Category Five Bad Management

I worked at a big-box home improvement store. There was a hurricane literally on our doorstep.

Me: “We’re closing now, right?”

Store Manager: “We’re staying open until the last customer is served.”

Me: “Sure, we only had a four-day warning it was coming.”

This was a part-time retirement job, and I had an emergency services background. I make sure I am in front of as many coworkers as possible when I loudly admonish the manager by saying:

Me: “So, fun fact. Emergency services stand down once the sustained winds reach about fifty miles an hour. It’s too dangerous for them and their apparatus to be out, and the last thing you want to do is have your first responders become casualties. If any of us are still here when the winds get that fast and we have any kind of emergency like a wreck, a tree falling on them, etc, no one will be coming until the hurricane force winds are gone.”

Everyone else looked very uneasy as I said this. Feeling outnumbered, the store manager conceded.

Store Manager: “Fine. Cash out everyone still in the store, and then we’ll leave.”

We left two hours earlier than the manager had liked, and considering that the hurricane hit with full force about the time half of us would still be trying to get home, it was a good thing we did!