Hello, I am posting seeking feedback about if/how to escalate an issue.
First for background, I have been at kroger 2 years by the end of september, I came in with 4 years of prior grocery experience with another chain, and some management experience from running a seafood department for that chain. I began as a meat clerk, worked hard, and got put next in the line to become a market assistant. The current assistant was moved to another store for poor attendance and then I spent some time becoming fully trained on his job, albeit little on the job training for meat cutting (observational) because we had 2 main cutters. I completed the required packet of paperwork and demonstrated knowledge of my job tasks to my store management and became a certified backup (which had a nice pay bump by about $4.00 an hour).
So, it was communicated to our meat coord that I was prepared to take a market. We trained someone to take over my asst manager duties should I be promoted and got our ducks in a row. Months later I was moved to a different location in our district to a poorly performing team (as assistant) and spent time there during the tail end of a remodel and through their regrand. I was told going in that there were some problems and that the manager of the department wasn't doing things with the best ethics and such. While there I brought these things to the attention of the store manager, and to the attention of the meat coord, as I was instructed to go in and take their f'n job (yes, I was told in such terms). However nothing was done to the manager and instead after regrand I was transferred to a store about 3 or 4 minutes up the road which had a good crew.
While at this store, I was to spend time with the 2 journeymen meat cutters and learn what I could from them. I did, my cutting skill improved a ton and my speed got to be very fast at cutting to where I am done at noon when I am the meat cutter for the day, the quality of the cuts is very marketable, and my waste from it is low.
My ordering falls roughly between 2% over or under, I can get the meat case set+do first cut+pull red meat markdowns within the first 2 hours of my day, our key retailing passes with a 90-95 regularly, I can get the load broken and sales floor set by 10am, and I've been directly told by the meat coord that our district manager thinks the world of me.
However, I am still not getting my own department for some reason... I've been a prospect for about a year now to get my own market and it is becoming frustrating. I've talked to my coordinator about it a few times, he has even listed potential stores that have issues and may need replacements... Maybe 6 months ago or so, I was told I was on the list to get a market, now I've had the coordinator come talk with me about job tasks to make sure I knew my stuff and he says that NOW im certified and will be on the next list that comes out that they do every 6 months.
I'm wondering if I should approach the district manager at this point for open conversation to let her know how I feel about it...she's very approachable and friendly and it's frustrating and it's like they're using the carrot on a stick with me if you know what I mean. If I have tried to be patient and go through my meat coordinator for a year now, but should I go straight to their boss and get a feel for what the situation is? I'm not really getting any action from the coordinator and think maybe I should go up the chain of command.
There is one thing about Kroger that I find frustrating. They move S-L-O-W-L-Y. It's a bit ridiculous on how slowly the cogs turn, but they usually do turn. You're also dealing with the union. Not directly, but indirectly. However, even in non union positions the cogs turn slow. One of our co-managers has been told that she was changing stores since the spring. She finally will at the end of the month. I hope this pans out for you in your favor. Patience will get you to where you want to be, especially if they like you and you're a good worker.
Has there been other assistants being promoted in front of you after they promised you were next? I wouldn't make a big deal about it. I've seen managers, assistants go from being the golden child to lets say the red headed step child because they pushed an issue to far. In my zone we had someone get promoted to an assistant and then got assistant at a brand new store and he just bs'ed his why through. He asked the zone manager on advice on how to become a better meat employee even though the zone manager has never worked in a meat dept. It's something to think about, so when you see your meat mr or zone manager toot your own horn and say I've learned so much from you and your staff in the last 6 months I'm ready to do more than what I'm doing now and so on and so forth.
