... it would seem corporate's "solution" is to staff stores with more co-managers and use them to "fill" in the gaps. I don't know how widespread this is becoming, but I know at my store, we're up to seven co-managers. At another store which I have friends that work at, that store is up to five co-managers (originally, that particular store never had more than three at a time). My store's typical number of co-managers is five. Not enough people are applying to work at Kroger stores in my division though (from what a co-manager told me), so now I see co-managers sometimes on registers for thirty to forty-five minutes at a time, more frequently stocking produce, sometimes working in pairs in grocery stocking shelves and so on.
Corporate probably loves this. Co-managers can be worked essentially an "unlimited" number of hours without ever getting any sort of overtime pay. They're on salary, so regardless of whether they follow the typical fifty to sixty hour work week average or go well beyond that, they make the same amount of money. I knew one co-manager that got so fed up with corporate's way of doing things, she ended up quitting, no notice, just a few days before Thanksgiving last year, as a way of sticking it to the company.
Anyone else here seeing an increase in the number of co-managers in your store to make up for the shortage of labor?
-- Edited by GenesisOne on Wednesday 21st of January 2015 05:12:21 PM
OH yes, it's a cash cow dream come true! Here's what I see the future or retail looking like (at least to a large extent): 30% salarieds, 10% pt/ft actual company employees.....and 60% temp service workers.
OH yes, it's a cash cow dream come true! Here's what I see the future or retail looking like (at least to a large extent): 30% salarieds, 10% pt/ft actual company employees.....and 60% temp service workers.
Pretty spooky, isn't it? Sure hope I'm wrong!
I think you're more likely to be right than wrong. Any means in which corporate sees an opportunity to trim costs and add to the bank account, that's the direction we've been headed for some time now. Kroger works its good people until they are burned out and then once they quit/get fired due to the stress/workload wearing them down, the company then finds a new batch of co-managers/part timers to work to the bone. It's not about investing in the people that make the stores a success. Not with this company.
DeltaGrocery wrote:
I know they recently started a co-manager working overnights at one of the big stores(only open till 1AM) like wat.
Night stockers usually get the most overtime pay out of everyone that works in a Kroger store. It's one of the hardest positions to fill, so when overnight stockers quit or just stop showing up, replacing them isn't easy. Not to mention, it's a lot of work and only a select few give it 100% (and may eventually get burned out, as I said above), so both the productive and not so productive ones end up with overtime by just trying to finish the truck/condition the aisles. Stick a co-manager or two overnight, and that takes care of part of the overtime expense since... again, co-managers can be worked any number of hours and not be compensated extra for it, in any way.
Anonymous wrote:
Why hasn't the union stepped in? Managers aren't suppose to be doing union jobs.
I don't think the union can. These co-managers aren't being "scheduled" to cashier, stock and so on... Kroger as a company can argue that, "they're only helping out when it gets busy or the hourly employees need help catching up," or something like that. Kroger can also argue that, "we're trying to hire people, but we aren't getting in enough applications and/or new hires generally quit after a week or two, leaving us shorthanded". Of course too, one of the company's favorite cards to play, "the needs of the business" card, can be pulled out and said to the union, "the needs of the business dictate that we utilize salaried management to help take care of the customers."
-- Edited by GenesisOne on Wednesday 21st of January 2015 06:28:13 PM
Managers on freight crew? Not happening here. Though we seem to have a bunch of old timers on our freight crew. Deli and bakery are the big losers. The biggest problem they face is the no notice quits. Bad when someone with 6 months in just tops showing up. The market will force kroger to change their game or they will continue to suffer.
that wouldnt happen where i work. the second a manager or co manager even tries to do a job that should be done by a clerk someone always files a grievence for taking hours away from an employee who could be doing that job instead of the co manager and manager
that wouldnt happen where i work. the second a manager or co manager even tries to do a job that should be done by a clerk someone always files a grievence for taking hours away from an employee who could be doing that job instead of the co manager and manager
Not enough people are willing to apply and work for $7.35 an hour, so it's either the co-managers do the work or the the work isn't going to get done.
I've noticed in the new "Now Hiring" spots they play over the store radio, they mention "flexible schedules" and "paid benefits" but no "competitive pay" or anything like that. That's what potential new hires are most interested in.
Kroger is opening a number of new Marketplaces in my surrounding area. I don't know where they're going to get the people to staff these massive stores... well, other than stealing people from the surrounding stores, leaving us even more shorthanded. That's okay, though. Gotta have every register open in the new store during the grand opening and plenty of employees available to assist customers all around the store. Then, in a month, it'll be like every other Kroger store, crying for surge help because there are only two registers open during the day and customers walking past aisle after aisle without an employee in sight.
I've only seen 3 at a time here. There is no actual incentive for working here. Yeah, money, but not enough of it for the bull**** they pull. After they hired me, they hired 5 others. How many are left? 2. And I have a feeling that number's gonna drop further since they don't know how to fricken give hours.
that wouldnt happen where i work. the second a manager or co manager even tries to do a job that should be done by a clerk someone always files a grievence for taking hours away from an employee who could be doing that job instead of the co manager and manager
Not enough people are willing to apply and work for $7.35 an hour, so it's either the co-managers do the work or the the work isn't going to get done.
I've noticed in the new "Now Hiring" spots they play over the store radio, they mention "flexible schedules" and "paid benefits" but no "competitive pay" or anything like that. That's what potential new hires are most interested in.
Kroger is opening a number of new Marketplaces in my surrounding area. I don't know where they're going to get the people to staff these massive stores... well, other than stealing people from the surrounding stores, leaving us even more shorthanded. That's okay, though. Gotta have every register open in the new store during the grand opening and plenty of employees available to assist customers all around the store. Then, in a month, it'll be like every other Kroger store, crying for surge help because there are only two registers open during the day and customers walking past aisle after aisle without an employee in sight.
I always feel sorry for our floral department. They get called up so often I am surprised we sell anything from there. And I am sure we have had times where there is a customer question with no one there because only one person was working at the time and she is up bagging front end help.
But thepay rate the union has in place has people saying no thanks. If we could pay more we would get ppl that go to giant eagle or target where they pay more.
I can't even imagine what the applicant pool looks like for my store. I'm getting so sick of the idiots that get sent to our department. It's been a revolving door for a solid year now.
We've kept the same size mgt staff, and luckily most are pretty good about helping out in a pinch. Way better than to be left hanging.
I havent seen a increase in co-managers in my stores. Although we did have one replaced who was only here a month by another this week.
If the co-managers want to complain since from what you have stated they will have them doing more stuff they cant use the union?
This company will have a revolving door of employees i dont see how they can keep anyone here for a long period of time with what they are offering.
At my store managers and comanagers are not union. It's always Kroger vs the Union. Why they sign a contract at all is beyond me. They never go by the contract and if you bring it up they get mad.
West coast here. Los Angeles. At Ralphs there is only 1 store mgr. and 1 co-manager, thats it!! 90% of the work is done by food clerks. Mgmt is too busy with all the BS that they dont have time to throw groceries.
that wouldnt happen where i work. the second a manager or co manager even tries to do a job that should be done by a clerk someone always files a grievence for taking hours away from an employee who could be doing that job instead of the co manager and manager
Not enough people are willing to apply and work for $7.35 an hour, so it's either the co-managers do the work or the the work isn't going to get done.
I've noticed in the new "Now Hiring" spots they play over the store radio, they mention "flexible schedules" and "paid benefits" but no "competitive pay" or anything like that. That's what potential new hires are most interested in.
Kroger is opening a number of new Marketplaces in my surrounding area. I don't know where they're going to get the people to staff these massive stores... well, other than stealing people from the surrounding stores, leaving us even more shorthanded. That's okay, though. Gotta have every register open in the new store during the grand opening and plenty of employees available to assist customers all around the store. Then, in a month, it'll be like every other Kroger store, crying for surge help because there are only two registers open during the day and customers walking past aisle after aisle without an employee in sight.
I always feel sorry for our floral department. They get called up so often I am surprised we sell anything from there. And I am sure we have had times where there is a customer question with no one there because only one person was working at the time and she is up bagging front end help.
This is why I disagree with the concept of "surge help". Kroger wants departments stocked with no holes on the shelf so that the customers can purchase what they want and Kroger wants departments like produce "fresh and full"so customers can have a variety of nice, fresh fruits and vegetables to choose from, plus they want the employees in the departments to greet and assist customers, but how can any of this be done to the standards set at the corporate level when the front end doesn't have enough checkers (or too many slow checkers) or courtesy clerks to bag and keep carts off of the lot? Kroger wants 80% of those customers taking the survey to be highly satisfied... well that's never going to happen when the departments are stretched too thin and people are being pulled to help check, bag and get carts. It's all about cutting costs... which is fine, until it's taken to an extreme like Kroger has decided to do.
Here we have a "leader" in the grocery industry that pays maybe ten cents above minimum wage when a person starts with the company and relies on a system like ELMS to budget hours which assumes stores are adequately staffed with highly efficient and constantly motivated employees. I know that there are people here that are good workers that try hard, but we all could probably point to a handful or more people that we work with that don't even give 50%... but you can't build a reliable, proficient workforce when the pay (and appreciation) are both so low. Thus, that leads us to where we are today, with the co-managers working longer shifts and doing the work of hourly employees. If Kroger as a company chooses to continue to pay poorly and not schedule employees a reasonable number of hours, then more and more work is going to fall on management's shoulders, because otherwise, shelves aren't going to be looking full enough for corporate's standards and stores are going to have lines that will make those "Faster Check-Out at Kroger" signs an even bigger joke than they already are.
OH yes, it's a cash cow dream come true! Here's what I see the future or retail looking like (at least to a large extent): 30% salarieds, 10% pt/ft actual company employees.....and 60% temp service workers.
Pretty spooky, isn't it? Sure hope I'm wrong!
IIRC the local Target in my city hires all employees as seasonal. You have to "earn" part time status. And Target's definition of part time is no more than 20 hours a week at a whopping $8 an hour. So you gotta bust your ass to bring home a MAXIMUM of about $140/week. And if you even stutter the words "union", "organize", or "living wage" you will be fired on the spot. What's most disgusting is that they still want you to think they care about their local community.
My store just hired a 3rd co-manager yet says we don't have the sales or hours to hire anymore people or add hours. Oh and no overtime or staying over this week.
If you want more hours then go to the union rep and draw a line in the sand. It's not there job there only doing the work for customer satisfaction, but there job is purely a supervisor tole. There only allowed to stock brand new items to the shelf that's it.If you don't stand up for your self no one will do it for you . In doing this your not in the wrong in any way. Those are union hours, it is up to union workers in turn to make sure management been made aware you want those hours. When my hrs. Have been cut in the past I found more hours on my own. Yes this is true corners will be cut untill the day that all stores a round instead of square. This unfortunately is called progress and projected profits. Ultimately most co managers put them selves in this spot simply because they care...
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I just work at Kroger to keep me busy, Im actually rich.
I personally don't want more hours. I honestly don't want the forty hours I get every week. I'd be fine with thirty hours while I work towards my goals that (hopefully) don't include Kroger down the line. From what I've been hearing at my store, there aren't a lot, if any, employees upset over the hours they've been getting, so I don't think anyone is getting the union involved over management doing "union labor" and spending hours doing "union work".
The big problem is, mainly minors apply, and we've maxed out the number of minors we're allowed to employ. Our store (and others in the district, it seems), simply can't attract enough long-term labor (we all know the reason for that, too), so we're perpetually short-staffed.
