Maybe not the best Idea ...

July 24th. 2008

I was an assistant Manager at a retail Department store for a while, actually 2 and 1/2 years.

One of my job duties there was to manage the stocking crew. Now when I walked Into this Job, I had zero experience in stocking and merchandising and this crew of mine had years. Two of the Gals had probably 15 years between them, mostly with that store and the one guy in the bunch had about 6 himself. Then I had another lady with about 4 years.

So here were my crew: 3 ladies and one man with more than 25 years experience versus my Zero. A fair combination don't ya think.

I had to somehow win these guys over to get them to do some of what I was asking of them, because for the most part at first, they really didn't give a damn. So after about 4 months of beating my head against the wall and really not getting much cooperation from them, I decided to try and see if they were interested in Movies.

See, I really needed to have been listening more to what they were saying and less on being so concerned about getting the quote right. So I asked them one very early morning when they were in the zone and working like little bees not doing what I was needing them to do. Yes, Not doing it. They had there own ideas and that is what they did. My boss, the area manager had his own ideas. And they were to follow what he said. They didn't like his ideas, so there in lied the problem, me being stuck in the middle between two very hard headed factions, one of which could fire me.





Me: "Hey you guys like movies?"

Them: (Two ladies and the one man) Silence.

I was use to this response.

Me: "Have you guys ever seen "Rain Man"."

Them: Mumbling something, probably like what is this stupid white guy talking about.

Me trying to get the quote right: "I really Liked it when Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman were driving along and and Dustin Hoffman was saying "I'm not wearing any underwear. I get my underwear at K-mart, yeah K-mart." I thought that was so funny."

They stopped dead in their tracks and looked at me.

The guy: "Did you just say your not wearing any underwear?"

Me: "What, .. No. It was a movie ..."

The ladies burst out in laughter. A first.

The guy asked me again. "Cause I could have sworn you just said you weren't wearing any underwear?"

Me:" You know Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man ..."

Them, pretty much in unison: "We've never seen the Movie."

Me: "Oh, so you guys have no idea what the heck I'm talking about."

Them shaking their heads no.

Me, trying to gain some kind of dignity back: "Well, it's a great movie and if you get a chance, watch it."

That, and a few other not nearly as embarrassing moments and some very serious conversations from my boss with them finally got me to get those guys to do about 2/3 of what I asked from them.

That and them finding out I was the one that did their annual reviews for raises.