I am looking for sales manager.

Manager staying on phone when I answer it?

• I have worked retail for many many years. I have sold anything from maternity clothing to fine jewelry. I am skilled and good with sales. I have 2 jobs at the moment. One, I sell expensive European shoes, the other....cards....blah. The shoe store requires skills, sale tactics, product knowledge, etc. The other requires, you ring up things that sell themselves. In other words, one job requires actual sales and dealing, the other....well...just plain common sense will do. I am not cocky about it at the card store, but I do have far superior sales experience and skills than anybody else there. But I keep that opinion completely to myself on the days that I work there. But, I do make sure they know I know what I'm doing. I know how talk to customers, I know how to help them, I know where things are, and I know how to answer phones! The phone rang at the card store, I answer it the way we are supposed to, and help the customer with her question. Sounds like no big deal. But, here's my issue: My manager picks up the phone at the same time I do (she's back in the back room I'm out on the sales floor) but she doesn't hang up, even after I start talking to the customer on the other line. She just sits there on the phone listening to me talking to her! I couldn't believe it! I have never had any friends call me at work so I know she wasn't spying. And I have never had an issue with anyone over the phone. I know how to help customers over the phone. It's not that difficult! As I'm telling the customer we don't sell the product she is looking for, my manager comes out of the back room, with the phone in hand, and tells me the same freaking thing I just told the customer!!! Why would she do this? I could understand if I had a history of chit chatting with friends, or not knowing how to help people over the phone. But I haven't done any of this! I have been working at the card store for over 2 months now. I have been working at the shoe store for over a year, and they never treated me this way! In fact the shoe store is the exact opposite. I was new and I was expected to answer the phone on my own! If I had a question I could always ask, and they respect me and have enough faith in me to know this. So, what's the deal with the card store manager? That was insulting to me as a grown woman who has been working with the public for 10 damn years! Why would she do this? I guess I'm just not used to this. Every job I have had since I've started working, never did this! Especially my job at the shoe store. We are expected to do things on our own. We can ask all the questions we need to, but we HAVE to figure stuff out on our own to a certain extent, otherwise it annoys the crap out of everyone else to have to "babysit" the new associate. I'm not used to being "babysat" like this!

• Answer:

  Many managers do this randomly as a means quality control. Perhaps, this should have disclosed to you when you were hired, but honestly, it's a common practice. I wouldn't take it so personally.