I was hired at Best Buy as a media supervisor due to my experience at good ole Sam Goody. I was in charge of the giant area in the center of the store, and in those days it was giant. We still had VHS and cassette tapes boxed computer software and of course DVD’s. My department did well and at the first chance I had to apply for a promotion I jumped on it!
I was promoted to a management position in merchandising. I was not the greatest at that, to put it mildly. Best Buy in the early years made a decision that to compete it needed to grow quickly. They would blast a market with multi-store same day openings. IT would cause great hoopla and a lot of press. People would line up for great deal.
Behind the scenes it caused issues. Low stock levels and awful shrink problems due to large amounts of employees hired in small periods of time, trianed by other short term employees. This opportunity allowed for me to use my strength. Identify and attack the issue. Most of the stores in our market had massive shrink issues, (loss, theft etc). I was moved to inventory control in one store and within a few months we had either retrained, relocated or arrested all who needed. By Inventory time the store was under budget and did even better the next time. Due to the companies continued massive growth, it did not take too long before I got my shot to take over my own district where we did the same. Massive retraining, lots of meetings with employees to gain buy-in, a few arrests here and there and success for the mission of shrink control.
Life was good! For many years I had fun at work. But like everything it had to change. That type of growth could not continue forever.
Somewhere around 2002ish they started the “re-structuring” . A politically correct way of saying downsizing and piling of work on another. I would assume other roles with little to no additional pay. Lots of headaches. And it hit me…I was making great money, had lots of toys but hated getting up in the morning hated everything around me.
I had achieved everything I wanted, power, money success so what was my problem? Frank and I had been talking about children but after the way I grew up I was so afraid that we would be terrible parents.
We were married six years before having Megan. I made the decision early in my pregnancy that I would resign my position after having the baby. My market won a holiday contest sending myself and several other of my team to LA for a few days. I was about 4 months pregnant at the time of the trip. I think this trip was part of helping to make the decision. I did a good amount of traveling with work, late nights and early mornings. This would not be good for my soon to be growing family. I did not tell anyone at the company this until after Megan was born, they would probably never have believed me anyway.
Megan was born In August 2004, I resigned in October, at the end of my leave. Once I looked at that adorable little face I knew I could not go back to work. I was given the opportunity my mother never had, the opportunity to be home for every fall, every tear, every smile, every everything and I jumped on it!
Decisions for my Family 