Retail Jobs more geared toward "leadership" people.

[Panacea]

I applied for jobs STOCKING SHELVES and have been asked questions about my leadership ability. :facepalm:

WTF is wrong with this?

Nothing. They are looking for ambition; people who will seek to rise through the ranks.

I had a friend who was a hydraulics specialist in the Air Force. He worked exclusively on C5 Galaxies. He loved being in the Air Force, but didn't want to make rank in spite of the fact he'd make more money, have more authority, and more perks because he didn't want to be in a supervisory position over others. He prefers taking orders to giving them.

Unfortunately, in the military, if you don't make rank they don't let you finish 20, which is what he wanted to do. Organizations want people who will enhance the organization. Just doing the job is fine, but every organization needs people who want to move up the ladder and make their mark on the company.

[Racket_Man]

Nothing. They are looking for ambition; people who will seek to rise through the ranks.


Unfortunately, in the military, if you don't make rank they don't let you finish 20, which is what he wanted to do. Organizations want people who will enhance the organization. Just doing the job is fine, but every organization needs people who want to move up the ladder and make their mark on the company.

There are certain types of jobs where you CAN just stay where you are and NOT move up if you do not want to.

I have that kind of job at the moment.

A little background---- In my younger days yes I was ambicisous and wanted to "move up the ladder" in several fast food type jobs. And yes I did make management (not a store manager but AM and shifty). I then went into the white collar world and did the same thing.

After a while inn the white collor world, after getting bascially screwed in the process, I choose to become a pizza delivery driver. when I was first hired the GM tried very very very hard to get me to go back into management. Having been there done that and knowing about the long hours, the crap from above and below, the customers the babysitting, the scammers, etc. I said NO and continued to say NO to each new GM that my store has had.

It is funny because the current GM (former AM who took over another store then came back to ours after the previous GM f-ed it up) was talking with the area manager about who to next promote into management. YES my name came up and my GM dutifly pointed out why I would never go back to the Dark Side.

I did thank the are guy for the "compliment" but thanks but no thanks. I can have more fun as a peon.

[Fire_on_High]

I admit I've never understood why leadership qualities are considered such a sought after trait for retail work. Sure, let's create a situation where everyone thinks they know how to do is best and will engage in a power struggle to try and push their own ideas thru..

Makes no sense to me, then again I'm an obedient order-follower by nature, quite content to patiently wait to be told what to do and then do it.

[Ginger Tea]

I turned down the supervisor position that came up over a year ago, long before we had any inkling of disbanding so it wasn't a case of "nahh too much effort for a few months" it was more a case of I wasn't allowed to force choke anyone.

The tipping point was when I became the supervisors assistant, it was a made up position due to a new albeit short term issue where a set number of drops had to be checked due to customer complaints, so that took too long for one person to do, so whilst the supervisor checked his or her normal stuff, I checked the problem drops/
Other than that I had little else official to do shift wise, so between start and then I would flit between helping out here and there till we ended up a skeletal crew of evening picker late cleaner and waiting on the drivers to come back with the packing trays we needed in order to actually start.
We might send out 100 in a van but come back with 98 so at one point we couldn't start until 3 or 4 depending on the driver and traffic, but a fair few times there would be 3 people with nothing to do and I would give them jobs and come back later to find they had not done them, they were not important jobs, just time killers, but if you are paid by the hour, do something before I suggest having your time sheet docked.
The same thing would happen when I was senior picker and the other 2 would come in too damn early when there was not enough stock to start with (go help the department that sends stuff our way FFS) or no drivers back and what empty trays already filled.

So if I couldn't get them to do simple things when I was above them already, there would be no chance of them listening upon promotion, not allowed to kill someone to spur on the troops, not worth my time getting stressed.