Monday, March 23, 2009

Let's Celebrate Those Who Escape!

The comments section of this thread is designated for people that have quit. Let's all share in the excitement, shall we? I'll get it started with this story I received via email.

"Up until February of this year I was employed with Sears Portrait Studio. After nine short months I had made it from Associate to Store Manager. Recently CPI added two new additions to its ranks. Both are formally from Radio Shack, a business that has basically gone under! They have added new systems on top of an already existed system and has every one under them scared and running in circles to try and make the new systems work! Write up are flying every where and every studio is playing the blame game with their co-workers trying to keep their own job! I knew what was about to happen after my District Manager came back from a conference in Dallas and sent out an e-mail saying we were going to go to Monday and Friday conference calls, and a lot was about to change. I pushed myself away from the studio desk and and took a deep breath, I knew what was coming down the road, just as what is happening now! I said aloud "I will not be this person!" I immediately sprung into e-mailing her back. Subj: I Quit Effective Immediately! I closed down the store and as I drove away, there was this over coming feeling over me! I could breathe again and I felt like me, happy, spirited me! I feel sorry for my fellow co-workers and friends, but they are the ones who stay with it! I asking them, "How are you working for a company that is being micro-managed by two people whose previous company went bankrupt?" I am now self employed selling cosmetics and our motto is "People and Love!" I am ME!

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

I didn't quit CPI, CPI quit me. I collected unemployment benefits for 6 months and gave my body, mind, and spirit a much needed rest. I went back to work recently and am training to be an optician. My customers don't act like I'm "out to get them", I get to take an actual break as scheduled, and I get to leave when I'm supposed to. Most importantly, my job isn't threatened on a daily basis. Who knew?

Anonymous said...

What things stop you from collecting from CPI?

I wanna leave, but i HAVE to have unemployment if i do. So what do i need to do to qualify?

Anonymous said...

It depends on the state your in but usually if you quit you cant collect.

Anonymous said...

to the person who emailed i quit....you are my hero. i walk into work everyday saying "i cant wait to quit this job.

Anonymous said...

You must be able to prove that you were terminated with no misconduct on your part. You can collect even if you quit- if you were forced to quit because of a hostile work environment. I don't think "not running the numbers" is considered misconduct, so I'd let them follow thru with their threats to terminate anyone who is "under performing".

Anonymous said...

CPI is the only job I have ever quit on the spot, and when I did I felt a huge weight lifted from my shoulders, even though I didn't know where my next paycheck would come from. What finally caused me to quit was a completely unreasonable e-mail from our District Manager over a holiday weekend when no managers were going to be back in the studios until Tuesday (or Wednesday if their day off was Tuesday). She sent an e-mail stating that we all needed to cut our labor down to a particular amount of hours, which was totally impossible since Saturday and Sunday were already over, and my studio was going to go over the hours she outlined even on single coverage. This was one of several rudely written e-mails sent within a two week period which were already getting to me. In this e-mail she sent on the holiday (which I saw when I checked my e-mail at home, because I was a psycho work-a-holic), she was saying things like "no excuses, etc". At the time, I was overseeing a second studio with very little extra pay and also being asked to help out a third studio. I got this e-mail and then, to top it off, someone from my studio called me and quit on the spot. I knew there was no way I was going to be able to train someone while I was at another studio the majority of the time and there was no way to cover my home studio the rest of the week. Also, an associate from my studio was supposed to be working the holiday at the 3rd studio I had been asked to help with, and she called and said she was having car trouble and couldn't get there. I had already been a ticking time bomb and my health, my marriage, and every part of my life had been negatively affected by the job. I was expected at a family gathering that afternoon (a pre-wedding event) and I knew it was going to come down to me having to go cover that studio. Call me what you will, and I am not really proud for quitting on the spot, but all of these factors combined just did it for me. I sent my DM a very long response e-mail (which I "replied to all" on to the entire district!) It was quite detailed as to how I felt the expectations were unreasonable and that the company was digging its own grave. I said I regretted not giving 2 weeks notice, but I could no longer work under the conditions. As you can imagine, from what I've written in this post, I was respected and accomplished in my district or else I wouldn't have been asked to oversee a second studio. My studio was performing very well and I have always been a successful person. I don't want to condone quitting on the spot, but it really was the best thing for me. I could finally take that knot out of my stomach and start living again. Fortunately, within 2 weeks I had a great new job, which I still have today. CPI was seriously the worst company I have ever worked for, and how people survive as long as they do is beyond me.

Anonymous said...

you know i once left for the competition for a few weeks, then got offered a promotion with raise and came back. why oh why did i come back?

Anonymous said...

I know this girl!! She's my bff!! :) She & I met at the store that I'm the ASM at. Although I miss her at the studio, quitting CPI was the best thing that has happened to her career wise! :)
She actually started working at the studio 2 months before I transferred in. She was sales only because no one else took the time to train her in photography! She became one of 3 5* photographers in our studio.
Speaking on her behalf... she's IN NO WAY a quitter & for things to be this bad, she was REALLY stressed out!

Anonymous said...

Sears Portrait Studio is one of the worst companies I have seen yet. I spent one week of misery at this job and decided that I could not take it anymore. The company gives you the impression that it will be a “fun work environment”, but you get on board and soon learn that this is not the case. In the interview and hiring process I was told I would be given my own studio, but I would need to start out as a MIT. My first week I was only given 29 hours and told that I would not be given my on studio; instead I would be helping other stores out when the stores had hours. I had to drive 100 miles each day with no mileage reimbursement. The studio manager training me actually read to me line from line out of a book, and then proceeded to explain why each sentence meant. I felt like a pre-school child that had no understanding of retail, or had no prior experience in sales. I was told in my first week that I cold be fired if I adjusted my photos too much, and that coupons counted as shrink in the store. I was told the company frowned upon using the coupons and that I should sell there 329 dollar package. The packages are a rip off if you ask me. The pictures are taken with a professional Olympian camera, but I can get the same quality from my professional Canon camera I have at home. They also want you to sell a CD for 119 dollars. There is nothing special about this CD. The employees are expected to stay and not given the option if it is there time to go home. They are flat out told “you are staying”. They are also threatened if they do not meet the 10 sittings each week. Also the people call themselves “photographers”, which is a joke. A “photographer” is someone who can take a great picture without having the camera on a tripod. Sear Portrait Studio will not allow this. I also feel a “photographer” is someone who has had some schooling on how to properly take pictures, not someone who goes through a company training program. Also you are not allowed to use to much creative. You are told that you have to get 6 to 9 poses and it has to be done a certain way.

Think long and hard before coming on board with this company. This company will not listen to what you have to say and you must sell their way or lose you job

Anonymous said...

I quit back in January. Best job decision I could have ever made, even in this poor economy. My manager was a bitch, and the DM treated us like shit.