Our deli/bakery is awful. Does anyone else have these problems?
-our dishwasher doesn't use soap and hasn't for over a year. The alarm on it goes off every time you turn it on. I actually didn't know it wasn't supposed to sound like that until a new guy told me and a few others about it. It's been like that for a while.
-high turnover rate, everyone here hates working here, morale is incredibly low.
-Management rolls over for customers all the time. Like just this week we had a woman come in who wanted us to slice a cabbage for her...We told her we don't do that so she swears that we cut it for her every week (we never have). She goes up to customer service, who calls a manager, who calls another store manager, who makes us slice up this woman's cabbage. Now she's gonna come back again and have us slice up her cabbage.
-no one actually takes temp logs. I've been here for 7 months and all they've done is copy or make up that days temp log.
-our manager and assistant manager steal A LOT. The assistant manager will go around the store with a cart and grab everything she wants, then come back to the deli, bag it up and leave. The manager mostly works in the bakery and when she gets what she wants she just puts it in a box or frosting tub and go.
-one of the cooks told me that when he first started he was trying to check the temperature of the chicken with a thermometer. The assistant manager came up and said "What are you doing?! That's too much!" Puts her hand on it. "It's cold, see!"
-A cook and assistant manager were cooking a chicken tender order. The assistant dropped a tender and was gonna throw it away. The manager says no, takes it from her, puts it back into the fryer, then takes it out and into the order.
Your DISHMACHINE hasn't used soap for a year???? Something is VERY WRONG HERE!! Doesn't the deli manager know which type of detergent is needed, and just order it???? Isn't your dishmachine a type requiring the ECOLAB company's liquid concentrated institutional-type detergent which I believe is commonly used by many, if not most, Krogers?
Our deli/bakery is awful. Does anyone else have these problems?
-our dishwasher doesn't use soap and hasn't for over a year. The alarm on it goes off every time you turn it on. I actually didn't know it wasn't supposed to sound like that until a new guy told me and a few others about it. It's been like that for a while.
-high turnover rate, everyone here hates working here, morale is incredibly low.
-Management rolls over for customers all the time. Like just this week we had a woman come in who wanted us to slice a cabbage for her...We told her we don't do that so she swears that we cut it for her every week (we never have). She goes up to customer service, who calls a manager, who calls another store manager, who makes us slice up this woman's cabbage. Now she's gonna come back again and have us slice up her cabbage.
-no one actually takes temp logs. I've been here for 7 months and all they've done is copy or make up that days temp log.
-our manager and assistant manager steal A LOT. The assistant manager will go around the store with a cart and grab everything she wants, then come back to the deli, bag it up and leave. The manager mostly works in the bakery and when she gets what she wants she just puts it in a box or frosting tub and go.
-one of the cooks told me that when he first started he was trying to check the temperature of the chicken with a thermometer. The assistant manager came up and said "What are you doing?! That's too much!" Puts her hand on it. "It's cold, see!"
-A cook and assistant manager were cooking a chicken tender order. The assistant dropped a tender and was gonna throw it away. The manager says no, takes it from her, puts it back into the fryer, then takes it out and into the order.
I just have to say... I'm surprised everyone has different jobs in your deli (I'm assuming this from how it is worded). I've worked at two Krogers in the Deli department and everyone does everything. You do whatever needs to be done. Dishes need done, you wash dishes. Need to drop a bag of fried then you do go do that. Customer needs meat or something from salad case then you do that. There is no official cook. Just a manager and maybe assistant manager if it's a bigger store.
At the big Kroger I worked at Bakery and Deli were completely separate (separate spaces). Separate mangers and assistant managers. At the smaller one there is only a separate Bakery and Deli manager. No assistant mangers. But we are still separated even though we share space with each other (so you either work as a deli employee or bakery employee). Although Bakery is usually behind so I usually help them out when I'm done doing what I need to do.
Also, OP said dishwasher and I thought maybe they meant a dish washer as in a person who isn't washing the dishes with soap. But if they have an actual machine dishwasher then I'm so jealous! The small Kroger I work at know isn't bad with dishes but at the bigger one there would be so many pans that we had to wash by hand. I always said they need an actual dishwasher if only for the pans alone. Doing dishes at that big one was a hour to two hour job!
But yeah, management rolls over for customers all the time with the whole "make it right" crap. At the bigger store management was actually better about not letting customers get away with too many stupid things but it still happened (like a person bringing back a 8pc friend chicken with a leg left and saying it didn't taste right so they get a full refund). At the small store with certain store managers we are expected to do everything for the customer even when they treat us like **** (and even go so far as to knock stuff out of our hand, that person got free food -.-).
But now we have this "Awesome" new rule about using the slicer gloves (the ones you use to clean the slicer so you don't cut yourself on it) to also slice meat and not just wash the slicer. Then, to clean these gloves we have to hand wash them with the dish soap and sanitizer at night and hang them up to dry for the morning. That sounds sanitary! There should be a system but everyone in my department just does whatever with the gloves; because if we are caught not using them when slicing meat or cleaning the slicer then we can be written up.
But yeah at the bigger Kroger I worked at turnover was super high. I was hired in with three other people and after about 6 months I was the only one left and we had about 8 other people come and go before we finally got two to stay. It's ridiculous.
What's sad is that management would send us all the people who were too slow or not working from up front ( the cashiers or courtesy clerks) as if they would last a week in the deli. They didn't. They didn't last at all. I think they would send us them to make them quit and it worked.
The small one I work at now is a lot better. Rarely anyone quits but it still has it's problems, especially with the new store management we have..
I wouldn't say that ours is big. The old manager quit before I got there, so one of the bakery ladies is our manager. And actually the bakery and deli are combined, but only one woman works in both. When I first got there they had all the main people who had been there for at least 5 months and me, 2 other girls who had been there a month. I mostly just slice meat and make sandwiches, I've never cooked anything, and I only do dishes when our cleaner isn't there. At first we had enough people that everyone had something specific to do, so for a long time I never had to clean or make sandwhiches. Eventually, people quit and everyone left.
At one point we had 4 cooks but now it's down to one. She mostly doesn't even cook anymore because she got into an argument with the manager and was moved to making subs, wraps, and salads. So now the assistant manager cooks and does 5 things at once. Like every time I ask her to show me how to do something she says no, or takes it from me. It's very frustrating. I wanted to do well because it's my first job, but they make it so difficult
Your DISHMACHINE hasn't used soap for a year???? Something is VERY WRONG HERE!! Doesn't the deli manager know which type of detergent is needed, and just order it???? Isn't your dishmachine a type requiring the ECOLAB company's liquid concentrated institutional-type detergent which I believe is commonly used by many, if not most, Krogers?
Agreed here. Their Ecolab rep should be on top of that.
That being said, the OP's department doesn't sound too different from mine, except for the unethical managers. Our mgt staff is actually pretty decent.
As far as turnover and low morale, it's because it (deli) is a sh#t job. I explained this to our backup deli manager. Who in their right mind would want to do this job for 7.45 an hour? My only excuse is that I was going to school when I was still a newbie, and Kroger worked with my class schedule. I've since moved, had to drop out of school, and changed stores... I get paid better now, and I get a pretty plum schedule and job duties compared to newbies... but really, almost anyone can go to a multitude of other places and get paid a lot better for related service industry jobs.
-- Edited by Turd Ferguson on Saturday 4th of June 2016 07:16:03 AM
