Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Foreign Business

My most recent business experience was with my last job at Country Cleaners Inc. out of Macungie, Pennsylvania. Country Cleaners is a dry cleaning business that has been around for over 15 years, and still running. I started working there on my 15th birthday, after the owner, Joe had hired me about a week before.
The company had always been American owned and had always taken orders by hand (meaning pen and paper)--little to no technology had ever been used. When I was trained there, I learned to do everything by hand; taking orders, memorizing customers' names and phone numbers, etc. I held many responsibilities at my job, considering I ran the place most of the time. My job was not extremely difficult and the business could be run by one person. However, after working there for about a year and half, my boss (owner) came to me with a concern that would change my working-lifestyle. He told me that he had sold the company to a new Korean owner who would now be my new boss, takeover the company, and therefore own the six stores that my boss previously owned. He assured me that not much would change, and that things would be just fine. I felt uneasy and scared that I would lose my job and communication would be hard--I was partially right.
As soon as I met my new boss, Young, my working environment changed for the worse. New technology was put into the store; new signs, a new computer with a touch screen, different gadgets to help with the orders, and a whole new way of organizing. This really frustrated me. New technology may seem fun and exciting, but when trying to communicate with a foreign trainer and a new system, it became extremely difficult. My fellow coworker and I were so confused and annoyed, that we ignored our new system and learned it in our own way. We finally pulled it off. But the new system was not the only problem. With the new owner around, he started to lay off all of the old employees at the different stores who had worked for many years, and replaced them with foreign workers who would work for cheaper wages. My coworker, Kelsey and I were soon the only American employees left.
Communication soon became rough between our new fellow coworkers. Kelsey and I had to learn to understand small bits of the Korean language, business dropped and we would be blamed for anything that went wrong in the company. Customers were--and still are dissatisfied with the communication and service. The new owner seems really unfair. When I left the company for Bloomsburg this past June, my boss told me that I was welcome to come work whenever I wanted to. I took up this opportunity on my break from summer session to the fall. However it did not go so well, my boss completely ignored the fact that he told me that and blamed me for taking money from the safe that we kept in the store. The safe in the store was used as a backup safe for money incase we ever ran out from the register. I do not think that the new owner ever understood the concept of the safe, and, therefore I was blamed for something that I never did.
Working with a company with bad communication is terrible. It really brings you down emotionally. It can also cause tension between coworkers. If you have any suggestions for me and my past experience, please reply! Thank you.
Chelsea

2 comments:

Amy said...

Wow, that doesn't seem right. If the American workers were being fired for no apparent reason other than the fact that the Korean's would work for cheaper wages, that is discrimination and that can be brought to court. If all his customers are dissatisfied I can't imagine the business running for much longer since the customers make the business!

RJG3 said...

That really is very strange. It is a good story though. It was obviously not your fault. You were doing your job right. I doubt it will be around much longer!