Some background informant ion first.
I've worked at the same place for about 8 years. Around a year and a half ago the owned died and we got a new owner. The new owner is the best friend of the oldest daughter of the owner who died, and has never owned a business before. She also has NO experience with this type of business. (A Bicycle shop) Nor does she know anything about bicycles.
The building where our shop used to be was leased and the lease was going to be up around six months before the old owner died, so she knew when she bought it that we would have to move to a new location. Well she chose a new spot without asking any input from any of the guys who worked there and it's a BAD spot compared with where we were before. BTW we had been in the same location for about 15 years! We were right on a main drag and got lots of drive by business. Now we are tucked away inside a strip mall. To make matters worse, we have a WALL-MART in the same strip mall as well as a G.I. Joe's who both sell bicycles. (And cheaper than we can sell them, although they are for the most part CRAP)
Now Eugene is a HUGE bicycling town, and there are a LOT of shops here. To add to the problem, she wants to over charge on everything! Making it real hard to compete with the other shops in town, not to mention Wall-Mart and G.I. Joe's. She refused to have any kind of sale during the holidays and still refuses to have a sale now even though business is SLOOOWW. I've made MANY suggestion on how to help the business including diversifying by selling something else beside JUST bikes, having financing set up so we CAN sell the higher priced bikes we have and several others, putting stuff on sale, and making sure our prices are in line with the other shops in town. She seems unwilling to take any of my suggestions to heart. In fact, the only one she seems to listen to is the one guy she shouldn't, namely our resident ass kisser. He wants to be in charge SOOOO BADDD and yet he does not have the temperament for it. He continually piss's off customers by being rude to them and was fired by the previous owner for doing the same thing. After the old owner died, the two guys who remained (Merle and I) hired him back because we needed more help. (big mistake) At one time he convinced the new owner to give him MY job, which she did until he tripped over his attitude and almost got fired again. As well as his lack of common sense with dealing with the public, he is also a "yes Man". He will only tell the owner what he thinks she wants to hear. So THAT is the advice she takes. (human nature at it's finest)
So anyway, now the business is 75K in the hole and her answer to that is to cut pay, but not the ass kissers, just everyone else's! (we will all be making the same amount which means Merle and I get cut back to what the kiss ass is making, he gets the same pay as he was getting. To top this off, he has had, and will continue to have weekends off while I have worked Sat and Sun for 8 years)
Also up until recently he was the only one there getting 40 hours a week!
(the more I type, the more I think I should look for another job...)
I really want the shop to succeed, but at this point I'm real discouraged. Should I take the pay cut or walk? What would you do? I've talked with the owner and told her how unfair I think everything is, to no avail. Merle who has been there 15 years has volunteered to take the winter off and collect un employment (what I WAS going to do) so now it's just the ass kisser and me.
No cliff notes.
Read the damn thing or move along!
Update: Well Mr. Ass Kisser got fired today (again) so now I'm pretty much IT. The boss called me at around 2:30 today asking if I would come in, telling me that The other guy had been fired, and of course being the kinda guy I am, I did. However I DID take my dog in with me. (She's gonna HAVE to bend a little one way or the other )
We have two young guys working (being trained by ME of course) but they don't really KNOW anything. Merle started his NEW job today so he won't be coming back, not that I can blame him since he gets bennies @ the new job. He did say that if it had been one or two days ago he WOULD have come back. (What timing huh?)
One of the other shops in town was running a ad a few weeks ago for someone but I got there too late. The owner DID say that they would be hiring more people this summer so I planned on putting in a Resume there before the season hit. But now I'm in the position where if I do leave, it would be like driving a stake through the heart of the old shop. NO way could the place stay open if I left...
So now I'm in a bit of a quandary, to stay on the sinking ship till it goes down, or to play the Rat and get off, knowing that it will probably kill the place....
I've worked at the same place for about 8 years. Around a year and a half ago the owned died and we got a new owner. The new owner is the best friend of the oldest daughter of the owner who died, and has never owned a business before. She also has NO experience with this type of business. (A Bicycle shop) Nor does she know anything about bicycles.
The building where our shop used to be was leased and the lease was going to be up around six months before the old owner died, so she knew when she bought it that we would have to move to a new location. Well she chose a new spot without asking any input from any of the guys who worked there and it's a BAD spot compared with where we were before. BTW we had been in the same location for about 15 years! We were right on a main drag and got lots of drive by business. Now we are tucked away inside a strip mall. To make matters worse, we have a WALL-MART in the same strip mall as well as a G.I. Joe's who both sell bicycles. (And cheaper than we can sell them, although they are for the most part CRAP)
Now Eugene is a HUGE bicycling town, and there are a LOT of shops here. To add to the problem, she wants to over charge on everything! Making it real hard to compete with the other shops in town, not to mention Wall-Mart and G.I. Joe's. She refused to have any kind of sale during the holidays and still refuses to have a sale now even though business is SLOOOWW. I've made MANY suggestion on how to help the business including diversifying by selling something else beside JUST bikes, having financing set up so we CAN sell the higher priced bikes we have and several others, putting stuff on sale, and making sure our prices are in line with the other shops in town. She seems unwilling to take any of my suggestions to heart. In fact, the only one she seems to listen to is the one guy she shouldn't, namely our resident ass kisser. He wants to be in charge SOOOO BADDD and yet he does not have the temperament for it. He continually piss's off customers by being rude to them and was fired by the previous owner for doing the same thing. After the old owner died, the two guys who remained (Merle and I) hired him back because we needed more help. (big mistake) At one time he convinced the new owner to give him MY job, which she did until he tripped over his attitude and almost got fired again. As well as his lack of common sense with dealing with the public, he is also a "yes Man". He will only tell the owner what he thinks she wants to hear. So THAT is the advice she takes. (human nature at it's finest)
So anyway, now the business is 75K in the hole and her answer to that is to cut pay, but not the ass kissers, just everyone else's! (we will all be making the same amount which means Merle and I get cut back to what the kiss ass is making, he gets the same pay as he was getting. To top this off, he has had, and will continue to have weekends off while I have worked Sat and Sun for 8 years)
(the more I type, the more I think I should look for another job...)
I really want the shop to succeed, but at this point I'm real discouraged. Should I take the pay cut or walk? What would you do? I've talked with the owner and told her how unfair I think everything is, to no avail. Merle who has been there 15 years has volunteered to take the winter off and collect un employment (what I WAS going to do) so now it's just the ass kisser and me.
No cliff notes.
Read the damn thing or move along!
Update: Well Mr. Ass Kisser got fired today (again) so now I'm pretty much IT. The boss called me at around 2:30 today asking if I would come in, telling me that The other guy had been fired, and of course being the kinda guy I am, I did. However I DID take my dog in with me.
(She's gonna HAVE to bend a little one way or the other )We have two young guys working (being trained by ME of course) but they don't really KNOW anything. Merle started his NEW job today so he won't be coming back, not that I can blame him since he gets bennies @ the new job. He did say that if it had been one or two days ago he WOULD have come back. (What timing huh?)
One of the other shops in town was running a ad a few weeks ago for someone but I got there too late. The owner DID say that they would be hiring more people this summer so I planned on putting in a Resume there before the season hit. But now I'm in the position where if I do leave, it would be like driving a stake through the heart of the old shop. NO way could the place stay open if I left...
So now I'm in a bit of a quandary, to stay on the sinking ship till it goes down, or to play the Rat and get off, knowing that it will probably kill the place....
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