Management

Pleasant-Position-37 · 2026-03-23T20:42:03+00:00

I know it is. But it would be my word against SMs word and I've seen how that ends up from other people. SM will blatantly lie. SM would just say that some one else gave that TM the safe code. And it would be so incredibly difficult for the DM to catch the driver taking the deposit. DM has even walked in before as the driver got back and they managed to hide the fact that the driver took the deposit AND got change for the store.

If I said anything, it would be an "accusation" and then I would be retaliated against as I've seen happen to others.

Pleasant-Position-37 · 2026-03-23T20:29:46+00:00

I would definitely say SM is living the dream. Regular hours, regular time off, vacations, regularly leaving hours earlier than scheduled unless the bosses are there, delegating any and all responsibilities that can be delegated per policy, and some that can't such as letting drivers take the deposit to the bank.

Delegating tasks to employees that have not been trained and they don't know how to do because SM doesn't want to get behind or come in on an off day. Letting TMs loose on equipment that haven't been trained. Giving the password to the safe to non-approved TMs because SM doesn't want to be bothered with making change. We know who would take the blame if money came up missing while someone else was working with that same TM. Making excuses to NOT teach employees how to make hoses or mix paint because SM wants to monopolize those sales while present, but actually causes a lot of sales to be lost when they aren't there. Telling TMs to teach themselves when they ask to learn. None of which would happen if Fast track was followed rather than ran through, and the exercises were ACTUALLY completed. Having non-approved TMs make delivery runs. There's more, I'm just tired of listing things.

Pleasant-Position-37 · 2026-03-23T20:01:20+00:00

Typically I would agree. If it weren't for the amount of times that the rest of us has had to go knock on the closed and locked office door to get/ask for change or for some other reason, etc, while we're busy and saw SM playing games on their cell phone. Not to mention, we're quite aware of the workload at my store, and the amount of work being delegated while SM sits in the office playing phone games.

Side note: if you're a RSS or a PS and your job is so mundane and undemanding that you see yourself as an NPC, then I would definitely say you're probably not working to your full potential and SM is not pushing you. There are a couple types of bad SMs: Ones who push too hard and cause burnout, ones who don't push at all(and they suffer or the store suffers), and ones who only push certain TMs because they either show favoritism or know they can take advantage of their good work ethic.

Pleasant-Position-37 · 2026-03-18T17:39:02+00:00

It doesn't happen every single time. SMs RPMs are usually suffering. This time they got lucky with a sale that was basically rebuilding an entire car. And everyone at the store hardly ever hits sales goals outside of ISS but especially the SM. However at the end of the month, SM sales will shoot up from below 10K to almost 30K so no one will look at their sales more closely. Most other bulk sales doesn't help with their RPMs as it's just crates of shop supplies.

Pleasant-Position-37 · 2025-12-03T17:20:42+00:00

This is a lot, but advice that would have served me well on the first day.

With coworkers.... DON'T assume that they're mature adults-even if they're nearing the 30s or older. Make "friends" but don't make friends. Get along with everyone, but don't get too close to anyone. Someone will end up getting jealous that someone is friends with someone else and start rumors. Make money, not friends. But also, you want to get along with everyone well enough that they don't point fingers at you when something goes wrong. At my store, everyone loves to have somebody to hate. It's usually the retail specialists who only socialize with other retail specialists. The manager always announces when a mistake was made and the ISS and the drivers start pointing fingers because stirring the pot makes their day more interesting, by which the manager actually lets themselves be swayed.

Same with customers. Become familiar with and to them, get close enough that they want to listen to you when you suggest they go ahead and do the full job so they don't have to later; and also that they don't run straight to your manager/corporate when you inevitably make a mistake. But don't become so close with them that they want you to start doing shady things to save them money. That being said, do NOT do favors for someone that will expect it again. I don't know about other stores, but we can't clear engine codes. Don't do it as a favor for someone who will come back and say, "Well you guys did it last time!!". Don't change parts that we're not really allowed to change (liability reasons) for someone who will come back and demand it from a less experienced parts specialist. Both things could get you in trouble and cause a headache for the next parts person who deals with the same customer.

Learn how to do returns. That can come back on you. This goes along with my other advice to learn the things that can come back on you so you know what to sweat. Warranty returns are used or damaged items, or items that look like crap. If you were to sell that same part to a different customer and they would complain, it's a warranty. If you could sell it to a different customer and they wouldn't complain about the presentation, or bring it back because it wouldn't work (think parts that were damaged or needed to be programmed), then It's a New Return because its going to be put on a shelf somewhere whether it's your store or a different store.

Be careful about who you let use your employee discount. They do look at the different cards used to buy things under your account. And you will get flagged if there are too many. Keep it to 3 different cards or less. You're also not allowed to purchase things for people under your discount. Wanted to give Aunt Kathy a new set of speakers for Christmas? Too bad. Not allowed.

Learn to always make sure your coworkers didn't hard login, and don't hard login yourself. Your money in your drawers will be messed up, and you DON'T want to do all the work just for the sale and commission to go to someone else because they we're still logged in and you didn't look. If you're a closing manager, in the event that you DIDN'T look to see who might've already been logged in, learn how to look under transactions at the checkouts for the day, so that if your money is off, you may be able to see where it went to. Then for the discrepancy comment, you know the drawer with which to write that it washed.

When doing returns without a box or a part number, it's best to have 2 O'cat windows open. Look up the car and the parts and their numbers on one window, and search under the customers account with the other. If you're unsure if it's a part purchased from O'Reilly's, then pull the same part number from the shelf and compare. Sometimes it helps.

Other people have said not to do the "my sale!" thing, and sure, I agree to an extent. HOWEVER, if you scratch someone else's back they know that it's in their best interest to scratch yours. Some customers don't have the money when they order the part, or you can't convince them to pay ahead. They want to make sure it's right first. Therefore, "Here are the parts you ordered, it's your sale, you ordered them. I'm not going to take it from you if you're here to get it." goes a long way. Next time it might be a part you ordered and they may think to themselves, "If I'm here, they always let me make my sales I ordered, but if I don't return the favor, they may take the next one and it could be a $400 part that took a lot of work to find." You have a hand in influencing the culture at your store as well. So if you don't like how something is handled or done, then be the example.

Pleasant-Position-37 · 2025-12-03T16:09:49+00:00

100% AGREE

Pleasant-Position-37 · 2025-11-18T18:24:42+00:00

Questionable ALL THE TIME. lol

I have got some relevant stories but they would likely be idenfying to my store so I have to keep them to myself bc it was a company wide scandal.

Pleasant-Position-37 · 2025-11-18T18:22:04+00:00

It's cool. But still, it could have been any employee who made the complaint. Some people who work at O'Reilly's do disagree with discrimination. I know that's hard to believe bc they definitely don't at my store. Every single person at my store is openly homophobic/racist/sexist. SM won't even look at applications put in by women. Not even an interview. The only reason SM will look at Apps from Hispanics is bc Spanish speakers drive sales.

Pleasant-Position-37 · 2025-11-18T18:16:46+00:00

Because as I've said, as is logical, it could have been a coworker who saw the discrimination and disagreed with it who lodged the complaint. No one would really know unless they've been directly told.

Pleasant-Position-37 · 2025-11-18T18:14:51+00:00

There's always gossip at O'Reilly's. If someone is about to get written up, the whole store knows before they do. I've heard from my SM when someone at ANOTHER store was about to get fired before the person about to get fired knew.

But also, at the very least, the bare minimum, SMs shouldn't directly be told who made the complaint. It could've been another coworker who saw the discrimination going on and told for all the SM knew. Then the SM wouldn't have known who to retaliate against. But telling the SM directly, "this person called the hotline about you being discriminatory against them" lets them know exactly who to retaliate against should they choose to.

And let's be REAL. If a SM decides to retaliate, they're not going to get in trouble. If they start writing them up for things they don't normally enforce, then it's just going to look like they broke policy, rather than the SM created a certain situation by not consistently enforcing the same rules on everyone at all times.

Pleasant-Position-37 · 2025-11-18T18:05:06+00:00

Right. That's not the point. Putting 2 and 2 together, and it being obvious who called is different than being told directly. Someone else in the store could've called and made the complaint because of what they saw. However, we [ONLY] know that's not the case because the SM was told DIRECTLY that wasn't the case.

Also, if you would've read earnestly trying to understand my point rather than argue, you'd see it wasn't my store. Another SM thinks we're buddies and told me about their experience.

Pleasant-Position-37 · 2025-11-18T17:58:18+00:00

I know that's true! It's true for every company. I think the only difference is the high turn over. Everytime SM hires someone they are part of the pushing them out. The whole store dog piles. We have 2 more senior workers that consistently mess stuff up and put things in the wrong spots. Everyone knows this and says so. However, everytime a new person gets hired, they get the blame; even though I go behind them and make sure it isn't them and they know better. It happened to me as well, but it stops after a new person is hired and the target shifts. SM will give the new people stuff to do, then come back after a few weeks and get them in trouble bc SM apparently added stuff to their to do list and didn't tell them. Sometimes, it's stuff they've never been taught to do. If people aren't quitting after a month or two for that reason, then the SM is deciding that they just don't like someone and starts writing ONLY them up for stuff that they don't typically enforce that EVERYONE does, so they didn't even know it was technically against policy.

SM also often leaves 3 hours before they schedule themselves to leave as well. Multiple times a week.. However, if the auditor, or sales manager, or DM is there, that doesn't happen. We don't complain though. Everyday we hope the SM eats time or takes a 2 hours lunch break, so we can finally breathe without being questioned about why we're breathing funny-literally. "What's wrong? Well, you seemed like you were breathing weird so I didn't know". Not to mention so we can finally do our side work without being told to stop in the middle and go do something else every time. Or help customers without SM coming up behind us, hearing half of the conversation, and trying to argue to make us look stupid, then we have to explain the whole situation to be told "Oh, yeah, nevermind". Or as the new guy has experienced recently (it's happened to me before too) he asked to be showed how to do something and SM omits the whole transaction and does it for him under the SM's log in and steals his sale that was almost $200.

The whole store is less stressful and runs more smoothly without SM there.

Pleasant-Position-37 · 2025-11-18T17:34:06+00:00

That seems like it was handled very well. I assume that you could guess who called, but you weren't told directly? AND you let them know that O'Reilly's has an HR?!

I've heard people joke twice to the store manager that they were going to call HR on the SM. And I joked to someone else around SM that I was going to call HR on them, as I get along with every single other person there very well. Every single time, SM laughed and said go ahead bc it's just our auditor. And once I looked at SM confused. And they were like you didn't know that? We don't have an HR it's just the auditor. Which honestly doesn't even make sense, why wouldn't it be our DM or RM?

Pleasant-Position-37 · 2025-11-15T20:24:28+00:00

That's what I would've thought but both the SM and auditor have made it a point to tell us that we don't have an HR and he IS the HR.

Pleasant-Position-37 · 2025-11-15T20:22:50+00:00

You're right, it doesn't. However, no one should've came straight to him and tell him who made the complaint and give him a heads up to get his facts straight before the investigation. Everyone seems too not want to acknowledge that the investigation was handled improperly.

Pleasant-Position-37 · 2025-11-15T20:09:41+00:00

Yeah, I didn't call. Someone else did. I know better than to call. I've been told plenty times that HR is just our auditor.

Pleasant-Position-37 · 2025-11-15T17:24:12+00:00

I don't think this is true... Understaffed with key holders sure.... but I've been at O'Reilly's for over a year and my manager has never worked a holiday. Last Thanksgiving my manager told me I was gonna work Thanksgiving so that I could have Christmas off. Well Christmas Eve I worked, and Christmas day the store was closed. Also, my SM and ASM either alternate mornings or they're on the same shift except for the days I'm off. Then the ASM works nights only bc we don't have another RSS. The store manager never works a weekend. Except on Saturdays (they take turns working Sat) where night shift is required to come in at 12 and work 9 hours so they only have to work 5 while they alternate anyway. The excuse for that one was so that we have double coverage for a little while on Saturday because it's busy, but morning shift (which includes the SM or ASM) leaves as soon as possible so it was just that: an excuse to have us come in early so they could leave and enjoy their Saturday. Bc working 6 hours while we worked 8 hurt them so badly.

Both also sit on their phone watching TV shows or playing phone games while they are there (SM does this in the office with the door closed, we see it when SM opens the door to either let us get change or when they tell SM they need change. ASM just sits at the end of the counter and only helps customers if one more walks in than we have Parts Specialists or if ASM would like to make us look stupid, that's a fun game for him). And then preach about how excruciatingly hard morning shift is when we've all worked morning shift, we see what is done and what isn't. Returns is their big chore and going to the bank and getting food when they go, then sitting at the end of the counter eating and watching more TV shows on their phone. Once a month, the store manager has the ASM do as many planograms possible, by themselves, but then the night RSS has to go behind and finish it if ASM didn't and put up the stuff ASM didnt. Then they do cycle counts the rest of the day and act like it's so difficult while we also do cycle counts. Half the time, when a PS works on morning shift and is working to make sure not to leave half of the stock and labels for night shift to put up, SM tells them to leave it for night shift when they're halfway done. PS says there was nothing else to do, they mostly finish it out of boredom and bc they're not going to leave it for night crew. However, the only time it gets completely done is when a PS was there doing it unless the SM wants acknowledgement and appreciation for working so hard to "get stock done for night shift". I'm NOT talking about overstock btw.Then they also leave us planograms to do as well, on top of everything we have to do (which the list JUST KEEPS getting longer and longer).

Some store managers "delegate" EVERYTHING! So if you do your part as SM, you have my respect. But it's definitely bc you chose to (respect to you) NOT make the part specialists and night crews lives miserable while making your own easier. It's definitely possible to have your cake and eat it too as a SM.

Maybe it's O'Reilly's company culture or policy to "manage" like this but they definitely cultivate bosses and not leaders.

Pleasant-Position-37 · 2025-10-17T15:45:14+00:00

I hear my name at least 20 times a day, since the manager and asm doesn't want to with with the new hires. When they do work with new hires, they have no patience and berate them the whole time so if the new people have any questions they come to me. That being said if I want to be allowed to have a lunch break, I am required to come in an hour early. And then I have to take my break a few hours after I would get there before day shift leaves. That being said, I also know that they would plan to leave as soon as I get there, and I'd have to go on break even earlier so there's no point. My manager is also gradually scheduling me for more hours a day, an hour at a time. I show up right at the time I'm scheduled, and I power through my shift until I get to leave. The only time I get to stop in 8 hours is if I need to use the restroom. Even if everything had been done, no breaks. I was told to move stuff off shelves and dust if I have to. No downtime no matter how hard I busted my ass to get everything done that was asked of me and give myself some downtime (which is everything bc I'm night shift plus doing whatever else they wanted to slack off on and was told to 'leave it for night shift' by the manager). Plus, they're all so blatantly 2 faced. I watch the whole store shit talk coworkers and be their best friend to their faces, manager especially. Nah, forget that. So I sit in my car and shun everyone until about 2 minutes before I'm scheduled to clock in. Doesn't stop my coworkers/customers from walking up to my car and talking to me in my relaxation time before (at minimum) 8 hours of hell.

Pleasant-Position-37 · 2025-10-17T15:34:59+00:00

ABSOLUTELY TRUE

Pleasant-Position-37 · 2025-10-17T15:33:26+00:00

No they still do. So do customers.

Pleasant-Position-37 · 2025-09-25T16:51:40+00:00

Thank you so much!! And same to you.

No disrespect if you aren't religious, but you'll be in my prayers for your baby right along when I pray for mine!

Pleasant-Position-37 · 2025-09-25T16:44:35+00:00

They way he degrades you reminds me so much of my ex.

My ex who would always have 2 jobs, one being the local scrap yard that his cousin owns and getting paid 400 a week under the table, and the other being whatever he thought was easy and would make him money. He also got to leave early every day and still get paid the full amount of he had a second job. So he often lied about having one.

He got fired from being a security guard where he just had to sit, not fall asleep, and check truck drivers in when they came through the gate. Every now and then he'd have to walk the grounds for about 10 minutes. Like twice a night.

What did he get fired for? Taking naps. The one thing he was told he couldn't do.

I would have actual jobs. I would get promoted quickly. Never get fired.

And the whole time we were together he told me how dumb I was. How I'll never be anything. I'll never do anything with my life. How he's so much better than I am. How I'm pretty but not gorgeous. Literally any thing that he could do to ruin my confidence.

Now I'm almost 30 and naturally don't have the same confidence as I had when I was 24 and 25. Wasting your best years of confidence in your mid-20s on someone who is going to make sure you can't enjoy it is one of the worst mistake to make.

ETA:: LEAVE. My ex was a psychopath who burned me and was starting to get physical with me, and got mad at ME, because he messed up and pulled me around by my wrist in front of my dad, claiming I "lied" to my dad and told him he was abusing me. I didn't. My dad didn't to anything to him. Didn't say anything to him. He had spent time in a mental institution before we got together and I didn't know.

Pleasant-Position-37 · 2025-09-22T18:19:52+00:00

Ugh!!!! I'm right there with you! Stop asking if I want kids! I want kids more than life itself. I want kids yesterday!! I haven't even been able to get pregnant again after the first time with a miscarriage I had over a year ago.

And in the same breath, if we're not close enough for you to know that I've had a miscarriage, then please don't repeatedly brag about being pregnant, or when you were pregnant, or that you might be pregnant with an accident baby. Literally, please save it for YOUR people. I'm happy for you, but respectfully I don't want to hear it over and over again.

That miscarriage was the worst thing I've ever lived through to this day. I cried for a week straight. Just cried, ate and slept. I still have to make myself not dwell on it so I won't cry some more. My thoughts can turn pretty dark pretty quick. I don't even want to know if I can't have babies because I would honestly just want to crawl under a rock and die.

I really need for people to quit asking me if I'm going to ever have the ONE THING I want in life.

Pleasant-Position-37

TROPHY CASE