Employment Advice

ovverbruv

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I need some advice on employment please, any help would be gratefully received

At the request of my boss I moved from a small store to a much bigger and high profile store in August last year. This has turned out to be the wrong move as the store is far too busy for me to manage effectively and I have today emailed him asking to be moved back to a smaller store. Can I be disciplined or punished in any way for this request or are the company duty bound to find me a smaller store?
 
I can't see how they can discipline or punish you directly, it might not do your future prospects a lot of good and I can't think they are duty bound to find you a smaller store. On the other hand I can't see that they would keep you in a store that you feel you can't cope with.

Good luck, Mike.
 
Is there anything you can do (or your boss can do) to make your life easier at the bigger store? It will look great on your CV if you can stick it out even if you then decide to move on or move back to the smaller store. Keep communicating with him. The fact that he gave you a bigger store presumably means he thought you were up to it.
 
I think your starting point should be why you cannot manage the larger store, not how do you get back to a smaller one.

Is it a training need, a resource issue, a personal issue or perhaps the issue isn't the size of the store at all.

Once you have established this I suggest you approach your boss and explain why you feel this issue is preventing you from doing your job effectively and ask him/her to address it. Stress that it is not a lack of competence as you were able to manage your old store successfully.

One of the ways that they may choose to address it is to move you back to a smaller store. Alternatively they may be able to fix the problem(s) that you are having at your current store which will enable you to retain your position there.

This approach at least enables you to positively tackle the problem, rather than resigning yourself to the fact that you are unable to cope.
 
I'd go along with Kathy on this. Figure out exactly why you are finding it difficult and, if possible, what resources could be put in place to make things easier. You might find that you got the job because the person before you was having the same difficulties.

(edit: what Betsmate said)

Absolutely not a disciplinary matter. Head honcho might be pissed off that he has to find someone else, but in the long run you are doing him a favour.
 
Originally posted by Bar the Bull@Jan 12 2007, 02:06 PM
Maybe see if you can get a deputy manager, who will take off some of the pressure.
One of the problems is that I was given an assistant manager who was hired by my boss but is not up to the job. The store runs fairly well but I find myself having to work 60-65 hours to keep the store going which is not sustainable in the long run. I have been trying to teach this assistant manager how to run the store but after 4 months of trying I am resigned to the fact that he is not up to the job and is more of a hindrace than a help.
I know the previous manager betsmate and he was having the same problems which is why he moved to a smaller store, the stupid part is that I found running a small store incredibly easy, maybe I had reached my limit with a 8k store and shouldnt have stepped up to a 25k store.
Thanks for all the advice folks, I didnt think they could discipline me for it but I thought i should ask just to be sure.
 
It's not disciplinable, but I've heard of some nastier types trying to turn such things around into a capabilities issue before now. They'd be extremely hard pressed to make something of this nature stick though, given that we're essentially talking about a promotion, and since you're breaching the European working time directive, you'd be able to suggest that they're failing in their 'duty of care' too. I'm surprised there wasn't an element of trial involved to be honest.

I think Betsmate's probably close to your best response as the onus for the difficulties might lie elsewhere and you shoudl explore that and see if you can get some acknowledgement of culpability
 
Was your management aware of the hours you were putting in, ovverbruv? And if they were, did they not wonder why? 60-65 hours a week is ridiculous - it's a clear pointer that something isn't right when it's regular. One might bang in a load of hours like that to meet a project deadline, but certainly not as a norm. No wonder you're feeling overwhelmed. Can't add to all the good advice you've got here, but you do need to sit down with your management, present them with a cool assessment of what's been happening, and suggest the changes you need to have their support to enact. Getting shot of dead wood would be a good start!
 
The obvious problem isn't that you are unable to cope but that you don't have a competent resource (ie, your assistant manager) to enable you to work efficiently. So the best way to tackle this is to ask for a performance evaluation review to be carried out as soon as possible on all the staff at your store. You would do the basis analyses on your junior staff but it is usual for someone from HR to you to carry out a performance review on you and your assistant.

During the review, you can air your problems/grievances/frustrations and if your assistant is incompetent, it should quickly be picked up by anyone with some degree of common sense from HR.
 
Thanks for the advice Songsheet, however I do think it is a case of me not being able to cope, there is just too much to do at this store, it overwhelmes me and I think I have done the right thing. The boss is going to talk to me when he returns from holiday on 22nd Jan so we will see what happens
 
I myself would approach it differently, I would not show my hand at first, to say I cant cope as this is saying your incompentent!!To a degree (although Mike, we know the reasons) I would go along the lines of say commuting to the new place is difficult and would you mind if I returned to my old place.

Or you go into the deep end and outwardly tell the governer that your assistant is no good, but that then that creates bad feeling if you cant then get your move and obviously will make you more stressed out and unable to manage by having to further work with this guy if your request is turned down....

Good luck mate whichever way it goes............... ;)
 
I'm not sure that it isn't too late by the sounds of things Merlin. I share your concerns though in that you need to be pretty certain of your ground before putting a 'me or them' scenario on the table. In preparation for that you should start logging occasions, times and dates etc in the case of havign to evidence any claim you wish to make.

Songsheets correct that HR should pick it up, but again I wouldn't like to be certain that they will, and at the very least you've got to be able to justify why you've requested a performance appraisal. It depends how au faix your HR people are with retail. It's possible that they're just genmeric and wouldn't know the first thing about the demands of managing a shop, and therefore wouldn't spot incompetancy if it had flashing red lights and siren on it!!!

My advice would be to prepare some soltuions for presentation. No manager responds positively to a problem on its own, if you can give them solutions with a rationale they're more likely to acquiesse. I think Merlins right too, about necessarily admitting the nature of the difficulty, if you can row back a bit, from what you've so far admitted it shouldn't be capable of being interpreted as a stain on your record.
 
Ovverbruv - if he wants to discuss it with you he's likely to ask you why you feel you'd be better suited to a smaller store. From the sounds of it it's not a smaller store you need rather better personnel (ie. a competent assistant manager) who enable you to do a sensible amount of work each week rather than the 60+ hours you do now (which I think is in breach of at least one EU directive).

Good Luck
 
The UK has a "get-out" from the Working Time Directive - if employees sign an opt-out it is possible for them to work more than the stipulated average 48-hours per week. Under new Health and Safety legislation, however, an employer does now have a duty of care to protect its employees from stress.

There seems to be a precedent here, though, Ovverbruv, if your predecessor moved to a smaller store, so it sounds to me as if your employer may well be amenable to your request - and it is also something you can, er, "bring to their attention" should you need to.
 
Originally posted by Muttley@Jan 12 2007, 05:39 PM
The UK has a "get-out" from the Working Time Directive - if employees sign an opt-out it is possible for them to work more than the stipulated average 48-hours per week.
One of my contract conditions requires me to sign out of the work-time directive. That is the way of the world in retail unfortunately. There is no extra pay foro overtime or time off in lieu but it is expected that you will work yourself into the ground.
Hopefully he will be amenable to a move to a smaller store. I am completely flexible geographically which should help.
 
Originally posted by Gareth Flynn@Jan 12 2007, 05:56 PM
Quit. It's not worth it.
Unfortunately 25k of debt demands that I keep working but I have started looking. There are quite a few retail manager jobs that pay much better than the measly 21k I am on at the moment, they can't be worse than this either
 
Originally posted by ovverbruv@Jan 12 2007, 06:54 PM
There is no extra pay foro overtime or time off in lieu but it is expected that you will work yourself into the ground.
That sounds like most jobs in racing.
 
One of my contract conditions requires me to sign out of the work-time directive. That is the way of the world in retail unfortunately. There is no extra pay foro overtime or time off in lieu but it is expected that you will work yourself into the ground.
All that our forefathers and we fought for through trade union activity as now been taken back again by these greedy employers then?????????????????????? I thought only bookmakers were greedy bastards??????? :rolleyes:
 
Whitbread (the company for which my brother works) doesn't allow its workers to join unions.
 
Article 11 of the European Convention of Human Rights might be of intererst to him then if he wants to leave eventually and do so in a blaze of glory. There are test cases on the statute and Whitbred would almost certainly lose if USDAW decided to push on behalf of anyone at Strasbourg. Whitbread (like many brewers) have a long standing association with the Conservative party of course, and I'm sure 'Call me Dave' would condem them thus. Personally I'd love to see Whitbred turn up an Employment Tribunal and refuse to acknowledge Trade Union representation :lol:

Me thinkz the panel would find against them PDQ. Under Employment Law you are of course entitled to lay representation, without having to invoke a Union or Solicitor.
 
Stuck for time so I'll make it short.
Simply asking to go back to smaller store is not goo, what if needs of family or other circs. in future need you to earn the extra.
As others have said make it clear that with existing personnel your unreasonable work load necessitates a regular 60+ hrs every week, even though you work flat out.
You love the job but cannot sustain carrying such an unreasonable an unreasonable workload.
Of course you have the ambition etc to get on in the company but your boss needs to be aware of the situation. How can he help you? Make some suggestions about improving quality of support staff,eg training. this helps by implying support staff are possibly not up to it whilst not be seen to blame them directly.
Specifically identify the parts of the job which cause problems and suggest how these might be addressed.

As to whether you personally can cope with the job as it should be, only you will know. However a great proportion of people who get promoted have a(well concealed) doubt as to whether they are up to it. If you can change the job around to suit you the major concern becomes a worry that people will find out how easy it is.
There is some excellent advice on this thread and you can distill the bits you wish but generally they all seem to be adopt a positive rather than negative approach.

Good Luck
 
I give you kudos, and plenty of it too, for even sticking your foot in the deep-end and giving it a go, Overbruv.

I agree with the others, talk to HR, voice your concerns.
 
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