Movie Gallery Multiple Violations of Labor Laws and Unfair Work Practices Dothan Alabama
I am a store manager for Movie Gallery and have been for 23 months. I believe I have showed great improvement in my store during my time with the company and have been treated unfairly. I have also been in contact with many other Movie Gallery employees and former employees who feel the same. In my opinion, this constitutes a huge flaw in what could otherwise be a great company. It seems to me that upper management forgets that we are the ones in the stores that bring in new customers and keep existing customers coming back, and, without us, there would be no Movie Gallery. Yet, nine out of ten Movie Gallery managers and employees that I contact feel that they are treated poorly, passed over for raises, or generally treated as if they are expendable, and low morale produces poor results.
In the last six months I have been promised a raise three times by two district managers and a regional manager, all of them are no longer with the company. On March 12, 2008 my new district manager came to my store during physical inventory. At the time, I had already been working 13 hours with no break. She began complaining about all of the things that were wrong and needed to be fixed, which, incidentally, could all have been fixed in a day. She asked me to stop doing inventory and do other things before I finished. When I asked her about the raise I had been promised, she said I would never get a raise as long as she could find any flaws in my store merchandising or my E4 numbers. I do believe I could go to any store in this company and find a flaw if I looked hard enough. I took this to mean she had no intentions of ever giving me the raise I had been promised and as a personal slap in the face. As a result, I was extremely frustrated and upset and this prompted me to give her my two weeks notice, which I intend to fulfill.
I believe I was hired by Movie Gallery for my ability and experience in customer service and leadership. Here are just a few of the things that I have done for the company that have been completely overlooked:
I have brought my store up over a thousand spots in the company rankings, from 2504 in July 2006 to 1440 currently, and the store revenue is continuously higher than last year, ever week, and continues to grow.
I have devoted countless hours, and even personal time and resources, to local store marketing efforts to ensure a good standing with the customers, as well as, local businesses in the community.
I believe I have demonstrated an ability to take initiative, strive to achieve my goals, and have continuously led my store in the right direction.
I often put in many long days and have rarely called in sick or asked for any extra time off.
I had been working at this salary for 23 months; an increase in pay level was appropriate by any decent industry standards.
I have demonstrated a commitment to the company.
Furthermore, the company requires that you work nine hours a day and sometimes more with no breaks. They do not allow enough hours to have more than one person on per shift, except Friday and Saturday nights. If you go over on hours, you get written up or fired. I'm no expert but I am almost positive this is against labor laws.
Also, the company's official slogan is "whatever it takes", meaning you are allowed to do whatever is necessary to make the customer happy. Yet, my district manager recently fired one of my best employees for doing just that. And another good employee was recently fired by the district manager for not making phone calls. I live in a very small town and this particular employee was very well known and loved by all my customers, some of which we lost due to her being fired over something so ridiculous.
It is a shame when good employees are treated with such total disregard, on such a large scale, that it could possibly be a class action. After all, when all incentives are gone, there is no longer a reason to strive to do your best. I know this from personal experience.
Adam
Penn Yan, New York
U.S.A.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Ex-mg Store Manager
Hayesville,North Carolina,
U.S.A.
Movie Gallery treats employees like dirt.....
#2UPDATE EX-employee responds
Wed, January 21, 2009
I am a former Store Manager for a Movie Gallery in North Carolina and I agree that they treat their employees horribly. Store managers are overworked and always underpaid. There were numerous weeks were I would work 70-90 hours trying to get every little detail right according to standards (which change every hour/day according to some overpaid suits ideas) and only got paid for 40, even though I was required by my district manager to work 45 hours. I was there a year and a raise was never even mentioned even though I managed one of the largest stores in the district and was the lowest paid manager, while others who were hired at least 6 months after me were making up to $2000.00 more a year than me.
I was also forced to cut hours from good employees to help with the budget shortfalls and then was yelled at because I couldn't keep help. My district manager also expected my employees (mostly college kids) to actually skip their classes to come in to work. Nobody is stupid enough to cut a class to come and work 4 hours for minimum wage and to be treated like they were second class dirt. I had good people working for me, who tried hard and were constantly under suspicion of my DM just because she said and I quote, "They're all theives, you can't trust any of them".
I also had problems while attempting to continue my education by taking classes part-time for a nursing degree. I was told by my DM that anything I did on my personal time, such as school, had to be approved by her. I politly told her that what I did/or didn't do on my own time, was my business, that I was not a child and had no intentions of askind her permission for anything that did not concern or affect my job at MG.
Also, while I was out on a 3 week medical leave, following major surgery, I was treated like I was faking my illness and was staying out beyond my needed time just to be difficult. I contacted my DM just to check and see how my store was doing during my time out, because I was concerned and wanted things to run smoothly during my absence. I was told "don't worry about it, just get well". However, when I returned I was accused of leaving things in a mess and not caring what happened during my time off and that I had been out without the proper paper work (luckily, i had copies of all the proper forms for my medical leave, WITH my DM's signature on them and the copies I had filed with the main MG human resources office). When I had finally had enough and found another position with better pay/working conditions, I was talked to terribly by the DM and was placed on the "do not rehire" list. Which, after all, is fine with me because I would rather have a sharp stick in the eye than work for them again!
I could go on forever about how terrible we were treated and about things my former employees have told me since I left concerning treatment and pay, but these are not facts and I like to stick to the facts. Everything I've stated can be proven without a problem.