Do These People Talk to Each Other?

Do These People Talk To Each Other?
It's a long time since I lived in Cincinnati, so my vision of the Federated headquarters is probably hopelessly out of date. Time has resolved it into a windowless cubicle farm there on Seventh Street, near where my dad used to drop us off for Big Red Machine games at Riverfront Stadium. Boy, how many things have changed...I used to think corporations had monolithic managements who quickly and naturally agreed on the best thing for the company. I figured they all had one idea about how the personnel could achieve their harmonious goal. Federated stores were known to have good merchandise and good help. There's another thing that's changed...There's been so much talk about the new black dress code, but none of it seems on the mark to me. I think the real reason management wants us to work in black (which actually has not hurt as much as I had expected; my store is pretty lenient about black-dominated prints and contemporary cuts) is so we stand out. When these black figures start catching your eye, you'll start to believe there are more of us than there really are.Moreover, it looks to me like this optical illusion is a pathetic attempt to paper over a fundamental gulf in top management. On the one hand, customer service managers are constantly exhorting us to get to know our best customers, to carefully explain the latest and greatest merchandise, to even walk around the wrap stands and put their bags in their hands. Escort them to another department if it helps them complete an outfit.I wish I could. I often do -- at which point, a manager complains that I have left my post and am having too much fun chatting. That's because the accountants have a different idea. They keep us at minimum wage, which results in such high turnover that we barely know each other, much less the merchandise or the customers. This year there was a decree that all annual reviews were to be filled in with median scores, in order to prevent merit raises. A colleague (now gone) who relocated here because of her husband's job was required to start as a new hire, rather than transferring in her seniority. I had the same experience myself -- two years of learning curve, down the economic drain -- for me, but not for them. They take advantage of it all the time, to have folks like me train and assist the constant parade of newbies.And that's not all. There is a whole wing of our store -- with several high-volume departments -- where management consistently positions only two associates. But I exaggerate -- usually there's only one. Since this is right inside our main street-level entrance, customers have no one to give directions to the department they want. What a first impression: "Help! I'm lost! Where is everybody?"There are only two potential explanations for these completely self-contradictory sets of policies. Maybe those comfy looking cubicle farms see lots of shouting matches that no one ever hears about. Maybe there's an iron wall dividing the visionaries from the accountants. Devoid of dialogue, they are wandering further and further along their own self-created paths -- and away from the shopping public.Either way, it's what bugs most of us employees when we really talk among ourselves. I haven't had that much trouble with the black thing, because it's too incredibly trivial to get upset about. What I want to know is, who do these people really think they're fooling? And is this the only policy on which they are going to agree?