My jurisdiction is: Maryland
Not sure where to begin with this, but here goes...
My wife is a District Manager for a large retailer. She was sought out by a headhunter/recruiter 18 months ago and hired to fill a district that had three separate DMs within the space of a year. The company paid for our relocation and has made good on all agreements prior to employment.
A year ago, her immediate supervisor was promoted to a western region and a new supervisor was hired from an outside company. The first six months were great, my wife's performance was rated as top-notch and everything was fine. Four months ago, the Director of Stores visited my wife's district and her visit was less than wonderful. My wife made the fatal mistake of trusting her managers to do what she asked, when instead, they did their own thing. This caused some turmoil at the top, but my wife was able to resurrect her status with the Director of Stores on the subsequent visit; however, her immediate supervisor seems to not have gotten past the "bad" visit.
Within weeks of the second visit, my wife was issued an "out-of-cycle" review by her Regional Manager, which rated her performance as below "meets expectations", when, in fact, she had been within the top five of the company for many categories to include sales to plan, sales to LY, conversion, rewards, etc. The "out-of-cycle" review was given to all DMs in her region, but not to all within the company (five regions in all).
Recently, my wife received an Independent Development Plan from her boss, stating that she was failing in her performance as a leader, trainer, developer, etc., within her district. This couldn't be further from the truth. My wife works 80+ hours a week, managing over 453 management and associate level employees, to include - interviewing and hiring, HR determinations, training, new store openings, loss prevention issues, etc., and her quantifiable numbers are always number one in the district and normally within the top five of the company. To top it off - the company will be holding its annual District Manager's Conference next month, and my wife was selected by the Director of Stores to be a panel member on their new "Manager of Day" training module, which my wife incidentally instituted in her own district, and has now become the company standard. The IDP is supposed to be a collaborative effort between the supervisor and employee; however, each time my wife submits her input, the RM changes it. And today. the RM went as far as stating that she would have the regional admin person try and write it for her....?
The RM has made unvalidated statements on communication issues, i.e., "You don't keep me informed...", and when questioned as to about what, the RM replied, "Why didn't you tell me about (a certain stores' closings)?" My wife told her that she sent the email notifying her of the event two weeks prior, whereupon, the email was surfaced, and the RM replied, "Oh!" There have been many instances just like this where an accusation as been made and my wife has been able to prove otherwise. However, when the IDP was written, my wife's communication skills were cited as a developmental "needs improvement."
The bottom line is that my wife is feeling that the RM is trying to get her to quit in order to bring on board one of her colleagues from her old company (three other DMs have been outed by this RM and DMs from her previous company were hired). I feel that my wife is being held to a different standard, meaning, the other members of her region are not being held accountable or forced to attend two "touch-base" meetings with the RM each week (Mondays and Fridays), which was just instituted this week. I have other examples of how my wife is treated differently than the rest of her peers.
My wife is a well-educated, highly respected and dedicated professional who loves her job and her company. My concern is that her RM has a hidden agenda and she may have no recourse to stop her.
Can you provide any suggestions, insight, or action to take. My wife's greatest fear is that there is collusion within the company and if she goes to HR (who she doesn't trust) or to the Director of Stores, it may appear to be whining or determined to be unfounded. Please....help!!!
Not sure where to begin with this, but here goes...
My wife is a District Manager for a large retailer. She was sought out by a headhunter/recruiter 18 months ago and hired to fill a district that had three separate DMs within the space of a year. The company paid for our relocation and has made good on all agreements prior to employment.
A year ago, her immediate supervisor was promoted to a western region and a new supervisor was hired from an outside company. The first six months were great, my wife's performance was rated as top-notch and everything was fine. Four months ago, the Director of Stores visited my wife's district and her visit was less than wonderful. My wife made the fatal mistake of trusting her managers to do what she asked, when instead, they did their own thing. This caused some turmoil at the top, but my wife was able to resurrect her status with the Director of Stores on the subsequent visit; however, her immediate supervisor seems to not have gotten past the "bad" visit.
Within weeks of the second visit, my wife was issued an "out-of-cycle" review by her Regional Manager, which rated her performance as below "meets expectations", when, in fact, she had been within the top five of the company for many categories to include sales to plan, sales to LY, conversion, rewards, etc. The "out-of-cycle" review was given to all DMs in her region, but not to all within the company (five regions in all).
Recently, my wife received an Independent Development Plan from her boss, stating that she was failing in her performance as a leader, trainer, developer, etc., within her district. This couldn't be further from the truth. My wife works 80+ hours a week, managing over 453 management and associate level employees, to include - interviewing and hiring, HR determinations, training, new store openings, loss prevention issues, etc., and her quantifiable numbers are always number one in the district and normally within the top five of the company. To top it off - the company will be holding its annual District Manager's Conference next month, and my wife was selected by the Director of Stores to be a panel member on their new "Manager of Day" training module, which my wife incidentally instituted in her own district, and has now become the company standard. The IDP is supposed to be a collaborative effort between the supervisor and employee; however, each time my wife submits her input, the RM changes it. And today. the RM went as far as stating that she would have the regional admin person try and write it for her....?
The RM has made unvalidated statements on communication issues, i.e., "You don't keep me informed...", and when questioned as to about what, the RM replied, "Why didn't you tell me about (a certain stores' closings)?" My wife told her that she sent the email notifying her of the event two weeks prior, whereupon, the email was surfaced, and the RM replied, "Oh!" There have been many instances just like this where an accusation as been made and my wife has been able to prove otherwise. However, when the IDP was written, my wife's communication skills were cited as a developmental "needs improvement."
The bottom line is that my wife is feeling that the RM is trying to get her to quit in order to bring on board one of her colleagues from her old company (three other DMs have been outed by this RM and DMs from her previous company were hired). I feel that my wife is being held to a different standard, meaning, the other members of her region are not being held accountable or forced to attend two "touch-base" meetings with the RM each week (Mondays and Fridays), which was just instituted this week. I have other examples of how my wife is treated differently than the rest of her peers.
My wife is a well-educated, highly respected and dedicated professional who loves her job and her company. My concern is that her RM has a hidden agenda and she may have no recourse to stop her.
Can you provide any suggestions, insight, or action to take. My wife's greatest fear is that there is collusion within the company and if she goes to HR (who she doesn't trust) or to the Director of Stores, it may appear to be whining or determined to be unfounded. Please....help!!!
