My Resignation

So, I was supposed to hand this in on Sunday [my LAST shift], but I was SUPER sick that day.  Yeah, I know how it LOOKS, but really, i was sick.  So I handed it in today... here goes:

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May 28, 2006

Ryan M. Moore

401 Brock Street East,

Apt #5

P7E 4H8

Sears Canada

HR Department

880 Fort William Rd

Dear Human Resources, Scott Osadic, Debbie Suslyk & Michael Lepine:

After much personal deliberation I have come to a difficult decision to resign my position with Sears after 6 years of faithful service.  Over the past few months I have felt that Sears’ management team was no longer in need of my services as Product Knowledge Specialist.  In my own opinion it was the management that gave me the distinct impression that I was no longer wanted in Sears’ employ.  Detractor’s to that comment may say that I was unhappy at Sears and I would like to address those comments now.  I love working in retail and many of the Sears customers were enjoyable and made my time feel worthwhile; what made me seem unhappy was the management attitude towards me.

Over my 6 years at Sears I have seen many things that contributed to, what I felt, was a poor work environment.  There was little support for any staff and I have seen many good employees leave because management failed to do anything to mentor and assist [the biggest of which was watching Rayanne Legros leave because Sears was unwilling to help stop the harassment she suffered at the hands of co-workers].

Recently my hours were reduced severely (see attached chart), which caused me concern because I was not told why.  I researched and asked questions to the management.  This process took me some time to any response and an unclear and undocumented one at that.  During this search for an answer I was given ‘coded’ remarks that made me feel isolated from the team.  All of which were symptoms of a poisoned environment that were leading to a ‘creative dismissal’ case.

·         I was told my shifts were cut because my availability changed

o        In fact, my availability, yes, did change, but for the better of Sears.  Before Christmas I was working full time teaching which had never been a problem before.  In the second semester I worked only 1/3 part time so I would have more time to work at Sears.  During September to December I had asked to have my scheduling scaled back to 3 days per week and yet it still ended up being 4-5 most of the time.  I was told that I would be ‘helping out’ and I did so without any negative feelings.  When I was able to work more I was shunted down to 1 shift per week, and some weeks less.  For more detail see the attached spreadsheet, it is evident in areas that where my availability was the same as others I was used significantly less than other employees

·         I was told I was misbehaving during my shifts

o        I did play guitar on two shifts at work.  I felt that the store employees should use the products we were selling and allow the customers to see them in action [everything else is demo-able].  Additionally, I was not the only employee to do this, yet I was the only one being punished for it and notably not at the time of the indiscretion but instead many months later.  If this was wrong I was NEVER corrected by my immediate supervisors.  There was plenty of opportunity for management to say something when they walked past me and encourage me to change the behaviour if they believed it was detrimental to Sears.

·         I was told that I had abused the sick-phone system.

o        Over the past year I had called in sick 5 times: {05/21/05, 08/22/05, 08/23/05, 12/03/05, & 01/22/06}.  This is less than some others in the department (some up to 13 times in a single year).  The unfound accusation of abuse came because one night I had called around 2am.  I was unaware that there was hours of operation for that line and that sickness needed to be scheduled around those times.

What perplexes me is that if I was being punished for these situations why I was not informed that there were infractions and moreover what corrective action needed to be taken?  Why did I have to search out the reasons on my own instead of being informed by management, whose job it is anyhow?  If there were infractions taking place I wish I would have known when they took place and not month’s later so positive corrective action could be pursued.

Recently there was a poor decision made by myself concerning price matching.  I totally understand my being written up for it as I realize my error, and I was actually glad to receive immediate notification of the error so I could take steps to correct it in the future.

I make this decision with a heavy heart as I will miss the store, the coworkers and the customers.  I will, however, not miss the poor treatment that I received over the past 6 months.

 

Sincerely,

Ryan M. Moore

former Product Knowledge Specialist

 

 

* - Description of the data:  The data was collected from the scheduling book for the department.

The first is a chart showing # of shifts worked of employees who worked for the same period of time.  All roughly had the same availability as myself, some even less, yet the numbers show that I consistently was used far less.  More so evident since January where I was scheduled less than half of the average for comparative workers.

The second chart is a comparison of the frequency [# of shifts per month / # of days per month] and the rolling average of my scheduling.  The frequency runs a rough average of 57% up until December at which point the frequency dips well below 30% and as low as 9%.

The actual charts of data show the number of shifts scheduled for each month, for the past 9 months [and in my case almost 2 years] and the frequency therein.  I have separated the data before and after January to show contrast for my case.  Where other employee’s frequency remained an unchanged average of roughly 50% my frequency average dropped from the same 50% to 16% which represents a 78% reduction.  How could anybody stand idly by as their pay was reduced by 78% with no reason given?

 

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Moore
month	# of days	# of shifts	frequency (%)		cum. Averages
September	30	19	0.63		0.63
October	31	16	0.52		0.57
November	30	18	0.60		0.58
December	31	18	0.58		0.58
January	31	13	0.42		0.55
February	28	15	0.54		0.55
March	31	18	0.58		0.55
April	30	18	0.60		0.56
May	31	21	0.68		0.57
June	30	18	0.60		0.57
July	31	18	0.58		0.57
August	31	19	0.61		0.58
September	30	8	0.27		0.55
October	31	11	0.35		0.54
November	30	9	0.30		0.52
December	31	14	0.45		0.52
January	31	9	0.29		0.51
February	28	3	0.11		0.48
March	31	3	0.10		0.46
April	30	5	0.17	Avg (overall)	0.45
May	31	5	0.16	0.42	0.43
June	30	4	0.13		0.42
Total	668	282
	Avg	Avg			0.16	average from january
	30.36	12.82	0.42

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Schultz
month	# of days	# of shifts	rate
September	30	13	0.43
October	31	12	0.39
November	30	11	0.37
December	31	20	0.65		0.46	average up to this point
January	31	10	0.32
February	28	12	0.43
March	31	8	0.26
April	30	14	0.47	Avg (overall)
May	31	17	0.55	0.44	0.43	average from january
June	30	16	0.53
Total	303	133
	Avg	Avg
	30.30	13.30	0.44

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Ball
month	# of days	# of shifts	rate
September	30	17	0.57
October	31	12	0.39
November	30	15	0.50
December	31	21	0.68		0.53	average up to this point
January	31	20	0.65
February	28	17	0.61
March	31	16	0.52
April	30	12	0.40	Avg (overall)
May	31	12	0.39	0.51	0.49	average from january
June	30	11	0.37
Total	273	142
	Avg	Avg
	30.30	15.30	0.50

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Krupa
month	# of days	# of shifts	rate
September	30	17	0.57
October	31	16	0.52
November	30	13	0.43
December	31	19	0.61		0.53	average up to this point
January	31	14	0.45
February	28	16	0.57
March	31	17	0.55
April	30	16	0.53	Avg (overall)
May	31	16	0.52	0.53	0.53	average from january
June	30	16	0.53
Total	303	160
	Avg	Avg
	30.30	16.00	0.53

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I did...

Well, it's official.  I have the letter drafted... Scott has been informed...

I am parting ways with Sears.  I pondered a heck of a lot.  I asked a lot of people for advice.  My parents were the only people I could reach [not saying they were my last choice] and they gave me the advice I expected.  I must say I think I really took it.  My dad's line of "a bird in the hand..." I'll admit, I didnt' follow [obviously], but the 'act, don't react' and 'pray about it' I took to heart.

 

I had to take a few minutes before Mandy and I went to a social event to attend and just clear my head.  All day I had that jumpy feeling of anxiousness.  I paused... prayed for a feeling.  Mandy suggested I talk to Greg when we saw him inside and see what thought.  A few more minutes passed and we went inside.  Some pleasantries occurred and I slipped the "i think I'm quitting Sears" line to Greg and all he did was put his hand out for a high five [actually he put his fist out so ... you know, touch knuckles.  Not sure what you call it!]  And then I felt some bit of weight come off.  I figured out that it would be right for me to quit.

 

I thought some more to be sure.  Made me a bit of the anti-socialite at the party but it's ok.  I eventually went out to the car, called Scott and told him I would be quitting.  I asked him if he needed me to finish my last few shifts [2 for the 2 weeks] and he said "sure."  He was neither elated, nor upset.  Not even the least bit shocked.

 

Maybe tomorrow I'll post my resignation letter.  Something for all posterity!

 

-ry

former Product Knowledge Specialist

Should I...?

So... I'm at the point where I'm going to draft up my resignation letter.  How sweet would that be?

 

How did I get to this point?  Well, today was a clincher.  I was pulled into the office over something pretty trivial and essentially bullied... well maybe I'm making more of it than I should... but still.  It's the middle management scare tactics that make themselves feel big over their lowly employees.  And I'm just tired of it... screw all this legal stuff I was thinking of doing... Sears is just not worth the energy anymore.

 

Tomorrow is Sears and I'm sick to heart thinking of it...

[education people will get that reference]

No name

Ever had one o fthose occasions where somebody was talking with you and they say something and at the time you go "thanks, that's interesting information" but later on you reflect you wish you hadn't known that little tidbit?  That happened to me this week.  Rob's fiancee Lindsay came by and she threw out the fact that Nichola Goddart [the first female to die in Afghanistan] was not only in Rob's 'squad/platoon/division/whatever...' but that Rob had been in the exact same firefight where she lost her life.  Freakin' spooky is all I have to say.  I almost don't want that thought to FULLY reach my consciousness.

 

Outside of that...

 

My throat is really aching and I am completely out of my 'jesus-medicine' and I have to be at work in 40m... I have to drop off Mandy prior to that, so will I have enough tme to run into Shopper's and pick some up?  Or will I have to use expired Hall's all day?  I mean heaven forbid that I call in sick...

Just updating for updating sakes...

Should I bitch about stupid students... annoying students... or what?

I'm too exhausted by them to bother complaining.  Oh, well.  I just have to remember that I don't fail them, but they fail themselves.  I just add up the marks.

 

Well, the summer's looking to be the most awkward time of all.  I've booked alot of time off with Sears... we'll see what happens with that.  I've got my R.o.E. here, just gotta apply for EI.  I'm debating whether i should sit down with the store manager and see what he says.  Just go one up or something.  Maybe precipitate the ending to it all.  I like the job still... really I do.  I just get aggrevated dealing with people who think that they're trying to punish me or something - that this is their only lowly way to feel big.  Sad really.

 

What else is shaping up in my reality?

 

I've posted my resume on the Peel board job site and monster jobs thingie.  Who knows.  There's a part of me that's thinking I could be doing something grand ... who knows.   Oh, well, gotta keep the options open I guess.

 

I've also joined the legion of followers of Sudoku. Really good.  I like playing on my palm 'cuz i can make a lot of mistakes.  On paper it's hard to erase any of those small numbers if i screwed it up.  Besdies it gives me something to do once i've finished the crosswords before classes.

 

It's almost summer here... I broke out my sandals for the first time the other day.  It's great!  I just can't wait until I can get camping.  I was upset that I didn't get to go on the May Long, but at the same time I heard alot of people say it was horrible weather.  So I should be grateful.

 

L8R all..

-ry

Tired

Sun is finally out and heating up the place.  I haven't gone for a run in a few days and today would be totally good.  Just too tired...

 

Need energy to go for run or at least finish blog....

 

I think I'll go for the run.

 

Hey, nobody's suggested any songs yet?  grr...

 

28 days more to go.

26 days... just 26 days.  And then what?  So much uncertainty.

 

On the one hand, finishign school will be nice.  Some of these kids are really rattling my last nerves.  It would please me greatly to see them fail.  But at the same time, ... how does that reflect on me?  Arg.. aggrevating it is.

 

On the other hand, what after school?  It's kind of nice to have the routine AND the steady paychecque.  It may not be much, but at least it's something.  And after it's over, the only source of income for me will be Sears.  Which is trying to push me out.  So how will I make ends meet?  Well, obviously I'm going to have to go on E.I.  Which has been fun trying to get the paper-work ready for.  Sears was VERY reluctant to see that that went forward.  I wonder if I do have acase against them. That would be fun.

 

But why go on E.I.?  Why stay at Sears if I do?  I mean if the government will allow me to draw on EI, and that means I'll be getting paid to do nothing, why should I work at Sears at all?  Too many decisions.  Plus, if I go on E.I. then Sears would probably give me MANY hours, just to spite me.

 

I just wish they'd sever me.  I know they want me gone.  They know I want to go... but do I?  Do I really?

Jumping on the bandwagon

So, last week I ended up jumping on the huge popularity craze by picking up a set of poker chips.  I spent a good portion of the day just looking for the right set.  And then we played a round at Jarron's... a couple rounds.  Now I just keep trying to find or setup a game.

 

Fun fun...