So I work for King Soopers, a Kroger subsidiary in Colorado, and our contract with the union is almost up so the company has really been stretching us thin.
I'm technically just a checker/cashier but my store has me doing CC work, and maintenance around the store due to how few workers we actually have.
Yesterday, my service manager and my head clerk manager were nowhere to be seen late at night for an extended period of time. I had to keep Que-Vision up, get people their breaks, and deal with unruly customers for the more inexperienced checkers. Before I took over, most people were getting their breaks almost an hour late because the managers were not paying attention to the schedule. Heck, my lunch was two hours late due to the incompetence.
When the head clerk did come back, I had to refund a woman's items she got from another cashier because she didn't want them and couldn't take them with her on the bus, split the refund to her EBT card and refunded $52.00 cash that she paid, and then we ended up giving her the perishable items for FREE almost $60.00 worth of food just because she caused a fuss and was there for almost two hours. Before I went through with it, I made sure that the head clerk knew about the lady and he was the one who watched and okayed the refund. He even made the suggestion to give the items for free. I wasn't going to do it by myself no way, sounded ridiculous to me.
On one hand, I had no problem with giving the food away but seeing as this is a business, upper management always HAS to hold someone responsible no matter how minor the grievance so I can probably expect to hear from the store manager today.
My store has a ton of people leaving it seems, quitting, getting fired, not showing up, all at once so things seem really dire right now.
My store is crazy and I'm sure a lot of you experience this as well. No one wants to work anymore.
Most of my store's head clerks are quite apathetic and stand around talking with each other or the cashiers whom they are buddies with. There is really only one head clerk whom has been exemplary and works hard, she is awesome. My Store manager doesn't know how to do anything other than sack groceries when it is busy and tell others what to do. She doesn't even know how to check yet will get on us if the checkstands are not opened in the "required" Kroger sequence.
How are things going at your store? Can you relate?
I'm a Dairy Clerk at my store, however I can definitely relate to your situation in the case of apathetic higher-uppers.
First off, my store's probably one of the smaller Kroger locations in my part of the country so, due to that, we're a bit short-handed. To make up for this, rather than trying to figure out a more smarter way to schedule the cashiers & baggers (or just hire more - there are plenty of high schoolers in the area), my store management figures that it'd be a far better idea to constantly pull those who work in the back/warehouse away from their own work & call them up front to open up additional registers or help bag peoples' groceries (because Customers are oh-so-wonderful beings who need not do any arduous work like bagging their own groceries) - funny because they later question why certain tasks haven't been done or why certain juices aren't on the shelves, yet can't seem to come to the conclusion that maybe it's because the dairy clerk has been up front bagging groceries for the past hour. In addition to that, it doesn't help with my location being dead-center in one of the most pretentious neighborhoods of the city, so we get it all: From the "You're not doing your job" to the "I'm going to shop at Wal-Mart from now on", & even the occasional "This store & its employees are WORTHLESS!" - don't worry, though, the Customer is ALWAYS right .
My store manager is only a few years older than me (I'm 21), but he seems to be under the impression that his position grants him more job knowledge & life experience than those below him, including our Receiver - wonderful woman who has been working w/ the company longer than he's been alive. It's unfortunate that he seems to be trying to establish his status as the Dominant One of the store through dumb rules that he creates & constantly bugging employees (we have a Nutrition Clerk - poor kid hasn't even made it past his probationary period - and he's already considering quitting because he gets called up front so often that he can never get ANYTHING done, & is later met with the store manager asking him, "Why do you work so slow?" ). Of course, if he's not doing that, he's calling me from breaking down my Dairy or milk truck & asking me to make a display (really?) over in Produce or sweep up some corner of the store. I actually have to HIDE from him every single day that I come in. It's a shame because I at least figured that he'd give me credit where it's due, but even THAT was too difficult for him, as I so obviously noticed when one of corporate fat-cats came in to check out the Dairy cooler & commented, "You've got it looking really nice in here, good job!" - I turned around thinking he's talking to me or my dept. manager, but he's actually talking to my store manager (the guy who never comes into the cooler except when he's wondering why I didn't go help up front when he called me).
The way I see it, life's full of dealing w/ people like that. Just push on, keep on keepin' on, & know in your mind that you're better than what customers & coworkers may paint you as.
I'm a Dairy Clerk at my store, however I can definitely relate to your situation in the case of apathetic higher-uppers.
First off, my store's probably one of the smaller Kroger locations in my part of the country so, due to that, we're a bit short-handed. To make up for this, rather than trying to figure out a more smarter way to schedule the cashiers & baggers (or just hire more - there are plenty of high schoolers in the area), my store management figures that it'd be a far better idea to constantly pull those who work in the back/warehouse away from their own work & call them up front to open up additional registers or help bag peoples' groceries (because Customers are oh-so-wonderful beings who need not do any arduous work like bagging their own groceries) - funny because they later question why certain tasks haven't been done or why certain juices aren't on the shelves, yet can't seem to come to the conclusion that maybe it's because the dairy clerk has been up front bagging groceries for the past hour. In addition to that, it doesn't help with my location being dead-center in one of the most pretentious neighborhoods of the city, so we get it all: From the "You're not doing your job" to the "I'm going to shop at Wal-Mart from now on", & even the occasional "This store & its employees are WORTHLESS!" - don't worry, though, the Customer is ALWAYS right .
My store manager is only a few years older than me (I'm 21), but he seems to be under the impression that his position grants him more job knowledge & life experience than those below him, including our Receiver - wonderful woman who has been working w/ the company longer than he's been alive. It's unfortunate that he seems to be trying to establish his status as the Dominant One of the store through dumb rules that he creates & constantly bugging employees (we have a Nutrition Clerk - poor kid hasn't even made it past his probationary period - and he's already considering quitting because he gets called up front so often that he can never get ANYTHING done, & is later met with the store manager asking him, "Why do you work so slow?" ). Of course, if he's not doing that, he's calling me from breaking down my Dairy or milk truck & asking me to make a display (really?) over in Produce or sweep up some corner of the store. I actually have to HIDE from him every single day that I come in. It's a shame because I at least figured that he'd give me credit where it's due, but even THAT was too difficult for him, as I so obviously noticed when one of corporate fat-cats came in to check out the Dairy cooler & commented, "You've got it looking really nice in here, good job!" - I turned around thinking he's talking to me or my dept. manager, but he's actually talking to my store manager (the guy who never comes into the cooler except when he's wondering why I didn't go help up front when he called me).
The way I see it, life's full of dealing w/ people like that. Just push on, keep on keepin' on, & know in your mind that you're better than what customers & coworkers may paint you as.
This is exactly why I stopped caring what my management says. Upper management will always say that it's the managers doing no matter if it's good or bad and will never acknowledge the work of a normal employee.
We're just trash in their eyes.
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Would you like fries with th... I mean, your milk in a bag?
I work in my stores natural foods department and I have the same issue. Front end never has enough cashiers so they call me up constantly. Honestly, I'm at the point where I just ignore the pages until I hear a manager specifically call for me. I work more 4 or 5 hour shifts and there's no way I can get everything done if I'm spending all my time up front. Luckily my department head is understanding but it's still ridiculous.
And then there's the meat department. They can't seem to keep anyone there. Most new people quit within the first month. I've told management that I could work in the Meat department during weeks when my hours are **** and I got about 8 hours worth of training there before management hired more new people (who have all since quit).
I work in my stores natural foods department and I have the same issue. Front end never has enough cashiers so they call me up constantly. Honestly, I'm at the point where I just ignore the pages until I hear a manager specifically call for me. I work more 4 or 5 hour shifts and there's no way I can get everything done if I'm spending all my time up front. Luckily my department head is understanding but it's still ridiculous.
And then there's the meat department. They can't seem to keep anyone there. Most new people quit within the first month. I've told management that I could work in the Meat department during weeks when my hours are **** and I got about 8 hours worth of training there before management hired more new people (who have all since quit).
You aren't the only one who is too busy to go up front and help out. It's not fair to piss of the customers and the cashiers up front just because you think you are too busy to help. EVERYONE is overworked at Kroger so just pitch in and do your part. That means you have to go up front and help just like everybody else.
It's also not fair to the employees OR customers that Kroger understaffs their stores. When they call someone from Dairy, for example, to help up front, customers are without items on the shelf to buy because no one's stocking them. The almighty "needs of the business" that Kroger prances around with are never appropriately staffed to be met.
It's also not fair to the employees OR customers that Kroger understaffs [its] stores. When they call someone from Dairy, for example, to help up front, customers are without items on the shelf to buy because no one's stocking them. The almighty "needs of the business" that Kroger prances around with are never appropriately staffed to be met.
As a grocery manager I told the front end manager to get her crap together and stop paging my damned employees or I'd start ripping cashiers and baggers off the front end to stock my dairy,frozen and dry goods. My employees don't get paged anymore and I thankfully have an intelligent store director that doesn't give two donkey d!cKS about que vision. What good does checking out a customer do if they can't find half of their shopping list because the store is empty? :D
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