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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    2

    Default What to Do if You're Unfairly Transferred Out of Your Department

    My question involves labor and employment law for the state of: North Carolina

    I work at a large home improvement store and was hired as a cabinet specialist (I have 15 years in cabinets and related fields) in May. My coworker was hired three weeks before me and has no design experience at all. A is a black man, I am a white woman.

    A. has a problem with women. He's said "Here, let a man do that" when I was helping a customer with something heavy. I drew in my breath but didn't say anything. He's had problems completing a design. I looked over his shoulder and saw he'd used the wrong components for a certain application. When I pointed out what he should do, he ignored me. I mentioned it again and he said he knew what he was doing. I called up the design later when he wasn't there and the same problems were still in the design. I told management and because of this and the fact that he seemed to be unable to close the sale, my manager gave me the design and told me to close it. When A asked why I had it I told him to talk to D (asst store mgr) He did and D said "I don't care who does it as long as it's done." A took it back.

    In prep for a district mgmt visit we were supposed to clean and stock the department. We both got lists of tasks by email. I did mine, he always said he was too busy. A mgr told me that if it wasn't done he (the mgr) would get written up. I did as much as I could, spending more time on cleaning than on customers or designs. A has always had excuses for why he couldn't clean, put cabinets on the shelves or do any department task. Our department manager asked him to do things and he always had excuses for her, too, and filed a complaint against her because she was always hassling him. My department manager, zone manager and the HR manager agreed that he had a problem with women.

    We have certain times in which an employee is supposed to stand out at the main aisle, welcome customers and make sure they have what they need. I've been asked many times to do impact, I have never seen A do this. The only way to get out of it is to be helping a customer. He is most often seen at his desk, reading. A sold a kitchen in July, the cabinets arrived in August and the installation started. I found out that the customers kitchen has been torn up for six weeks because he had to order parts that weren't on the original order but needed to be.

    My sales suffered as a result and on Sept 23 I was told they were too low and would be transferred to "fashion plumbing" meaning bathroom counters and cabinets. Only problem is that most of my job is helping customers find parts for toilet repairs, different pvc joints and parts, selling toilets, explaining how plumbing stuff works. In order to justify the transfer, the store manager said my sales were lower than his and that another employee who'd sold cabinets before would be put in my place. When I mentioned that I was the one who did all the non-selling tasks and he always had an excuse not to I was told that this isn't about Greg, it's about you. They were comparing our sales but not our performance.

    The earning potential for someone in the cabinet department is much greater than the earning potential for someone in plumbing, so the move has hurt me financially. We get incentive for everything we order special like cabinets. The higher price items the more incentive we make. When I was transferred I asked the store manager what my new goals were and he said all he wanted to see is progress. That nebulous standard scares me because he gets to decide what "progress" is. My hours got worse because cabinet associates start at 8 am, plumbing starts at 6 am.

    There was no effort to address my sales before my transfer. My sales mgr never approached me and asked me how he could help improve my numbers. I didn't get written up for low sales as other employees have. No one in mgmt did or said anything before I got moved.

    My opinion that this is a "man culture" and men are going to be given the plums before the women are. My field is populated predominantly by women but in talking to other stores and going to seminars I notice that other stores' kitchen departments are staffed largely by men.

    Questions:
    *Should I go talk to my HR manager about my concerns and raise these issues (he was in on the meeting when I was transferred.)
    *Should I just shut up and take as many notes as I can? I'm afraid this is the beginning of trying to fire me. My dept manager lobbied the store manager to fire Greg before his three months were up but he didn't. She thinks this was in part because he'd filed a complaint against her. Mgmt was afraid of how far he'd take his complaint. I wonder if I complain would I get the same special treatment A got?
    *Should I push them to reveal his sales numbers as well as mine? Dept mgr thinks they are mostly from selling appliances, not cabinets, and that my cabinet numbers are higher. Special order sales (SOS) are the numbers we're usually judged on.
    *How do I act at work? Should I be docile and do as I've been told or should I push back at mgt?

    Sorry this is so long. It's so depressing going from designing and selling kitchens to selling replacement toilet flappers.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
    Location
    Behind a Desk
    Posts
    98,846

    Default Re: Transferred Out of My Department

    You can be transferred based on your sales figures. Your employer doesn't have to consider what you sold to achieve those figures, or whether other duties took away from your available time to sell products. Your employer doesn't have to share other employees' sales figures with you, or explain how those figures were achieved. You have given no indication that you have been disciplined, just transferred, so it's not clear why you believe you should have been written up.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    2

    Default Re: Transferred Out of My Department

    You're right, we live in a right-to-work state and he can fire me without any warning. However, if my sales are going to be compared to another salesperson, why shouldn't they compare the execution of non-sales tasks? There was no warning, written or otherwise, before the transfer. Other employees have been written up for low sales but allowed to remain in their department. I was not. The transfer affects my earning power, so even if you don't call it discipline, it was not a positive move and the manager knows that.

    In other companies I've worked for the sales manager helps associates with things like sales skills. I told the SM I'd like to have some help with closing skills as I had been away from the retail end of the business for a while. He never "got back" to me. Actually, the SM has never helped anyone with their sales and has allowed the store manager to hold the weekly sales meetings.

    Also, in prep for the DM's visit, he was told specifically, verbally and by email, that it was his job to downstock and fill in the empty holes in the stock cabinets shelves. He always had an excuse as to why he couldn't do it, even when he was scheduled to stay after closing in order to accomplish this. Finally, the store manager and the department manager downstocked the cabinets one evening while he sat at his desk and read the sales paper. Why didn't the manager go over, take the paper away and tell him to do as he was asked? Is it because he is black, had already filed a complaint and they didn't want him to file another or go to the EEOC? OK, so tiptoe around him because he's a minority but then tiptoe around me, too. I'm a woman, which makes me a minority, too. Maybe I need to file a complaint, too.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Dec 2009
    Location
    Lake Chapala
    Posts
    3,043

    Default Re: Transferred Out of My Department

    1. "Right to work" means that people are not required to join a union in order to work. I suspect you mean "at-will" when you say "right to work."

    2. SMs are not legally required to help subordinate sales staff with their work.

    3. I think you have enough to at least contact the EEOC and see what they say.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    9

    Default Re: Transferred Out of My Department

    I believe that you should express your concerns with human resources or a supervisor and jot down everything from now on. If you already have talked to someone, please give an update.

    If I were you, I'd come from the perspective of "I just want to do everything in my power to make this company a better place" and then go from there. Start on a positive note. Otherwise, by just reiterating everything you saw, or didn't see, "A" do, it comes off as a little "why can he goof off and get away with it but I can't."

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Location
    Massachusetts
    Posts
    24,521

    Default Re: Transferred Out of My Department

    FYI, right to work means that you do not have to be a member of a union to get work. It has nothing to do with your sitution. You mean that you are in an employment at will state. BTW, the only state that is not at least nominally at will is Montana.

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