My boss is an idiot.
There. I've said it.
He's not always an idiot. But sometimes he makes idiotic decisions. He's got good reason, but still. Idiotic.
Let's go back to the merger. Many EB stores were inventoried in January. Most were not. And then in February, when the EB and GameStop mainframes were linked up, EB stores ceased doing inventories, though GameStop stores continued with their inventory process.
In June, with all EB stores on new registers with GameStop, not EB product skus and mainframe backend, the company settled on all EBs being inventoried between July 1st and August 11th. District managers were sent inventory schedules, and those dates were supposed to be inviolate. “Can't change the dates!” my district manager would say, repeatedly, on conference calls. “If I give you an inventory date, that's when it's going to be.”
My inventory went off, without a hitch, the Tuesday after Shore Leave. I wasn't happy with that date — the time I spent at Shore Leave I could have spent preparing the store, and my district manager would probably have preferred that — but I worked mondo hours when I got back from Shore Leave, and when we started scanning the inventory went well.
The day after my inventory the store in Garner was supposed to be inventoried. That store manager said he wouldn't be ready, a date the following week (while he was on vacation) wouldn't work, and so we finally did his inventory last week.
Last night we did the third in our district, in Goldsboro.
There are districts, like the one immediately to the north (which has twice the number of EB stores), that are finished with their inventories.
My district? We have five to do between Sunday and Wednesday. Because my district manager moved three of them.
The two on Sunday were scheduled originally for Sunday. No worries there.
The inventory on Monday was supposed to be three days ago. That manager said she wasn't ready, and could it be moved?
The inventory on Tuesday? That's in Jacksonville, and there's no sodding way I'm going to that one. I did a Jacksonville inventory two years ago, and if I never go in that store again I can die happy. I think that, too, was supposed to have been earlier. Two weeks ago, if memory serves.
And on Wednesday, Crabtree. That was supposed to be two weeks ago. The manager balked. Couldn't be last week — he was on vacation. Now, he's given his two week notice. If that store is prepped at all come Wednesday I'd be shocked. I've been to poorly (or not-at-all) prepped inventories at Crabtree. They are not fun.
I realize that my district manager moved the dates because he was trying to accomodate his managers, their preparation skills, and their vacation schedules. The end result is a gruelling schedule of inventories that have to be done by the 11th, come hell or high water, a gruelling schedule that wouldn't have happened had he taken a firmer stand with managers on getting their stores ready.
I got my store ready in two days after a convention. I'm not understanding why others can't do likewise, with more time and less stress.
Sigh.