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This is an issue that has haunted me on numerous occasions.  It has happened to me my first time as an Internet Director and most recently it happened to me when I decided to give retail another shot.  I had a dealership that I went into six months ago to try to land a consulting assignment.  This dealer acted like a typical "know it all" and did not want a consultant so instead he tried to offer me a job.  I was not ready to fold and go back into retail especially because I had a vibe that this would not be the right spot for me. 

So finally after four months, he tried to recruit me again.  The deal sounded great and I figured "why not? let's give it a shot".  Little did I know that he was not as involved in his store as he should be and his general manager was recently brought in.  He was brought in by the previous BDC manager a few weeks prior to me coming on board.  He was such a great guy and such a loyal friend to the previous manager of over 20 years that he aided in allowing her to get fired so that I come on board because the owner wanted me.

Anyone that knows me would know that I am not out to hurt anyone or steal the livelihood from anyone.  I also had no idea that the department was completely broken with nothing but problems arising on a daily basis.  I find out after coming on board what the real deal is and I started to realize why the GM is so against me.  Instead of being a real GM and working to help make me more successful he puts blame on me and puts obstacles in my way.  He would remove my top BDC reps and place them in other departments.  He would cause drama in the dealership that would make a negative impact on my BDC allowing me to have massive turnover in 4 four weeks.  He blamed me for not managing people and treated me with much disrespect.  As we know, general managers have all of the power in the world and when they get into the owner's ear it only works a certain way.

After four weeks, I started to get the department in shape and cleaned up.  I hired quality people and finally started to see traction.  Meanwhile the owner brings his close friend in to take my job and demote me to a marketing role with the same pay.  He wanted me to take orders from his friend who never ran a BDC.  I was also supposed to be the person to create all of the processes and be the CRM guru for the department.  Basically, I would do all of the hard work that I kept doing and letting him sit there and just delegate without getting involved like a good manager should be doing.  We worked like this for two weeks until the micro managing became ridiculous and the GM looked at every reason to try to get me to leave.  I finally packed my things and left this negative situations.

Some of you reading this might wonder why am I telling you this story.  It is really simple.  When you go to take a job make sure you interview your potential employer and know as much as you can about the situation.  It is a important to get a good read on the General Manager.  Find out how long they have been there.  Are they a partner?  Are there any personal issues involved there?  Find out about the store and why the previous person in the same position that you applied for left (or is leaving).  Make sure you have many bases covered (even thought you will not cover all of them).  The problem is from the top down.  When your manager is against you, no one ever wins.  This was my issue.  Try to avoid that at all times.  Even if you think you will make a situation great, it will never work.  If someone has it out for you from the get go, that is it.