I can fully understand where these folks are coming from because of the amount of knowledge required in order to perform their job. From my perspective, the biggest loser is Apple and not these individuals. In a perfect world, these are the sort of individuals the leadership would be tripping over themselves to keep. Unfortunately though, this is the reality of RETAIL that we are talking about. Even in the IT world of today, specialized staff are made to feel devalued and at the whim of higher level management and executives who are equally as clueless/out of touch/politically motivated to cover their own backsides and look out for their own self-interests first while preaching about team work and having an open door policy (but an already closed mind). In a retail setting, the issue is even worst for those with technical skills such as the ones required to become an Apple Store Genius. Apple Retail is nothing like Apple on the corporate side (where at least on the product engineering side, the respect level garnered is higher).
True, Apple Stores were culturally quite different when they first started and understandably so. Back then, the whole iPod ecosystem had not taken off yet and Apple’s main revenue source was computer hardware. It made sense these stores were primarily focused less on the usual measurable retail metrics of either pushing product and/or services out the door as opposed to focusing primarily on the customers needs or problems. In the past, the numbers game was different (getting traffic into the stores so that potential customers could have the opportunity to experience the products). The reality however dictates that Apple eventually has to somehow recoup their costs because leases do not come free or cheap at many of the locations Apple has chosen for their retail operations. Likewise, it isn’t surprising that Apple chooses to put those with retail management experience into “leadership” positions at their stores as opposed to seasoned Apple Store employees. In some respects, it is the usual conundrum faced in this sort of business which has opposing dichotomies as tech and retail. Often times, technical people do not have the best people management skills and their technical proficiency would be wasted by putting them into an administrative and/or management situation. The opposite is also true where those who understand the needs of managing a retail business don’t have the technical background to understand that technical side of the business they are meant to manage. Then there is the all too common problem of those put into management who have no clue at all about actually leading and managing people and should not even be in a leadership position to begin with.
The latter category is normally the result of the “college intern” programs many companies run. This includes Apple which for their store operations, has a store leadership program geared towards college students. I’m not saying it is all bad as there are some who come out of such programs as natural leaders. The problem with many of these internship programs though is they are all too idealistic and unrealistic. To Apple’s credit, they say it is a 24-month immersion program where the intern basically learns everything from the ground up. Because of its rigorous nature though, I can see the drop out rate being high where there may not be enough left standing to take on their own store (thus the need to continuing hiring managers from other retailers). Furthermore, the rationale for recruiting fresh out of college graduates is because their lack of actual experience means they are far more easy to mold and conform to the needs of the business. They usually haven’t started a family yet which means they can dedicate longer hours to the job. Financially, they also come with a lower price tag which yields savings for the company. This is why in an actual workplace environment, there tends to be a disconnect between seasoned staff who have been doing the actual grunt work for a long period of time and the store leadership. I’m not saying there hasn’t been cases where someone worked their way up from the bottom (and by that, I also do not mean the brown nosing route which in many companies, is much more normal than you think it is). What I’m saying is this route of promoting from within from the peon level to management is not the norm in certain service sector industries.
See the conundrum that I’m trying to get to here? Managers who have tons of retail experience tend to be numbers driven (no matter how idiotic some of those numbers are). Bottomline, their own performance (and bonuses) are determined by those numbers which is why they tend to be hellbent at meeting them at all costs. Yes, sometimes those forecasts or metrics are pulled out of thin air by some business analyst who has never done any of the work, and therefore, has little clue to the actual workload demands of the job. It’s the whole “bean counters” scenario which ends up ruling the roost. And what exactly gets lost in the process? Well for one, treating employees and customers like actual people versus just another number. Some managers do not really care about the low hourly wages or life balance issues of those employees. As a matter of fact, many in management tend to be the scum of the earth because they will lie straight to your face about how great you or your team are and later turn around and say the most vilest things about these front line workers in their management meetings. In management, getting to the top isn’t necessarily about what you know. It’s about who you know, parroting the right things, and kissing ass. A high level of competence is rarely rewarded at those levels; so it should not be surprising why the state of the various (worldwide) economies are the way they are (because you have far too many idiots in positions of power and influence).
Again, I need to stress that not all Apple Stores will have this sort of leadership as those are likely in the minority. The reailty however is that like any retail store, the store leadership is at the mercy of higher executives making these business decisions (including pay levels and workload). At the end of the day, the easiest metrics will have some numbers focus to it. So it does not surprise me that anyone who has worked in Apple retail for a few years, has seen a shift of focus away from giving customers a lot of their time and attention to one where certain number driven goals have to be met. Can their be a happy balance and medium? Of course, but that really depends on how the higher level executives perceives things. Most senior level executives are how do I put it mildly, out of touch with the reality that the average joe is in. Those who came in from the privileged route have no concept of what it is like to struggle while those who did come from less wealthy backgrounds have forgotten their roots. It is this whole environment which is why I left that whole world behind and have little interest in the sort of lifestyles that many choose to partake in when they’ve made a certain amount of money.
I’m one of those IT types that also has a management background (with TQM training) who strongly believes that its the frontline workers who do the gruntwork, and are therefore key assets and investments. If you hire quality workers, train them well, pay them a fair wage (and continually compensate them based on actual observable and measurable performance), provide them the necessary resources to do their jobs, and treat them with respect, many will move mountains for you. They’ll get the job accomplished without you have to micromanage or babysit them. The reality is this sort of thinking is rare in business management nowadays and you end up butting heads with colleagues as well as those higher up in the chain who feel that taking that approach is too costly (short term thinking as opposed to analyzing the long term of continually having to recruit and re-train people; both of which cost time and money).
How Tim Cook handles this will prove to be interesting. Why? From what I know, he seems to be one who has not forgotten his roots. He has instituted some changes at Apple including matching charitable contributions, holiday leave, providing benefits to even part time employees, etc. Apple is a sizable company and while its retail operations in terms of the number of employees it has, dwarfs that of corporate, retail is how do I say, sort of like out there as its own company where they really are left out of the loop until they actually need to know about things. In other words, the communication channels aren’t what I would call the best. Any executive worth their salt (in terms of actually giving a damn about its employees) would find a way to dig down through the corporate grapevine though in order to get a feel for the actual pulse of its front line employees as a way of confirmation. Cook could leave his mark by looking at the Apple Retail situation and bringing back some balance where front line employees do not feel like they are just numbers and being used (with unrealistic workloads generated by some analyst who is using numbers pulled out of their rear) to the point of being burnt out. Retail is hell because some customers take the “customer is always right” mantra too far. True, retail managements mantra is that there is someone else willing to take your place… that line of thinking however is cancerous in the long run.
With Apple, the issue is serious because a large majority of those they hire tend to also be some of their most loyal customers. Some of these folks have college degrees but wanted a way to work for Apple and chose retail in hopes of being able to work their way up (retail reality again dictates that it is rare to move up the ladder to even store leadership, and far rarer to promote from store leadership to an actual Apple corporate position). Start pissing off a legion of these and eventually, you will be left with less of these passionate individuals. Piss them off to a level where it is scorched earth policy and they may swear off patronizing the company in the future. With Apple’s now consumer focus, the winds can easily change direction. We’ve all seen it where the mighty have fallen (Sony anyone).
What I’m talking about is the psychological impact of refusing to spend your hard earned money with a company that manages to piss all over you as an employee. Apple in general tends to have high standards in most areas of its business (though from my own experience, I’ve seen and written about how that isn’t always true). One of Apple Retail’s previous employment propaganda was about how they wanted to hire the cream of the crop. High standards is a two way street. With the high traffic and therefore high workload expected at one of these stores, executives have to forget about the bean counters and come up with a balance. This includes accountability which I hate to say, is consistently lacking in many organizations.
I’m an Apple shareholder, but even I don’t believe that the company should be on a path at reducing expenses in whatever way possible (especially when it comes to key assets like highly skilled employees). I’m all for efficiency and productivity but you cannot take a cookie cutter approach and expect it to work without something taking a hit (like less customer focus due to staff turnover due to unrealistic workload and other issues). There is a fine line to walk because the Apple Store’s are in many regards, responsible for the exponential growth of the company. It was how many who had never ever touched an Apple product before, first experienced one. As the company continues to build out their retail presence, taking care of the employees who serve the customers who walk through those doors has to also be considered a high priority. I’m also not advocating an entitlement issue either; employees still need to have their performance measured in some meaningful way. At least to me, that means customer satisfaction and not necessarily selling someone AppleCare or some other service. Stores need to therefore be adequately staffed to handle the traffic of customers. My philosophy is if you want cheap, you get cheap (and will eventually end up reaping what you sow). The issues including the loss of consumer satisfaction and loyalty (which Apple has ranked consistently high) resulting from running the business in a bean counting way won’t happen overnight. It’s about the gradual erosion which takes place. As a shareholder, issues like these are always on my radar because I am all too familiar with the concepts of “what goes up has to come down” and “the bigger they are, the harder they fall”.
