Crediting The Manager With The Failure

(I am hired to work at a popular department store as a sales associate. This department store has a store credit card and the managers expect all employees to ask customers to sign up for one. Sometimes, when it is slow and the store isn’t meeting its credit applications goal, they will go around and ask the new hires if they want to open a store credit card so they can meet their goal. This happens on my first day on the sales floor. I am helping a customer when my manager approaches me with another sales associate.)

Manager: “Come on, [My Name]! [Coworker] is going to open a [Store] credit card for you!”

(Being a college student and having no credit history, I know I isn’t going to get approved but I have previously witnessed this particular manager being pushy whenever a customer or new hire said they don’t want to open a card, so her approaching me like this already makes me uncomfortable and nervous.)

Me: “Oh, no, thank you. I don’t want a credit card.”

Manager: “As long as you’re an employee at [Store] you have to apply and have a card.”

Me: “I won’t get approved. I have no cred—”

Manager: *interrupting me* “You still need to apply. It’s required for all employees. Now, do you have your driver’s license on you or do you need to go to the break room?”

Me: “I don’t want to open a credit card, [Manager]. I’m not going to get my driver’s license.”

(This continues for about five minutes, my manager trying to convince me to open an account while I keep refusing. The whole time, my other coworker who was going to open the account also tries to tell my manager that I don’t want a card and is ignored. Finally, she gives up.)

Manager: “I’m really disappointed in you, [My Name]. If you were a team player you would open a credit card so we could meet our goal but clearly you don’t care about our company. Not only are we not going to meet our goal because of you, but [Coworker] is going to suffer as well because she only needed one more app to meet her goal. If we don’t meet our goal within the next hour before we close, it will be all your fault.”

(After this happened, my manager approached me several other times to open a credit card and I refused. Finally, after a couple of months, she gave up and stopped asking me. I quit after two months later because i was tired of management always pushing us to open up credit cards.)