A few days ago, a customer managed to tear open a bag of flour or sugar, and had it spill from aisle 2, across the store, infront of the meat department, all the way to aisle 10 or something. I was in the cooler, cleaning the grinder, and my coworker was helping customers at the counter. I didn't know about the spill, until a co-manager came into the cooler and asked me to clean up "a spill". I said okay, because I thought it was just a small spill, not a GIANT SPRAWLING MESS. I went and saw the mess, and immediately called customer service, and requested they send a utility clerk/courtesy clerk to start cleaning it up. I know in the training I took, if there was a small spill, we were supposed to do it. But if it was something large, we are supposed to call for help.
Anyway, a few minutes later, the co-manager came back and was mad that I hadn't cleaned it up yet. I told the co-manager that I called for a utility/courtesy clerk, because this was a large mess going across the store. The co-manager got mad, and said I was supposed to do it, then the co-manager left. So I took a broom, and only sweeped the area infront of the meat department, because seriously, this is WHY we have courtesy/utility clerks.
So, should I have immediately stopped what I was doing and cleaned the whole store up (That would probably take 20 to 30 minutes, due to the size of the spill, and the amount of customers who would ask me questions) while leaving my coworker alone on a busy day, and also not being able to clean our saw and grinder (HUGE health code violation), while also having the stock on the shelves run low, or was I right in calling for help?
It was getting close to the end of our shift, and I know if I didn't clean the saw/grinder/service cases out, we would both get written up/fired for the health code violations, and I was scheduled to leave at 9. I would be allowed to stay later, but I had no intentions of staying past the end of my shift.
Also, shouldn't the co-manager have radioed to get it cleaned up, or cleaned it up themselves? That co-manager WAS the first one to see the mess...
It is the job of utility to do that at our store.
However, if you can be helpful by grabbing a broom and sweeping up a bit, or maybe putting down those (ineffective) yellow cones, that is always nice.
You don't have to sweep up the entire mess. That's the utility job. But maybe make sure to get it started or at the very least fix it with the cones so customers can move around it until utility can come there and assess the situation.
I would ask your store manager or co-manager next time a huge mess is made and you're asked to clean it. You could say "the grinders need to be cleaned and disinfected, what would you like me to do? It's almost quitting time etc." Let the manager make the call. If he/she says clean the flour/sugar then do that. As long as you do what the manager says you cannot get into trouble,
On a side note: sugar and flour are a bitch to clean. What I use to do is take a mop and mop over it 2-3 times for a small trail. Make sure you have barricades first. Brooms NEVER get it all up.
once i was suppose to be on utility but after someone called out of drug gm they made me fill in that shift. so then customer service kept calling me up for utility. told them no, i'm only doing one job and the co-manager said drug gm so buh bye.
and one of the spills they asked me to clean up was one like yours, sugar everywhere in the store. the grocery manager cleaned it up with that big ass machine thing. took him literally 3 mins. if i was doing it would've taken me about 20 or so mins since i'm not trained on that thing.
If this incident happened 3 days ago, then I am 100% positive that *I* am the co-manager you are referring to!
If you have problems with my management style, then bring it up with me. At the beginning of your next shift, (which I can see is tomorrow), come upstairs into the office. We need to discuss your online behavior.
To everyone else: When I say something needs to get done, it NEEDS to get done. I don't care if one of my employees is working in a different department, they can work a little bit faster to make up for the time I am "taking away" from their work.
If this incident happened 3 days ago, then I am 100% positive that *I* am the co-manager you are referring to!
If you have problems with my management style, then bring it up with me. At the beginning of your next shift, (which I can see is tomorrow), come upstairs into the office. We need to discuss your online behavior.
To everyone else: When I say something needs to get done, it NEEDS to get done. I don't care if one of my employees is working in a different department, they can work a little bit faster to make up for the time I am "taking away" from their work.
Online behavior is none of your concern unless he/she is being slanderous of the company or doing something illegal. I don't care what a manager or co-manager says, if it's not part of my job description, I'm not doing it. Kroger doesn't pay me enough. I will also not work faster to make up for you screwing up my working schedule. The work just won't get done. F*ck you.
If this incident happened 3 days ago, then I am 100% positive that *I* am the co-manager you are referring to!
If you have problems with my management style, then bring it up with me. At the beginning of your next shift, (which I can see is tomorrow), come upstairs into the office. We need to discuss your online behavior.
To everyone else: When I say something needs to get done, it NEEDS to get done. I don't care if one of my employees is working in a different department, they can work a little bit faster to make up for the time I am "taking away" from their work.
First of all the OP did not mention you, your store or anyone by name. This is a site to come and whine about how people like you are making it difficult to do our jobs. Look at my store. I started out months ago being happy thinking I was making a difference with people, even a small one. But thanks to the completely insane management style and how Front End works I am now cynical and questioning my future with the company. All because of people like you.
The online remarks of the poster in this forum matter not a single bit to you. You can't prove who you think it is by the way. I love how Kroger hires people like you thinking you know it all but showcase very little.
"They can work a little bit faster to make up for the time" *******s like you are killing this company.
If this incident happened 3 days ago, then I am 100% positive that *I* am the co-manager you are referring to!
If you have problems with my management style, then bring it up with me. At the beginning of your next shift, (which I can see is tomorrow), come upstairs into the office. We need to discuss your online behavior.
To everyone else: When I say something needs to get done, it NEEDS to get done. I don't care if one of my employees is working in a different department, they can work a little bit faster to make up for the time I am "taking away" from their work.
Oh hey look a self righteous a-hole. Discuss his online behavior? You're on here too which means you either typed in Kroger sucks in google or else you're really paranoid about the way people think of you.
If something needed to be done, why didn't you get off your ass and help clean it up? Work a little bit faster? That's funny coming from one of you co's with your fancy little degree who never actually worked the retail aspect of it one day of your life. I'm assuming you're one of those fresh out of college business degree types.
If this incident happened 3 days ago, then I am 100% positive that *I* am the co-manager you are referring to!
If you have problems with my management style, then bring it up with me. At the beginning of your next shift, (which I can see is tomorrow), come upstairs into the office. We need to discuss your online behavior.
To everyone else: When I say something needs to get done, it NEEDS to get done. I don't care if one of my employees is working in a different department, they can work a little bit faster to make up for the time I am "taking away" from their work.
I'm NOT going to discuss ANYTHING with you. And have you write me up? **** WRITE UPS!! if we have utility clerks, use them!! And what I do online? NOT your concern!!!
We had poop trails as well. I got bitched at by my old manager one time because I had the nerve to have a lady clean up her own kid's crap.. Yeah. It's NOT my kid, and if I had no part in creating the child then why should I EVEN think about cleaning up after him/her. That's the PARENT(S) responsibility. NOT mine. Customer wasn't to happy I had her clean HER child's mess either.
We had poop trails as well. I got bitched at by my old manager one time because I had the nerve to have a lady clean up her own kid's crap.. Yeah. It's NOT my kid, and if I had no part in creating the child then why should I EVEN think about cleaning up after him/her. That's the PARENT(S) responsibility. NOT mine. Customer wasn't to happy I had her clean HER child's mess either.
lol, You are the employee that will be finding adult turds in the middle of an aisle.
A little kid is different. But, I agree, the parent should offer to help clean up the mess.
Ironically, I've had to clean adult turds. One guy took a crap, shook it out of his pant leg and onto the floor it went. It looked like a chocolate soft serve. We chased the guy out of the store and banned him from coming back. He was PISSED, but come on dude... On the floor? And he was close to the bathroom
SOMEHOW I GOT "DIRECTED" TO THIS SITE!!?? I AM AMAZED AT THE FORUM, WHICH GIVES WAY TO WHINY, OPINIONATED, LONE WOLF EMPLOYEES WHO COULDNT MAKE IT PAST CLERK STATUS (AND PROBABLY HAVE HAD A MULTITUDE OF JOBS) A VEHICLE TO BASH HIS SUPERVISOR WHO PAID HIS DUES TO GET WHERE HE IS. WORDS LIKE TEAM, INITIATIVE, FOLLOW DIRECTION, RESPECT ETC....NEVER ENTERED THIS "ANONYMOUSE'S" MINDSET! I HAVE DEALT WITH THIS TYPE OF NON-PERFORMING, INADEQUATE, EXCUSE DRIVEN UNACCEPTABLE EMPLOYEE MANY TIMES BEFORE. YOU CAN TRY AND COACH, TRAIN, MOTIVATE AND BE AS INCLUSIVE AS HELL!! BUT AT THE END OF THE DAY = YOU'RE STILL "PISSING IN THE WIND"!!! CAUSE THEY JUST DON'T GET IT = AND NEVER WILL!!! HE WILL FOREVER BE A COMPLAINOR THAT TRAVELS FROM JOB TO JOB AND RELATIONSHIPS AND NEVER SUCCEED IN LIFE..AND WE WILL ALL SUPPORT HIM..............
Also,
most of our jobs are low-paying, overworked and driven by a company that attempts to get the most amount of work out of the least amount of labor as possible.
As a courtesy clerk, I have two entrances to oversee for cart retrieval if I (or my fellow courtesy clerks) are the only one scheduled for that hour of time.
Yet, if we ignore the pharmacy side because the main entrance is the busier one, it's inevitable the pharmacy side empties of carts or is extremely low for the next person, making their job more difficult.
And why does this happen, because Kroger tells our Front End Supervisors to schedule a single courtesy clerk for the entire parking lot for the entire hour despite the fact that it is a two-person job----a fact acknowledged by the point that, usually after 2 or 3 p.m., the courtesy clerks are divided to have one on each side. This also happens because of scheduling...we literally don't have the manpower to put two courtesy clerks out where two are needed until early afternoon, on average.
So phuck you Tom, Kroger is about getting the most amount of work on the least amount of labor for the lowest amount legally possible to be paid.
Any company that does that is going to get employees that wonder why they should give a damn.
