Micromanager forced to step down after mismanaging a new retail service | Reddit

Intro welcome to the world of rain story where every drop has a tale to tell First Story micromanager forced to step down after mismanaging a new retail service this one might be Petty and definitely not as epic as some of the posts I've seen here and I'm long-winded relevant background info first anyway several years ago I was working at one of the big hardware stores in my area it's a household name and had some upward Mobility with decent pay for the area I never really found a niche there after my first year and a half I learned quickly though so they kinda made me a Swiss Army employee I could work Hardware plumbing mix paint make keys prepare contracts for installs and knew all the features and flaws of the appliance models we sold I was happy to do this because I was building a reputation as someone who could do everything two years in a new program was implemented that I was uniquely qualified to assist with they created an new position for me it was marketed as an all-in-one renovation slash remodel service for interiors I was to assist the designer with product selection product information contracts and local marketing for this service everyone involved was super excited about it note I was still only making ten dollars an hour in 2015 for this the problem was that because this was brand new no one knew how it should work the designer basically had to figure it out for herself while I tried to catch her up with all of the store and product knowledge I had accumulated during my unique experience with the company issues with the program it was way too expensive product to be used had to come from one of our stores which was limiting no one knew about it it was a rocky start co-workers would call me over to talk to customers if they mentioned working on a big project but that's all we had no completed jobs to reference or anything provide Guided by corporate to get us running we made our own stuff I put together a video advertising disservice and got the nod from management to use company card to purchase a TV and media player to roll the video on repeat we built vignettes in the store to showcase our design ability I had been picking up a lot from the designer so it ended up being a partnership in effect the micromanager entered Devin the assistant manager he had actually been involved in the project from the beginning and had been pretty supportive and brought good energy at first but I think he got fed up with issues that we couldn't control sloppy contactors refusing to fix things that they messed up slow design process as customers worked out what they wanted and people just backing out after taking a bunch of our time when they see the price we were on average charging three thousand dollars more for a small bathroom remodel on labor alone Consulting and design fees were also worked into the final cost the product was discounted to basically being tax-free but as I mentioned options were limited to products the company sold it was just too expensive to make many sales on the Poor Side of Town where almost everyone knows some kind of contractor or Tradesmen with connections it wasn't a good market for this program but we did manage to start hitting and exceeding our numbers number seven in the region for the brand new program was not bad and just when we finally started getting some business and a rhythm around eight months in Devin decided that it was not working fast enough for him obviously the designer was to blame since he had no authority over the contractors or setting prices she didn't know what she was doing and he was going to make some changes he honestly didn't do much besides hover bring bad energy and make terrible suggestions he didn't understand the scope of what we had to do to get a customer out the door and happy he forced us to cut corners and get the sale as quickly as possible without concern for liability for basically destroying a room in someone's home to remake it or what was realistic in terms of timeline customers felt rushed and got nervous they backed out we came to a standstill we would only have two or three designs in progress at a time but suddenly after working our asses off building the program we had no customers for the first time in six months obviously Devin was not subjecting us to his authority hard enough so he went harder and fired the designer I lost my patience Justice or Injustice I got my chill dude but I had been working my ass off for this company making peanuts on the promise that I was working towards something I endured working for the incompetent managers that got their positions because they started working there at 18 and made it their life the toxic alpha male I will lead you will follow BS was too much so I started bullying him back making fun of him in a teasing way where he couldn't really react without looking bad or losing control I did that for a while and he left me alone to run the program in the interim since I was the only option the designer and I had become friends though so I was still mad about how it went down I wasn't finished yet but I didn't know what to do eventually they got another designer and Devin had me moved back to what I had been doing before passed over for several promotions that I was more than qualified for the market had been flooded with long-time employees that were being moved around bad luck but I was done with the place one day we were sent an email link to an anonymous manager review survey the store computers were set up with an always-on and logged in user profile so I wrote down the link and verified with the co-worker that they weren't unique in every Department I visited that day I wrote a review for Devin all different ratings some good some bad but I made the good ones so that they sounded bad but as if I didn't know it was bad I did that maybe 10 times it wasn't character assassination or anything just opinion based stuff with some vague example people so no one could figure out it was me I didn't lie either I just said what people don't usually say out loud you would barely look at anyone after that a couple of weeks later he resigned his position as assistant manager and took an exterior design position at the other end of the store as far away from the Departments he had been over before basically the same thing as what we had done with Interiors but he was in the designer's shoes I left a couple of months later to work tech support for DHS but while I was still in training for that my friends from the store told me he had gotten fired maybe he learned something he should at least have learned how my designer friend felt they were both fired at Christmas so today's Outro interesting story has come to an end thank you for watching May the rain always remind us that even the darkest of days can bring growth and Beauty to our lives