Image via WikipediaBJ's said Thursday that its October sales at stores open at least one year rose 10.2%, with a contribution from gasoline sales of 3.6%. Analysts, on average, had expected same-store sales to rise 6.3%, according to Thomson Reuters. Total sales for the four weeks ended November 1 rose 11.6% to $738.8 million.
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So with all the sales increases you would think they would get more payroll to the clubs. Instead they cut hours more. How do they keep a straight face when saying " Member services, Members first!" and not have enough people to stock the shelves or check people out?
ReplyDeleteSo true. sales are up, hours are down, good to see the rich getting richer, as usual. Can't wait to get the 4 day work week after the new year.
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year's in advance to you all!!!!!!! Come on Costco, save us all.
Yes, Come on Costco, buy BJ's outright--hostile takeover!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteBefore you all go jumping on the Costco bandwagon, read this about Costco and tell me if it sounds familiar.....
ReplyDelete"The culture that I and my colleagues have experienced is one of micro-management by intimidation. I have worked with a couple of general managers and dozens of area managers and I have found that with regard to hourly employees’ behavior, they unanimously assume negative intent. Simply implementing #13 on your list of things you believe would alone make a marked difference in this environment. When instructions are given about completing a task, these instructions are always coupled with a criticism. Employees are often told to be team players but management doesn't exhibit a team attitude themselves. I have endless examples of this but I don't want to lose you now, if I haven't already. I know you must get endless emails.
So how might any of this affect the bottom line? I have noticed a trend over the years that I've been with Costco of employees demoting themselves. I have personally known of 6 individuals who have taken up to a 15,000/year pay cut to "step down." In some cases the other management at the store described this self demotion as a "personal failure on the part of the employee." I have not experienced these individuals to be failures and some of them are the most intelligent and productive workers that I have had the pleasure of working with, and they are also Nice! On the flip side of this, managers that have had numerous complaints made about their behavior are continuing to get promoted. One such individual had no less than 10 people about his unprofessional, condescending, and almost downright abusive behavior. Upper management's response was that they would speak to him, but that he will continue on in his current role.
Finally, it's important to note that I'm not basing this on only my experience or on the experiences at one location. I've networked with Costco employees in Seattle, Florida and Indiana to name a few and I have found similar environments and similar stories. So why am I still here? Why are some of my colleagues still here? The pay and the benefits no doubt play a part, but so has the idea that we can change things".
The grass is NOT always greener
I really like this...
ReplyDeleteToo bad it can't be implimented
Maybe Corporate and Management at the clubs should read this...
The No-Asshole Rule
Robert I. Sutton, Ph.D.
02-20-2007
The first time that I ever heard about a book on assholes was more than 30 years ago. It happened at an Italian restaurant in San Francisco called Little Joe's, where customers sat behind a long counter that faced an open kitchen. Most of us came to see the flamboyant chef, who sang, joked with customers and employees, and entertained us by igniting dramatic flames with olive oil as he cooked. Employees wore T-shirts that said "Rain or shine, there is always a line," and waiting for a seat was good fun because of the constant banter and clowning around.
One day, I waited behind an especially rude customer who was sitting at the counter. He made crude comments, tried to grab the waitress, complained about how his veal parmigiana tasted, and insulted customers who told him to pipe down.
This creep kept spewing his venom until a fellow customer approached him and asked (in a loud voice), "You are just an amazing person. I've been looking everywhere for a person like you. I love how you act. Can you give me your name?" He looked flustered for a moment, but then seemed flattered, offered thanks for the compliment, and provided his name.
Without missing a beat, his questioner wrote it down and said, "Thanks. I appreciate it. You see, I am writing a book on assholes ... and you are absolutely perfect for Chapter 13." The entire place roared, and the asshole looked humiliated, shut his trap, and soon slithered out -- and the waitress beamed with delight.
This story is more than a sweet and funny memory. That incident at Little Joe's reflects seven key lessons about the no-asshole rule.
A few demeaning creeps can overwhelm the warm feelings generated by hordes of civilized people.
The abuse spewed out by just one jerk was ruining the experience for everyone at Little Joe's that day. Remember that if you want to enforce the no-asshole rule in your organization, you'll get more bang for your buck by eliminating those folks who bring people down. Bear in mind that negative interactions have five times the effect on mood as positive interactions -- it takes a lot of good people to make up for the damage done by just a few demeaning jerks. If you want a civilized workplace, take some inspiration from the CEO who made up the equivalent of 25 "asshole wanted" posters and then purged those assholes from the company. So the first things that you need to do are screen out, reform and expel all the assholes in your workplace. It will then become easier to focus on helping people become warmer and more supportive.
Talking about the rule is nice, but following up on it is what really matters.
Announcing a "no jerks allowed" rule, talking about being "warm and friendly," or displaying a "no bozos" poster is nice. But all those words are meaningless or worse if they don't truly guide people in changing their behavior. There were no rules posted at Little Joe's, but almost everyone in the restaurant understood that although the food was good, most customers went there to catch and add to the infectious good cheer. When that aspiring author humiliated the nasty customer, he was enforcing an unwritten rule: You had no business being at Little Joe's if you were spreading asshole poisoning, because it ruined the atmosphere for everyone else.
Talking about or posting the rule isn't necessary if people understand it and act on it. But if you can't enforce the rule, it is better to say nothing. Otherwise, your organization risks being seen as both nasty and hypocritical. Recall the fate of Holland & Knight, the law firm that bragged it had "made it a priority to weed out selfish, arrogant and disrespectful attorneys" and that it would enforce a "no-jerk rule." It faced bad press when insiders expressed disgust with the firm's hypocrisy because an attorney with an alleged history of sexual harassment was promoted to a senior management position.
The rule lives -- or dies -- in the little moments.
Having all the right business philosophies and management practices to support the no-asshole rule is useless unless you treat the person right in front of you, right now, in the right way.
That customer who claimed to be writing a book on assholes took less than 30 seconds to deliver his beautiful insult. In that moment, he reinforced the unwritten rule that Little Joe's was a place where employees and customers came to have fun, to laugh, and to joke, not to abuse and demean. The same lesson emerged from the most extensive "asshole management intervention" that I know of in American history, which involved more than 7,000 people at 11 different Veterans Administration facilities. Of course, the people at the VA used much more polite language -- words like stress, aggression and bullying. But I call it an asshole management intervention because the VA teams taught people how to reflect on and to change the little nasty things that they did, like glaring at people and treating them as if they were invisible. In other words, they helped assholes recognize how and when they did their dirty work -- and they showed them how to change such destructive behavior.
Should you keep a few assholes around?
The incident at Little Joe's shows that very bad people can be a very good thing -- if they are handled right. That flaming asshole was perfect for Chapter 13 because his antics showed every customer and employee in that crowded place how not to behave at that place. But I want to warn you that allowing a few creeps to make themselves at home in your company is dangerous. The truth is that assholes breed like rabbits. Their poison quickly infects others; even worse, if you let them make hiring decisions, they will start cloning themselves. Once people believe that they can get away with treating others with contempt or, worse yet, believe they will be praised and rewarded for it, a reign of psychological terror can spread throughout your organization that is damn hard to stop.
Enforcing the no-asshole rule isn't just management's job.
Keep in mind that the aspiring author at Little Joe's wasn't a manager. He wasn't even an employee. He was just a customer waiting in line. The lesson is that the no-asshole rule works best when everyone involved in the organization steps in to enforce it when necessary. Just think of the simple math. If, say, you work in a store that has one manager, 22 employees and several hundred customers, it is impossible to expect that one manager to be everywhere at once, enforcing the no-asshole rule or, for that matter, any other norm about how people are expected to act in the organization. But if every employee and customer, as well as the manager, understands, accepts and has the power to support the rule, then it is a lot harder for any given customer to get away with being a flaming asshole. Treating people right means conveying respect, warmth and kindness to them -- and assuming the best about their intentions. But the game changes when people demonstrate that they are unmitigated jerks. And it is a lot easier to enforce the rule when everyone feels obligated to let bullies know that their nastiness is ruining the joy for everyone else and -- as that clever customer did by embarrassing that flaming asshole -- when everyone takes responsibility for pressing the "delete button" to expel assholes from the system.
Embarrassment and pride are powerful motivators.
That abusive customer at Little Joe's was stopped in his tracks because he was embarrassed. I can still remember how his face turned bright red, how he turned silent and stared ahead as he finished his meal, and how he avoided eye contact with people standing in line as he headed out. As renowned sociologists like Erving Goffman have shown, human beings will go to extreme lengths to save face, to feel respected and to avoid embarrassment and feelings of shame. In organizations where the no-asshole rule reigns, people who follow it and don't let others break that rule are rewarded with respect and appreciation. When people violate the rule, they are confronted with painful, and often public, embarrassment and the feelings of shame that go with it. True, it rarely happens as swiftly and thoroughly as it did that day at Little Joe's. At most places that enforce the rule, the delete button is powered with a more subtle blend of respect and humiliation. But it still happens.
Assholes are us.
I suspect that when you heard the Little Joe's story, you identified with the customers and employees who were offended by that jerk. And maybe -- like me -- you secretly dreamed that someday, just once, you could summon the spontaneous wit and courage to bring down an asshole just like that clever customer did. But let's look at it another way. Think about the times when you were the guy at the counter, when you were the asshole in the story. I wish I could say I've never been that guy, but that would be a bold-faced lie. If you want to build an asshole-free environment, you've got to start by looking in the mirror. When have you been an asshole? When have you caught and spread this contagious disease? What can you do, or what have you done, to keep your inner asshole from firing away at others? The most powerful single step you can take is to just stay away from nasty people and places. This means you must defy the temptation to work with a swarm of assholes, regardless of a job's other perks and charms. It also means that if you make this mistake, get out as fast as you can. And remember, admitting you're an asshole is the first step. We are all given only so many hours here on earth. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could travel through our lives without encountering people who bring us down with their demeaning remarks and actions? If you are truly tired of living in Jerk City -- if you don't want every day to feel like a walk down Asshole Avenue -- well, it's your job to help build and shape a civilized workplace. Sure, you already know that. But isn't it time to do something about it?
What happens with the shed & shread mentality, is that the mighty do fall. These DM's will get what's coming to them.
ReplyDeleteJust like Adam found out. =)
If I am not mistaken, Adam was "offered" retirement to leave. Not enough years, but if they want somebody gone, they will bend the rules, thus no more Adam.
ReplyDeleteYes, sales commonly rise when it comes to new year. We also will feel that the hours are down. So it would be better to find the best place to get what you need while saving a lot of money.
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