I've been with this store for 7 years, and in the produce department for the last 5 years. Our most recent manager, who started earlier this year, is considered by many a prick. This manager has been writing everyone up in the department for minor mistakes. He has written me up about 10 times since he started, and upon the latest writeup I received, I was demoted to a bagger. The store manager told me I have to be a bagger for 6 months before I can be considered for another promotion. What should I do in this situation? My union rep told me everything that they are doing is justified, even the 6 month as a bagger thing.
That is crazy. I have never heard of such a thing. But, I have actually wished many of my coworkers would be demoted to CCs because they suck at their jobs and can't handle simple tasks.
What state do you work in?
What did you do wrong to get written up so many times?
Did you sign the write-ups?
Is the union rep friends with the store manager?
Are you part time or full time?
I can believe they can demote you to a CC. They can put you anywhere in the store they want.
I can NOT believe they can take away 7 years of pay increases. That would be a good gig to get. CC at $12 an hour.
I work in Nevada. All of my write-ups have been over "job performance." I feel like I've done a great job with what I've been doing, but I will admit that I missed a few things here and there. Everyone does. I signed all of these write-ups with no comment because I just felt so defeated and didn't know I had a choice to contest the write-ups.
I don't know much about my union rep, so I don't know if she and the store manager are friendly. At the time I was in produce I was part time.
When I first got promoted to produce, I was a cut fruit clerk. They discontinued that position about 3 years later moved me into a "salad wall" position, where I would maintain the salad wall and nothing else. The store manager told me she did not think I can do regular produce. I did that for the next two years until I got demoted.
I work in Nevada. All of my write-ups have been over "job performance." I feel like I've done a great job with what I've been doing, but I will admit that I missed a few things here and there. Everyone does. I signed all of these write-ups with no comment because I just felt so defeated and didn't know I had a choice to contest the write-ups.
I don't know much about my union rep, so I don't know if she and the store manager are friendly. At the time I was in produce I was part time.
When I first got promoted to produce, I was a cut fruit clerk. They discontinued that position about 3 years later moved me into a "salad wall" position, where I would maintain the salad wall and nothing else. The store manager told me she did not think I can do regular produce. I did that for the next two years until I got demoted.
Sounds like you got terrible and unfair managers. Unfortunately this is a Kroger nationwide phenomenon, uptight and dumb managers at all levels. I also work in Produce, but by maintaining the "salad wall", do you just mean running salads, dressings, and juices back stock all day? For how many hours were you doing this? Doing salads should not take very long, 2 hours at most if you are working off a new truck every morning. Then, if you decide to run back stock juices and dressings, that is another 2 hours at most. So, maintaining salads/dressings/juices is around 4-5 hours at most, that is if you are just filling stuff up. If you are also updating BOH and doing markdowns, that can add a little more time.
We used to have a "salad wall" person in our department too, she was great. It's not a bad duty to do as a part timer because you can come in every morning and work through all the new salads and dressings.
In my experience, there are a few reasons why people get transferred out of produce to another department completely or "internally demoted" to positions like salad wall, cut fruit clerk, etc.
They deliberately move slow, slouch around, have no sense of urgency.
They refuse to rotate fresh product on the sales floor.
They refuse to learn how to work the sales floor, green rack, rotating fresh produce, tables, etc. This goes hand in hand with being deliberately slow and lazy. Not mentally handicapped or anything, but just people who intentionally move slow to do the least amount of work. We have a few people in my department like this and they all do one job because they can't be relied on for anything else.
Your managers should have never moved you out without first lecturing you, teaching you, and then warning you. But I am curious by what you mean when you say you "messed a few things here and there." Produce is a hard department, you have to be fast and willing to learn, there is a huge learning curve and slackers are either lucky enough to never be transferred or they just get stuck to one position like salad wall for example and never expected to do anything else.
What I did was fill salads, dressings, mushrooms and juices. I was also doing markdowns and maintaining BOH. I was given 5-6 hours a day and would normally finish in the time given.
What I didn't explain in my previous posts, is while I was getting written up, I was being told how to do everything properly in a couple of those meetings. I realized what they were showing me was not much different from what I was already doing. I would still be working the same way I always do, but some days the produce manager would tell me I'm doing a poor job and sometimes he would say I'm doing much better. Some things I did get written up for are things I should not have been at fault for. I've been accused of not rotating product and not doing markdowns, and I do both. I've also been written up for failing to maintain the BOH before being shown how to do it.
What I mean by miss a few things here and there: on occasion the produce manager would walk down the wall making sure I got everything, and sometimes he would find a few items that I didn't markdown. This of course is not on purpose, but I won't make any excuses. I've asked to be given a chance to do "regular produce" on several occasions, but the store manager and the produce manager didn't allow it. Personally I think it would be easier, especially since I've experienced everything that a "regular produce" clerk does.
Sounds like they're trying to get rid of you. My situation was similar, without the write ups. I worked produce for a whole year, and because I called in "too early'for a Sunday shift,due to a family illness, I was told I was moving to the front end and my hours were being reduced to the minimum . This was done by a new store manager, whom I was warned was a goon sent in too clean up the store. Basically, he did not like that I took the side of another produce employee that he forced out, so he wanted to get rid of me. Anyway, I quit on the spot because it wasn't worth the hassle of fighting this guy like the produce employee before me did. He lasted a month and got written up and suspended for trivial things until he just got fed up and quit.
