Goodbye Red And Blue

So this is designed, once and for all, to clear up any and all Co-op issues and rumors. If they continue after this, well… this is here. After this, I’ve said all I have to say about the world of Co-op. I’ve moved on, it’s time everyone else does the same.


Why did you leave?

Several reasons.

I did not enjoy the work
I did not enjoy the atmosphere
It would have taken me over 10 years to reach the next level, and I was told that was more a byproduct of my “age” rather than my skill level, which I found pretty absurd
I was not a middle-aged white guy, therefore I did not fit in great with the rest of the management types

But the biggest reason, which I have only come to realize since being gone…

I had been at Co-op for just under 10 years. When I got the job, let’s face it, I did not take it because I was in love with the grocery industry. I did it because I was 17, I dropped off a lot of applications and they we’re the first ones to call. I have had a great career there. I have done things that I never imagined I would be able to do with this company or at any company at such a young age, but at the end of the day, as mentioned below, there was a glass ceiling on that which I was not anywhere near satisfied with.

At that point, it became time to ask myself the question, why am I still working here? I am not 17 and I do not NEED to work somewhere in an industry or company that I am not into. I have gotten a lot out of this job, between money and accomplishments for a resume, so now, why not cut bait and USE those accomplishments to find something I would or could be into and try out different things?

All that stuff together says it pretty well.



So you DID have frustrations with your director or your training?

Now, let’s remember, between working for HR and training, Kathy and Peggy, the innovations in the Ops Offices that I came up with that now everyone uses… as well as the “issues” with HR over the years… I became a pretty well-known guy. That’s not bragging. Quite the opposite. I would have given a lot to be a guy whose name people didn’t know. So a lot of eyes we’re on me already, and as soon as my name dropped into the management-possibly hat, that number got a lot bigger.

When I was going through interviews, as mentioned from the very kind and lengthy comment you may or may not have read, I went into the interviews with a clean slate. Sure, I’ve had my beefs with HR with Kath and Peg, but I went in clean. I cannot say whether they did the same or not because I honestly do not know, but I only had ONE position in management that I was not willing to do, out of, like, 12. That was a dual management role.

I was not willing to do this because I didn’t agree with doing twice the work for 5% more pay. I was also advised against going into this role by current managers who we’re being pressured to do dual, and VERY STRONGLY against going into this role by managers who we’re ALREADY doing dual and weren’t able to get out of it. They made it seem like I’d be defecating on their desks if I did so.

The interviews actually came off very well, but they kept pushing for me to do the one thing I made clear in a very friendly way that I would not do. They pushed more, I said it again. They pushed even more, I said it again. Finally, after a lot of this, it came down to me saying flat out in front of two board members that I WAS NOT going to take this role and that if they had nothing else for me, then fine, I won’t waste your time any further. I walked out of there thinking that they wouldn’t call, but that was fine. At least I wasn’t doing a job I said I wasn’t willing to do.

But they did call, and offer me single-commodity manager. I was happy. And surprised. I signed a contract for a single-commodity manager.

However, I get my training manual, and guess what objectives we’re in it? Dual. So I called my director, who I had and have a good relationship with to this day, and I ask him what’s going on. He stumbles around the question a bit, I re-iterate that I’m not doing this, and he says “Well, just do those objectives anyways.” That was about the last straw. One of many. So I said “You know what, OK”.

Now, he’s thinking I’m saying “OK”, as in “OK, I’ll do it.” What I’m saying is “OK, I’m fucking fed up. This is bullshit.” That was what pushed me over the edge and made me realize a lot of the things I listed above.

And you know what? I’m glad that happened. It may have taken me a year or a couple years or longer to realize those things if something hadn’t pushed me to it.

Since then, my director told me that he didn’t realize I felt so strongly about it. Despite bringing it up my refusal every time they brought it into an interview. It wasn’t what he did that resulted in my leaving. It just pushed me out the door faster and made me realize, again, the things listed above.

But whatever. It wasn’t so much him as much as it was what the situation made me realize.


I’ve heard your director isn’t pleased about your decision.

After we got everything sorted out, he’s told me he’s fine with it.

I left the right way. I was in training so there was no need for notice. It actually worked out quite well in that respect. So as far as HR and references are concerned, I am GOLDEN.

So I imagine that talk is just smoke. But if he’s not OK with it, then really, that’s his problem.



Did you have issues with your trainer?

Nnnnnope.
She was great to me. No complaints at all there.



Hey, I worked with you at #3 and didn’t get invited to Santa Fe a couple weeks ago.

Clubhouse-only affair. Kept it simple.



I’ve heard rumors that you had troubles with HR before, when you worked for the old training manager, and had bigger troubles again when you we’re with the Ops Office team.

Absolutely correct on both ends.


Did that play into how they treated you?

I don’t know, and to be honest, it doesn’t really matter.

I was willing to put those things behind me when I started the selection process with them. I saw signs during interviews with certain people and in dealings with certain people that indicated to me that they had done the same. But you know what, I saw things that made me think the opposite at times too.

There just has to be a point where you hit the wall and decide to not worry about it. Maybe they did hold a grudge. Maybe they didn’t. Maybe some did, and some didn’t. Maybe some did, some didn’t, some changed their minds back and forth, and some really weren’t sure. Who the hell knows. Even if I cared enough to try and figure it out, I’d never get it figured out anyways. I’ll never know, so why let it bother me.



What WAS the issue between you and HR when you we’re training for them?

The little slap fight I had with them over the old Training manager a couple years back probably had less to do with any of this than anything. That was really blown out of proportion in the rumor mill. Old training manager left because she (correctly) saw which way the winds we’re blowing in HR, and I didn’t want to be working for HR if I wasn’t working for her. They wanted me to sign a contract extension and I refused. So I left when my training contract was out. They found someone else. No fuss, no muss. End of story.



OK, so what WAS the issue between Kath, Peg, You, and HR?

Now THIS was the biggest clusterfuck bury-job I’ve ever been witness to.

Long story short, one of us saw unintentionally something we weren’t supposed to see, which could have done a lot of damage to a very prominent person. We would have never made anything of it. And then, for damage control, the 3 of us we’re accused by this person of having done something we hadn’t done.

This went very high up, pretty much to the top of HR or all the way to the Board of Directors, depending on who you talk to.

People like my parents or relatives look at me like I’m nuts when I tell them this stuff because they don’t think this kind of stuff (corruption) goes on in the “real world”, they just give me that (“Oh Blair”) look. So for simplicity’s sake, I just keep it to myself most of the time to keep it simple, and I’ll do the same here. You wouldn’t believe me if I told you anyways, so why bother.

As far as specifics, I see no reason to dig it up by airing it publicly. We would have never aired what we saw it in the first place anyways, but we we’re almost crucified for it as though we already had. I’m not even acknowledging it by digging it up or by naming the person at the head of it, or the other people involved who supported what she tried to do, and almost got away with it.

It’s called the high road. It’s under-traveled and taking it is a lost art. Try it sometime. And we never, EVER took the easy way out, nor did we get off the high road, the 3 of us. And we made it.



What is your proudest accomplishment with Co-op?

OK, so no one’s asked me this one, but I’m going to answer it anyways because I want it out there. There are three things I am most proud of.

I developed a cash office balancing system run electronically and not by hand. It shaved at least two hours off of every day and eliminated most all the human error. I was the first one to ever develop one, and not only are ALL the cash offices using it now, but they’re all using MINE.

I could not be more proud of the two years I spent running with Kathy and Peggy. Between what we went through, what we accomplished, things we innovated, the team we we’re able to put together, and more importantly, surviving the gauntlet mentioned above. When you go through these things with these types of people, they become like family to you, and Peggy and Kathy are both as close to family as my own. They we’re the first ones to call when they found out I was gone, and they we’re the first ones to made sure they stayed in touch with me. I still talk to them regularly.

On the flip side, what I was able to accomplish in the careers of Brittaney, Raeleen, and Ashley would have to be my other favorite accomplishment. I was able to take 3 people, 2 of them whom I hired onto Front End when I was there, and was able to offer them a job in the same environment I escaped Front End to. They would have never been allowed in there but I convinced Kathy and Peggy to give them the chance and they took that chance. They would have stayed on the Front End making not as much money, working crappier hours at a crappier job because they we’re “young”, and pretty, and therefore had a stigma attached to them. The fact that they are now able to enjoy themselves in a good job with better money where they can work on their school, working for Kathy and Peggy who will accommodate them, makes me feel really good. And more than that, it’s the fact that when they stepped up and I explained that I had to put myself on the line to get them in, they stepped up. I guarantee a ton of people who would have never thought they would, but that’s because they didn’t really know them. Those 3 are true friends as well, and we’re also among the first to call to see how I was, and also among the first that I was sure to stay friends with.



So why leave the Clubhouse at all?

Because it was time to go. It was time to move on.

So to put another million rumors to rest, no, I had no issues with anyone there. Far from it. In almost 3 years, I never had an issue with anyone working in that department. I NEVER enjoyed myself professionally like I did there. Leaving there was easily one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do, and the hardest decisions I’ve ever had to make. And I was easily leaving the job that I had most enjoyed since I’ve been employed at all.

And just because Co-op management did not fit me does not mean I regret this decision to leave the Clubhouse. I’d accomplished everything there that I had wanted to accomplish, more than I had believed I ever could have.

So in the case of the Clubhouse, sometimes success is not only being in the right place at the right time, but leaving at the right time. It was a hard day when I realized I was on my way out, but that was the truth, and remains as is.



(A Cash Sup from #3) says that she knew you weren’t management material, which is why she would never have put you on charge in FE, and she is not surprised.

I am hearing that this person has been saying this a lot. First off, let’s remember that despite this person’s objection, I WAS in charge of FE for a time. And I did not get booted off that. I left. For a better job, no less.

This situation with management is quite similar, so let’s say something important here:

I left because I did not WANT to do this type of work, not because I CAN’T.

I grasped all of it really well. If you want to hear that, ask my trainer. She’ll tell you the same thing.

So to the person in question, I submit that you are confusing your own ambitions with mine. I said to just about everybody when I got this job that it was an experiment. That I fully did not expect this appointment to last all that long. Granted, I thought it would have lasted a lot longer than it did, but that’s just how it goes. Of course, that’s the first thing all my detractors forget or ignore when it comes to everyone’s attention that I’m gone.

As for yourself, you have been passed over again and again when it comes to the job I WANTED and GOT on the first applications, that you have been applying for in the past 30 years. I don’t mean to say that’s 5 years longer than I’ve been alive, but… … but I can’t think of another way to finish that sentence.

I say it’s a lot better to have tried and decide you didn’t like to than to never have been able to get the chance in the first place and tell everyone how much ass you would kick at it.



THE BOTTOM LINE

I don’t regret my time with this company, and I don’t regret leaving. I will never work for the company again, granted, but for a guy who started when he was 17, rose to 5 different supervisory positions, some a lot harder to get to then others, worked for HR as a trainer, worked with Kath and Peg to manage half of the Ops Offices in the city, develop balancing systems that are used system-wide… all things I never expected or imagined I could accomplish at such a young age… that is something to be proud of.

My resume got pumped up more than I could have ever imagined. And I made LOADS more money than I ever imagined.

I got to cap it off by stepping into management, and again, I said to everyone, this was an experiment. It was an ACCOMPLISHMENT. Not a transition into a lifelong career. I said that numerous times before leaving, but again, when you leave work, people forget that and make their own assumptions. I expected it to last longer than it did, but I certainly did not expect it to last forever. It ending quickly was a good thing, not a bad thing. It’s not that I don’t want to be in management. It’s that I don’t want to be in Co-op management.

I made friends, lifelong friends, that I am more thankful for than I could put into words. I would name them all here, but there’s no way to remember them all. The Clubhouse was the best professional experience I’ve had to date anywhere, but there’s so many more to name that I’m not going to bother trying. Chances are, if you’re on the list, you know you’d be on the list, so there’s no reason to.


I’m out now, and I feel tremendously better. I feel like it was time, that it was the right decision, and that I did the right thing, and not a day has gone by where I thought differently. So like I said in a post previous, if you’re worried about me, for real or otherwise, I appreciate it, but don’t be. I would not go back, and I would not change how things went down. In the end, I didn’t leave anything on bad terms and I’m now on the cusp of several opportunities that I am very excited about.

And that’s all there is to it. Take in what you will, believe what you will. Everything in here is the truth. And now it’s out there and as far as I’m concerned, the record is straight. I’ve officially said all I want to say about the world of Co-op.


God Bless,
B.a.D