I was do a makeup reset and the manager was supposed to supply me some shelves. She told me the store had not received any shelves yet, but wanted me to complete the project anyway. When I told her I can't without the shelves, she demanded to know why I had not been properly trained for situations like that. She then informed me she wouldn't sign off on it unless I "fixed this". I'm afraid I was not very nice to her in response, but somehow she then found the missing shelves.

A few weeks later, I was again at the same store doing a totally different project. She choose an unsuitable area for the display I was meant to set up. I explained to her that the hardware supplied by the company would not screw into the type of shelves she had in that location, and that we would need to put it in the proper shelf type. I then showed her some nearby shelves it would work with and she said, "I don't want it there and I don't see why you are not trained in how to deal with anything. This keeps happening even with the other guy that used to come here!"

There have been other incidents like these, she is always complaining that I was not properly trained. I'm not sure how these types of things mean I didn't get proper training? Am I supposed to magically make shelves appear? I want to tell her, "I'm a merchandiser, not Houdini."


What would you guys have done?

I encountered that with a horse's patootie in one of my stores and I simply turned around, walked out and called the company I was merchandising for. The person I work with at the company told me I was the third person who quit because of a certain manager.

Well the common denominator in all these untrained people is her! I would tell her that we are trained just fine except not to deal with difficult managers.

It amazes me how certain people get into management positions. A lot of them wouldn't dare do what their employees do. So where they get off being arsenals about "incompetence" when they can't even figure it out themselves is beyond me. How about telling these people something along the lines of, "The work is straightforward. I know what needs to be done and I'm telling you what I need (whether it be equipment or a proper display location). I don't work in this store, I don't know where things are or have the ability to make the decisions that need to be made. Which is why I am discussing it with you." The only incompetence I see is them being unable to make an executive decision when an issue is presented to them.