Management- Revolving Doors

I worked at the mega bookstore for only a year and a half. By the time I left, there was only one manager left that had been there when I had started. The store manager had moved on to bigger and better things in Seattle, and the other managers left for other various reasons. Today I found out that my manager here at the small downtown bookstore is moving on to a San Francisco store. She hasn't even been at this store for a year...just barely under a year actually. Actually she's a wonderful manager, friendly yet subtly stern about the rules, great about working around your schedule and serious lover of books and a great bookseller.

So, yeah, I am a bit bummed about the thought of getting a new manager. I am not seriously unhappy to see the current one go...she deserves a great career and its hard to be sad when I know she's working on a great career. But a new manager, that's another story. At the mega bookstore when the old manager left, the new store manager came from a sporting goods store. A sporting goods store! We peons working in the store putting the books away scratched our heads repeatedly at the district's choice in managers. And yes, things did change little by little. The store didn't look as good. Clean shelves just weren't a priority anymore.

Bookstores, like other businesses where so many personalities reside in a service industry, is a soap opera. I know someone who works in a very tony restaurant, and I listen, rivetted, to the stories he has to tell. Bookstores, even small ones have stories to tell. This store has gone through at least 5 managers it sounds like, in 2 years. Part of that is due to the powers that be changing people seemingly willy nilly. In fact no one really knows why they are changing managers now. Our new manager is already manager of another store so she will be splitting her time between two stores. I am sure, at least I hope, that the district (I dont' know who makes these decisions) has their very legitimate reasons for what they do. But after the book debacle last week where we received 3 times the number of books we are supposed to receive and where all the stores in this district had the same thing happen to them, I have to wonder. They don't come across as making very savy business decisions. What little I have seen makes it unsuprising to hear that their analysts aren't predicting a profitable quarter.