It’s such a small thing, respect.
Two stories:
A staff member asks management why a store is open early, even though there are very rarely customers in the first hours of operation. Management says labor is so cheap that it’s cost effective, even for two or three customers.
A new management position is created and filled without any mention to non-management employees, and revealed in an email stating only that a member of management has taken on this new position.
I believe, in my cynical old age, that perhaps I am asking too much. What I would like, in an ideal world, is for people in management positions (or other positions of arbitrary authority; I hear fascinating stories about business school PhDs from friends of mine) to remember that those of us who are not part of management are not lesser beings. We do just as much work, often more difficult work, for less money and fewer perks.
It would behoove those of you in management to treat those of us on the floor with the same level of respect you believe you are entitled to from us.
On the other hand, the more frustrated I get with the way management casually dismisses staff, the more creative projects I get work done on. I’ve got a fabulous wooly blanket on the needles (and how awful is that, the idea of it being cool enough in June to knit wool?), I’m working on writing again, and I have grand schemes for handspinning (although I have to finish a skein of silk first). So maybe some good will come of it anyway.
There are interesting things afoot, and that’s part of the problem - I don’t get to play. Ah, well, I can make my own fun - although teaching myself to tapestry weave is going slowly, and so I may not get that particular project started anytime soon. Which is ok. There are cotton towels on the drawing board, too, and it is always particularly satisfying to make useful things.
I suppose it shouldn’t surprise me that management is so dismissive. That is tradition, after all.
