Moving On Up

I don't like mentioning the name of my work place, because sometimes things happen, people find things out, or stalkers are obtained on accident.  It's really hard to explain why I'm so shocked by their behavior WITHOUT naming it, though, because otherwise it just sounds like every other retail store.

I work in an alternative retail store.  We sell music-oriented clothing and accessories.  We have everything from rock T-shirts to leather wristbands to body jewelry.  Most of our customers have mohawks and tattoos, and metal located somewhere on their face.  We are supposed to be COOL.  Which, most of us are.  I mean, I love my managers as PEOPLE.  Especially now that I've transferred to a store closer to me.  I get along with EVERYONE.  Not very many people can say that.  In our handbook it says that they prefer to hire within the company, because we want to see our best employees move up!  We want people to be EXCITED about working for us, and WANT to come to work, and not THINK of it AS WORK.  And really, I don't.  I mean, some days are hard and busy and I come home exhausted (I think tonight will be the first night I'll fall asleep before 3 AM in a week), but I like what I do.  I know a lot about what I sell, I like helping customers, I'm motivated, and I'm dedicated.  I want to stay with this company for a while.  Even after I finally take out my lip piercing, and when I start looking at my tattoos like, "Wow, I was crazy."

I guess that isn't enough for them, and I'm absolutely shocked by it.  The point of my transfer was that I wanted a chance to move up and work in a bigger store, to learn more about creating displays, and closing the store.  Apparently to them, it means nothing.  I means nothing that I rode the bus for four and a half hours a day for six months just to work for that company.  It means nothing that I turned down two full-time job offers because I wanted to keep my part-time job on the side and they came first.  It means nothing that I've SAID SO MANY TIMES that I WANT to be a manager, and I WANT responsibility, and I WANT to learn.  Because they aren't going to give me a chance.

Nope.  They aren't.  I learned that earlier this week.  It's been one of the reason I've been so down.  It really got to me tonight because I had a customer ask for a t-shirt that I hadn't seen in FOREVER but I wanted to make sure we didn't have it.  I looked for 15 minutes, because this customer was shopping for his daughter and she really wanted this shirt.  I wanted to make him happy.  I FOUND IT.  After a co-worker rang him up, he came up to me and said, "Thank you so much for helping me.  You were great."  And I was just like, "It's not a problem."  Because it really WASN'T a problem.  I didn't mind at all!  I genuinely like my job, unlike most of the people that work there.  And that is a problem for me.

How can a company that claims they want to help employees move up deny the opportunity to, when that opportunity is available?  This particular store actually interview me back in February, but apparently I didn't have enough experience for the manager position.  Instead, they place me at a store FAR FAR away from me, but I was so excited about FINALLY getting a chance to work there I didn't care.  The person they hired instead got fired.  Almost four months ago.  Yep.  She was there less than two months before she was fired.  I'M STILL HERE, yet they won't just give me a chance.  Not even a trial period.  I have a full-year of manager experience, not including when I was a key holder for them for six months.  I have never been written up, I have never been given any type of warning, and as far as I'm aware of, my performance it's great.  Most of the time my managers have been relieved they close with me because I actually work. 

It just really bugs me, because to me, it's NOT fair.  And not everything is fair in the job force, but they keep doing interview after interview, not hiring anyone, yet they have me as a silly associate when I have so much experience and I'm already trained to open the store.  All they'd have to do is show me how to close!  That's it.  Yet they keep searching.  And I'm not even asking for a huge raise.  I'd gladly do it for less than what most people want, because I WANT TO WORK HERE!!!  But I'm just too old to keep being a sales associate.  It's bad enough I took a pay cut and demotion to transfer, because they didn't have hours at the time.  It's just getting ridiculous.

I think what I'll have to do is talk to corporate again.  I hate going behind my store manager's back, because I really do like her as a manager, but she won't give me a chance.  A chance I think I deserve.  And one I don't think she'll regret in the end.  Come Monday, I'll have to make my decision.