Closing posts vs Addressing the Problems

DutchmenSport wrote:

toedtoes wrote:

DutchmenSport wrote:

Walaby wrote:
...I suspect the CW/GS employees that are monitoring this site ...

... Educate their own employees what their own company has to offer, and what folks are saying about the place they work for. ...

Unless GS is providing on-the-clock time for employees to "check out" this forum, why would they?

Honestly, the folks in the stores have jobs, not careers. ...

I suppose you are absolutely correct there. There is quite a difference between simply having a "job" and having a "career." When you are pursuing a "career" you WANT to learn absolutely everything about it, are willing to invest personal time, and even personal resources and money to become better educated, informed, and experienced in that field of choice.

I suppose it really is very rare to find someone in a customer service situation who realizes that, the current position they hold could be used as a stepping stone to something much larger. But, so many these days are looking for the big glorified jobs without putting in the effort to get there. They end up settling for the "job" and fail to see the "career" they could have!

Next time I go to Camping World, I suppose I won't have such high expectations of their employees. That is also a logical explanation of why RV salesmen are clueless too. It takes a little effort to become educated and informed. And you don't always get paid to get that either.

Having worked retail for quite a few years and having seen what the supervisors had to do in order to get to "something much larger", I gotta say, it's not worth it. The pay difference between a clerk and a floor supervisor is usually only a single step raise or two. With that increase in pay, you have to work nights and weekends, you are short-staffed (because the manager always makes sure his/her day shift is covered, but could care less if the nights and weekends are understaffed), and you work every holiday (as most stores are open on those days now). If you're "lucky", you get promoted to a store manager, which at that point, you get transferred to one of the least profitable stores in one of the worst locations (usually a store on the brink of closure or just opening, so there's more risk), often having to move your family.

Then, once you're a store manager, you get transferred around from location to location every few years. If you're lucky, the company's profits don't take a nosedive and you finally get to "seniority" and are placed in a stable and profitable store where you can spend your days until you retire. If you're not lucky, the company's profits tank, they close stores, and you get let go with nothing to show for all that work.

In addition, times have changed and many companies don't "promote from within" anymore. You can't come in as a janitor and hope to learn the business and promote into something better. George Lucas said it about his company "if I hire a janitor, I want a janitor not a graphic artist". Employees don't have loyalty to their employers anymore, but employers don't have loyalty to their employees anymore either. It just doesn't work like it used to work.