In a post that's now been deleted from the company's website, GameStop announced a contest this week that would let managers allot extra "labor hours" during this year's busy Black Friday rush. The retailer originally announced the #redwinechallenge (named after the featured song, "Red Red Wine," by UB40) sometime yesterday, before quickly taking it down.
It is no secret that GameStop employees have exposed to unfavorable working conditions for sometime now: GameStop rushed to reopen and cut pay during the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak in the United States, and has taken what it called a "relaxed" stance on customers not wearing masks in its stores. GameStop's treatment of its employees since then doesn't seem to have improved, and its latest attempt at raising workplace morale has backfired.
Yesterday, The Gamer reported that GameStop had posted a contest to the company's conference page where managers could film their employees participating in a TikTok dance challenge for a chance to win, "10 additional labor hours to use during Black Friday week!" The post immediately received incredible backlash, causing the gaming retailer to delete the post, but not before ResetEra member Cheddahz managed to post the original contest description.
"Be creative, rope in your team, and have fun with it! Don’t worry, you can’t look as bad as the event team does!
November 2-4: Upload your video here at https://woobox.com/mn8chx.
November 5: Return to https://woobox.com/mn8chx and cast your vote!
November 6: Winner will be announced!
Instructions
• Open TikTok and click the + at the bottom of the screen.
• Search for “redwinechallenge” and find a video with this song/challenge
• Click the song turn-table on the bottom right corner
• Click the record “Use this sound” button at the bottom
• Record your video!
• Click the red check mark to start editing your video.
• Once done editing your video click next.
• Either upload your video to YouTube or Instagram. This is the link you’ll need to submit to woobox.
Prizes
The winner of the challenge will receive an Echo 8, Echo Auto, $100 VISA gift card and 10 additional labor hours to use during Black Friday week!
Imagine what you could do with all those prizes!"
The biggest target of criticism was the wording regarding the extra hours. Immediately, the odd wording of the post confused readers; some interpreted it to mean that winners of the contest would be rewarded with the option to work an extra 10 hours during one of the busiest times of the year for retail. Per the ResetEra post, "It sounds like it's ten extra hours allocated to payroll that week to get extra help, but you shouldn't have to do a social media challenge to get an extra hand during one of the busiest retail weeks of the year."
GameStop has been continuously losing money for years now, but with a portion of digital Xbox Series X sales now being shared with the retailer, it has even more reason to make sure Black Friday goes as smoothly as possible. Knowing that, it is odd that the company would choose to make extra assistance during Black Friday week a prize for a TikTok dance challenge, instead of just normally sending help where needed.
Understandably, the company scrubbed the contest from its website, but it is till not a great sign that this is how GameStop is operating, especially after all the other negative press the company has received over the year. If GameStop wants to turn things around, it needs to hope next-gen console sales sweep an otherwise turbulent year under the rug.
Source: The Gamer, Cheddahz/ResetEra