I didn't get the award I wanted. We had a meeting on Monday to talk about Union awareness and just before our second session on our new 'Hispanic Friendliness' initiative, they announced that Someone in Ft. Worth got Most Improved, someone in Ft. Worth got the Best award, then someone in Dallas got the Best award and while my entire body was feeling limp and shaky at the same time, thinking 'this is it!' 'now I'll finally find out!' they awarded the Dallas Most Improved to another store. The limp and shaky didn't end while we went out into the break area and I sat at a table with one of the Ft. Worth winners and two girls from my training who knew how bad I wanted it.
The manager of the 'real' best looking store in Dallas (who was exempt from the award since his store was just remodeled) tapped me on the shoulder and said, "I thought you were going to win that?" Like it was a question and he wondered what happened.
What happened is the award is complete corporate BS. The person who got the award instead of me has been at her store for several years, and is disgruntled because she hasn't moved on to another position. It's like saying, "You really sucked before, but now you are ok." It's like he threw her a bone because she needed something to keep her going in the company.
My manager said when he visited our store (on the first of 3 days of judging) that it was between our store and another store (that would be her store). Already? I took that with a grain of salt because he still had several more stores to see.
The difference that I know of is that she put some black trim around the big SW sign behind her register. I tried to buy some trim but they wouldn't cut it for me at Lowe's, and neither I nor Isaac has a saw nor knows how to use one to cut the angle needed for the odd-shaped sign. I still hung the sign on the wall, which was something I thought wouldn't happen. Make it work!
I don't see how her store could have possibly improved at a greater rate than mine did- mine had so much further to go. It's an older store than hers, which guarantees that there were more problems- with the floors, the ceilings, the walls, the old dirty mismatched shelving... Not to mention that her store has more than two employees, so it's not possible that she worked harder than I did at the task either. I can almost guarantee that she did not paint her entire store by herself. Twice.
Nor did she replace ceiling tiles that have moldy insulation sitting right on top of them, so that when you tilt them to take them out, the insulation falls right on your face and head and down your shirt and itches until you finally go home 5 hours later and shower it off.
Now, she may have completely reorganized the entire warehouse by herself or rearranged the entire sales floor, or replannogrammed most of it herself like I did. She had to do some work to get the award. Maybe she just needed it more than I did. I don't know what the answer is.
I gave myself the day to feel disappointed about it, then decided that it wasn't worth it. I would have made the same changes in the store if there was no award, and there are still more changes I plan to make. But now I'm going to focus on being a better salesperson and selling more paint. We are still finishing up that apartment complex (the 650-gallon order), and will be starting on a recreation center just across the street fairly soon. Big jobs = big rewards/money/recognition.
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