"Full time"

I wanted to highlight the following comment because of how well it shows that things are getting worse. Studios are beginnning to cut hours to the point that studio managers have to basically live at the studio:

"Recently CPI has changed the hours of operations on some "test" studios (soon to be changed in all studios). In my studio our new hours will mean we are only OPEN 35 hours out of the week. That means, as a studio manager, I have to work every single hour we are open every single day. It's ridiculous! It also means that my assistant manager's hours will be cut down to practically nothing and my other staff... well... sorry?

To top all that off, we were recently told on a conference call that if we drop below 32 hours a week, then the shorted time will be taken from our PTO time [a combination of sick days and vacation days]. So if I decide one week to only work 5 days, then whatever hours I'm short will come out of the measly PTO time I have. We are forbidden from taking unpaid time off. I think that too is ridiculous. We aren't salary workers. We are hourly. If we want to work less hours, it means they just pay us less! We used to be able to take unpaid PTO with DM's approval provided our studio was covered. Now, we have to basically work 6 days a week with no break but measly pay."

I don't know how Sears can expect to get good assistant managers any more. People that have any kind of relevant experience or skills aren't going to work for the small number of hours. This is probably why, a couple months ago, there were rumors of the assistant manager position being eliminated (which, to date, we've heard nothing of). Eventually, it seems to me that they're going to realize how few hours the assistant managers are getting, eliminate the position, and fill the gap with associates that they get to pay less.

The revolving door

There have been a lot of great comments on the previous entry about the horrible conditions at Sears Portrait Studio, and I wanted to highlight a few. These are in response to another comment that suggested that if you try your best, you'll always be safe from losing your job:

"I was fired for low studio numbers...I did everything in my power to get the numbers up. I was a loyal employee for 15 years. I worked holidays and nearly every weekend; hell, I didn't even take a sick day my first 5 years. I hung in through all the changes and daily BS. My reward? A DM who lied about studio visits, posted my job online before beginning any corrective action, talked smack about other studio managers to me, and played favorites on a regular basis. Don't kid yourself. You are ALWAYS REPLACEABLE. "

And another commenter writes: "The problem with this job is the company feels we are easily replaced. on a recent conference call we were told to interview people weekly so those who are underperforming can be replaced immediately. you CAN and DO get fired for low numbers.and good luck actually getting people to take the job at the lousy starting pay. we are so easily replaced and yet it takes a dedicated person to fully do this job and give good customer svc. we hire any old person off the street and expect a miracle. thats why this company is in the toilet. START WITH THE EMPLOYEES. find your sales rising. (oh look i wrote in caps that means IT WILL be done right?)"

Did you catch that? People are being told to interview people when there aren't even positions open. As many SM and DMs that have had their jobs posted know, nothing says "we don't value you" like actively seeking out new people to do your job.

I left this company about six months ago thinking that it couldn't get any worse over there, but clearly it's gotten worse.

Fix CPI: Business model

The CPI business model is more or less the following: bring in people, take great photos, use sales tactics to sell them sheets at 14.99 each, bring them back.

Is this sustainable? I mean, yes, it's incredibly profitable to sell a product at 14.99 that costs you about 17 cents in raw materials, but it doesn't help if you only get a few customers a day. And, thanks to coupons (which will be another day's entry so save up those comments!), some customers pay just 9.99 for their entire package of photos that it took your associate an hour to take.

Times are tough and people are learning how to spend less. I know that the people at Sears take great photos, but how can you continue to convince people that your photos are so great that, rather than spending .26 cents for a cute 4x6 print that they took at Walgreens, they should instead pay many times that for a sheet of 4 3.5x5's, all with the same pose.

Fix CPI: PRS

Readers, I thought it would be interesting to discuss the problems that CPI faces and figure out what (if anything) they can do to make things better for you. Let's talk about the different aspects of the way that SPS is set up and discuss how you would change them. If you have topics you would like to discuss, let me know.

Let's start with PRS. Working at Sears Portrait Studio means you've got a lot of associates that are part timers, many of them students. In theory, since they're there 10-15 hours a week, they're not that invested in the well-being of the company (not saying this is true, I'm just going through the reasoning). When you as a company want to make more money, it makes sense that you would try to get their average sale up. Bring their average sale (or anyone's for that matter) up, and you bring in more money.

The main problem, of course, is that in practice, everything isn't tied to average sales. For example, when SPS calls people during outreach telemarketing, those sittings typically spend less. So you could have someone who brings in 10 extra sits for herself in a week, but this would reflect on her negatively, since these sittings would bring down her PRS.

We all know how closely PRS is tied to you having a job or not, and as a result, everyone feels like their job is in jeopardy when economic times get tough and people spend less.

Would you change PRS? How would you track job performance? How would you motivate staff to bring in more money? It's easy to say what doesn't work (and if you ask me, PRS has a lot of problems), but it's far more difficult to figure out new ways of doing things.

From the front lines

I wanted to highlight a comment we received just this morning from upsetcpiemployee:

I am a current employee in upper management and things are not getting ANY better, only worse. Since hiring J[name deleted]and K[name deleted], PRS has become a major topic. They have gone to the extent of yelling and degrading TMs, DMs and even studio managers in front of their peers, because we have people who are running lower numbers, and heaven forbid we have not terminated them immediatly after having a bad week. The thought of retraining people (even those who were hired just before Christmas and got the minimal training to begin with) is out of the question. No, we are to terminate them and find replacements. Like we can find people who will work for 7.50 (and that is on the high end in some of the studios across the country) and get 10 hours max. GOOD LUCK.

I feel for all of you that struggled at all levels with this company, and only pray things will change. I miss the old CPI, when we believed in recognizing our top performers and developing those who struggled. Heck, this year we are not even allowed to have awards ceromonies at any level. How is that for recognition! I am sorry that any of you had to feel the need to "fudge" your numbers to keep your job. [This was a comment on the "Screw over your employees" post] We failed you as a company, and I really do appologize. At the same token, I say "we" as if I am Home Office and I am not. I too am constantly worried that my job is on the line, and feel the pressure that the two new additions (J--- & K-----)have placed on us. I am glad I found this site just to speak my mind. I love what I do, and I have for a long time. I love watching associates and managers grow from when the were hired or promoted to becoming tops in the company, but that has been taken from me, and I miss it. Now it is just like our customers at Christmas lately with the lack of staff we have had, a cattle herd. We are not developing anyone, we hire them, give them the bare bones training, and give them 30-90 days to sink or swim. That is not fair to our managers, our employees and definatly not fair to our customers.
I hope Renato himself reads these comments, because we need to go back to the days of developing a staff and creating future managers in all studios. And you cannot get there by the constant turn over. And you certainly will not get there by having people like J--- and K----- come in and take a hatchet to our company and degrade all employees, whether they are on the top or bottom, they will find something they can complain about.

For those of you still employed by CPI, hang in there. It was not always a bad place to work, and I hope some day it will get back there.And please do not "fudge" numbers, ask for help. Any good leader will help you get through a tough time!

[Readers, come back for tomorrow's entry; let's discuss how Sears Portrait Studio can be fixed.]

Screw over your employees

One thing I see come up from time to time in submissions we get from associates is the complaint that studio managers steal all the good sales.

I've gotta say, as an assistant, this was something I did. I had to. The company constantly put me in the place where I always felt that if my sales didn't go up by an average 10 dollars that week, I would be in danger of being fired.

So when a new associate came in who obviously wasn't going to last more than two weeks (hint: 95% of them) and they happen to make a $200 sale of photos I took while doing sales training, of course I'm going to enter my code in the register. This will result in the associate's average not being as good, but they have a lot of leeway during the first couple weeks. I would never take credit for a later sale when their PRS really starts to count for their own job security, but early on, who wouldn't? You've gotta do whatever it takes when it feels like you might lose your job.

If only everyone didn't always feel of the brink of being let go.

As if it getting a raise wasn't impossible already

Our latest submission deals with one employee's quest to get the wages promised at the interview.

"I am going through a situation with SPS currently even though I've been gone for the past month. After about 3 months working there, I was dense enough to not look at my pay stubs and see that my hiring manager put me on for $7.50 an hour instead of the 8.50 that she told me from the very beginning. And I'm sorry but I know people that work at Target who make more than $7.50 and I'm pretty damn sure if I would have known she hired me for $7.50 I would've rethought my options. However, she said $8.50 and after finally checking my pay stub I realized I was getting gypped.

This is not the first time this particular hiring manager has done this. One of my co-workers overlooked her pay stubs as well and noticed that she hadn't received her two $.50 raises for the past year and when she went to the manager she said she would 'take care' of it and apparently never did. My co-worker later heard from the asst. manager that the hiring manager was almost going to fire her so payroll wouldn't find out that she never updated this girls pay. Fortunately she didn't fire her because if she had that would've counted as a lawsuit against the store and in the end my friend - the co-worker - got back her money which amounted to well over $500.

But now, it's my turn and I was only hired for a seasonal position. I quit before they even got to lay me off and I was told that I would receive my retro-pay with my last paycheck and guess what? I didn't. I'm almost 100% my manager didn't even call or email or talk to payroll about my situation at all."

Anyone else have similar problems? The above problem might not even be the studio manager's fault. I know at my studio, one of the associates had the problem that she was getting paid too much. She told the studio manager who tried time and time again to get it fixed. Eventaully, the associate said "I'm going to tell you one last time and if they can't fix it, they can't fix it."

From a DM's perspective

I just received this as a comment on an old post and found it too good to just leave hidden and squirreled away. Not that this will be much of a surprise, it’s not easy being a district manager either. I’ve added topic headings to each paragraph but mostly left everything else unchanged. The following post is long but great.

Submission
I actually agree with 100% of the complaints I see on this site. But, I would also like you guys to see what we see in DM land

Being a DM, Fake Appointments I was a DM for 5 years, and recently lost my job this fall due to performance.(we were way in the red)Before we jump on managements back and make them out to be the bad guy...I think we need to look at ourselves. I had 15-19 studios at any given time. Part of my job was to look at your no show/cancellation rates. And investigate the issues. I would simply pretend to call the customer and confirm the appointments. In every single location I would find fake appointments being made. In the studio. That’s frustrating I realize that is was most likely not the management - but it was still happening. In every location.

Outreach We also would have to investigate the validity of these appointments - I'd say 40% of my districts and the other districts that I looked after due to DM maternity leave...medical leave...etc... were also false. The amount of energy that went into making false appointments astounds me. Why not just book the real one ? But here's the thing... I hated trying to sell to you guys that outreach wasn't telemarketing. Because no matter how you slice it, it was.

Labor I hated telling you guys you had to go down to single coverage during the*off* season. So I would discuss it with you all on conference calls and then during one on ones -I would end up giving you extra coverage anyhow. Believing that you would hold up your end of the bargain and get those extra appointments- be it smile searching...via phone or acquisitions. That never happened. You still ended up with the extra labor though. I was such a sucker, and this is why I no longer hold my position and have gone back to being a studio associate.

The hours kept My point is - there are good DM's. They know what it is like being from the field and do their best to work with you from that point of view. We have families to take care of, too. And DM's do not make a lot of money. Contrary to popular belief. We work 7 days a week. But we sign up for that. We don't sit on a couch eating bon bons taking calls while watching all my children. We have check ins from studios and forms that need to be filled out showing what we worked on with you guys, etc. Our office days are usually are longest days of the week. Usually not getting done until 9 or 10 at night...and trust me...those TM's expect us to start our day by 630/7am.

Dealing with upper management We also get yelled at, screamed at, told we are failures and that our people are failures. We keep all of that from you guys. That’s no way to motivate a team. Studio-Field has no idea what our calls and our visits are like. We protect you guys from all of that. You really and truly have no idea. V.P.'s and CFO's look at your numbers on a report...and ask why we still a studio manager who is doing so poorly. Without knowing anything about you or what you do in your studio. We try to explain what hard workers, go-getters, PRS drivers, photography gurus you all are. They just wave all that off. All that matters is the end result. If it were your business - would you write them a check from an overdrawn account week after week? We get asked that a lot.

Lending a hand Ever wonder how you have more outreach done on some weeks than you thought? Well some DM's get so tired of getting yelled at over a studio shooting 25 customers in a week and booking one outreach appointment...we just do some for you. you use 100 hours to do that...let's say I even give you fifty hours to handle the 25 customers. What did you do with the other fifty hours? Someone has to do it, right? Why not the DM ...not like we have anything else to do.

Spending your own money - I have never told someone they had to spend their own money to hold an event. I lay out the ideas/options. But also gave them plenty of ideas for events that cost 0 dollars. I spent thousands on event kits to be passed around the district. (that I don't get reimbursed for.) in hopes it will drive business. For what? For some studios not to book a single appointment ... or for other studios not to even bother picking up the kit on their scheduled day. (and I always paid mileage and drive time and if you couldn’t get the kit I made sure I brought it to you.) Or my favorite - the only sittings shot with the event kit were associates family. Why? It was very frustrating. And for those of you who are going to tell me that DM's get reimbursed... I'll just tell you only sometimes and at certain times of year. So when I spent hundreds of dollars per event kit...I could submit a pro forma and it didn't always get approved if I did it on my own accord. And then to get the kits back... with half of the props missing or damaged. Well that was the straw that broke my camels back. I stopped buying new things. I expect wear and tear from kids. Most of the damage was not being stored or transferred properly. Just not taking care of things. It was always very disheartening.

The Team My people. I loved my team. I bragged about them, shared their work with everyone including the higher ups at corporate. We were so photography driven. I taught my people how to shoot like a private studio in the high end of town would shoot. None of this cookie cutter malarkey you see on passouts or coupons. My people were bad ass. We usually got yelled at for thinking outside of the box and we never were five star. I would look at all the five star studios work outside of my district every round. I would pull up hundreds of their sittings and it would never even compare. It’s easy to get a five star by using mechanics. Five Star studios rarely ever have WOW photography. It’s all mechanics. How boring. I found our work far more inspiring and our customer retention rate was huge because of it. But we were never given any credit. We got bitched at instead. I’d be more than happy to share with any of you the model released work we shot if anyone wants to leave an email address.

PRS. Pre photography really does work. I could go into studios and only one or two in the district would actually do (sitting card review) pre photo. Why? If you know it works - why just blatantly ignore instructions? And I'm not talking doing pre photo in the thick of it. I'm talking in January... blank session cards. Same thing goes for session planning. I always got a lot of lip service from my people. But when I inspected things, it didn't happen. This is probably where I failed. If I performance managed everyone who wasn’t doing what they were supposed to be. I'd be running 18 studios by myself. Even though my team didn't do what they were supposed too, I still loved them and went out on a limb for them all the time. If they only knew how many times I had to go to bat for them to keep them from getting fired because of performance their heads would spin. I put my name on the line time after time because I kept expecting them to just listen to what I was saying. I guess they just didn't want too. And I didn't want to fire people over small things like I was directed, so I lost my job. I blame myself, yes. As you can see though, I’m not 100% at fault.

Contests Corporate stopped letting us buy gift cards and contest prizes, etc. any of you that have got them in the past year... that's money out of your DM's pocket. Not reimbursed. TM'S stopped approving those things a year ago. I was always buying gift cards... I even offered up cold hard cash for contests. The sad thing is, half the time the associates didn't know about the contests. And only half the studios would ever participate. I'm sorry if you think fifty dollars isn't enough. But that's all I got. If I didn't take the money out of my own pocket-there would’ve been nothing offered. No contests. Then you'd be complaining about that. I never once told my people how they were supposed to spend their winnings. Some chose to use it on their studio for a morale booster - some would keep it. My philosophy was that you do what you want with it.

DM's as “corporate”I read this entire website today. I think one thing that is lost in translation is that DM's are not corporate. They are also field management. We don't make rules. We have to enforce what's brought to us. We think the 4.99 sucks too. We think you’re abused by customers all the time. We think that you guys having to always go against LY...instead of just focusing on this years profit also sucks. We also think the bonus programs are ridiculous. Going against LY with a bad economy is a joke. We also think the appointment scheduler is a joke. We fight your fight with corporate all the time over it. but then when they investigate and find you have fake appointments in there...we're the ones made out to be the idiots. But we still take it. We think the single coverage in a high volume studio is insane. But we also know some of you schedule how we expect you to in the browser. then carry a paper schedule of what you actually do in the studio. We are on that.

Not all DM's are idiots. There’s so many that do go the extra mile. Before you judge, I'm just saying walk a mile in their shoes. It’s really hard to give a fair opinion on something unless you've been on both sides of the fence. I have been. I love what I do, and will never leave the industry.

Closing thoughtsYou guys work very hard for little glory. And there are a handful of you out there who do everything 100%. But seriously. Not everyone does. Trainers out there know what I'm talking about. You see it in studios when you visit.
I believe in the plight of the studio manager. I'm one of you. But I won't judge another’s position without knowing all that it entails. I could go on for hours about this...and some of you would have your minds blown at the abuse we take/took as DM's. (I still have a hard time saying I’m not anymore.)

A chance to win money you should already have

A submission from a reader:

There was a $100 incentive once in our district to be awarded to the studio manager that reached a particular benchmark. I was the winner. About a month later, when we were being asked to buy things for the studio with our own money (as we usually were), I mentioned to her that I didn't have the cash to put up for supplies and props. She said to me "What about that $100 you won?" I said, "I used it to buy groceries." She said, "That was meant to be spent on your studio." I was shocked. Why was I working so hard to win a prize? To win money to be spent on props and supplies for my studio? Those are things that the company should be paying for anyway. What a lousy incentive.

The beginning of the end? [Updated]

While I realize the following comment that we received could all be rumor, speculation, and hearsay, someone yesterday wrote:

"In all the mid to low volume studios, they are eliminating the assistant manager and key associate positions. All assistant managers in those studios have the option to stay on as regular associates on associate pay."

True? False? Perhaps we will learn at CPI Corp's (CPY) Third Quarter meeting. Webcast is Thursday at 10:00pm central time on the CPI Corp website. Listen in yourself and keep me posted, as I'll be at work during this time. Marketwatch has information about rebroadcast and downloadable audio.

Update: Earnings report released:

"CPI Corp. (NYSE: CPY) today reported that net sales for the third quarter of 2008 decreased $19.6 million, or 14%, to $115.8 million from the $135.4 million reported in the third quarter of 2007. The Company also reported a net loss of $13.3 million, or ($2.06) per diluted share, for the 16-week third quarter ended November 8, 2008, compared to a net loss of $10.1 million, or ($1.57) per diluted share, reported in the comparable quarter of fiscal 2007."

Let's talk the busy season

First off, I know everyone's really busy this time of year but please submit your best, most ridiculous busy season stories. You'll find my email address at right.

Secondly, I got an email from a reader that asks "I'd really like to know what the company is doing on PRS, Sales, and Sits. My old studio is down nearly 70k so far, and the sits are WAY down. I was terminated because my studio was down for the first time in 13 years. (I nearly killed myself trying to "fix it")."

It's something that I, too, am interested in. I know I was catching a lot of flak when I was at SPS because I had a slump where I was at $100/month. Now I hear they're running a 70% custom conversation rate and a PRS of 90 to 95 dollars. How are things looking in your studio. Are people worried that the end is near?

And remember to submit those stories!

What it's like being at Tech Support

A much appreciated submission follows. Number 5 is especially interesting to me:

Out of all the employees that work for CPI, the folks who work for tech support are probably the most misunderstood. Long wait times, an inexperienced tech, and equipment that doesn't want to cooperate wears on everyone's nerves. I just wanted to drop a line letting some of you guys know what it's really like to work on the other side of the phone, potentially dispel some myths that are out there about us, and give some advice as to how to make your wait times shorter.

1. We know your job is hard. Nearly all of us have been in at least one studio. Most of us have been to install studios, from top to bottom with the digital roll out. We have seen the uncooperative kids, the parents who yell, scream, and hit them, and what you have to go through on a daily basis. If we haven't seen it, we have at least heard it on the phone. And, most of us thing you deserve a medal for what you do. Working here is hard, and you go through a lot, and we know that.

2. We really are here to help you. I know this seems unbelievable. But, if we didn't like talking to people on the phone, we'd be repair technicians, where we wouldn't have to talk to anyone.

3. Our jobs are really very hard. I never knew some members of the field didn't think so, until I saw an area manager in the home office smoking lounge loudly declare that we could all be replaced my monkeys. It takes 6 months to get a new tech up to speed that has previous technical experience (college degree or former tech support) and over a year for someone with no experience to become a good tech. There is a lot to learn, not just for Sears, but for Picture Me, Buy Buy Baby, and all of the other concepts we have. Canada and Puerto Rico SPS? Oh, their systems are different too. We have to know all of that stuff before we can even pick up the phone and talk to you.

4. Most of us are not idiots. A lot of us have been with the company for a long time. A lot of us have been around in the field, flying from place to place, helping out real, live studios. Of course, these trips weren't mandatory, but we went anyway. A lot of us give up holidays (like Thanksgiving) to assist SPS and Canadian studios (who don't celebrate Thanksgiving on the same day as the US). A lot of us have had detailed technical training in the form of either a 2 or a 4 year degree, both of which CPI did not pay for. And some of us, due to the economy, have serious qualifications and certifications that in normal conditions, would net us double the salary that we are making at CPI.

5. We are held to the same difficult standards that you are. PRS for you guys equals call volume for us. We don't take enough volume, we are going to be in trouble. 3 tardies (even 1 minute late) or absences in 30 days? That's a write-up. Another one? That's another write up. Another one? You're fired. Too many complaints from a studio even if it's over nonsense? You're fired. And every January, we have layoffs, every year like clockwork. This year we are having November and January layoffs. You're probably thinking: Layoffs? I'm the 80th caller on hold, what the hell? That's right people. You see, the big wigs over this department have told us that we are a "liability"; that the field goes out and makes the money, and that our salaries are liabilities, since we make "no money". When you see the stock plummet, don't get a wage increase, or see other indicators that CPI isn't doing well, odds are we are having layoffs here at the home office.

And now for the good part, how to make the queue volume better:

Nothing says "another day in paradise" like taking 50 calls in a 4 hour period, and having the 51st studio chew you out over the queue volume *sigh*. Please don't chew us out. If you have been reading this so far, you have seen that call volume is largely beyond our control.

1. Don't put the most inexperienced person in the studio on the phone to talk to us. Please, for crying out loud. If I ask the person the studio number and they're stumped and have to ask you, they are going to ask you everything else too. You might as well take the call in the first place. "But, but, I'm busy like hell, you say". Didn't you just hear that we had 80 calls in queue??? Now I have to train your noobie how to troubleshoot. That makes the queue worse, because a call I could resolve in 10 minutes with an experienced person now takes 45.

2. Try to help yourself before calling. No power to your computer? Verify the power connections. Plug it in somewhere else. Try to turn it on. No DSL connection? Unplug the power to your DSL and VPN. Light not flashing? Power off your pack, press test, and replace the bulb. Don't know how to load media into the Shinko? There's a document with pictures on the browser. If it still doesn't work, THEN call us.

3. Please don't bitch us out. It drags the morale and productivity down on this end of the line. Most of us are doing the best we can. Yes, we know that little Suzie's mother just chewed you out, probably over something beyond YOUR control. But, we are here to resolve your technical issue, not to take your abuse or be your whipping boy(s). ALL calls are recorded. People have been fired over what they have said to technicians on the phone. And, we can hear pretty much everything that is going on in the background, really well, thanks to the neat headsets we have. All of the background stuff is recorded too. We complain and the call is pulled. My manager sends it to your DM, and things go from there, depending on severity.

The promise of advancement

We already know how there's opportunity for advancement over at SPS because everyone leaves. But at the same time, what's sometimes worse is the promise of advancement that never comes. From the time I started at SPS, my studio manager was always told that she was soon going to be an area manager. It was always just around the corner and always something that we had to prepare for. Yet, a year later, nothing changed and she was still stuck in the same studio. Similarly, I was told that I was being looked at for a position where I would go around setting up studios and getting everyone prepped and ready. Either that or I could take the position of my studio manager when she moved up.

I'm not the only one out their either. The following comment from yesterday reminded me of this:
"I make $8 an hour and have been with the company almost a year now. I'm a five star photographer and my average sale has never dropped below 115. I've been falsley promised the Assistant manager as well as an M.I.T position many times and my DM refuses to give me a number on what I will be making if I do get those positions.

The only reason I havent quit is because I can't find any other place that starts off higher than minimum wage - or that is hiring, for that matter."

Completely utterly disregard scheduled appointments

One great submitter forwarded me an excerpt from a district manager's email.

"1. We take walk-ins AHEAD of Scheduled appointments. Often the scheduled appointment does not show up on time. It only takes you 15 minutes to take pictures. That is perfect if the walkin comes in 10 minutes before the appointment.
If the walkin arrives at the same time as the appointment, you still need to take them first. Theoretically, the walkin will wait 5 minutes before giving up and going somewhere else. That is losing potential sales!"

Management by Captial Letters Continued

Continuing from the previous entry one submitter sent us a copy of an actual email from a DM. It hurts my eyes just to read it. Submitter, you have our sympathies.

"HEY EVERYONE JUST A LITTLE NOTE TO ALL OF YOU. SO FAR THIS WEEK WE ARE LAST IN THE TERRITORY. AS ALL OF YOU KNOW I HAVE SENT OUT A LIST OF GOALS. THEY ARE VERY REALISTIC AND REACHABLE. I DO EXPECT YOU TO GIVE IT 100%. WE HAVE TO GET THESE SITS UP AND THE CURRENT PRS IS TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE. I WANT THE COLLECTIONS PRINTED AND USED AND OUT ON SALES TABLES. DO NOT EMAIL ME EXCUSES, OR YOUR OWN IDEAS, BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT WORKING! ITS TIME WE GET CONTROL OF PAYROLL AND OUR STUDIOS WHERE THEY SHOULD BE. ITS A TEAM EFFORT. I DO HAVE A COUPLE OF STUDIOS THAT GIVE ME 100% THAT RUN THE PRS, THAT GET THOSE SITS IN. PULL UP THE DAILY SALES REPORT AND COMPARE. WE HAVE 4 DAYS TO PULL US UP, AND I EXPECT GREAT THINGS. PRINT OUT THE GOALS I SENT EACH OF YOU, SHARE THEM, AND ACCOMPLISH THEM. AT THE CLOSE OF EVERY DAY I WANT AN E-MAIL OF WHERE YOU ARE WITH ALL THESE GOALS. DON'T MAKE ME HUNT YOU DOWN FOR THESE STATS. ITS YOUR JOB! NOW LETS ROCK THE REST OF THIS WEEK. DON'T GO OVER HRS I GAVE YOU, UNLESS YOU DO MORE SITS THAN I GAVE YOU...... THANK YOU"

Get it together and be on call all the time

A submission that came in today with the subject line "Almost Quit..."

"I was scheduled to work today, but my manager told me yesterday not to come in, because they wouldn't need me. Awesome! except I made my 1st mistake when I actually thought they wouldn't need me. She tried contacting me this morning to tell me they do in fact need me, but she didn't get a hold of me until afternoon, and by that time they wanted me to come in for night shift, which she knows I cannot work because my husband is in school and i have 3 kids that I have to look after. She told me I needed to "Get my Sh*t together, and find a babysitter." WOW, and then she continues to tell me she can't depend on me lately and that's why shes being so 'crappy'. I am the Asst. Manager...I work my hours I am scheduled. Plus some. But since my husband started school 3 months ago, I have a limit to not working nights on the days I'm supposed to be off. I made the mistake of making myself too available in the past. Shed call me and I'd drop everything, including my kids, to cover her. And that was before my time as a manager. Apparently all those times have been forgotten and now that I need just two evenings off a week..I'm not dependable and need my Sh*T to get taken care of."

You know the really awful thing about this, Submitter? Manager can go to your file, pull out your availability sheet from your application and say that in asking for not working those two evenings that you're changing your availability and fire you on the spot. Even though I'm sure Manager's availability changes week to week as her plans necessitate.

Wages

Let's continue the dicussion from yesterday's entry.
Commenter1 Writes:

"Studio managers do the best they can...their jobs are threatend almost daily, they work single coverage, don't get days off as scheduled, and they often work 12-14 hour days this time of year. As much as it sucks, this is one of the few jobs where you can make a decent hourly wage without a college degree."

Commenter2:

"Im asst. Manager and dont make enough money to put up with the crap that goes on. Its not a decent wage at all. Especially since we do go thru all the things u listed.... plus LOADS more."

Commenter3:

"$18.00 per hour in my neck of the woods is a decent wage."

Ok, all caught up? Good. This is actually the first I found out that studio managers make this much money. Any job seeker can tell you that this is, in fact, darn good money. One thing to consider though, however, is the fact that, at least in my neck of the woods, studio managers aren't working 40 hours a week. Mine worked 32 (not counting hours worked off the clock), which nets you the same money that working 40 hours at $14.40 would.

I made $11.00 as assistant manager and, like Commenter2, I had to put up with a lot of stuff to get that $11. Like all people that work 40/hr a week jobs, I worked 5 days a week (actually, more like 7. See any post from the your time is not your own series). Yet I was only getting 30 hours a week. Even if I got called in on Sunday to do an open to close, they'd counteract that my making my other shifts worthless 4 hour shifts to keep me around 30 hours. So it was pretty consistent. I think unless you're an unfortunate person that is going it alone, you're only getting 30/hrs a week.

And now let's talk take home money. If I make $11/hr for 30 hours a week, I make the same money as someone who makes $8.25 an hour working 40 hours. That's just not a lot to live on. I'm currenly working a job where I make $10 an hour and not only work regular 9-6 hours, but am able keep work out of my non-work times. I love being appreciated, having job security day to day, and being respected. If you ask me, that's the best wage of all.

What do/did you make at Sears Portrait Studio or Picture Me? How many hours to you get? Is it worth it? See you in the comments. And keep those submissions coming.

edit:
Commenter4:

"i Make $9.50 an hour.... Where do u live that Asst. Managers make $18an hour?! I have a $175 PRS.... very consistantly for MONTHS, and i still make $9.50 an hour"

.
That's the last comment I'll post in the actual entry. Check the comments for further discussion.

Management by capital letters

I don't know about you, but nothing motivates me more than capital letters. You know, like, "TEAM it is VERY IMPORTANT that you make your days today! Anything below that will be UNACCEPTABLE! NO EXCUSES!"

That's the kind of encouragement I love. I'm glad it seems to be in the managment training manual.

The Cat in the Bag

Once again a commenter reminded of a story.

One afternoon I had an appointment pop up for later that afternoon. A woman came in for it about thirty minutes early. Her daughter, age 4, was coming with grandma at their scheduled appointment time. So I figured I would use this opportunity to get an idea of what photos were important to them. The key photo they wanted was with a cat.

Cats and other pets, I should explain, are not allowed. I looked up the policy and it has to do with health codes. They're allowed only if your studio is separate from the Sears itself (or if it is an assist animal. Did you know, by the way, that there is something called a helping hands monkey?). I explained the reasoning and even printed out the policy sheet, but of course she wasn't having it and we had to continue to discuss this for the full thirty minutes while we waited for the girl to show up.

At one point, she relay the policy information to grandma. Grandma's response, rather than leaving the cat at home, was to smuggle in the cat. So in walks this woman coming down the corridor with a bag slung over her sholder. The bag is shifting back and forth and meowing the entire way.

Grandma tried to bribe me with $50, which I declined, wanting to have a job more than I wanted $50, explaining that every photo we take is reviewed by corporate, so that it would be impossible to do without anyone knowing. Eventually I just "had to go help a customer" while they pulled out their own camera "without me knowing", and we called that good: I didn't take a bribe, they got their photo, and I'll take the lesser of two evils on that one. Plus they bought a collection, so I wasn't complaining.

When it was time to go they plopped the cat in the bag, zipped it shut, and I watched the wriggling bag head out the store.

edit: see comments for another great story.

1-800-OVR-SEAS

Reading your comments jogged my memory about the 1-800 number. I'm not sure when it began, but sometime shortly before I started, all calls to set up the appointments across the country got routed to the 1-800 number. Even if you called the Sears Direct number, it had a prompt asking if you were calling to make an appointment; say yes and your call was heading over the Pacific.

Because of this, people sometimes assumed that they were talking to the Sears Portrait Studio in their city, and start asking them questions. The people at the call center then, for a reason unknown to me, would tell people that they can do all sorts of things from using multiple 9.99 packages to bringing in 5 outfits when we're booked full of appointments. I once had someone come in with their own wheeled rack of clothing changes.

First of all, if the goal is to deliver excellent customer service (hint: it is), it seems that you would want to have your friendly associates talking to the customers, not the people in the call center. And secondly, the customer is not going to feel like they got excellent customer service if the call center tells them something to appease them and then they show up to find out it's impossible to do what they were told they could do in their allotted time.

Try to explain this to the customer however, and you will have an angry customer that swears the person they talked to was someone in the studio even though they said they called 2 hours ago and you've been the only person there all day.

Joy of 4.99

Submission: So today, being my 2nd open to close day of the week, I was worn out and tired just wanting to go home. I had been in the studio since 9:30am and it was now 4pm when the rudest customer of the day walked in the door.

She walked in and slammed her $4.99 coupon down on my counter, looked at me and said "If there is a sitting fee I will NOT do this!" Really lady?! I have NO idea who she is or why--as soon as she walked in--she was being hostile. I looked at the coupon and told her that it did not state on the coupon that there would be no session fee, so she would have to pay it because we have to do what the coupons say. She began telling me how 10 months ago she had a horrible experience with us and this is exactly why she does not come to our studio and goes to Portrait Avenue (who charges $25 a sheet) and would never come back. She stormed out. Five minutes later our phone rings and she is calling for corporate's number (which we do NOT have....... ANYWHERE! because corp never thought we would need it I guess) so I gave her some random number I found on a paper, while she was telling me that she works in retail and I should have done what it took to keep her as a customer and blah blah blah. I don't make enough money to put up with this and its just going to get worse with Christmas since they recently sent out a whole new batch of $4.99 coupons

So now, for me doing what I am told to do by corporate: get rid of the $4.99 by "overcoming" it, I have an irate customer who is going to call them and get loads of free sheets [True: she'll probably get 3 free sheets, miniumum]all because she was too cheap to spend more than 5 bucks.

[Sidenote: there are studios only open until four? My open-to-close was always 9-8.]
As the busy season ramps up, I need your submissions so email them to me!

CPI Corp (CPY) in trouble on the NYSE

As a commenter helpfully pointed out, it has recently come to pass that CPICorp (owner of both Sears Portrait Studio and PictureMe Portrait Studios in Walmart) is in danger of being delisted from the New York Stock Exchange. It's price currently sits at about 3.00/share at the time of this post.

"CPI’s stock plummeted 64 percent in the past year as consumers cut back on discretionary purchases, including pictures, as the price of gas and groceries soared. The company is also in the midst of closing 51 of its studios in U.S.-based Wal-Mart stores."

Full story here

Thanks for nothing

As you know, I put in my two weeks notice right before the Studio Manager did the next weeks' scheduling. When the schedule was made, instead of my usual 30 hours, I was scheduled for 8 hours definite hours and two, 4 hour flex shifts.

Manager had me come in for the flex shift on the last day of the week even though it was obvious I wasn't needed. In the back of my head, I was hoping that maybe it was because she wanted to say goodbye or thanks for all the times I took her shift when one of her kids got sick or all the times I had worked open to close or worked all the hours that she hated to work. Maybe everyone had gotten me a card and signed it.

Wrong. It was a normal day at work and she didn't say anything about me leaving other than that I should call if I wanted any seasonal Christmas hours. No one really said much of anything.

On a sidenote, a commenter asked what Manager usually did on average sales, and it was usually great: $130 or so. However, I was at least given the satisfaction of her doing around $80-90 for the last two weeks I was there.

Figures

Once I put in my two week's notice, the following two weeks I had sales averages of $129 and $121. Had they not reamed me so much on sales in general during my slump (and even when I was doing well), I would have stuck around, but instead: gone and proud of it.

I was at the grocery store the other day getting rung out for a $7 purchase when I realized that working at Sears Portrait Studio was like being a grocery store cashier. Except a $7 purchase would get the cashier in trouble for not selling enough per transaction no matter how happy I was with her service and no matter how efficiently she did her job.

We're done with you

I came in the day after I put in my 2 week's notice to find the schedule for what would be my last week just posted.

I typically worked 30 hours a week, and instead my manager had scheduled me for just 8 on my last week. To my knowledge this is illegal.

I think corporate knew that too, because they paid me all of my unused vacation hours when I called to inquire about that.

What caused me to quit [3/3]

So it's Thursday in our story. I actually had a Friday off coming up (not because they were being nice, but because it fit into a new associate's training schedule), so it was my last chance to get my sales numbers up. I had two appointments on the books.

I did the math and even if a previous sit came back and added on $400 in additional product, I wouldn't make my goal.

I took my first appointment back and they did about $65 of sheets thanks to their 2.99 sheet coupon. After the sit, I talked to my manager.

Me: I hate to say it, but I'm not going to make my sales numbers for this week.
Manager (says something like "that's too bad," pauses for a moment and then asks,) Do you have any plans for tomorrow?
Me: Not currently, but I'm sure I'll plan something, why?
Manager: I just wanted to know in case we needed to touch base and I needed to get a hold of you.

Clearly "touch base" means "tell you why you're in trouble" and at this point could very well mean "fire you"
Me: Ok.
Manager: Also, District Manager called and we have a conference call tomorrow that you need to be on. [reminder: Friday had been my day off] So actually, come into the studio and we'll touch base then before the call.

So despite my best, most well-meaning efforts, I had not met their expectations and on top of this, I was losing part of my day off (from 2-3, the middle of the day) to a conference call that I had to take in studio.

Rather than come in and get my Corrective Action form, I came in and put in my 2 weeks notice.

More on what happened after I quit in the days to follow.

What caused me to quit [2/3]

Another day, another chance to bring my sales numbers back up.

I had few appointments on the books for the next day, but suddenly near the end of my shift I had three walk ins.

The first set was a couple. They were late and showed up right after close, but I shot them quick (adults are easy) and sold them $129.99 worth of products: a good step toward good sales numbers.

Then at 8:15 (after close) as I was still helping the couple, a guy comes in for business shots. I'm not allowed to turn an appointment away, so I took him back while the first couple was looking at their photos and choosing favorites. He only needed an 8x10, but I sold him a single image CD with image rights for $49.99.

The final guy came in around 8:45 (this well after close) but he was looking for quick headshots (and as is typical, needed them that day and could do no other time). He needed a CD so I sold him a 49.99 CD that he added two more images onto for 7.99 each.

Because I was so willing to take appointments and help out customers in need, I brought in an additional $246 dollars in sales that night. Yet my average sale for the day was about $82.00, and therefore I was getting further and further from my sales goal. I had one day left to fix things for the week, and I knew that if I didn't, it could be over for me.

Conclusion Friday.

What caused me to quit. [1/3]

Everything.

But more specifically, this is what pushed me over the edge:

I had a streak of weeks were my average sale numbers weren't up to par. I was trying my hardest to rectify this situation, but just when I started to get them back up, a $9.99 package would com in to ruin all the progress I had made. I had been put on evenings at a time when senior photos weren't popular and therefore I didn't have the $200 sales to bump things up. Compared to my first quarter average sales numbers of about $139 per sale, I was at around $100 (20 below the goal). I knew I was in trouble.

One Monday, the studio manager sat me down to look at my sales numbers. I knew they weren't good, but I took her through all the things I was doing to try and bring the numbers up. She told me she needed to see an at least $10 improvment over the previous week on this week's numbers.

This was a problem given that we were already on the 3rd day of the week and I already had two 9.99 packages (that I upsold to buy extra stuff but that still hurt my average), putting my average at that time at about $88.

I did the math and figured out that I would need some spectacular sales in order to bring myself up to a $110 average sale. But rather than admit defeat, I decided that if I just tried to make each day end up at $120, it would help my week total.

My first appointment was corporate headshots. This meant he had a set package he needed. I offered him additional sheets, but he just stuck with his company's package. This was a $60 sale. So my next sale had to be 180 dollars to make up for it.

My second appointment was different corporate headshots. His $75 package meant that the next sale had to be $225 now to make up for the previous two.

The next sitting was not corporate headshots. It was a four year old and I took great pictures, got great smiles, and we took photos in two different outfits. The mom pulled out her 9.99 coupon which I added a proof sheet onto for a total sale of $24.99.

Average sale for my shift that day? About $53.33.

Story continues Wednesday.

On training employees

I once had to watch an new employee (who had kids, mind you) ask a 12 year old girl if

1) She knew where she wanted to go to college
2) If she was excited to drive soon
3) If she had heard of Knight Rider

Yes, really.

Perhaps with Robot Babies?

Submission:

I don't know what everyone else's experience has been, but training new employees seems to become harder and harder. It's not bad enough that there are about a MILLION things a new employee needs to know, without the customers making the poor trainee feel even worse. I'll give you an example:
About a month ago I was training a new employee. We had practiced in the camera room posing bears, taking pictures of other employees and such, but she needed a real live baby to test what she'd learned.

I stayed in the camera room with her the whole time, only making suggestions and stepping in when she was obviously unsure. The kid turned out to be a NIGHTMARE and we did the best we could, given the circumstances. Once the cropping and enhancing were done, we had some cute poses, despite the little girl's screaming, yelling and running around like a banshee.

The customer looked through the pictures and said, "honestly I don't like any of these. Last time's were much better." (Well of course last time's pictures were better, lady, your kid was immobile at that point!)

Through much use of my persuasive skills, she wound up ordering some pictures. Her CSAT (customer satisfaction survey) comments came in a week later:

"New employees should not be allowed to take pictures of kids."

How the hell am I supposed to train them, then?