Blockbuster is Powered by Labor:
An Employee States Her Case

Hi Jon, First and foremost, as just another everyday sometimes brainless ol' Blockbuster employee, I want to apologize for your unpleasant visit to Blockbuster. This situation you described on your website is unfortunately quite common across America on Friday and Saturday nights. But, with any hope and with some new corporate policy changes coming up, your local Blockbuster should be running a bit more smoothly soon.

Until these new upgrades, checkout procedures and EVF financing policies take effect, let's get a few things straight. Most of the people who wait on you (or perhaps who are supposed to wait on you) at Blockbuster are or were Blockbuster customers at one time. We empathize...we have been there!

We may seem completely heartless and robotic but believe it or not, we are human and know the line sucks because we have had to wait in it before. We know that "hello" sometimes makes customers feel weird if you will and comes across artificial because we've heard a million times too! Sorry! We need the paycheck and just do what we are told to do!

Let me state, as a former customer of 14 years and employee for 1 1/2, the Blockbuster America goes to and the Blockbuster I work for are 100% different. For some reason, the framework of the company designed its labor to LABOR and its marketing department to market a must-have, media/movie world. On T.V. or on the trailer tapes or in the emails, Blockbuster is one big happy la-la movie land and the employees (perhaps a rabbit and some other rodent nicknamed ray and carl) are engrossed in movies and what's hot and are able to inform every customer of all the newest sales, deals and freebie's. To tell you the truth, half the crap on the trailer is new to me, half the promos I figure out when a customer asks me about them. There is just always a new deal or sale or gimmick as you put it and the employees including myself have a hard time keeping up with it. And quite honestly, only about 10% of the time I spend at work really deals with movies and entertainment. 90% of the time, the movies are just titles, items in inventory, stuff to clean up, things to manage...just lots of work. And, I believe, corporate Blockbuster made it that way because it works.

It takes labor not philosophical artistic film critiques to run a Blockbuster.

Also, you may find it interesting to know that my store, the oldest in my district, has about 10,000 movies and games in it. That to me is quite a lot of things to keep organized and of course, in alphabetical order and according to release date. Anyway, I feel, if a customer can find the movie he or she wants and it works, I don't think it really matters what category it is in. I am sorry corporate has portrayed me and my fellow workers are as the real decision maker on the categories and typing of movies, but I am not that smart...like I said we can be rather brainless.

Rest assured, corporate has come up with all sorts of new ways for me to labor for you to enhance you next visit. Give us a try again real soon.

Kay

p.s. If you really want answers, comments, insight, rebuttals, dialogue or whatever about Blockbuster...you should stop picking on Blockbuster labor for laboring and bark at CEO of Blockbuster, John Antiago or Viacom CEO, Murrey Rothstein aka Sumner Redstone.

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Dear Kay,

Hopefully this is your real email address. A number of Blockbuster employees have responded favorably to my piece, but so far, anyone who is critical has used a fake address. That is disappointing to me. My point of view is exposed and I am looking for dialogue. Sending a comment on my article without allowing for a response is just a cheap shot.

I read your email carefully and I agree with a lot of your points. I don't know if you read the follow up responses I had with other Blockbuster employees, but the bottom line is that this story was about one particular store experience at one particular time. I really don't know why employees who never worked at that store at that time feel so defensive about that story. You weren't there, so don't take it personally. I was not speaking about other stores, simply that one. As a matter of fact, as I have reported in my follow up letters, the atmosphere at that store has improved considerably since the time I wrote my letter. I take my hats off to those who are doing a great job at that store now.

Your letter is one of the best letters I have yet received, for two reasons: one, because you make a very important point that the workers, the front lines, always take the heat and the blame, while the fault for the things that bother me the most lie not with the workers, but with corporate decision makers. It is really too bad when workers end up taking the blame for things beyond their control. Unfortunately, the reality of customer-worker interactions is that we end up beating up on each other too often. My initial story was partly fueled by the anger I felt by the treatment I experienced at that store at that time. Like I said, that store has since improved drastically. However, the relevance of the piece has not changed for me. As I noted in my follow up letters, the key points had nothing to do with the employees in the first place, and those key points still stand. But if the employees I dealt with had the right to treat me like crap, I surely had the right to express myself and that's what I did.

The second reason I liked your letter is for the last point you made. You are absolutely right, I should bring my problems to the attention of the executives who ultimately make these decisions. One of the reasons I published this piece was so that I would stop going into the store with attitude and express my frustrations in a way that might truly be heard.

As for picking on Blockbuster employees, I would only say that I think you misunderstood my intentions. If you look around the range of articles on my web site, you'll see that I have very little obsession with Blockbuster employees. I don't know if but I didn't exactly let myself off lightly in this piece and in the follow up letters. It is interesting that the folks who have taken my article to task have not come up with any better examples for me to follow. Perhaps my piece is flawed, but until I see some better examples out there, it's going to stay up there.

In the end, I think I succeeded in creating a high entertainment value piece and provoking a reaction, but it was probably at the expense of fairness to all parties - particularly hardworking Blockbuster employees. I did not think employees working at other stores would take it personally - many didn't, but some have, and that was not my intent. I have to take responsibility for setting it up that way. By printing some follow up letters and responses, I'm trying to atone for this by letting us all clarify our positions. It's been an adventure so far.

Thanks very much for taking the time to write in. One thing I have learned is that there are a lot of thoughtful Blockbuster employees out there. This does not surprise me at all, but it is nice to find that out anyway.

Jon

---

JR update: It turns out that Kay was indeed using her real email address. She has gone on to read (and make thoughtful comments on) other pieces on my site. I thank Kay for taking the effort to see the big picture in my work. Kay, you have represented the point of view of Blockbuster employees as well as anyone who has written in.

Blockbuster is Powered by Labor:
An Employee States Her Case

Hi Jon, First and foremost, as just another everyday sometimes brainless ol' Blockbuster employee, I want to apologize for your unpleasant visit to Blockbuster. This situation you described on your website is unfortunately quite common across America on Friday and Saturday nights. But, with any hope and with some new corporate policy changes coming up, your local Blockbuster should be running a bit more smoothly soon.

Until these new upgrades, checkout procedures and EVF financing policies take effect, let's get a few things straight. Most of the people who wait on you (or perhaps who are supposed to wait on you) at Blockbuster are or were Blockbuster customers at one time. We empathize...we have been there!

We may seem completely heartless and robotic but believe it or not, we are human and know the line sucks because we have had to wait in it before. We know that "hello" sometimes makes customers feel weird if you will and comes across artificial because we've heard a million times too! Sorry! We need the paycheck and just do what we are told to do!

Let me state, as a former customer of 14 years and employee for 1 1/2, the Blockbuster America goes to and the Blockbuster I work for are 100% different. For some reason, the framework of the company designed its labor to LABOR and its marketing department to market a must-have, media/movie world. On T.V. or on the trailer tapes or in the emails, Blockbuster is one big happy la-la movie land and the employees (perhaps a rabbit and some other rodent nicknamed ray and carl) are engrossed in movies and what's hot and are able to inform every customer of all the newest sales, deals and freebie's. To tell you the truth, half the crap on the trailer is new to me, half the promos I figure out when a customer asks me about them. There is just always a new deal or sale or gimmick as you put it and the employees including myself have a hard time keeping up with it. And quite honestly, only about 10% of the time I spend at work really deals with movies and entertainment. 90% of the time, the movies are just titles, items in inventory, stuff to clean up, things to manage...just lots of work. And, I believe, corporate Blockbuster made it that way because it works.

It takes labor not philosophical artistic film critiques to run a Blockbuster.

Also, you may find it interesting to know that my store, the oldest in my district, has about 10,000 movies and games in it. That to me is quite a lot of things to keep organized and of course, in alphabetical order and according to release date. Anyway, I feel, if a customer can find the movie he or she wants and it works, I don't think it really matters what category it is in. I am sorry corporate has portrayed me and my fellow workers are as the real decision maker on the categories and typing of movies, but I am not that smart...like I said we can be rather brainless.

Rest assured, corporate has come up with all sorts of new ways for me to labor for you to enhance you next visit. Give us a try again real soon.

Kay

p.s. If you really want answers, comments, insight, rebuttals, dialogue or whatever about Blockbuster...you should stop picking on Blockbuster labor for laboring and bark at CEO of Blockbuster, John Antiago or Viacom CEO, Murrey Rothstein aka Sumner Redstone.

---

Dear Kay,

Hopefully this is your real email address. A number of Blockbuster employees have responded favorably to my piece, but so far, anyone who is critical has used a fake address. That is disappointing to me. My point of view is exposed and I am looking for dialogue. Sending a comment on my article without allowing for a response is just a cheap shot.

I read your email carefully and I agree with a lot of your points. I don't know if you read the follow up responses I had with other Blockbuster employees, but the bottom line is that this story was about one particular store experience at one particular time. I really don't know why employees who never worked at that store at that time feel so defensive about that story. You weren't there, so don't take it personally. I was not speaking about other stores, simply that one. As a matter of fact, as I have reported in my follow up letters, the atmosphere at that store has improved considerably since the time I wrote my letter. I take my hats off to those who are doing a great job at that store now.

Your letter is one of the best letters I have yet received, for two reasons: one, because you make a very important point that the workers, the front lines, always take the heat and the blame, while the fault for the things that bother me the most lie not with the workers, but with corporate decision makers. It is really too bad when workers end up taking the blame for things beyond their control. Unfortunately, the reality of customer-worker interactions is that we end up beating up on each other too often. My initial story was partly fueled by the anger I felt by the treatment I experienced at that store at that time. Like I said, that store has since improved drastically. However, the relevance of the piece has not changed for me. As I noted in my follow up letters, the key points had nothing to do with the employees in the first place, and those key points still stand. But if the employees I dealt with had the right to treat me like crap, I surely had the right to express myself and that's what I did.

The second reason I liked your letter is for the last point you made. You are absolutely right, I should bring my problems to the attention of the executives who ultimately make these decisions. One of the reasons I published this piece was so that I would stop going into the store with attitude and express my frustrations in a way that might truly be heard.

As for picking on Blockbuster employees, I would only say that I think you misunderstood my intentions. If you look around the range of articles on my web site, you'll see that I have very little obsession with Blockbuster employees. I don't know if but I didn't exactly let myself off lightly in this piece and in the follow up letters. It is interesting that the folks who have taken my article to task have not come up with any better examples for me to follow. Perhaps my piece is flawed, but until I see some better examples out there, it's going to stay up there.

In the end, I think I succeeded in creating a high entertainment value piece and provoking a reaction, but it was probably at the expense of fairness to all parties - particularly hardworking Blockbuster employees. I did not think employees working at other stores would take it personally - many didn't, but some have, and that was not my intent. I have to take responsibility for setting it up that way. By printing some follow up letters and responses, I'm trying to atone for this by letting us all clarify our positions. It's been an adventure so far.

Thanks very much for taking the time to write in. One thing I have learned is that there are a lot of thoughtful Blockbuster employees out there. This does not surprise me at all, but it is nice to find that out anyway.

Jon

---

JR update: It turns out that Kay was indeed using her real email address. She has gone on to read (and make thoughtful comments on) other pieces on my site. I thank Kay for taking the effort to see the big picture in my work. Kay, you have represented the point of view of Blockbuster employees as well as anyone who has written in.