Master, Mother, or Friend?

Melanie Miller had a husband she adored, two children who were miracles, a successful gift store that fulfilled her creative dreams … and a staff she had grown to hate. People said her husband, Michael, was just like Michael J. Fox — so you can imagine how wonderful he was. Her daughter, Mim, was a doctor on the staff of County Hospital. Her son, Mitchell, was a Rhodes Scholar studying at Oxford University. Her store was called My Store. No birthday, wedding, anniversary, or graduation was celebrated in the town of Meadow Lake without gifts from My Store. Melanie presided over a beautiful retail mousetrap.

The staff of My Store consisted of Martha and Margaret, who were full-time; Megan, Mitzi, and Meg, who were part-time; Merry, who came in after school; and Mat, who arrived at 3 p.m. every day to deliver packages. They were good with customers, liked to sell, loved Melanie, and were happy to work at My Store. Melanie hated them.

She hadn't started with hate in her heart. She liked each of her employees when she hired them. But by the beginning of the year she was so angry with them that she considered closing My Store altogether.

Melanie prided herself on how flexible she was with her staff. She went out of her way to understand their special needs. The salaries she could afford to pay were minor compared to what people could make "in industry," but she tried to make up for it by creating a comfortable work environment. Larger stores had more rigid schedules, more requirements, and often a time clock. Melanie emphasized her more flexible approach when she hired help. Not that she had to do much hiring lately. Martha, Margaret, Megan, Mitzi, Meg, Merry, and Mat had all worked at My Store for several years.

If Margaret's daughter had a soccer game, Melanie let Margaret off early to attend the game. When Mitzi's son was the star of a school play, Melanie changed her plans so Mitzi could attend. When Martha's sister called, Melanie handed her the phone with a smile.

But it had begun to feel to Melanie as if she spent every day working around her staff instead of with them.

Michael knew there was trouble when Melanie came home one January day, threw her coat on the couch, and said, "I hate them all, and I'm closing the store."

Michael was no fool. He hung up her coat for her, smiled sweetly, and said, "Honey, let's go out to dinner while you tell me all about it."

When they were relaxed in front of the fire at The Old Stone Chimney eating pistachios and sipping Pinot des Charentes, Melanie told Michael her list of grievances.

Melanie's employees always staked out their vacation dates early in the year, so that when Melanie planned her vacation she often had to change the date. Her staff was inclined to call at the very last moment to say they could not come in at their scheduled time. It seemed to Melanie that her staff's children were perpetually sick, and that the work schedule had to be adjusted almost every week to accommodate for someone's ailment. Mat was late to work almost once a week, and Melanie was constantly rescheduling deliveries.

The store always looked dusty. Everyone was eager to wait on customers, but slow to pick up the dusting cloth. Melanie had come into the store several times to see someone finishing a sandwich at the cash desk in front of customers. The ribbon bill was huge. Customers adored the extravagantly wrapped packages, as did the family and friends of My Store's employees. However, the wrappings were expensive and time-consuming. Also, there was paperwork on the wrap desk, the lunch table, and the office bookcase. It seemed to Melanie that each employee had a mini office of her own. Bookkeeping was a nightmare because everyone owed something for personal phone calls or gifts for family and friends.

Some days, the staff wore My Store aprons, some days they didn't. There was even one day at the end of December when there were more friends of employees in the store than there were customers.

When Megan and Meg worked together they had a wonderful time laughing and talking. Melanie could not see that it hurt sales, but she had a nagging feeling that it interfered with business.

All the employees thought of themselves as gifted at arranging displays. Sometimes the result was wonderful. Sometimes, not. Sometimes a display was charming, but had nothing to do with what Melanie had planned.

Everyone had a different idea of how the store procedures should be followed. They hated to change the way they did something.

"And the worst thing," said Melanie, "is the computer. Three of them don't want to touch it, one of them wants a different system, and they all want me to make it work for them. I brought a manual into the store and you would have thought I had introduced them to a dead mouse!"

Michael grinned. "It sounds to me," he said, "as though you are treating your employees like spoiled children. You wouldn't have let Mim and Mitchell run you ragged. It's time for you to run your store the way you raised your children."

Next time, find out how Melanie raised her second family.