Scapegoated while working at JOANN’s

In September 2017, I walked away from a part-time job with JOANN Fabric and Craft Store in Santa Rosa, California. I chose to leave after being singled out and scapegoated, for being held responsible and threatened with write-up for long lines at checkout during a heavily-advertised sale.

During summer 2017, I worked part-time as a Team Member at JOANN.

As someone who cared about doing a good job, I brought energy and enthusiasm to my transactions with customers. Being given my “Cut Above” pin (an employee customer-service award) was a proud moment for me, as I endeavor to provide good customer service in all of my professional relationships.

I also made earnest effort to combat the “shrinkage” (basically, human theft and error) that threatened earnings by the company — but I wish to address the type of “shrinkage” that is caused by failing to retain dedicated employees.

When I began work at JOANN, I was given a comprehensive manual as part of the on-boarding process. My managers more-or-less followed the manual, but only until cashier training.

Instead of being able to work in training-mode, as described in the manual, my training took place in real-time as I rang up actual customers. I was appreciative of more experienced cashiers who assisted me with complex transactions.

Cashier-shifts, of course, also involved reshelving fabrics at the front of the store, and I appreciated whoever came up with the scheme of labeling bolts by letter and number to designate their place on the shelves. It was basically an alphanumeric classification system, such as you’d find in a library. It was a great system while store employees were willing to maintain it, and I felt right at home as someone who also shelved books in a library.

But according to the manual, I was also supposed to be trained in cutting-table operations, only my managers never made time to train me to work in the cutting department.

Even though, “on paper,” my shifts alternated between cash-register and cutting-table work, in actuality I was expected to work permanently as a cashier for JOANN. I was also expected to work as “Lead Cashier” during every single one of my shifts. Instead of this responsibility being rotated among people who were assigned to the registers, it became my permanent job.

Unlike someone in a “Key Holder” position, I received no extra compensation for these additional demands. I was still just a JOANN “Team Member” but with this extra accountability that other Team Members didn’t have.

One aspect of “Lead Cashier” was that while I was reshelving fabric in the front of the store, I was supposed to watch the registers and go up when a customer arrived. I did this with care and diligence.

Once at the register, I was supposed to call for assistance when the customer line became too long — but store merchandise was piled so high that it blocked my view of the aisle where customers waited for a register.

I was expected to somehow see over this display, and be able to notice when the line was too long so I could call for another cashier.

To make matters worse, there was no consensus among managers concerning how long the line needed to get before a second cashier could be dispatched. Some managers didn’t feel like having someone respond to a call; they’d want to know how many people were in line and when I gave them my best count, they’d either allow or negate my request that someone open additional registers.

During an especially busy weekend, when the store was slammed through its advance promotion of a sale, it was difficult enough to even “come up for air” between ringing up customer transactions. A manager called me to her office and told me that customers had complained to her about very long lines.

This, as I’ve said, was during extremely busy conditions, a heavily pre-advertised sale, and apparently the manager decided that these long lines were entirely my fault.

The very next day, another manager called me in and, referring to the previous conversation, said I was receiving a verbal reprimand because I’d already been spoken to. She warned me that I would be officially written up if the incident happened a third time.

I felt singled-out and scapegoated that a single person was permanently assigned to Lead Cashier, that her ability to track customer movement was blocked by high merchandise displays, that she was “second-guessed” while trying to do this job to the best of her ability, that she was somehow made solely responsible for customer satisfaction in-line, and that, finally, she was threatened with being written-up during a busy sale’s inevitable long lines.

So in 2017, at the beginning of September, I resigned from my position with JOANN. In my resignation, I cited high-cost for my commute. It was true that fuel costs and other expenses made the job not worth my while — but I also couldn’t afford the blemish on my record that an official write-up would cause.

Given the ongoing stressful circumstance of this job, of being singled-out and scapegoated, I felt an official write-up was inevitable. It was far better to cut my losses and use my time more productively. But JOANN deserves to know that its punitive employee policies are costing it valuable employees.

If JOANN Fabric and Craft Stores truly cares about “shrinkage,” it needs to address the costs to its company that stem from high employee turnover due to scapegoating and mistreatment.