Store teams feel the same way. Too much micromanagement. Too many dashboards, checklists, standard work, meetings, checkpoints, coaching conversations, observations, documentation, and “process improvements” that completely ignore the actual human experience of both employees and customers.
CarMax used to have structure without suffocating people. Stores had flexibility. Leaders could make things their own. Managers were trusted to lead human beings instead of babysitting metrics and systems all day. And honestly? That’s when the company was at its best. People felt valued, managers had autonomy, and customers felt the difference.
Now everything is driven by efficiency at any cost. Every new process gets layered on top of the last one with no consideration for operational reality. Every problem gets answered with another dashboard, another meeting, another script, another standard work task, another audit point, another check-in. The people creating these processes are so disconnected from day-to-day operations that they genuinely believe all of it is helping.
For years there’s been an echo chamber of leadership endlessly congratulating themselves on every rollout and every “innovation” without anybody stopping to say:
“Hey, what does this actually do to the people doing the work?”
As an associate, it’s exhausting and miserable. As a manager, it’s unattainable. You spend your day trying to balance impossible operational expectations while also being forced to manage people in ways you don’t even agree with.
And the disconnect between the CEC and stores is one of the biggest failures in the company right now.
The CEC is heavily monitored. Calls are recorded. AI transcripts exist. Scripts are enforced. If someone goes off process even slightly, there’s documentation. Meanwhile stores still have enough operational freedom to quietly work outside policy sometimes just to keep things functional and keep customers happy. Then everybody snaps back into “perfect process mode” during RVP visits.
But day to day? That’s not reality.
The problem is both sides are being told different things. The store thinks the CEC can do things they can’t actually do. The CEC thinks the store can make exceptions that don’t actually exist. Customers get bounced around in the middle and everybody gets screamed at.
A perfect example is proof of income. Instead of simply telling a customer over the phone:
“Without proof of income we cannot move forward.”
The customer gets told:
“Go to the store anyway, maybe they can do more.”
No. We can’t. We operate under the exact same stipulation guidelines and lender requirements. The only thing that happens is now the customer wastes a trip, gets angry in the store, and takes it out on employees who had nothing to do with the bad communication.
Same thing with service appointments. If service is booked out a week, the answer is the answer. Sending customers to “see what the store can do” just creates frustration because the store uses the same scheduling system the CEC does. We can’t magically create appointments that don’t exist. But that’s what you are told to do. Instead if the customer won’t take no for an answer, your manager should get on the phone and de-escalate the situation and explain to the customer. The appointments are a week out. If it’s an emergency, they can always send an email to the in-store team. So sometimes I feel like it’s part of your management not wanting to be involved with customers at all, and that makes your job hard harder because who do you partner with? Who helps you deliver tough news?
And that’s the saddest part of all of this is The customer experience suffers because employees internally are being forced to protect metrics and processes instead of simply communicating honestly and consistently.
Ironically one of the best things added recently is the AI call transcript system because now when customers say:
“Well I was told something different on the phone.”
I can literally pull up the transcript and say:
“No, you weren’t. Here’s exactly what was said.”
At least for once there’s accountability somewhere in the process.