Working for a Bad Manager Exposed My Own Leadership Flaws
It’s easy to mirror your boss’s worst traits
I was surprised when it came out of my mouth: “Just do it. We need to finish by 10 a.m. no matter what.”
Hmmm…that’s not something I would typically tell one of my employees. Why the hell did I say that?
My retail store had just received a massive truckload of products that had to be unloaded and stocked ASAP. As the assistant store manager, my job was to ensure that my 50-person logistics team packed the sales floor with Xboxes, video games, LEGO sets, and every other doorbuster item that would make deal-loving parents fight each other on Black Friday.
But as every retail manager knows, if there aren’t enough “payroll hours” to do the work required, life begins to get stressful.
If a store exceeds its payroll budget, the higher-ups lose their bonus checks. Mid-level managers get called on the carpet (and potentially lose their jobs). Employees lose shifts, which means they don’t have the money to pay bills.
In short, payroll is a massive deal for a retail store.
My store was currently over-spending our payroll allowance, so we were in crisis mode. And this particular morning, the truck from the distribution center was a…
