No More Room to Grow

In order to make it in this world, you have to be self-aware. At work, upper management may be strangely detached and appear to be unaware of what is happening at the ground level, but they can read a room, and they will judge you based on what they see. If you can utilize anything learned from introspection, everything becomes an opportunity with room to grow.

There is one benefit of being new to a pre-existing workgroup dynamic. I have a less personal stake and am able to make objective observations. Based on my observations, I tried to give my friends fair warning when it became clear that upper management was watching them and that they needed to reset perceptions in the light of the coming changeover. That this changeover would be an opportunity, if they took it, to rewrite the current perceptions and position themselves to move ahead.

Consequence of negative leadership

Most of my friends are also in customer service. We band together in the trenches of dealing with people, battling emotions day in and out. It is the hardest working department in all of retail because people in general suck. Despite the solidarity, however, I’m not going to stay put for anyone. The company is restructuring and I saw a chance to break free.

I was motivated when I applied for my current role to leave behind all of the interdepartmental high-school-level drama in that department. There were too many toxic personalities that were making it a chore to come to work. At first, I thought it was something that I was doing, or not doing. After investigating what was causing my frustration, I was not at the root of the problem. The problem was other people. In particular, the leadership team of that department.

They were too disgruntled, too “done”, and convinced that it was going to be their way or the highway. They didn’t see any benefit in playing the game. I referred to them as the trinity because there were 3 main leads and they all deferred to one in particular. She, whether knowingly or unconsciously, led the team much the way a lead goose in a migratory V formation chooses the direction of travel.

I explained that despite how frustrated they were, the changes were coming fast and their frustrations would be of short duration if they could just think of the big picture and stop thinking so short term.

Unfortunately, they ignored me. People who think they know everything usually do.

Betrayal – Manager Edition

I learned my lesson after I was betrayed by a previous manager who obviously wanted to keep me trapped in my then-current role. Doing so made it possible to compensate for the gaps in the leadership, both his and the team leads who were not performing as expected in the post-COVID environment.

When that manager transferred to another department, the new manager was instructed to clean house, to enforce rules and standards that his predecessor did not bother to establish. It was the trickle-down effect of the new department head wanting to make their mark and attempt to create stop-gap solutions for the things that were wrong, but without any real understanding of what was wrong. As a result, the spotlight was on the leadership in this customer service.

For internal hiring, you have to be endorsed. That is the crux of the matter. You can’t get that endorsement if you appear to be fucking up on a regular basis. If the only thing you do is perform at a substandard level because you are dissatisfied with your position, your role, your department, your assignment, whatever… then you are not going to be seen as reliable. When the chips are down, you allow the business and your people to fail because you don’t care. That is not good leadership.

Getting no reception

Which meant that all my friends were now under the spotlight. You’d think that they would have realized this sooner, or better yet, showed signs that they understood and cared. It sure didn’t seem like they were cognizant of the issue as they allowed their personal misgivings and petty rivalries to demotivate them. As a result, their performance plummeted and the morale of the department also struggled.

I have tried to raise their awareness that if they are truly unhappy and want to move to other roles, then they have to fix the perceptions people have of them. Did they really think they were going to get ahead when management thinks you are the problem?

I could see how their attitudes were hurting them. I tried to let them know in constructive ways. Each of the people in my inner circle was having some sort of crisis at one time or another. However, they were not displaying reliability and had become overly dependent on me to fix their mess-ups. I don’t get paid enough to handle their issues and every other issue. I was fed up with all of them.

Can’t blame others all the time

Especially with Jem, who has been identified as a person who is NOT receptive to feedback or constructive criticism. Anytime you bring something to her attention that she has done wrong, or was perceived wrong, she is full of excuses. It is somebody else’s fault. Someone else is to blame. If only so-and-so wasn’t some way, then she would be more present. Blah, blah, blah. She loves to point fingers, but she should be pointing some of them at herself.