Over the past few months I've been working mostly 6 day work weeks or 6 days straight. I only get paid $9/hr. I'm full time also. I understand that my department needs somebody like me to assist since I'm full time and a great worker, but the workload, combined with the 30 minute travel, lack of pay, monotony, and lack of appreciation has started to wear on me. I can never do anything I enjoy because I never have time or I'm too tired. I've always imagined putting my 2 weeks in and leaving Kroger, but now it has gotten to a boiling point I think. There are a ton of other min wage jobs out here and I can be trained to learn any of them so I don't know why I'm wasting my time at Kroger besides the fact that I know I'm valuable to my department. But again, Kroger and my managers do not care about me or they wouldn't give me these stressful schedules and expect me to not be mad all the time. Has anyone ever dealt with this and what was the endgame?
I also feel like I have a lot expected out of me since I'm young. But there are people here who've been here longer or are the same age and do less work than me and either get paid a ton more or never get anything said to them about their lack of work ethic.
I might look into transferring but I believe it could end up being the same as now.
From what I gathered, it's like this because Kroger can't keep new hires. That is, if they even hire someone new, because they are penny pinching MOFOs to the point of them rather not having a department staffed for half a day than having to pay wages to someone.
So, they can't fire lazy/incompetent people, because that would put store below skeleton crew. Even this way some stores are already below skeleton crew. So decent people who do good job have to pick up the slack for the slackers. Ofc, management is not going to prod slackers to work faster, because they know it's futile. Slackers have survived in the company for years, why would they change now? They know that yelling at hard working people who care works, so they are going to take it out on them, and also blame only them for all that goes wrong in the department.
It could be even worse for you though. You could be working only 5 days, which way you would lose your 6th day premium pay. You would still be burned out because slackers will not ease your workload and you would be same demoralized for same reason. Only thing that would change is you would have even less money than you are getting now.
I'm told by some decent old-timers, that only way to survive this is to care a tiny bit less. I know it's hard and almost impossible. But if you want to survive and not end up on stress leave or having to quit, you will have to try and care a bit less.
Ask for 2 days off a week. Most contracts only expect you to work 5 days a week as a full time employee.
True what first reply said except, care a lot less. My managers are pushing me to do more work with imaginary time they are pulling out of thin air. So, I will cut corners and do everything half assed. And, work the 6 days a week they keep scheduling me until they get transferred.
From what I gathered, it's like this because Kroger can't keep new hires. That is, if they even hire someone new, because they are penny pinching MOFOs to the point of them rather not having a department staffed for half a day than having to pay wages to someone.
So, they can't fire lazy/incompetent people, because that would put store below skeleton crew. Even this way some stores are already below skeleton crew. So decent people who do good job have to pick up the slack for the slackers. Ofc, management is not going to prod slackers to work faster, because they know it's futile. Slackers have survived in the company for years, why would they change now? They know that yelling at hard working people who care works, so they are going to take it out on them, and also blame only them for all that goes wrong in the department.
It could be even worse for you though. You could be working only 5 days, which way you would lose your 6th day premium pay. You would still be burned out because slackers will not ease your workload and you would be same demoralized for same reason. Only thing that would change is you would have even less money than you are getting now.
I'm told by some decent old-timers, that only way to survive this is to care a tiny bit less. I know it's hard and almost impossible. But if you want to survive and not end up on stress leave or having to quit, you will have to try and care a bit less.
I don't get scheduled 6 days consecutively in the same week because of the people in my department with more seniority, who I complained about in the OP. They have filed grievances over me getting an extra 8 hours on the schedule in the past. So my 6 days leads into 2 weeks. It is absolute BS. They are what you described as "slackers". I tried to seriously consider yours and the other guy's posts, but I don't think I can take much more. The more I think about how I don't owe ANYTHING to the people I work for, and can change jobs just as easily to another mass minimum wage employer, the more I am on the tipping point of just applying for random jobs until I get a new job I'd be satisfied with. I've been disrespected by nearly everybody in my department too, and I work harder than they can even tolerate, hence me being forced to work 48 hours but only getting paid 40 hours, while they just stand around the majority of the time and talk bad about other employees, including me. I put too much effort in this terrible $9/hr job to tolerate any disrespect. I'm gonna look for some other jobs and put out applications today.
I feel the same way as a Grocery Replenishing Clerk. No appreciation, no respect, lots of hours with ****ty pay, and the feeling that you're getting screwed by Kroger day by day.
I totally agree that the slackers are left alone and the hard working people are the ones who suffer because they get yelled at by management.
Oh, only 5 consecutive days, not 6. Well, that sucks. And reason why you are like that - your coworker slackers complaints sucks as well.
What you can do is to wrote up a 2 weeks notice. Keep it in my car. Just knowing that you have the option to give it to them at any time will make you feel better and the BS will be just a bit more tolerable. Ofc, also look for other jobs and apply. If you like your job though, or if you don't have other options at the moment, you can try to wait it out. The upper managers do get transferred every 1.5 - 2 years.
They can't fire people for working slow. As long as you are always on the move, doing something, carrying something... they can't say anything to you. Well, they can, but they can't do anything about it. So I suggest, you slow down. Stop caring too much. Management doesn't care. If they did, they would fire slackers and hire people who care. But they don't, instead they cut hours, make you work more chores and pick up others slack.
Look at your coworkers. Are they worried when they work slow? Haha, no. It's time you take a hint and go by their example. Do your job and do it as well as possible with help and hours that they give you. That's all they can ask of you. Good luck.
I feel like you've passed the point of no return. When you get into this situation you have to squash it early or you'll be stomped on forever and the longer it goes on the harder it is to get out of. The only way I see for you to keep your sanity is to put your foot down. Talk to whoever does your schedule and tell them you're burning out and can't take it anymore. You're going crazy and need some time off to decompress.
It's harder to do this right now due to the holidays, but try and take a personal day or even a vacation as soon as you are able. Heck schedule your vacation and days off so that you can get a few days extra like personal day on friday, request off saturday, vacation sunday-saturday, personal day on sunday, and request off on monday. even if you don't get one of the days you request off it's still a good chunk of time to relax.
TL;DR: Take a vacation ASAP.
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Would you like fries with th... I mean, your milk in a bag?
I already took my vacation and personal days. As soon as I got back it started.
I can't really ask for "a couple days off" like some people are able to. My department is missing 3 people right now, 2 on vacation, 1 injured and all 3 are very valuable. I do feel like I am going crazy though. It is way too much stress, and nobody ever seems to acknowledge it. When other people at my work are "burned out", they simply call in or show up a few hours late. I have too much integrity to do that. I've never actually called in once since I started working at Kroger 2 years ago. I don't know how much longer I can put up with this. I really just need more time to relax and do things I enjoy. As soon as I get off work I'm already thinking about the next day, it's really just the classical case of wage slavery.
