Welp, I fucked up on this week's schedule. I neglected to have two closing people in addition to my ASM so that she wouldn't be the only person there for half an hour.
...of course, there was a guy running a sidewalk sale for us outside who could have covered the dressing rooms for that half hour if she hadn't let him go home an hour and half early because somehow "So guy1 can't be here tomorrow, so guy2 will do this for us" doesn't convey "guy2 is scheduled for guy1's entire shift." Whatever. I'm just not liking being yelled at by my asm because she intensified the fuckup.
So.
My management experience amounts to telling people where they'll be in a kitchen with a pre-established hour schedule and being the person people ask what to do in said kitchen. Yes, somehow I got hired to be a manager on that. I think my DSM didn't listen very well.
Can anyone give me some fucking idea of how the hell to conduct an interview, and maybe some general management tips?
Cuz apparently I gotta break this down for you dense motherfuckers- I'm trans feminine nonbinary. My pronouns are they/them.
Winnah wrote:No, No. 'Prak' is actually a Thri Kreen impersonating a human and roleplaying himself as a D&D character. All hail our hidden insect overlords.
FrankTrollman wrote:In Soviet Russia, cosmic horror is the default state.
You should gain sanity for finding out that the problems of a region are because there are fucking monsters there.
I'm not quite sure what you are managing, but based on your admission of thin qualifications and confusion it seems highly likely that they hired you out of more desperation than planning. So you may be in a set up to fail situation - in which case the best thing you can do is pocket the experience as a resume builder.
But for general tips:
Scheduling: This is NP-hard for a bunch of situations, so do not take it lightly, it is not easy, and anyone who tells you so is only thinking about their own schedule. First Fill out a schedule of needed manpower first. Then try to break that into as repeatable a pattern of shifts as possible. Then try to slot people in to those shifts. Repeat the same people in the same shifts as much as possible
Remember that you are never going to have 100% attendance, so have some sort of back up plan about having people stay late, or get called in, or cover double zones, or whatnot (because I already know they ain't gonna pay for enough labor hours to cover the expected call offs). Also remember that you are never going to get people 100% happy about any schedule you come up with, so try to offload the complaints to some sort of "yinz guys need to notify me in writing before you switch shifts" policy.
Management: Your job is to try to remove and reduce the obstacles that prevent your staff from doing their jobs. This means that you need to be able to recognize obstacles and find ways to mitigate them, but more importantly you need to have staff who feel free to tell you about said obstacles. That means you need to communicate a lot. Stay positive and respectful towards your staff, especially when things are not looking good and respect is in short supply. Repeat yourself a lot on the important stuff. Repeat yourself a lot on the important stuff - some people were off / busy with a customer / don't read memos, weren't paying attention the first time three times.
Interviewing: This varies a lot by career field. In some cases you need to establish that candidates really do have the required skills and qualifications, while in others the only way to see if the applicant can do the work is to throw them to the lions for a probationary period.
Last edited by Josh_Kablack on Mon Sep 29, 2014 7:01 am, edited 3 times in total.
"But transportation issues are social-justice issues. The toll of bad transit policies and worse infrastructure—trains and buses that don’t run well and badly serve low-income neighborhoods, vehicular traffic that pollutes the environment and endangers the lives of cyclists and pedestrians—is borne disproportionately by black and brown communities."
Sorry, seasonal retail store. This still helps a lot though.
Cuz apparently I gotta break this down for you dense motherfuckers- I'm trans feminine nonbinary. My pronouns are they/them.
Winnah wrote:No, No. 'Prak' is actually a Thri Kreen impersonating a human and roleplaying himself as a D&D character. All hail our hidden insect overlords.
FrankTrollman wrote:In Soviet Russia, cosmic horror is the default state.
You should gain sanity for finding out that the problems of a region are because there are fucking monsters there.
I am not a manager, but I've done some interviews before. Your mileage may vary because I was interviewing candidates for tech jobs.
If the job you're doing interviews for doesn't require a lot of technical skill (I'm assuming not since you're in retail), you have three things to check for:
1.) Make sure they are capable of doing the work in a reasonably timely manner. Nobody wants to sit at the cash register for 20 minutes because the cashier is slower than molasses.
2.) Get a feel for their personality so you hire someone you don't want to constantly strangle if you have to be around them a lot.
3.) They can pass a remedial math/English test. The position may not be rocket science, but having at least a bit of intelligence is enormously helpful.
Ideally, your candidate will be skilled, hardworking, efficient, loyal, friendly, and willing to adapt. In practice, that's like finding a unicorn. Figure out your priorities on particular employees, and adjust your needs to suit the situation.
As for the actual interview, you mostly want to ask about prior work experience, their personality, and any skills relevant to the job. You should be able to get a good feel for their demeanor and interaction skills just by the conversation you'll have. Exactly what they did at prior work isn't necessarily relevant, but how they reacted to issues is very relevant. Try to ask about particular hardships that came up at prior work, since knowing how they handled it gives you an idea of if they'll freak out and panic or come up with a reasonable plan of action.
Hopefully that helps.
Random thing I saw on Facebook wrote:Just make sure to compare your results from Weapon Bracket Table and Elevator Load Composition (Dragon Magazine #12) to the Perfunctory Armor Glossary, Version 3.8 (Races of Minneapolis, pp. 183). Then use your result as input to the "DM Says Screw You" equation.
Im the manager at an it company and run the tier 1 and 2 teams. I hire fresh out of high school and college, onto the team. Maybe 1 or 2 years tops. They last about a year before being promoted to other stuff. I hire a lot, probably 3-4 multi hour face to face a week.
Topics to cover.
Be as relaxed and repaxing as possible. Spend 20 min minimum bsing to help them lower their gaurd and be real.
Do they give a shit? About stuff in general. You are seeing if they have goals and dreams and motivations. If not pass. In your case id recomend asking if they want to go back to school some day, or maybe what their long term career goal is. Make it clear that its cool to say "not this". You can also about hobbies or recreation. Does anything get them excited?
Do they have their shit together? Are they on time, can they talk to others, can you have a conversation wih them? If no pass. Your goal is to find people who arent strung out, panicky, flakey, and other. You want someone on time, dressed approperiatlry who can speak. If they cant pass. Ask if you would be fine presenting them to friends (assuming your friends are these things). If not, pass.
Are they an asshole? Talk for no less than an hour with them. If you hate them pass. This is priority 1.
Ask them about shitty coworkers from the past. How did you handle it? See if their answer is legit. Same question for shitty bosses. You are gauging how they interact with others. Everyone says they like a team environment. Many people are shitty to work with. People who answers this problem with bitching are the shitty coworkers. People who answer it with how they dealt with it are probably not. Even better if they have a good answer.
In your situation you should probably spend no more than 2 min on job experience. (Ever work retail? Can you learn?) I usually do 30 (in 2-3 hours of interviews per person). Technical stuff is easy to suss out with some very basic questions. The rest is harder. Technical stuff is alao easier to teach.
