THE TESTING GROUNDS SERIES

Working At The Smaller Store With the Smaller Guys

The first big job I ever had, but smaller

The year was 1972.

My second year of marriage and the second year of my first big job.

Still on the Quick Track Program.

And recently “promoted” out of the big store into a better job at the brand-new branch store.

A smaller store, but pristine and ready to be molded … by me.

What a difference from the tyrannical culture I’d known before.

A new day was dawning!

How fresh to show up even before the store had opened to the public.

To create my own team of sales clerks.

To organize my own stockroom.

To help set up the merchandise displays and familiarize myself with every item.

I was in charge of half the upstairs area.

Draperies, Bedding, Linens, Towels, Kitchen Furnishings (like tablecloths & placemats), and the wonderful little boutique store-within-a-store — the Bath Shop.

All under the rubric: Domestics.

And yes, I felt right at home.

I learned to delegate in this job.

Not to abdicate responsibility, but to share it.

And to watch the pleasure of those who’ve been assigned specific things to oversee.

In the Drapery Department, the cutest, sweetest, but fiery little southern blonde quickly acquired knowledge beyond my own, to the point where I deferred to her in all matters drapery-related. She quickly became my Assistant Manager, while I turned my attention elsewhere.

To really tough stuff — like choosing which bedspread to feature on display that month.

Managing wasn’t always so easy.

The day Sharon walked into my department, tears streaming down her face and looking like a homeless waif lost and confused in the big city, I thought she was just a customer needing directions to the exit.

“I was told to report here,” she stammered. “I’m supposed to work somewhere in towels or tablecloths or something. I don’t know.”

I thought she might be a parolee on institutional furlough, but I was already a sucker for damsels in distress.

This one looked straight off the farm.

But I took her under my wing that day, even when the other girls seemed to shun her. She was so utterly and overtly grateful, no one ever worked harder for me or remained so immensely loyal.

I named this series The Testing Grounds for two reasons:

• Because jobs strongly test our skills and character.
• Because work lessons are portable in life.

And from the instances related, I learned two important lessons:

• The ability/willingness to delegate work guarantees efficiency.
• The choice to accept/nurture others’ efforts begets loyalty.

For such a young man, I found these lessons invaluable.

With other validations soon to follow.

Like my two late-shift gals bored by the dearth of nighttime customers.

Who came to me to ask, “Is it okay if we redecorate the Bath Shop?”

The typical managerial response would be, “No.”

Thus furthering a false affirmation of authority and keeping one safe from higher-management retribution.

“Sure thing!” I said. “Have at it!”

If nothing else, morale soared. Which was contagious. Soon, other salespeople were asking if they could redecorate everything.

All I could think was: Buyers be damned.

Truth be told, sometimes sales increased. Sometimes they stayed even. In rare cases they declined, though I doubt from any redecorating done.

What never declined, however, was our high morale and great camaraderie.

Alas, common wisdom in the world assures us:

· This too shall pass.

· Things change.

· What seems good may not be — and vice-versa.

I’m talking about the Quick Track Program (mentioned in the prequel to this story.)

Things went so darn well at this brand-new smaller store, time came again to be rid of me.

This time — as a natural counterpoint — I was headed not just for a bigger store but the biggest store of all, and not in my relatively small hometown but in the biggest town of all — Downtown L.A.

Blight of California.

And just so was I promoted once again.

To the position of Assistant Buyer in Domestics.

… to be continued.

THE END