues do form as a load of
people head towards the tills all at once – this can result in till-trained
staff being called over to open up all the other tills to help with the flow.
My time at the Range
was straight through the summer holidays, so it was busy in terms of families
wanting to get a load of arts and crafts items, toys and sweets for the kids;
people wanting to get a load of garden equipment and plants to spruce up their
gardens; and people wanting to give their home a fresh look with new cushions
etc.
It is very rare for a
basket or a trolley full to the brim to come through my till without any
problems such as needing to void or price change. It is my waiting for a member
of Customer Services to come over and do what is necessary that increases the
length of the queues, and by the time they come over, that one member of
Customer Services mentioned above has processed multiple customers before I’ve
helped one.
Another factor that
adds to them believing that I’m going too slowly, is having to wait for codes.
I have lost count as to how may items that have gone through my till which did
not have a bar-code for me to scan. This can be for many reasons, but
the majority was due to it being the last one on the shelf. This results in
having to wait for a member of Customer Services to call a member from a
particular department to come to my till and see what they need to get a code
for. Once they have done that, I then have to wait for them to actually go and
get the code. Depending on the item, this can take several minutes. I can get
lucky and the customer says that they do not have enough time and will leave
the item, but most of the time, they do wait with me. Every time I have to call
Customer Services to call a member of staff, I always explain the situation
politely, and the majority of customers do understand and won’t make a fuss.
And as I am waiting
for all of that, the queues get longer and longer, resulting in them saying
that I am going too slow.
Someone described what
it was like during the Christmas rush and they said – and I quote – “all eight
tills are open and there are queues extending all the way
through Housewares.” Going by the logic of being told there should be any
long queues at my till states that everyone should have been dismissed a
long time ago, which doesn’t make any sense whatsoever.
The final point about
being too slow, is about the tills themselves. They are old and constantly have
problems. I’ve lost count with how many times one or more tills have gone down
because they’re just too old. When a till goes down, everyone who
was queuing at that till goes over to the others, therefore adding to
it, creating that illusion of my going slow when in fact it has nothing to do
with me at all. And when my till goes slow, I have to wait for it to
work again or move over to the other till, which also increases the
length. Being told that I’m going to slow when it’s not my fault in the first
place is unfair.
2. Not keeping an eye on
the tills and leaving when there are queues:
During the summer
holidays, after a busy wave, there is a quiet period before it picks up again,
then settles down again at around 4 O’clock onward save from a couple of spurts
of a few people every now and again. When it goes quiet, I take that time to do
what needs to be done. These actions include: Cleaning my till after someone
has just gone through with a load of plants and left behind a sizable mound of
dirt and water, which I have to clean up before the next customer. I always
kept some tissue in my pocket for whenever that happens, but with the
considerable amount of plants coming through, those tissues do get used up
rather quickly, and the only place to get some tissue is at the Customer
Services. It is fair to say that I do leave my till to get some tissue
otherwise the next customer’s cushions are going to get rather dirty, apart
from that, I never leave my till when there is a lengthy queue. Also during a
quiet period, I leave my till to put a number of unwanted items into the
throwbacks section, but only after I have asked if anyone wants any help, and
if no one comes, then I’m free to clear my till.
Sure there may be one
or two people queuing at the other tills, but if I do not clear my till of
items of dirt and water, that can turn into a health and safety nightmare,
which I no doubt would also get blamed for causing.
When it does get rather
quiet and there are no customers, my job is to then either make the shelves look
tidy or put out stock. When a customer asks for help, I must put them first, so
I lead them to where an item is. During that time, people can come to the till.
How can I keep an eye on the tills when I’m on the other side of the store,
helping a customer?
Another thing is,
during one of my first meeting with the manager, she said that it was OK for me
to leave my till as Customer Services will call me back, only to then be told
that I was wrong to do so in the meeting afterwards, resulting in my dismissal.
3. Making too many
mistakes:
As stated above, the
manager, knew of my experiences and it was my doing well at the interview that
got me the job. I was left to my own devices, expecting to – and I quote
directly from the manager herself – “just know it”, which is an impossibility
for anyone. I can guarantee that the manager had to go through training and
didn’t know what to do from the off. I can only learn from the mistakes that I
knew I was making, but to be told about a bunch that I didn’t know I was
making, was down to poor training and management.
4. Standing around
looking like I’m not doing anything:
It may look like that,
but in fact, I’ve put back all the items in the correct throwbacks boxes,
cleaned my till and put out as much stock as I could. When it is busy in store,
I do not want to leave my till for it will soon get very busy with people in only
a minute or so. During these intense busy periods, customers either come in
waves or they’re a constant stream from the beginning of my shift to the end.
At first it was hard to judge when it was quiet enough to leave my till and
sort out stock or stay and wait for more customers to come. Over the next few
days, I started to get a feel of what was required. I knew when to not leave my
till because I would only then be called straight back without having done
anything stock related. I also knew when to not stand around and wait for the
customers to arrive because I could have sorted out a good amount of stock.
However, every single time I judged correctly when a customer needed my
assistance and returned to the till; the manager believed I was not paying
enough attention. And every single time I judged correctly when not to leave my
till, the manager believed I was standing around doing nothing.
5. They do not believe
that I am ready to handle the Christmas rush:
This is a completely
contradictory statement for the summer holidays are incredibly busy throughout
every day of every week. As said above, I am customer lead and I have to adapt
to the slowness of the tills themselves, so it may appear that I cannot handle
the Christmas rush, but in fact, they’re the ones that are setting things up so
that no one can. There was someone there with less experience than me and
they were heading toward the Christmas rush. That makes absolutely no sense, at
all.
The legal term for dismissing someone for unfairly justifiable
reasons is, “Constructive Dismissal”. They literally make up reasons for why
you’re not fit for purpose, and that’s an illegal action to make, unless they
jump through a legal loophole and invite whoever any company dismisses back,
which The Range certainly did.
I never returned, and
I’m glad I didn’t.
Thanks for reading
Antony Hudson
(TonyHadNouns)
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