Approaching holidays...are we thinking the same thing?

[Warped9]

Best Buy always decorates during the holidays, but I can't remember if they do Christmas decorations or if they stick with more general winter themes. I'm pretty sure they have Christmas commercials, though.

All big retailers advertise and many of them (if not most) often refer to holiday shopping. Christmas shopping is a term I don't recall hearing or seeing much in the media anymore, but is still widely used privately. In regards to decorating there is a distinction between low-key cardboard holiday signage with some advertisement or slogan and more recognizable decorations such as garland, wreaths, tinsel, bows and ribbons and other holiday centric items and images. Snowmen, Santa and reindeer are also Christmas decorations and where Santa has rather tangental religious connections.

If BestBuy is allowing decorations (and even Christmas Trees?) in their U.S. stores then it adds fuel to the fire that it's not being allowed in Canada.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

So, let's get this in perspective, Warped9. What exactly is the problem?

Is it that you cannot decorate your personal workspace that is out of sight of the customers? Or, is it that you cannot put whatever decorations you want on the showroom floor?

 

[Warped9]

Until three years ago staff were not only allowed but encouraged to decorate the store, and by that I mean the sales floor. We would put up garland and wreaths, ribbons and bows, fake snow, bells, candles, stars and lights, wrap empty boxes in Christmas paper and place them throughout the store. Sometimes we'd see some snowmen and Santas and reindeer. Of course what you didn't see were nativity scenes, crucifixes or angels. Some stores might be more involved or elaborate than others.

But three years ago they nixed everything but approved holiday themed advertising signage. Very low-key, very grey and very depressing all around as many of the staff felt upset over the whole thing. We even got some customers grumbling that we didn't seem to have much holiday spirit.

As for the reason? A number of vague reasons have been given from different sources, but none definitive. Some have said that because there were many employees who didn't celebrate Christmas that perhaps it wasn't fair that the stores decorate in such fashion. That one has a hard time of sticking since not one of said people has ever let on that they were bothered or offended by the decorations. It's also been claimed that the company wants a more consistent and unified look because some locations didn't do a decent job of decorating and so it was decided that no one could decorate. That really doesn't gel unless you think it's fair to punish everyone because a few folks didn't do a good job. It's also been said that the company wants to be more sensitive to the public, and yet again we've never heard of any customers complaining about FS decorating for Christmas.

You hear different reasons and none of them seem to have any real substance. Yet every year a number of staff talk about it and send emails to the head office bemoaning the depressing atmosphere of the holiday season without being allowed to decorate.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

OK, got it. So, it's not about your "personal workspace" at all. It's about you disagreeing with the public face that your employers have decided to present to their customers.

Tough.
Turkey.

You should own your own store, then. By your theory, you'd be making customers happy, and your business would be rewarded with success. You shouldn't have any trouble getting investors either, if what you are advocating would actually be decisive to making ends meet. Right?

Otherwise, I gotta agree with the sentiment that your taking issue here is out of line. Sorry.

But seriously, if you need social validation to get into the holiday spirit, why don't you help the poor? You have no free time, no extra money to donate to charity, or what?

 

[Count Zero]

If this is Canada-wide, you'd probably have a harder time adressing this. Do you have works councils, i.e. representatives of the employees, over there? If you get enough people together who feel the same way, the council would be your next step.

 

[Owain Taggart]

I agree. I think the ironic thing in all this is that, in order to not offend any other religions or cultures, by going through the motions of being politically correct, that they're actually offending those who do celebrate Christmas. Do that in a different country with their main religion, and you'd be pretty much guaranteed there would be an outrage. Actually, it would likely cause much unrest, especially if the country in question is heavily based on religious custom.

 

[Sean Aaron]

It's why I want to know if BestBuy stores in Canada have the same policy and if BestBuy stores in the U.S. have as well.

Well, if there are BestBuy stores in Canada, then why not just phone one and ask as a fellow associate of the parent company? I can't see why you wouldn't get a straight answer and it should help your argument as you've noted.

But seriously, if you need social validation to get into the holiday spirit, why don't you help the poor? You have no free time, no extra money to donate to charity, or what?

Although I could live without any public recognition of the holiday myself, I wouldn't begrudge him trying to get the company to at least allow those employees that want to decorate the shop on their own dime (assuming cost-savings is the real, unspoken reason for not doing it) to do so.

If enough employees are keen and if the parent company does this, then why not take his company to task for it if it's important to him?

 

[Warped9]

Five years ago my former Operations Manager in my previous store in Mississauga asked me to fashion an arch made out of empty PS3 boxes sent to us by Sony. I did and it was quite sizeable where customers could walk under it to enter the games and music area. Even before it was finished I was asked to dress it up with lights and decorations and fake snow to make it look more Christmas-sy. I was also granted extra help (strictly volunteers) to help dress up the rest of the store. We came in on a Sunday on our own time to do it. We did an impressive job of it to the point that pictures were circulated after the District Manager paid a visit.

Granted my current store is a lot smaller and doesn't have the room for elaborate displays. But something quite modest and more traditional could still be done. A bit of garland, some fake snow, a wreath over the door, maybe some lights, and different sized boxes wrapped up like gifts spread around in out of the way places. As much as we would all like a tree the size of our store would make that challenging since we need every bit of floor space during the heightened shopping season. But now that i think of it I think it could still be done with a small tree.

It's why I want to know if BestBuy stores in Canada have the same policy and if BestBuy stores in the U.S. have as well.

Well, if there are BestBuy stores in Canada, then why not just phone one and ask as a fellow associate of the parent company? I can't see why you wouldn't get a straight answer and it should help your argument as you've noted.

Good suggestion. I feel dumb that I hadn't thought of that.

I agree. I think the ironic thing in all this is that, in order to not offend any other religions or cultures, by going through the motions of being politically correct, that they're actually offending those who do celebrate Christmas. Do that in a different country with their main religion, and you'd be pretty much guaranteed there would be an outrage. Actually, it would likely cause much unrest, especially if the country in question is heavily based on religious custom.

This.

 

[Sean Aaron]

Well, I'll be curious to know how your quest for information and chat with management goes.

 

[Warped9]

Well, I'll be curious to know how your quest for information and chat with management goes.

Our General Manager is noncommittal. He just toes that line that Christmas decorating whether in the showroom or in the lunch or offices is not allowed because it's not Standard Operating Practice. That said he's aware that a lot of us are unhappy about it. Candidly I don't see him as much of an ally.

Our Operations Manager is a lot more sympathetic and he gave me the name of the District Operations Manager and suggested that the DOM could probably point me in the right direction about who makes these decisions and recommendations.

Among the staff I'd say a very few don't really care one way or the other and the rest would like us to return to decorating the store.

 

[Owain Taggart]

I agree. I think the ironic thing in all this is that, in order to not offend any other religions or cultures, by going through the motions of being politically correct, that they're actually offending those who do celebrate Christmas. Do that in a different country with their main religion, and you'd be pretty much guaranteed there would be an outrage. Actually, it would likely cause much unrest, especially if the country in question is heavily based on religious custom.

This.

And I just had another thought. Department stores are typically the ones that will usually sell Christmas trees, ie the plastic put-together kind, and most of the time they'll have them up on display to show people how they look like. Sometimes they'll even have a fully-decorated tree on display, so it would seem odd for the same store to have a policy of not decorating. But it does happen.

 

[Sean Aaron]

Our Operations Manager is a lot more sympathetic and he gave me the name of the District Operations Manager and suggested that the DOM could probably point me in the right direction about who makes these decisions and recommendations.

Among the staff I'd say a very few don't really care one way or the other and the rest would like us to return to decorating the store.

Well, that sounds like a good result thus far.

 

[JarodRussell]

Or you can acknowledge it exists and keep that shit at home and for your own time like it belongs. It's not hypocritically for an employer to ask religious people to keep their beliefs out of the workplace.

Why? What are we afraid of?

I kind of feel the need to repeat the question. What is it with some people wanting to remove religious symbols? There's a fear involved, isn't it?

 

[Kestra]

Or you can acknowledge it exists and keep that shit at home and for your own time like it belongs. It's not hypocritically for an employer to ask religious people to keep their beliefs out of the workplace.

Why? What are we afraid of?

I kind of feel the need to repeat the question. What is it with some people wanting to remove religious symbols? There's a fear involved, isn't it?

Or ... they just don't like seeing it and are acknowledging that others feel the same way.

 

[Warped9]

Our Operations Manager is a lot more sympathetic and he gave me the name of the District Operations Manager and suggested that the DOM could probably point me in the right direction about who makes these decisions and recommendations.

Among the staff I'd say a very few don't really care one way or the other and the rest would like us to return to decorating the store.

Well, that sounds like a good result thus far.

This evening I've emailed our District Operations Manager and I'm now waiting for a reply. Earlier I phoned the BestBuy in nearby Kingston, Ontario and all I got was "We decorate according to company standards." That familiar phrase tells me that Canadian BestBuy stores are doing the same as Future Shop.

Now this is interesting that the U.S. BestBuy stores apparently do decorate yet the Canadians counterparts cannot. That strikes me as rather strange given they are our parent company. It also doesn't dissuade me from pursuing further inquiries.

 

[RAMA]

So? The point is, you're complaining about your employer setting certain policies against Christmas decorations. That's entirely within their rights and has nothing to do with whether Christmas decorations can or should appear on public property.

The point is I'm fed up with having to cotton to everyone else while I'm being dictated to that I cannot express something important to me. Excuse me, but I thought I was supposed to have the same freedom of expression. Apparently not?

This is Canada (or it's supposed to be) and not Communist China or Saudi Arabia.

You're free to express whatever you want on your own time, not when you're on the clock.

I love that attitude that freedoms don't apply when it comes to making money and business.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

The point is I'm fed up with having to cotton to everyone else while I'm being dictated to that I cannot express something important to me. Excuse me, but I thought I was supposed to have the same freedom of expression. Apparently not?

This is Canada (or it's supposed to be) and not Communist China or Saudi Arabia.

You're free to express whatever you want on your own time, not when you're on the clock.

I love that attitude that freedoms don't apply when it comes to making money and business.

What do you love about it, other than the fact that it's correct?

You certainly have a right to express yourself, and your employer has just as much of a right to can your ass for doing it on his dime. See how that works?

 

[RAMA]

I'm an atheist so religious holidays are all equally meaningless to me. However, the way they are celebrated are more interesting to me, and I still retain some of the celebratory attitude derived from my childhood. I still find Christmas to be a fun way to celebrate a spirit of brotherhood, giving and acceptance so often lacking in the originating religion(s) themselves...THAT and not the supposed birth of Christ are my true meanings of Xmas.

RAMA

 

[RAMA]

You're free to express whatever you want on your own time, not when you're on the clock.

I love that attitude that freedoms don't apply when it comes to making money and business.

What do you love about it, other than the fact that it's correct?

You certainly have a right to express yourself, and your employer has just as much of a right to can your ass for doing it on his dime. See how that works?

Oh its not that I don't agree there are certain rules and codes in businesses, but the point to where it becomes despotic and doesn't reflect the spirit of the bill of rights that I find it distasteful. I've run my own business, was self-employed/freelancing and also concurrently worked for a fortune 500 hundred company, so I know about rules at all levels. I suppose its mainly the philosophical level where I'm thinking about this...and no I don't think it can be taken as a given that commerce always usurps common sense and individual rights. That kind of thinking leads to....the Ferengi.

 

[auntiehill]

I'm an atheist so religious holidays are all equally meaningless to me. However, the way they are celebrated are more interesting to me, and I still retain some of the celebratory attitude derived from my childhood. I still find Christmas to be a fun way to celebrate a spirit of brotherhood, giving and acceptance so often lacking in the originating religion(s) themselves...THAT and not the supposed birth of Christ are my true meanings of Xmas.

RAMA

That is EXACTLY how I feel. Christmas means a lot of my family and we're atheists, as well. It's the spirit of giving, of brotherhood, of bringing light into the darkest time of the year (for most)--it's a celebration of life---which the pagan holiday was, long before it was taken over by the Christians. So, there's a Santa on top of my tree instead of a star or an angel; I still enjoy it as much (if not more, because I'm crazy that way) as most people.