Question: If an associate goes to home office and open doors their team lead, can that associate be fired?
8 replies (most recent on top)
I’ve been a fresh manager for 9 years in 4 clubs in two states and have seen all kinds of sh---y manager behavior from the sidelines and some true leaders who are able to humble themselves from feedback from their associates and peers. Retaliation is real and can be circumvented. The company has check and balances in the open door and various help lines when the system isn’t working due to whatever reason. Its not perfect because people lie to turn situations in their favor if they lack integrity.
My recommendations to anyone doing any open door is to have your thoughts clear and well thought out and invite a witness as a manger would if they were coaching you that can be an advocate for what is discussed. Its seems like a weird suggestion but it adds credibility when these situations go into red book territories.
I know not everyone will easily find allies when they need them but that is my recommendation.
The market manager to the Arkansas market the last few years was one of the fairest people i’ve worked for when he was on the club level and held his teams to the fire for fairness among other things. There are good people out there that want to help you.
Don’t give up folks!
Never are you protected from retaliation! NEVER! Do not trust anyone that tells you, you are. Sometimes going to ethics or HO goes in your favor but less and less does that happen due to our deceitful management and team leads (especially).
I would love a bit more information on my original question: I have found out that this associate did in deed follow the chain of command. He contacted the head store manager, an assistant manager and H.R. He recently got an email from H.R. stating they were investigating. Aren't you protected from retaliation?
And nothing is confidential and they do retaliate!
Thank you for replying. Very sad situation for this associate who work two jobs to support his family. It is clear that this associate put a target on his back by going to home office. The issue with his lead has been going on for months. No resolve at club level for sure. What bothers me is when someone has an issue in management's eyes, management does not try to council associates and give them tools to improve. For many of us, we just come to work, keep our heads low and try not to put a target our backs. Pretty sad way to work.
Always try and follow chain of command if possible. Go to manager first. Give them a chance. And yes, open doors have led to being fired BUT depends on the issue and if it can be validated. Something like scheduling issues, no. Something like racism, yes!
If you didn't go through the chain of command for the open door process yes you can be fired albeit unlikely.
No, you won't get fired for open door, but you definitely won't endear yourself to management by going over their heads. Unless you feel there may be an issue doing so, you should first go to your team lead, direct manager, then gm, then market manager. Since you have an issue with your lead, you would go to your manager. You don't want to go over all of their heads, unless they are all an issue or they were already informed and refuse to fix the issue.