Officious - A new word I learned to describe a colleague at work

A few days ago, an old customer of mine came to the store look at the table lamps we had available that he could buy, unfortunately, because I was away that day, one of my colleague took the initiative to show them the pieces we had. I am not sure how extensive his conversation with my client was, but my colleague reached out to me and shared with me that my client had dropped buy and was interested in this particular lamp we had. 

I followed up with my client the very next day and that client then proposed to drop by this evening for us (me and my client) to discuss which light would suit his home.

6.00pm comes along and my client and his wife drops by the store, my colleague who had assisted them on my off day happened to be at the store today as well, so when he saw them, he greeted them at the entrance and the husband ask for me. When I saw them, I waved at them and proceeded to start a conversation with the both the husband and his wife, but I was able to build rapport with the husband much more quickly because this was my first time meeting the wife.

The wife then leaves mid conversation to explore the store on her own and at some point during her solo exploration, my colleague who had assisted them a few days ago suddenly got into a conversation with the wife, I am not sure if he approached her and if she approached him, but either way, that's when things started going to shit as the wife decided to bring my colleague back to where her husband and I were seated. I had been discussing with the husband and offering him advice about the lamp options at this point, but the wife started sharing the opinions my colleague had been sharing with her when they were having their separate conversation a few minutes ago, this then led to my colleague repeating the conversation he was having with his wife to the husband, all while I was seated there, mid-conversation with the husband, my colleague, being the officious individual that he is,  proceeds to overtake the entire conversation and started sharing his own advice with them, which was completely contradictory to what I had shared with the client, and I just sat there a bit confused as to what is going on because the customer came to the store looking for me to seek my advice, so why the fuck are you giving your advice with them when the original sales person that the husband is looking for and was speaking to is literally seated less than 5 meters away? 

A general rule of thumb when it comes to talking to someone else's customer while the original sales person is present is... 

You don't.

This is basic courtesy, you just don't talk to their customer unless the original sales person is asking for help, I clearly wasn't in need of any help, I can handle my own customers, back off. 

I can understand why the wife would prefer talking to my colleague, she feels more comfortable with him because it was the first time she was meeting me and my colleague clearly left a good impression when he spoke to them during their last visit. If the husband hadn't ask for me by name and my colleague took over the customer entirely, I would have gladly given them to him, but the fact that the husband requested for me by name and my colleague still felt the "responsibility" to engage with both of them even though I was present, it just made this whole thing feel really icky.

Anyways, I chose to disengage from the conversation when my colleague decided to parasite his way in because I know I won't win if I am competing with him for the customer's attention, he is an extrovert, I am an introvert, I need the customer to stay engaged with me if I want the conversation to continue, but my colleague is clearly hogging all the attention away from me, and even though I know the husband is trying to respect my presence, it's really difficult when his wife is clearly more interested in talking to my colleague who is talking much louder than me.

They had a very long conversation amongst themselves because that's what my colleague is good at, being long winded, and every time I hear my colleague laughing out loud in the distance with the client, I just want to shove a light bulb in his mouth. About 10 to 15 minutes later after all their "HAHAHA" and his "LOLS", he brings the lamp they have decided to buy over to me, tells me the customer has decided, and is all proud about it like he has just help me clinched a sales

I told him to put the sales under his name because I didn't want it 

He thought I was being coy about it, but when I reiterated that I did not want it at, I guess he could sense my annoyance and stopped pushing for me to take the sales, I then spoke to the husband and told him my colleague will prepare the invoice for him, sort of my way of telling him that my colleague will be completely taking over from now on, that he has successfully been poached away from me. 

He thinks he has done me a favor, but all my colleague has done is poached my customer, this isn't about this single sales that he thinks he has helped me close, I didn't need his fucking help closing the sales, this is about the long term relationship I am suppose to have with the customer that he has completely ruined for me because when they come back to the store in the future, they are not going to look for me anymore, they are going to look for him. The fact that he even gave them his own number when they left instead of asking them to contact me is what's so fucking disgusting about this whole thing.

I actually don't know how dense my colleague is, but the moment you offer your own contact number to another sales person's customer, you have to realize that you have overstepped your boundary right? Especially when the original sales person is literally just a few meters away from you. 

Gross.

Anyways, this isn't his first time meddling into my business, he did this to me before previously, at that time, he was also "trying to help", but all he did was undermine me in front of the customer. This is what one would call 越帮越忙. 

This whole exchange just really rubbed me the wrong way but I do feel really bad for the husband though because I could tell at the start he was genuinely asking me for my advice and not my colleague, the problem is his wife and my colleague started having their own conversation and my colleague, being the good-willed but extremely meddlesome individual that he is just fucked everything up. I was so upset at the whole situation I didn't even bother to say my goodbyes to the customers when they left, which, now looking back, I do feel quite bad about.

Lazy or Stupid for staying

My boss conducted his weekly store training with me and my colleagues at work today and the training is usually just SOP refreshers, like remembering to greet customers when they enter the store, making them feel comfortable and introducing ourselves as well as the brands that we carry to them, it's like the kind of Customer Service Retail shit that is constantly being repeated to us every week. 

Today is no different, however, today, we had something else to run thorough, and that was the latest Mystery Shopper results, unfortunately for me, I was the one who had been graded because I was the one who had served the last Mystery Shopper.

My boss was really firm when the training started, he was talking about how we are an extension of him because we represent his company, everything felt really serious and he sounded really upset, which was worrying for me because it was obviously related to my Mystery Shopper performance, after talking for a while, he proceeds to plaster the results on the projector screen for everyone to see and I scored about a 74%, which I though was not bad because I rarely approach customers unless they come to me, but in my boss's eyes, this is considered a fail, in fact, anything less than 100% is considered a fail to him.

He was visibly upset as he ran through the first part of the results, pointing out how disappointed he was that I didn't acknowledge or greet the customer when she entered the store and reiterated that this is something he has wanted us to do during multiple trainings, and he just stayed on that topic for the entirety of the training, which then segued into something else he was disappointed with me in, which led to him reprimanding me and one of my colleague for being "lazy".

I will admit, on a day to day basis, I am a very lazy person, but in this particular context, my boss is just plain fucking wrong.  We were deemed "lazy" because we didn't CC him into any email exchanges we have with our clients. 

The problem here is, we don't communicate with our clients via the fucking email, we communicate via WhatsApp because that is how people converse nowadays, through text, that's why we don't CC him because we have nothing to CC him in! I also don't have any emails to CC him in because I am busy...

1.  Preparing Multiple Design Proposals for multiple colleagues as the only Interior Stylist in the store! 

These proposals includes doing 

• Space Planning Drawings on AutoCAD, 
• Mood Images Compilation
• 3D Renderings on SketchUp
• Consolidation of the proposed furniture information including measurements and material finishes

2. Planning out the Layout for the Store, updating the Space Planning Layout on AutoCAD for the Showroom as the Visual Merchandiser! This also includes updating the Price List of the dozens of furniture we have in the space.

3. Liaising with customers via WhatsApp instead of email because once again, why the fuck would a customer want to communicate via email unless they are buying the furniture on behalf of another company for a commercial or office project.

And for my other colleague, he has proven again and again that he is the best salesperson in the store, he clearly has his own way of doing things and it works because he is consistently hitting $100,000 in Sales every month, just for context, everyone else on average would hit about $40,000.

 

And we are both lazy because we don't have any emails to CC our boss in. Are you fucking kidding me! Just because you are not in the loop of the things we are doing, *cough* micro-managing much*cough*  doesn't mean we are not working. I am wearing multiple hats for the company by doing Sales, Interior Styling and Visual Merchandising, but I am still getting the same salary as when I first started work whilst my colleague who is constantly able to bring in sales every month without fail and hitting $100,000 every month, choosing to stay with the company even though he could be earning so much more if he joined a company that offers commission, we are considered lazy. 

US?!?

We are not lazy, we are just fucking stupid for staying.

My boss's reason for wanting us to email the customers and CC-ing him in them is not only for him to keep track of what we are doing, but it's also to protect us so we have a record of our exchange with the customers in case they start complaining about us for not following up closely. 

For fuck?!

Our WhatsApp conversation can do the exact same thing, it's a back and forth text between us and the customer, just like an email, except WhatsApp is something that the customers would actually use on a daily basis, as oppose to an email. The only time a customer would request for us to converse through email is if they are purchasing furniture for us on behalf of another client or company and need to have an official paper trail, otherwise, no regular homeowners would choose to converse via email.

  

I will just move on with my Mystery Shopper results, so my boss was harping on about how bad service from us affects him because we represent the store and the store represents him. Well, I went to look at the report after the training was done and lo and fucking behold, even though I didn't do well for the opening part, I was given a glowing review by the Mystery Shopper who wrote, and I fucking quote word for fucking word...

The staff member had good sales skills and was considerate of my needs. I loved his services and I will also recommend the outlet to my family. I was very impressed by his service.

... Oh, so I guess me offering good service is a bad representation for the store and by extension, a bad reflection of him.

This is the main thing my boss has been harping us since day 1, that he wants us to offer good service, WELL, I DID, and what do I get in return? Get deemed lazy.

It is fucking upsetting. Now I know why my other colleague, who happened to be off today, is so unhappy at work, because he is constantly getting undermined by my boss for not doing a good job during our training. My boss called him a waste of talent because he is not performing at his best.

Well, he is a waste of talent because he has no motivation to perform, when we do well, we don't get acknowledged for doing a good job, but when we fall short in certain areas, that gets magnified and becomes our main trait. It's such a demoralizing and negative space for a sales person, how the fuck can someone excel  when they are constantly being taken down a peg.

Also just FYI, this colleague of mine scored full marks for his Mystery Caller results, 100%, and it didn't even get brought up at the training today. 

Isn't that just Fan-fucking-tastic.

My boss isn't one to shout and scream at us for not performing well, he is generally a nice guy who talks to us in a calmly fashion most of all time, but that doesn't make his management style and the work environment he has created any less toxic based on what I have experienced. 

Aside from what I have written down, another thing he does is he would create new policies for us to follow, but then a week or 2 later, just forget about it and tell us to do the exact opposite, for example, just a few weeks ago, his stance on how we should deal with walk-in customers is...

"Greet them when they walk in, but let them walk around the space and only approach them a later to give them some time to look around."

.. .but then during the training last week, suddenly he wants us to walk the customers through the space because we need to introduce the brands to them, he wants us to stick to them like glue because he claims that if the customer isn't sincere, they will get so uncomfortable that they leave. 

Like what the fuck do you want us to do?  If we do "A", he will say it's not working and we should do "B", but when "B" doesn't work, he will say it's not working and we should do "A" again, and he would always go back to the point and say it's because the sales team is the problem.  

I have never wanted to leave the company as quickly as I do now, like what the actual fuck! 

More cancellations...

So that customer who cancelled a bunch of stuff that she ordered from the store AFTER they have been fabricated and are at the Warehouse awaiting delivery has decided that she wants to cancel another item, and this time, it's a $10,000 armchair that she got. 

 I told her I can't let her cancel because we have no space for it in our store, it's not an item that sells particularly well because that particular piece she got is a larger version of an armchair that we already have surplus stock of and our customers usually tend to gravitate towards the regular sized one.

 Her response to that was...

"I have absolutely no need for the armchair because I simply do not have any space in my house for it."

... and that's suppose to be our problem? 

When she requested to cancel the first batch of items that amounted to $3,000.00 because they were "delayed", I figured I would just let her because it's a small amount compared to her overall invoice, which amounted to $90,000.

And technically, her item wasn't delayed, she ordered them from us in the second week of February, we had already informed her it will take 4 to 5 months to arrive, that makes July the 5th month, so she had absolutely no right to cancel her items, it was a gesture of goodwill on my end to allow her to do that. 

Then when she requested to cancel another $12,000 worth of coffee and side tables because of "delay" I allowed her to do it because the coffee table she had ordered was in fact going to be delayed due to production problem, the side table wasn't, but the reason she cancelled that was because she had already gotten another side table, which is once again, not our problem, that just sounds like poor planning on your part.

In total, she had already cancelled $15,000 worth of item, this is not only AFTER they have been ordered, but this is after they have been fabricated and are days away from reaching our Warehouse.

And now she wants to cancel another $10,000 worth of item. So her total sales went from $90,000 to $65,000 within a span of a week, she had months before that to bring this up, but only brought up all this cancellation on the 5th month when the items are already on the way. 

She claimed that she will get more items from us when her other house is ready next year, so when I brought this up to my boss, he agreed to take the armchair from her, but the condition is that instead of giving her a cash refund, we will convert it to store credit, that means she will be able to take that $10,000 that she can spend with us for the armchair and use it for other items from out store. 

If you are planning to get more items from us in the future, then this shouldn't be an issue for you, but when I tell her about the store credit requirement, she tells me she didn't see the point. But that's the whole fucking point of us even allowing you to cancel the chair, so you will use that money you paid for the chair to get something else from us you dumb bitch! 

I was really trying to be nice when I was texting her earlier because I didn't want to make her upset and potentially lose s huge sales when her next house is ready next year, but if she is able to pull this last minute cancellation crap on us right now, who's to say she won't do the same shit for her next house, which then begs the question, do we really want this type of person as a repeat customer. 

Right now, I am trying to convince her to get something else from our store because I don't really want to give her a cash refund, but I'm not exactly feeling very optimistic about it.

The most annoying thing about this whole annoyance is SHE IS NOT EVEN MY FUCKING CUSTOMER! She is my ex-colleague's customer who was simply thrown to me even though my official role in the store is Visual Merchandiser / Interior Stylist. I'm really trying to move away from the Sales aspect of the job but my company just keeps forcing that on me, even though it was something I have been telling them I am not comfortable with from the very beginning. 

I actually had an interview with Forty Two a few months ago for a similar position, a stylist role, but there is no focus on sales at all, it's mainly maintaining the Showroom and approaching the customer, even though the pay is lower, the jobscope was a bit more towards what I was looking for, the only issue I had then was the approaching customer part, but looking at the way things are at my current company, I shouldn't have express my disdain towards approaching customers during my Forty Two interview, because they might have given me chance to join them.

My current job had been falsely advertised to me from the start and I was made to work in a position that I had no interest in, which is sales, but now that I am finally given the job scope of the position I had originally applied for, which is a creative role, it is stacked on top of the sales role, so even though my responsibilities have increased, I still haven't gotten a pay increment, despite my boss telling me it is something that will be discussed during my KPI after he offered me the VM role, a KPI that has been delayed indefinitely until who knows when. 

The KPI was suppose to be done in May, the month whereby I had the highest sales out of everyone, which would have given me leverage to ask for a higher pay increment, but for some reason, the KPI kept getting postponed, and by the looks of it, I doubt I will be getting any sort of increment anytime soon. I will say though, my May sales performance was just a fluke because I ended up performing extremely poorly in sales for the month of June, so I kinda lost my leverage. 

Whilst I am grateful for having a job with a fixed salary, I am now wishing to look for another company that is offering a fixed salary. I have completely given up on the idea of going back to doing Interior Design, after breaking down how much I was earning in the last post as an ID, it's just not worth it, especially after reading my old blog post about how stressful I was when I had projects.

Like this... 

And this...

And this...

Among a few others that I have rant-blogged about sporadically...

The anxiety and stress of having to deal with a Renovation project back then is 10 to 20 times worst than the gnawing feeling of annoyance I have from having to deal with this dumb bitch of a customer right now who suddenly got "woke" and decided to embrace cancel culture, the stress I had from doing ID was so bad that I would break out in acne because of the stress, that I wouldn't be able to sleep, that I would sometimes lose appetite over because of how amazing I was at just overthinking things, and I was only earning an paltry $700.00  $1000.00 per month on average for it. (I had very little projects, so I could roughly remember how much each project made and I was actually earning on average of about $1000 per month, which is about $54,000, still extremely measly, but at least it's 4 digits per month) 

Whilst I am proud of how much I was able to learn when I was part of the industry and do miss the design aspect of it, it is just not worth it, period. But I do really want to find a new job though because this current one is really starting to stink, just not really sure there are currently any other furniture store looking to hire an Interior Stylist, I am almost hitting my 1 year mark with my current company, if I leave soon it probably won't look so bad on my resume.