Posts tagged electronics

The phrase underpaid and overworked comes to mind when I think over the year and a half I spent working for Radioshack in Eugene, Oregon. The result of this is an uneducated, disenfranchised and scared core of workers, most of which are just college students trying to pay their bills.

Luckily I was offered a job at The Shutterbug [a local owned & operated camera company] and was able to shed the excess stress and work attributed with Radioshack and move on to better things — but these accounts are important to reveal to potential customers who could easily spend they’re buck elsewhere. The general consensus from my co-workers was of a similar nature; poor middle management at the district managerial level coupled with unreal corporate expectations with poor compensation. These mixed together are a recipe for disaster.

#1: Service Plans
Every RS employe must maintain at the minimum a 20% attachment rate of RSSP [Radioshack Service Plan] so when you hear that pitch, 9/10 times its disingenuous. In fact, the only time I would ever purchase an RSSP plan would be with a pair of headphones but even then you have to call the 1(800) number and wait for 30 minutes before you get any form of service.

The kicker in all of this is that even though there is a ton of pressure on attachments the employe who does the work literally has zero incentive outside of potentially loosing their job. Out of every 30 or so service plans (depending on what you sell them on) your only going to make in the ballpark of $11-$21 which is virtually nothing considering an RSSP attach is 100% profit.

#2 Plan-O-Grams
Radioshack on average releases 3-5 new planograms’ a month in an attempt to keep the store feeling fresh and new — yet there is a drawback to this, if only a few people are say ‘hard workers’ they get the short end of the stick doing stock and construction work whilst the ‘unable’ or ‘lazy’ workers do the majority of selling. So for those of us that had to spend the extra late nights, even during finals week, in order to build a stupid headphone section or flip a store on their own, I commend you because for minimum wage your simply overworking yourself.

#3 Management
This brings me to my next point — management [in particular at the district level]. In my life I have worked many jobs but never have I ever been mishandled as poorly as I was at Radioshack. It all started when our senior manager of 30 some years was fired and our MIT [manager in training] was promoted to manager (despite the rule that stipulates that no MIT can manage the store he trained in). In addition to the infringement of the rules everyone in my store knew that the MIT was worthless to us as a co-worker, let alone a manager — and get this HES THE HIGHEST PAID IN THE DISTRICT.

Not only is this a major slap in the face to those of us who have to endure his horrid jokes and atrocious customer service (often saying things to the affect of “people in wheel chairs should have to park in the back of the parking lot so they have incentive to stop faking.” this was said whilst the customer was in store keep in mind) but also to the tenured managers who have been working for the company for years. Does this sound like a healthy work environment to you?

After this manager was promoted not only did he continue his lack luster ‘attempts’ at work but he also started to exude overconfidence in his own abilities and almost overnight transformed into a stereotypical dictator — contact with employes long since gone. I had been working part-time [minimum of 20hrs/week] for a year at this point when suddenly I was only receiving 6 hours a week. I took the issue up with my manager immediately saying that I had to pay bills and I didn’t understand why I wasn’t getting the hours I had been for the 12months prior — his response…. nothing. After hearing that he would ‘fix’ it for 2 weeks straight I went home and wrote an email to my district manager — which by the way is supposed to be confidential and illuminated the situation saying that I really need the hours and am willing to work other stores yada yada yada — I still to this day haven’t gotten a response. But heres what he did… printed out my email, walked into our store, sat in the back with my manager, let him read my confidential email, and then proceeded to laugh and do nothing about it. THANKS ALOT RADIOSHACK I WASN’T AWARE THAT AN EMPLOYE WHO HAS BEEN WORKING FOR A COMPANY FOR OVER A YEAR WITH LEGITIMATE CONCERNS COULD BE DISCARDED ON LITERALLY ZERO GROUNDS THAT EASILY.

In addition to this my district manager also got two employes [young women ages 19 and 21] whom he knew personally hired at our store with no pervious retail sales experience. These girls proceeded to work hard but not execute with no repercussions and after work… guess where they’d go to hang out? Yup — with our DM… In fact they’ve even told me they played beer pong with him… probably something you don’t want to say out loud when you consider that DM’s should have ZERO FRATERNIZATION WITH EMPLOYES — ESPECIALLY WHEN ALCOHOL AND MINORS ARE CONCERNED.

Conclusion Consumer
The Shutterbug ended up recruiting me right around the mishap with the email and luckily myself and a good co-worker got out of the system but this story is on the net for a reason… remember when you go into “The Shack” that the good people are few, far between & drastically underpaid. They are constantly harassed by secret shoppers, unreal expectations and poor management. So rather than spend that dollar at Radioshack go some place else preferably a mom and pop who actually take care of their employes [The Shutterbug] and always question the motives of overworked RSSP hungry RS employes.

Conclusion Corporation
RADIOSHACK!!! Get your shit together… not only are you promoting an unhealthy work environment but your disheveled sales staff is interface with your customer in that environment — if in your mission statement it says “customers should feel unwelcome, harassed by commissioned sales people, and coned into plans that are unnecessary and a poor value” then your doing a great job. However, if you actually wish to provide a level of customer service and a postivew work environment that supersedes your competition I suggest you make some serious changes… HINT: maybe you should look at the district level.