Any advice on how to get rid of the bad opinion my area manager has of me?

hasdanta

Hey guys. Just wondering if you guys could give me some advice on how to deal with my area manager who apparently hasn’t been too impressed with me.

I started a job in retail 4 months ago with no experience. Since the start, I’ve received 90% praise from the store manager (with the 10% being minor critiques of me which I’ve always taken on board and tried to improve on) telling me she’s super impressed with me and said I’m getting on great. I typically always work weekends so I’ve never run into the area manager (who oversees multiple shops) as he only visits during the week.

However, since I’ve been off on winter break I’ve been working mid week and have been working on two occasions when the area manager came into the store, where he hasn’t been too impressed with me (which he has only expressed to the store manager and not to me personally)

The first time I worked with him there I carried on as I usually did - folding clothes, size ordering the clothes and approaching customers. At one stage during the day, he came up to me and told me to watch out for customers near the jeans as they are the toughest to sell (he told me this whilst I was doing another job of putting out stock). Regardless, I took his advice on board and made a bigger effort to approach customers. I thought I was getting on fine that day but apparently he told the store manager I looked “lost” out on the shop floor (with the store manager herself telling me she was shocked at this criticism)

Then this week he came down again. After hearing what he said to the store manager last week about me, I made it a conscious effort to approach lots of customers and always keep myself occupied when the store wasn’t busy. At one stage during the day, he approached me and asked me about a call I took earlier in the week from another one our stores looking for the transfer of certain jacket. Apparently, the order had been messed as only one jacket had been transferred when two (apparently) were requested, however I am 100% confident that the phone call I took was only for one jacket to be transferred (so either the other store is falsely remembering the transfer they requested from me or a guy I work with who had the same name as me took a similar request from the store and messed it up). When he was talking to me, I could feel myself going a bit red in the face because I felt like he was accusing me of messing up the order despite it not being my fault. I honestly don’t think he believed me despite me telling the truth.

Later on, I found out from my manager that he once again was not happy with me at all and felt I “lacked drive”, which is super confusing me because I was really engaging with customers that day he was down to try and impress him (and I know he saw me interacting with customers that day because at one stage he was literally beside me as I helped a customer out). He told the store manager that he wanted to approach me about this but decided to “bite his tongue”. Once again, my store manager was shocked at his feedback on me. I apologised to her and she said not to worry and that she still thinks I’m doing great which is reassuring, but I just want to impress the area manager because I’m still on my probation period.

Honestly, I feel like I’ve made a bad first impression with him based on his snap judgements (considering he’s only seen me work a few hours as he spends a lot of his time on the phone / at different parts of the store where I’m out of view) but I really wanna try and shake this and get in his good graces. Does anyone have any advice for me, it’d be greatly appreciated!

idnkph

Try asking the manager for feedback... If it's negative ask them to provide more training/advice. Ask them to show you how it's done.
Tell them you are keen to learn and advance.

Esse85

The store manager shouldn't be telling you that her boss said you look lost.
If she's under the impression your doing a good job, she shouldn't be passing on feedback to you that she doesn't even understand herself as this only creates uncertainty and self doubt for you.
If the store manager says anything again, ask her for an example of what she's saying, then request a solution that addresses the issue if there is one.

As for transferring the jackets, if that needs to be done again, can you request it in writing, say an email? Otherwise, if a mistake is made again, its always gonna be your word versus the other person at the end of the line.

The area sales manager only sees a snapshot of you, but it sounds like the store manager can't manage people.

Batgurl

OP

Is this a part time job? It sounds like you are in college and this is just your weekend work.

If that is the case, I wouldn’t worry too much. This is your first foray into the working world and you’ve learned your first lesson; some managers are impossible to please.

Honestly, unless you are getting feedback with specifics of how to improve, it’s just white noise. Smile and nod and promise to do better but as it’s a temp job, don’t put too much pressure on yourself as you won’t be there long.

seamus

^^
What Batgurl says.

There's every chance that the area manager is actually giving the store manager hassle and is just using you as a means to be a pain in the ass.

Employee looking lost == manager isn't giving them good direction. Lacking drive == manager isn't motivating them correctly.

If the store manager has given good feedback about you, then the area manager might relish the chance to come in and sh1t all over you as a way to get at the store manager.

drunkmonkey

Did you write down the order from the other store, did you call it back to them eg, just so i'm clear i've to transfer one medium jacket is that correct?, it's no harm do the same thing with customers when talking to them, just so i'm clear you wanted jeans a shirt and a matching jumper. If you make that a habit you'll never doubt yourself.

I think your manager is a woman who can be sometimes not as direct as men, she's using the area manager as boogie man, he said this and that about you. She shouldn't be doing that. If you need to be brush up on certain parts fine but she doesn't need to do it in a good cop /bad cop routine.

The customers your now going up to are you converting them into sales, it's one thing getting on great with them but if there not openign their purse for you it's a problem you need to work on, ask the area manager the next time about what way they approach someone (people love talking about themselves), how to close the sale etc they'll have plenty of traning in that and you might be surprised they actually like you.

hasdanta

Just the clarify, the store manager is my boyfriend’s sister. We are friend so she probably shouldn’t be telling me these things but I appreciate her telling me as I want to know myself.

About the transfer, no I didn’t write it down as that isn’t needed. It was a simple request over the phone, but I would get my life on it that I did it correctly.

And yes, it’s just my part time work. I know I shouldn’t worry about it too much, I just don’t want want the area manager to be putting my store manager under pressure after 6 months to get rid of me.