So today our market director made a surprise visit one day before D-Day. Surprisingly, she treated me, one of the commoners, very kindly. The first confrontation occurred when she, for some reason, was standing where the GM center aisle and the patio furniture displays intercept. Instead of being bitchy (which, according to coworkers, she does often), she simply greeted me with a big smile and the usual, “Hello, how are you doing?”
Then, after I grabbed some fishing returns, I went to that aisle, and miraculously, she and my boss’s boss were discussing something. She again greeted me and then went out of her way to ask me if I was a fishing guy. I responded by saying, “No, I’m just working over here.” Then she asked if I fished a lot, and I told her that I’ve only fished once in my entire life (in the third grade). She commented that it was about the same for her (which makes me wonder where the conversation would’ve gone if I actually was a fisher), and then my boss’s boss joked that a fish jumped up and bit me, and then they walked away.
One other interesting note was that throughout my day, I actually saw her working in the store, taking down old fasttracks and even stocking apple pies.
While this story is not that exciting, and it deals with what some may label the unbearable minutia of daily life, it brings up two interesting points. The first: it’s not that difficult to be nice. If the store director’s boss could go out of her way to show kindness and willingness to converse with a Delta in the hierarchy, then perhaps the store director and some of the other bitchier managers can take a hint. (And I could be nicer too.)
The second point is that she actually worked. In two hours I saw her do more than I see my store director do in two weeks, maybe two months. This is not her store, and she did not have to do work, as her primary job is to dictate instructions from the corporate office (and some of her own) to the store directors in her “market.” And while I have a feeling that her job may be on the line as well when she joins her boss tomorrow morning, it was not only a nice gesture on her part to help the store out as I did not see our store director do one thing today besides walk around, but also a signal to other members of management to do their share as well.
Update from last night’s post: at today’s team member meeting, the store director expressed confidence that his job would be safe after “coming together really well” and getting the backroom empty. In addition, my old boss believed that the corporate powers would not do anything on D-Day (she actually referred to it as D-Day like I do; I thought that was kinda cool), although she would not be opposed to a shakeup.
