The managers set their sights on how they can climb the corporate ladder. They don't care how they get there. They use the backs of all of the good employees to achieve it. They don't care about your well-being at all. On more than one occasion I spoke with the branch manager about my stress level. He acted like he was really concerned, and said he would fix it. Nothing was ever done. I honestly have a feeling that he was laughing about it behind my back. Looking back now, I find that he was quite senseless. I find it difficult to beleive that he actually has an education in management.
The stress was created by way too much work expected of me. They did not manage the other reps properly, and thus the division of the work was totally off balance.
The branch manager and regional manager tried to prevent me from leaving, but at the end I did not trust that the branch manager could accomplish the changes that needed to be made to eleviate the stress that I was enduring. I didn't trust his willingness to initiate any kind of positive change.
They hire many individuals who don't have a lot of common sense, or people who like to ride on the coat tails of others. They hire on the basis of a couple of tests they give you. I believe one decides what personality you are and the other one is a type of IQ test. The tests must be flawed, because there are only a few people who actually turn out to be an "ok" fit.
They also allow warehouse personnel to verbally abuse the office staff on a daily basis. I spoke with the same manager about the abuse and nothing was ever done. He even went so far as to say; " maybe he is treating you like that because you are a woman"......Really! I'd say you really need to deal with this then.
The only reason I stayed for the 6 long years is because I don't like to change jobs frequently. I was avoiding the stress of changing jobs and for some ridiculous reason I expected the management to do something about the heavy workload. I also developed some really great relationships with the customers.
I really enjoyed the actual duties to achieve the companies goals, but the constant over expectation, and my complaints falling on deaf ears, offset that in a real hurry.
In the end, when I finally walked out the door, I received some e-mails from the branch manager explaining how he could make some really quick changes to ensure my request for change had been met. In the same paragraph, he frets that he was really hoping to see how we would do with our new equipment and how much more production we could get out of the facility, then he continued to say that it was unfortunate that I wasn't going to be there to help. Yah, that statement is really going to make me stay. My translation of that is: " We really need you here..who's going to do all of the work.?" I'm so happy I moved on. I didn't realize how awful it was until I removed myself from it.
The end.
