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While I agree with just about everything you wrote, to close the store two weeks during the busiest five weeks of the year would be a horrible, horrible management decision. July? Maybe. November/December? You'd probably be looking for another job.
I can tell you haven't been in the trenches. With a complete staff and management replacement, you don't do it successfully overnight without a good deal of advance warning. I've replaced managers alone with almost no notice. Easy Peasy. Replacing an entire management team and staff is different. In a retail store like that, you are going to have a complete inventory taken, accounts verified, keys changed, safe combo changed, bank authorizations changed, etc. IF you have a troubleshooter manager, that person has to tie up loose ends at the current assignment, get lodging and moved, and start by handling the inventory crew and other items, then start finding and raw training new staff. If you don't, you have juggling to do. At most, there might be three supervisors that could be pulled and moved temporarily from nearby locations. Add all of the time up, and you have a choice:
A. Close the store temporarily B. Continue to operate with a staff that now has zero incentive and is ready to clip as much as they can for as long as they can PLUS show new employees how to do it.
Two weeks closed would be a worst case scenario for a store that is not within easy driving distance of another store or two, but still far less costly than doing a screw-up job.
Theatres are relatively simple, and I literally didn't miss a beat because there were others in the chain within driving distance, and I didn't have to replace myself as manager. With retail and two or more locations close, the down time might be limited to a day or two. I'd rather estimate long and come in looking like a miracle worker than claim miracles and not deliver. That WILL get you canned.
I work at Michaels Arts and Crafts. On black friday, the store opens at 6am and every employee is scheduled to work at some point of the day or another.
There are about 25 of us non-management employees, and we were talking about how hillarious it would be if all of us, in unison, just randomly and unnannounced, did not show up for work on black Friday.
In other words, the store manager, the assistant manager and a couple department heads get there shortly before opening, and at 6am, as a total suprise to them, none of the employees show up and they have a mob of customers and no workers.
When they start calling us, we all say "We all bound together to give ourselves the day off, we will all report back to work on our next scheduled shift." and then hang up.
This conversation started out as a joke, but now we are seriously considering doing it, as long as we are 25 strong in this.
My question is, could we likely do it without losing our jobs?
I mean, what exactly is management going to do? Fire us all and not have a staff?
Having to close the store down indefinitely, desperately scrambling to recruit a new staff in an economy where every retail store is hiring (meaning they have to pay extra to get retail job seekers to apply there as opposed to other stores if they want a new staff in any kind of short order) then training that new staff, and being able to reopen the doors in a couple weeks if they're lucky.......all in the midst of the holiday shopping season?
Not a good business model. In my experience it takes a few weeks of training and supervision before a new hire is completely self-sufficient and knowledgable at my store. My guess is the store, in firing us all, would maybe be able to reopen around mid-december with a new, wet behind the ears staff who will need constant help for any register issue or customer queery, management running around like chickens with their heads cut off, and the whole remainder of the christmas rush being an ineffiecient mess with lots of irritated and unsatisfied customers.
In other words, if we did this 25 strong, would management have no choice but to begrudgingly keep us all on staff?
Anyone who participates in this immature act has a HIGH chance of being fired. If you don't like where you work, be an adult and find a new job.
Clayfighter, why would this seem funny? To stick your thumb in your boss's eye?
And yes, I think you'd all be fired. Because management would be left wondering what you're all going to do next to sabotage the store.
And you can forget getting a good recommendation.
Not to mention, it will make newspapers across the country, and every time a prospective employer googles your name...
OP, on the slight chance that this is for real, I just have to say you have a really odd definition of the word "prank." What's next? Setting your boss's house on fire, oh giggle giggle giggle!
Really? You've spoken with all 25 employees? I can assure you, you're being played for a fool. The others will show up for work, leaving you and maybe one or two others to be handed your walking papers the next time you show up for work. I have a hard time believing 25 people are not only that stupid, but also dishonorable.
The retail world will carry on without you.
You may have a point....Perhaps this is a prank on the OP.
With a group the size of 25 you will undoubtedly have a stoolie in the mix who will be telling management of your plans,you have basically signed your own termination papers with this ludicrous scheme.
If you dont want to work just call in sick on your own,if you dont like the company quit and find another company.
The "prank" is that 50 people have responded to a troll post.
Well done.
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