Lots of politics and Senior Managers are fake. The open door policy isn't so open and oftentimes can be turned around on you.
We have not had anyone promoted in our office to Senior Buyer in at least 8 years. My store is a springboard for newly promoted senior managers to gain experience and move up or move and run bigger stores. Carmax promotes a lot of unexperienced managers quickly because they know how to answer the panel interviews, or "speak carmax" well. More often than not, those managers have zero management experience and it creates problems because they can't manage or talk to their staff. Just because they've read how to manage out of the many books for their idps doesn't mean they're good managers. I've been here 5, almost 6 years and our office is experiencing this for the first time. Our senior manager brought in a very newly promoted Senior Buyer from another store and does nothing but favor him. He is getting all of the development and it is going to his head. When he makes mistakes or treats people poorly, our senior manager turns a blind eye. If our senior manager feels that you are questioning him or feels he is being threatened by your questions, you get into trouble.
Our senior manager is inconsistent with performance management and is focused on what we are doing wrong and is documenting everything. Everything from a tiny missed non core option to going home sick after you've been given the OK to do so. We aren't allowed to call in sick and if we do, we have to switch our days off or get our shift covered.
We have already lost one teammate and half of the team is looking for jobs. HR has been no help in any of this and it's sad that a company that advertises about how much they care about their associates really does not. It's like the senior team is exempt from any wrong and they really stick together. HR seems to only support you if you have a concern about low level employees or Sales Managers they were already looking to get rid of, but they will never discipline a senior manager.
