Dragged In on My Only Day Off: A Day I’ll Never Forget
Retail has a way of testing you, but some days stick with you forever. This one still hits a nerve.
I was a Co‑Manager, my Store Director was on vacation, and my Front End Manager was running the store. It was my one day off — the only break I had that entire week — and I was at the doctor with my wife, who I was caring for at the time.
Then my phone rang.
It was my Front End Manager, and I could hear the stress in her voice. She told me our District Manager had just walked in. This was the same DM who never liked me, never respected me, and never missed a chance to make my life harder. She said, “He wants you here. Now.”
So I left the doctor’s office, left my wife, and drove straight to the store.
The moment I walked in, he didn’t ask how my wife was doing. He didn’t acknowledge that it was my day off. He didn’t even say hello. He just said, “Walk with me.”
We went straight to the wine cold box. He pointed at it and told me to fill it. Then he added, “Send me pictures when you’re done.”
That was it. That was the whole conversation.
This man didn’t care about your day off, your family, your health, or your life outside the store. He was obsessed with “every hole needs to be filled” and “no out‑of‑stocks,” even when the workload was impossible. He treated people like robots, not humans.
And somehow, he got promoted to District Manager because he had the best OSAT scores.
Retail logic at its finest.
There’s a lot more to this story — and a lot more about him — that I’ll be sharing in future posts. If you’ve ever worked under someone who thought fear was leadership, you’ll understand exactly where this is going.
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