Getting fired for trying to do my job?

So I've been talking with some friends since I've been back home for Columbus Break about the company we work for (GameStop). Apparently, as of recent, the company has started what they call "The 8 Week Plan". For 8 weeks, as an employee of the retailer, you MUST improve your numbers for sales (selling our discount card, etc.) or else you will get fired.

Now, I have worked in the company for years, and to me, this sounded like another scare tactic. We have been told before we would get "coachings", lose our jobs, have 3 warnings, etc. I had heard it all before. Until now though; my friend mentioned that I guy I used to work with actually got fired from his job by this program. A guy that I knew always tried to do his job, and do it well, and was also apparently working a ton of overtime.

Now I know being in retail, you have to be good at selling stuff. It's the way the job is. I have always been great at selling video games (it's easy when your favorite hobby is what you sell) however, there is only so much customers really want to buy. We do not get any acknowledgement as employees for however much we manage to sell to the customer aside from 2 things (game reserves and discount card subscriptions).

So, even if I sold a customer 5 new games, AND they filled out the customer service survey and rated me as excellent, I would still be a bad employee if I did not get either of the above mentioned items. Especially in an area like Plattsburgh, were Canadian customers will not want an American subscription (you need a US address) and will not reserve games (again, they would reserve them in Canada).

I doubt much will happen, I have been doing better at my job since we last got warned to do better (pretty much the whole store did). However, knowing a guy I used to work with got fired for just trying to do his job, just sucks in my mind.

Have you worked in retail before? Anyone else in another type of job been in a similar situation?

Status Update

So today after another six hour shift at the ol' job, I'm pretty exhausted.

Do I get to relax for the rest of my Sunday however? Not even close. I suppose I ask for it, being a college student and having a part time job, I should try to get my homework done sooner or something, but it's definitely hard wanting to do homework after a busy day at work.

I guess this sounds more like something you would see on facebook, as I'm more complaining than talking about anything important, but I'm interested to see what you other guys and gals in the class think about having a job while going to college.

I know a couple friends over the years had full time jobs while taking a lot of credits, and I feel like I shouldn't even complain in comparison to them. However, I also noticed their overall ability to do well in college seemed to just drop; they could just not keep up. With my part-time job, sometimes it can be difficult to get homework done when you don't have those nice weekend days off to cram all the homework into (I miss that), but at the same time, it's definitely nice having a little extra change in my pocket.

How do you guys and gals feel about it? Do you have a part-time/full time job? Do you feel it affects your abilities to do well in school? Maybe I just need to balance my time better (something a procrastinator like me will probably never learn).