When I first began at "Retail Shed", we all seemed to have our own radio. Communication was easy and the paging system didn't get used for every little thing. Ideally, the assistant manager, CSM (moi), customer service desk associate and one other associate will carry a radio. No doubt you can understand why effective communication is necessary in a business. Well radios started going missing and we were reduced to two radios (only one of those worked) and the assistant manager's radio. So the service desk and the assistant manager became the only two with radios. Cashiers became frustrated because it was difficult to communicate with CSMs when they needed things. My store manager called me into her office and explained to me that I always need to have a radio on me. I explained to her that as soon as she got enough working radios in the store, I would be glad to but that I'm not going to bother carrying a one-way radio everywhere with me. Then she started complaining about us using the paging system and I told her that it would all stop as soon as we got more radios. So it's been this vicious cycle. Let me break it down:
A radio costs around $50 but I was told that our store couldn't afford to buy anymore. The world's largest retailer SELLS radios, it wouldn't even be a drop in the bucket to drop $200 to improve store communication.
I also need to include that I was asked to keep my things in a drawer in the manager's office because they wanted my bag out of the way when Home Office came to the store. I was fine with that and when I went to retrieve my bag, I found a radio. I asked my manager why it was there, she didn't know, so I assumed the little bugger got put in there by mistake. Boom! We've got another radio. Well, two days later, an assistant manager is pissed because I didn't have any business in her drawer and that was "her" radio that she stole from her former store.
Alright back to the board. My request for new radios has been unanswered for over a month. Meanwhile, we're still not supposed to page and we can't communicate with each other. I noticed an overnight support manager making some purchases before he headed out and he had a radio on. I said, "hey we're going to need that, you can't take it with you." He gave me this incredulous look and said "No, this is MY radio, I take it home with me." WELL. Dumbfounded, frustrated and immediately pissed, I made my way to the break room to see how many radios we had. One.
My favorite thing about working in my store is that we can speak our minds with no fear of retaliation. (Largely because my store manager doesn't actually understand anything that we're talking about, I've decided she spends all of her time playing Snake on her phone.)
A couple of my buddies are making breakfast so I started up my motor mouth and let it rip.
"Evidently we all have our own radios now. Mark is taking his home. This is just like the Telxon's, everybody is afraid they won't have the tools they need so they hide them and screw the next shift over. I'm sick of this crap! I get in trouble for not having a radio but they won't even supply me with one! Lisa got all pissy because we were using her radio. I guess I just need to take one with me when I leave and tell everyone it's mine. I'll never have to worry about these stupid radios again!"
I noticed my store manager in her office but I didn't let up because I wanted her to hear it. Maybe I even threw my pen and growled. Sue called from her office and said if I had a problem I could come talk to her about it. I grumbled, "I'M FINE," took a deep breath and decided that I was not fine and stormed into the office.
I started my rant all over again and she said, "nobody has a personal radio, they are the store's radios and I will ensure that nobody takes them home." "Alright thanks, sorry I yelled," I yelled. She told me it was fine.
I'm on a personal mission to reclaim the radios for our store. I'll keep you posted.
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