We’ve nearly all been there — having a boss or supervisor who is so hard to work for that all the fun is absolutely sucked out of the job, leaving nothing but drudgery and a crestfallen feeling. Looking back, we can see how much more productive we could have been under a better manager, even if we didn’t realize it at the time.
This can be especially true in a retail setting. Being a butthole boss in retail can not only mean your employees hate you and fail to seek excellence in their work, but it can also cost you a lot of money in both the short and long run. And nobody wants to see that happen in their retail establishment, whether they sell pet food, computers, or AR-15s and related accessories.
On the positive side, we all are capable of changing how we handle different situations with a simple change of attitude and a little extra effort. Following are nine attributes of butthole bosses that all retail managers should avoid. Sidestep these pitfalls, and more success is sure to follow.
1. Micromanaging Everything
If you’ve never had a boss who micromanages every little thing you tried to do throughout your work day, you’re a lucky person indeed. A retail supervisor who has to be in charge of every tiny aspect of every little job becomes a nuisance to employees very quickly and often leads to greatly increased dissatisfaction among employees.
Think about it: Do you really need to stand over an employee who has been stocking your shotshell shelf for a year or more and tell them exactly where to place each box? Or do you actually need to explain how to sanitize the gun counter to an employee for the sixth time this week?
One of the best ways to avoid this pitfall is getting to know your employees better, which we’ll discuss next. This includes knowing about their life away from the shop and about their personalities, strengths and weaknesses.
2. Never Getting to Know Your Staff
Failure to get to know your staff is another frequent mismanagement technique of butthole bosses. Not only does it keep you from learning information necessary for assigning appropriate tasks and having the confidence those tasks will be completed, but it also lets employees know you care about them as more than just a money-making tool.
Fact is, employees want to know they are appreciated beyond the shop’s front door. For complete satisfaction, they need to know their employers care about them and their family and that they want the best for them. Otherwise, all those employees will get out of their job is a paycheck. And if that paycheck isn’t substantial, they’ll quickly begin looking for someplace else to work where they hope they’ll be more appreciated.
In the long run, stay distant from your employees at your own peril. Make them feel like part of the team and they’ll do a better job for you.
3. Never/Always Delegating Responsibility
Bosses who never delegate tasks to others and insist on doing nearly everything themselves are doing themselves and their employees a grave disservice. Not only do they suffer from overwork, fatigue and burnout, but they also make employees feel like they aren’t trusted enough to accomplish tasks that they are perfectly capable of handling.
Delegation can be a two-way street, however. Supervisors who always delegate every task are often seen as lazy and unwilling to pitch in around the shop. That can lead to employees who believe they do everything and consider themselves overworked. This is the situation where you hear employees complain to one another and to others that the person they work for does nothing but sit in the office on his or her smartphone all day. If that’s the case, making changes and pitching in a little more often could alter those attitudes.
4. Never Listening to Employees’ Ideas
Employees who take the time and effort to suggest ideas they believe will make things run more smoothly or make processes more effective can be the greatest assets a retail establishment has. In fact, such employees are somewhat rare and should be much more appreciated than they often are.
Careful consideration of such ideas is important in keeping up the morale of employees. They want to see their ideas recognized, taken seriously and implemented if appropriately productive.
Even if shared ideas aren’t ones that can be implemented effectively, they should still be considered out of respect for employees. Also, an explanation as to why their idea was or was not implemented goes a long way toward building an employer/employee relationship that is more fruitful for both parties. Employees who feel like their boss always hates their ideas and never receive any feedback are likely to become bitter.
5. Ignoring Good Efforts
Underappreciation is the bane of American workers at nearly all levels and in nearly every job category. Nearly everyone who has a boss has felt underappreciated at one time or another. And there are few things more likely to lead to subpar performance than workers who feel like nobody cares about their efforts — especially their direct supervisor.
It doesn’t take much effort to recognize when employees are going above and beyond the call of duty to make sales and keep customers happy. The effort necessary to recognize and praise (publicly if possible) such efforts will certainly pay off many times over with employees who continue to put in that extra effort moving forward.
Face it, in today’s world there are way too many negatives that the average American has to deal with. Making the workplace better by rewarding good effort might just make life a little better for your employees — and that’s never a bad thing.
6. Failing to Mentor Employees
Mentoring isn’t just a way to get employees to perform better in many aspects of their responsibilities — it is also a way to pass on the many skills you’ve worked so hard to learn over the years. Not only does effective mentoring lead toward more productive employees and increased sales, but it can also give you a sense of satisfaction that you’re helping employees build for a better future.
Showing employees the best ways to interact with customers instead of just telling them goes a long way toward building a relationship that can make them want to work harder for you and your company. They’ll appreciate the skills you’ve instilled in them, and the satisfaction you can receive from seeing them utilizing the techniques you taught them pay off in making sales can make you enjoy your job more, also.
7. Criticizing Employees in Front of Others
Criticizing staff in front of other employees is a sure way to cause all of your employees to lose respect for you and not give maximum effort in their jobs. Even worse, criticizing employees in front of customers will do the same, plus possibly cause those customers to choose another retail establishment that they consider to be more employee-friendly.
We all learned the Golden Rule in kindergarten: “Always treat others as you want to be treated.” Unfortunately, as adults, we often forget that important lesson that can take us so far in every aspect of life. In retail, that means praise employees in public, correct them in private. Your employees will appreciate it and your customers won’t be put in an awkward position because of an ill-timed “dressing down” when they are present.
8. Never Being Accessible
Being a completely inaccessible supervisor is a recipe for not getting the best performance out of your employees. Whether they have questions or suggestions or just want to share a story, being there for them makes them feel more like part of the team, and that’s vitally important to a healthy employee/employer relationship. Having an open-door policy, at least for part of the day, will go a long way toward building a trust that can lead to better sales and a stronger bottom line.
This can include being in such a bad mood that employees are afraid to seek you out for advice or to share important information with you. I once worked for a boss that was perpetually so out of sorts that I and other senior executives in the company would call his secretary and ask about his demeanor that day before deciding whether we should “bother” him. Trust me, that’s not a fun way to live, and only the good salary convinced me to stay with that company.
9. Keeping Employees in the Dark
There are few things worse than working somewhere and never knowing what is going on because your supervisor doesn’t keep you informed. Whether it is unexpected policy changes, schedule revisions, surprise changes in store hours or many other aspects of the job, employees are always more satisfied — and more productive — if they aren’t kept in the dark.
Employees who are always uninformed are nearly always dissatisfied employees who won’t accomplish as much as they could if a little effort is made to keep them in the loop. On the flip side, those who aren’t kept in the dark often perform better because they feel like they are a more crucial part of the organization.
Wrapping Up
Of course, there are a lot more ways to be a really bad supervisor than the nine just discussed. But if you display any of those attributes, now is a good time to rethink that aspect of your management style.
In the end, being a butthole boss isn’t a good thing for anybody involved — employees, customers or you. If that phrase describes you, it’s not a badge of honor. Don’t wear it as such.
