Criminal #35: La Senza "The Brapocalypse Has Begun"

This is not a joke. This is not something that is meant to be taken in light jest. This is a serious problem. I have never been so angry before. Coca Cola combined with Pepsi combined with Nestle couldn't make me as utterly pissed off as I am right now.

Let me say this right off the bat; La Senza, I am taking you down. It might take me a month, it might take me a year but you will pay for the injustices you have laid upon good people. You will pay for firing the best manager and regional supervisor, two of the nicest people I have ever met. You will pay for being a morally reprehensible corporation. You. Will. Pay.

Here's the low down:

I began working at La Senza, a Canadian bra emporium (Think Victoria's Secret for Canada and parts of Europe) just two months ago. At the time there were two people in charge (Names changed for the safety and concern of the people involved.) Annie, the regional supervisor (as I understand it she looked after the four stores in our city, two La Senza's and two La Senza Girl's, one of each for the two malls in town.) There was also Lily (I totally suck at changing names, HA!) who was the store manager for us, STORE 207. THAT IS 207, BOWER MALL, RED DEER, ALBERTA.
Here is the basic timeline of what happened:

-Roughly three weeks in to my working, Annie is let go citing her position is being cut all along Canada. She has been with the company for years and could easily run our store single handedly. The staff are all very sad to see her leave but we keep going, after all we still have Lily.

-Two to three weeks after that, during Lily's day off (Very important point), the new supervisor of the area (information about this is sketchy) CHRISTY (oh my god, that's her real name) brings in May, the new 'Co-Manager' of not only 207, but the La Senza girl across from us, as well as the La Senza girl up at Parkland, the other mall on the other side of town. Remember, this was on Lily's day off, none of us, least of all Lily knew that May was coming. No one was informed about the new management position being created DESPITE several assistant managers and team leaders (key holders) being told in the past that should management positions open, they would be given first shot at it. We are all stunned.

-At this point alarm bells are going off. May puts no effort into getting to know anyone. Christy is being silent about the whole issue. I see Lily that day, she, one of the nicest people I know, looks mightily pissed off.

-Two weeks later (roughly) a Wednesday, Lily walks out. She has had enough.

And here's the roaming theory about what happened: Annie's position was cut, okay, I get that. Costs and what not. She was offered a management position which she declined, it would have been a step down for her.

Lily walks. Why does she walk? Very simple, along with the insanely passive aggressive actions of head office (IE: bringing in NEW MANAGEMENT without informing the MANAGER and on her day off no less) they drove Lily away. Now, I know we can easily say "Well, stand up for yourself. Don't take it." But remember, these are women. Women are bitches. I'm allowed to say that because A) I'm a woman B) I'm really pissed off and C) It wasn't that long ago that I was in high school and I can clearly remember the evil that was every girl I went to school with. We are conniving, we are bitter, we are cruel. And if she didn't walk, they would have fired her sooner or later.

OKAY, so after some venting, and silent rebellion by the staff, most of us seem to be getting used to May. I figured a lot of our rage against her was just misdirected. We were really, subconsciously pissed off at head office.

That was until last week, when I arrived and was told by several of the girls that May was mad because I missed a shift. Um, what? Apparently, so did my counterpart, who works the other half of the part time stock girl shift, we'll just call her L. for now because I can't think of anything else. Well, L had already cleared her days off with Lily, so this was easily cleared up, and May claims that she never made those comments about MY missed shifts. I give her the benefit of the doubt.

Wednesday, March 25th. There are 16, count them, 16 job interviews going on that day. There are not that many positions available. The thoughts of the staff? They're trying to do to us what they did to Lily.

Even then, I was willing to ignore that, I mean, I'm just a lowly stock girl, right? Why replace me? Together L and I make this great team, she takes half the shifts, I take the other half, and then we cross paths and get loads of stuff done all at once. It's great. It worked for the last two months. For the last two weeks or so we had been hearing that May was looking to hire a full time stock girl. Okay, that means our jobs are about to get cut. I wasn't too worried because I had been hired under the assumption that in a few months I would move to full time. (I had a back surgery in December and was just waiting to fully heal before I started. I discussed with with April- I mean May, OOPS, last week before my last Doctor's appointment. She did not follow up with me. Let me add at this point that Lily was uber concerned about my condition. Granted, that's not important to the story, but that says a lot about the character of the manager when one of them is constantly asking you if you need to go home early and the other one doesn't give a flying fuck.)

Okay, so L and I are in working this morning, two days after the major job interviews. Mal, EX-Assistant manager (because apparently her old job got cut too) comes in and tells us "There's a new full time stock girl."

L and I just stare.

Yes, there is a new full time stock girl. Ignore the fact that L and I make up one full time position AND the company doesn't have to pay benefits to us. May still felt the need to hire someone to replace us.

Just who is this someone?

She is a 17 year old drop out.

I won Most Inspirational Student when I graduated. She hasn't even been able to get that far.
So, of course I went from thinking "It's not personal" to "It's fucking personal, this fucking company, I'm going to fucking take them down." Which is what I plan on doing, somehow.

Why is she doing this? Simple, when May took over she got one hell of a rebellion, no one bothered to hide their discontent with the whole situation, Lily was forced out of her job. It was terrible, cruel, and wrong on many levels. May knows she can't win over the staff (in fact, I don't think she ever planned on it seeing as how she never bothered to get to know us at all.) So she begins to hire new people, making us feel as though we're being replaced, which of course we are. Legally, they can't fire most of us (I am the exception as I haven't been employed for 90 days yet) without reason. Technically they would have to cut all the positions and rename them to fire everyone, lest they face the wrath of human resources.

What can we do about it? Not a damn thing, because it goes further than just May. Another coworker, we'll call her D, contacted Christy, regional supervisor, after Lily walked, and what did Christy say? "Did she leave her key?"

That says something right there. When the first response to an excellent manager walking isn't "Holy shit, what happened?" but "Did she leave her key?" That tells me that this was planned, this was intentional. This childish, high school attitude to shun people and force them out of the popular clique that is La Senza, disgusts me in every way possible. So who can we go to? When May is a bitch, Christy is her mistress, and everyone above them are completely clueless? What do you do? Take things into your own hands, that's what. Along with getting several testimonies from my ex coworkers, I plan on filing a formal complaint to human resources, and raising more than a little bit of hell (and anyone who knows me, knows I'm capable of it.)

So here's what I need from you: Do not buy from La Senza. Direct people you know to this article and convince them not to buy from La Senza. If anyone has any legal expertise at all, or suggestions at how I can go about getting some justice please let me know. Apart from filing complaints and burning bras at protests, I'm fresh out of ideas. Either way, I'm walking next friday (I can easily get a reference from Annie or Lily, so I'm not too worried. Plus, I made friends with a guy at a mall kiosk looking to hire someone and he said he'd give me a call.)

I'll be fine. But you, La Senza Canada (Specifically store 207 in Bower Mall, Red Deer.) You will not be fine. You are about to have this shit blow up in your face. And I will be there smiling all the goddamned way.

I almsot forgot to add, not once were any of us A) introduced to the new people or B) told that new people were coming (let a lone a new stock girl.) Why not? Why not have a staff meeting and say "You know, I'm going to be hiring five new people..." You know why? Because they're replacements, not additions.