Rules From Management: Follow Them To The Letter, Or Not, Whatever

(We are remodeling the store in line with new guidelines. I have been working on the men’s department for the past day, and it is more or less complete. The store manager, however, has been getting annoyed with some of the changes, saying I am not being very design-forward — as though I’m actually choosing how things look!) 

Manager: “You see? This needs to be here, so that way you have more space for jeans.”

Me: “But the guidelines say jeans need to be reduced as they aren’t as in-fashion at the moment. Here this is the layout for our stand size.”

(She fans it away and orders me to change it, literally saying, “I order you.” I protest, but I do it, and she leaves to go and boss someone else around. By the end of the remodel, my coworkers and I are exhausted.)

Coworker: “Did anyone else get an earache from her Royal Highness?”

(We all nod.)

Me: “We’ve never had to remodel the whole store before, so I don’t know how flexible the guidelines are. But [Old Manager] always said to just follow it to the letter.”

Manager: *walking around the corner* “And that is exactly why he is no longer working here.”

Me: “No, it’s because he was promoted to director. He probably had a hand in designing these guidelines.”

(She scoffed and laughed at my “ignorance” before sending us home. I was not in again until a week later, but I heard the night before returning that there was an audit, and we marked seriously low because of the manager’s divergence from the guidelines. She apparently tried to place the blame on me, because I wasn’t there, but thankfully there were enough coworkers from that night to vouch for me. I was also given a heads-up that she was on the warpath and was probably looking for any excuse to fire us. She hasn’t managed it yet, but we think she won’t be with us for much longer, as apparently our old manager was very upset that his old store ranked the lowest in the region for the remodel and intends to visit to get everything back in ship-shape.)