Has it's pro and cons co managers has to work 50 hours plus and are salaried. If u are a comanager and get put in a bad store u might have to put in some major hours to fix the dept, i.e. store walks, not enough labor.
Co managers only get paid once a month and that is why a lot of the new co managers are broke. Also they work 9 hour days but often they end up staying well past that to get stuff done. But a 12, 14 hour shift isn't a lot when you basically do nothing all day besides walk around and sit in a chair or eating, like a lot of them do.
DHs can make really good money when OT is involved. ~$20 hour at standard rate, $30 an hour for OT adds up over a year. Also all you have to focus on is your own department and it can be easy to fly under the radar.
My store's deli and bakery back up managers must be super women then compared to other stores. As they are often(at least the original two that came over from our old store with us), get over time putting up tables, swapping out tags, etc. And even while on the clock they are running around doing a heck of a lot of stuff. Even taking notes in the meetings cause the DH never does and expects them to know everything.
But honestly and personally, I think both would be a major pain in the butt at times and rather stressful. But I did hear just last night if you ever want to move up to be a manager with Kroger, you have to have some time as a Dept. Head.
That depends on whether you need a weekly check or can handle a monthly check. It also depends on if you want to babysit 7-12 employees or over 100.
I've never gotten why some managers or even DHes think they have to babysit or even talk to their employees like their kids(heard this from our first bakery back up manager before he was switched to another store then quit) or something. Sure I'll admit there are some less than stellar peeps on the team at times and we all have ding bat moments.
However, I still feel like if there isn't any clear effective communication, effective and proper training, nixing favoritism, and handling of inter-department issues amongst peeps. Then there is always going to be something going on that the managers aren't going to like. And feel like they have to handle themselves. Like a major for instance is we the fact that we finally got another new person in bakery 2 days ago. And she has been getting trained by one of the college girls. No biggie to everyone else. But to me it somewhat is. Given the fact that said college girl consistently refuses to label the sliced bread at night(which we are supposed to ALWAYS and ALL THE TIME DO THAT), I have yet to ever really see her clean the doughnut case(even though she swears she is the only one to do it(I'm guessing in between checking out youtube vids on her phone?), and yet they never say anything to her about it.
But that is not cool to teach a new person about stuff like that. Because this new person is in their probationary period and if she isn't doing things the way they are meant to go, following off of someone they have thrown a corner of favoritism to. They could wind up trying to fire the new person while the college chick is still kicking around doing what she always does. And we'll be back to being short handed once more.
And aside from the above examples, I've already heard they will most likely try and bump the new girl up to days. And once more that might lead to some issues as well. Because the resident loud mouth and the other lifers(that quite a few folks don't like as she is another always bitchy type(mind you, I think it's do to always being on the baking shift so early all the time. Or possibly because she knows she has our DH's ear and can get away with writing snide little notes about stuff and not get in trouble for it)) are likely going to scare this girl off if she isn't doing things a particular way. And once more they will go in the office/club house with the DH and start talking about her behind her back. And the poor girl will be walking the plank before she even realizes what she did wrong. Therein, short staffing us all over again.
Oh and my personal fave example, is when my DH thinks he is helping with scheduling or ordering of stuff. Most would not have an issue with their DH working on the schedule or ordering things for their department cause they are competent and know what they are doing. But with my DH, it seems like he doesn't understand anything about how either one works! Either people aren't being scheduled at all, supplies is coming in on the wrong days and things are running super low for the bistro areas. And I don't know why he and the bakery back up keep getting into it on occasion about me being scheduled a 1 to 9 or a 2 to 10 when I close bakery. But that is all I keep hearing is that *insert my DH's name here* was "helping" with the scheduling and went in and made some changes before she could do another once over before saving it.
With stuff like that going on, makes you wonder half of the time, if we have as a department have to babysit the DH and the back up managers at times. At least in my department anyway.
There's no union once you enter salaried management. There are usual safeguards against random firings, however it's not as strong as a union obviously. Personally, overtime is always something that is monitored very closely by corporate, because of this your true pay is not known so if you are used to making a lot of overtime and live a lifestyle that requires that, it could flip things upside down when they come down on the OT. DH without overtime usually gross around 40k a year, and 50k a year is now standard first year pay for new co-managers(47.5k base + bonuses) with significant raises each subsequent year. It really makes no difference when you are paid as long as you are financially responsible. There is obviously a lot more room for growth in salaried management, but if you are not looking for that and just want to work in-store and have no aspirations to make more than a DH makes, then that route may be better.
