I lived in Auckland for nearly a year and a half and struggled a lot from the beginning. I was going there for one reason to find work and save as much as I can. Now that it’s done and I have left I look back and realize that I limited myself because of my one overriding goal so save as much as I could.
I ended staying in Auckland most of the time which was a mistake because it meant that I was missing out on most of the country and what it has to offer but the one thing that was constant was the sheer cost of everything from housing, food and entertainment being from Canada, living in Asia and then going to New Zealand the costs were huge in comparison.
That made me have to keep to the bare minimal instead of finding time to enjoy things I was just trying to save as much as I could once I started working. I worked for The North Face Auckland store which is run by True Alliance since February after having done office work in September and some freelance work from November to year’s end.
I enjoyed learning about retail but my Manager had a particular style that didn’t make me feel like I was part of the team. It wasn’t something that I paid much attention to at the start of my contract but over a few weeks it became insufferable. It would be small things like how my manager was constantly patronizing to me, instead of being someone to trust I had to be constantly on guard with him which didn’t make for a good working environment.
I am a type 1 diabetic and i have my issues with my condition and when you are working 40 hours a week in one place it will be bound to come up. That’s not to say anyone else was to blame for the lows I had at work but me because it was my responsibility and something that I wasn’t always able to balance but hey that’s life.
I had lows during work and as a diabetic it’s not something you want to admit and I should have been clear about it after I was hired but I wasn’t because I was afraid. I knew that after having a few lows they wouldn’t trust me and that is my cross to bear. It was my responsibility and I know it but it was how I was treated after that time that really made me feel like I was less of a person that was demeaning as a person and made me feel worse for the rest of the time I was working there and it didn’t have to be that way.
The main source of information upper management had was based on what our manager was saying and I had seen what he had to say about me to management because it was left as a draft email and I knew it was all being geared to get me fired or force me out and eventually I took the option of least resistance. When they offered a month’s severance I took it because it meant I would be free of his constant judgement and patronizing ways.
My manager was quick to point out our mistakes but not take responsibility for his own, he would delegate to everyone else instead of doing simple things himself which mme loose respect for him. I wouldn’t go out of my way for him because he didn’t earn my trust or respect he act as if he was owed it by the position itself and while that may need true how he acted not just toward me but all of us meant that I was not going to give him an inch.
Santosh would always tell me it’s not him it’s the company and try to limit the perception of his role when it was obvious that he was a big part of what was happening. As a manager he deflected his role as to not have to face what was going on and was too much of a coward to own up it.
I had a low where the ambulance was called not the first time it’s happened and not the worst but ever since then I knew my days were numbered. It was just a matter of time and the way I was treated after that point went from bad to worse as I was made to feel like nothing but a problem but all that happened behind my back.
I was told my performance was poor and my manager was using the smallest details like how I sounded on the phone, or that it took me more than a minute to put a shoe on a child mannequin as proof that I wasn’t doing my job. When I had finished the performance review I was given a plan for improvement but my manager never once mentioned it. He never told me when we would go over it and avoided talking to me about it.
He couldn’t put a pair of shoes to a kid’s mannequin even in 5 minutes when I’d to intervene and do the job. At 10:15am, he received a call from a customer who was looking for a M Free Thinker jacket and he was talking to him over the phone but he seemed to be lost since his conversation wasn’t confident. I again had to intervene there and help the customer.
How they were trying to replace me and made me feel.
He didn’t like conflict and would avoid it at all costs, I knew how he talked about me to management and he didn’t like that I knew. My manager has an encyclopedic knowledge of the brand and is great at sales but in terms of people management he is poor.
As the manager he wants to avoid conflict but that also means let lets issues fester and there are no open lines of communication. He says there are but the reality is that you never wanted to talk to him if you could avoid it because whatever you said he would make you pay for it later in some subtle and not so subtle ways.
It’s one thing to talk to your manager but when the management in Australia is telling me that my performance was poor without having ever seen me work it comes across as hollow.
My manager was and is a yes man, he goes to work and gets out as soon as he can. He’s been in the job awhile but he likes things done his own way and any other way at least in my case was categorically wrong.
A yes man may make a good employee but that doesn’t mean he is a leader or someone I would do my best for. Why should I when I knew how he talked about me to his bosses, I knew he wanted me gone.
He was a hypocrite, he would smile to my face while stabbing me in the back. He would constantly delegate to stafff which no one had a problem with but it was the fact that even if could do it himself and wasn’t particularly busy he would ask one of us to do it without fail.
I didn’t like talking to him because it was a farce, he would hold us to account for the smallest things. If I had gotten something wrong he would point it out in such a way that tried to make me feel incompetent. It was constantly insulting and he would never hold himself to the same standard. If he did something wrong it was OK but if I did the same I would be talked to.
I never trusted my manager Santossh, he didn’t create an environment where you felt valued or like you could contribute in a meaningful way. He would find ways to always make it be about himself, or instead of being happy when you did a good sale he would belittle you for it while building himself up.
This is only one half the story but when I worked for The North Face 6 people had left, 7 if you include myself and a big part of the reason for at least half is the manager himself. You can’t be honest with him, you can’t trust what he says and he is a know it all and that made him a poor manager, he will point out everyone else’s flaws but not admit to his own or does so in such a way to make him look better at the expense of someone else.
The crew with our assistant manager pixelated :p
I am only talking about my own thoughts but I know I am not alone as I’ve heard former employees say the same things about our manager. It’s hard to work for someone like that and why when they offered me a way to end my employment I took it because my time is more valuable than the money I would earn if it meant that I wouldn’t have to deal with an arrogant, patronizing and condescending hypocrite.
At the start I wrote what qualities the best leaders have, they celebrate your wins, protect their people and treat you as equals and I said he was none of those things. I wouldn’t have been able to say it to his face so I gave him a note and an hour later he had called the brand manager to end my employment immediately.
I sent him a text saying that what he had just done proved my point. I was supposed to be working the next day with him for 2 hours but I told him before I left than tomorrow I would do what I am told but would deal with our Assistant Manager. I guess that was too much for him because the Brand Manager said I was not to come in and return my key tomorrow.
I told him that giving less than 24 hours notice and cancelling my shift without sufficient cause was unfair and I would show up anyway because I needed the money which was the truth and I would only not go if I they would pay me my normal salary for the entire week.
I am glad that my time at The North Face Auckland is over, I am happy that I don’t have to be in such a toxic environment anymore. Even before I resigned they were trying to replace me, they wanted to hire someone else for part-time but were going to give him security clearance for the store. How is that supposed to make someone like me feel, it felt I was already being pushed out well before I had given them my resignation letter.
How was I supposed to continue working in that situation and although he had been given the OK to hire this person he waited for more than a week to call back and by the time he did he had already found a job? It’s these things that add up to make him someone not ready to be a good manager and understand what true leadership is about.
Look if I was more careful with my diabetes this would have probably never happened and I can’t change what has already transpired but I do hope that TNF can learn from this but I doubt they will. I was a problem they wanted to get rid of and I took the exit. I felt like shit working at The North Face, there were times when they made not just me but everyone feel like we were slaves.
I am glad I worked at TNF, it wasn’t easy but I know what to watch out for the future and I know I learned a lot about myself and how I will never again take the kind of attitude I was shown by management not just at the store level but beyond. I had to fight, I saw legal counsel to make sure they knew I knew that certain things they did weren’t legal. By writing this I release my frustration and can look forward to new opportunities that I couldn’t seek before.