Ah, sorry to hear that you came back to Kroger, but at least you have an end game in mind. I hope I can get there myself at some point get out too eventually.

As for ****test experiences I've had with my supervisors, there are actually a few common ones that often occur to me since I've been hired:

-DOUBLE TALKING!!! I swear I find this to be one of the biggest ****test things ever I get from my supervisors.  As it's like you try and explain something to a new person about how you were told to do something. And then they come around and is like no you have to do it X,Y, and Z way. When it's like dude, you did not tell even ME that approach to doing something when I was a new hire. So how in the world is it something else now? And why did you wait so long to pass on the information?!?! I mean I get Corporate can probably change things at the drop of a hat. But convey that to your dept. don't keep it to yourself, til the last minute and then make someone else look bad when they are trying to explain something the way THEY were taught it, to a new person(this is actually why I kind of cringe/worry about being a "trainer" for somebody new at some point. Cause I was barely given a day and a half of actual training myself. And who knows, what they will come up with next, that will make me look like a liar or something).

-Writing in notes about what the associates will be doing for the week or even changing the schedule in the dept. And not even talking to you about it at all! I swear if I hadn't been answering a customer call a few weeks ago, I wouldn't have found out I was closing Deli. Which you would think no big deal right? Wrong, I had only been over in the Deli freaking twice and it was to do one day of "cross-training" and another to fill in for someone that had called off. And neither times was a closing shift! So I had no clue as to what in the world I was going to do! Thankfully the back up manager finally told me that some night peeps were coming in. Cause the other folks I was working with earlier that day, or getting off left and right and center. And if that evening crew hadn't come in, I would have been so screwed. But yea, thanks again, managers for penciling me in for something I've never done before. Just to see how it turns out!

-Asking me to bring up the truck of supplies for the day. And at times when I go back there, it's NOT there. And they think I'm lying about it. I'm in the bakery, you can not miss our stuff. Trust me, if it's not on the jacked up pallets about to crush somebody it's back behind Frozen's stuff. Or just plainly has not come in yet. But no they totally act like I'm lying about it. I mean I'm no fan of doing truck everyday, but I know it has to be done. And not gaining anything by putting it off. So totally would prefer the benefit of the doubt sometimes, geeze.

-Asking how I'm doing for the day one second and then asking me to do like 20 different jobs at once. Because guess what? They did not think to schedule someone else for another two hours to come in and do something. And then, come back around and witch at me about why X,Y, and Z was not done. Dude, only one person! I multiply or make copies of myself like the X-men. So not sure how in the world they expect me to get that stuff done when I can't be everywhere at once.

-Asking me to create new displays of something. Giving no real direction of how they want it to look. Other than, swapping out what was already on an old one with the latest product to be sold. And once I gather up the new items and put them out as neatly and tastefully as I can. Come in the next day, to see that they had someone else totally re-arrange the whole thing and take things out or add other stuff. Prime example when I was told to take down a Angel Food cake display and replace it with a bunch of pumpkin stuff. So I was like cool, can grab some of the pumpkin spice doughnuts, pumpkin brownie tart things, pudding cakes and the like. And it would be all good. Well come back to find that they kept the doughnuts, a few of the pudding cakes and put out a bunch of pumpkin pies and something else I don't recall at the moment.  I was admittedly ticked off at first, then just let it go. Cause I figured I did the best I could do, without much direction in the first place. Not to mention the other person, having to re-arrange everything that I had already did, likely was in their feelings more about that, than I was about making the display in the first place.

-Asking me to do things I've never done before for customers! Prime example, we had a couple order two bagel party trays. Cool, the bagels were already done and I just slid them the containers for them. Well the husband ask about the cream cheese that comes with it. And I have no clue what he is talking about(as I couldn't find one of the party tray booklets we typically have on the counters for people to look at. As they were either misplaced or all gone at that point), so I'm going around asking fellow associates whats up with the cream cheese. And one told me that there is one tray that comes with it and one that doesn't. And at first she had said the one the couple had ordered didn't have one. And then we FINALLY found a booklet down in Deli. And she realized it was one with cream cheese. And was like yea it comes with it and walked off. So still being one not having much experience with making party trays(as we never really did them at the old store when I was hired on, from what I saw anyway), I go and ask my DH(Dept. Head) if Deli keeps some of the cream cheese back in their area and if they had the little black bowls it is supposed to go in too. To which he said nope(which I knew I should have likely asked an actual Deli associate), just go down to dairy and grab some cream cheese for em. Which I did(mind you, since we have moved into the Market Place style store, it's not just a hop and a skip to get down to anywhere, it takes about 10 to 15 mins at the least, if you aren't tired. So still not a hop and a skip right next door, but all the way down half one side of the store almost), and when I gave it to them. They were like, well the cream cheese was supposed to be free(I put a make it right sticker on there as I don't know how to do the whole dept. to dept. thing yet). And mind you I grabbed a pretty large tub of it(didn't know which kind to give them cause even the booklet didn't say what kind, so thankfully I opted for plain). And then the couple is like we want two. So had to go back down grab another one, and then have someone scan them out for me. Cause my EUID info still isn't working. When in reality, since we are doing more and more party trays, one would think we could keep stuff like the cream cheese and so forth ALREADY in the coolers in either bakery or Deli to save associates time in finding stuff like that in the first place!

-Getting in requested products a day or two after I've just told a customer we no longer get something. Prime example, we used to sell these private selection 2 slice cheesecakes and folks loved them at our old store. Got to the new one, only cheesecakes we had were the party sized ones, and plain cheesecake on a stick dipped in chocolate, and miniature caramel pecan and peanut butter ones in our pastry chef's case. Well up until I would say about a week ago, I'd been telling customers we no longer sold the PS cheesecakes as my DH told me that item was scratched for us. But low and behold, look what is sitting in the freezer case next to the pumpkin rolls when I come in for my next shift. So I look like a total liar about us not selling something. When again, all he had to do is say, hey let me see if I can look into finding another way or something to get that item. But nope, it's just one big ol' flat no we don't have it. Only for it to appear like "magic".

-Scheduling me only for 2 or 3 actual days of my own hours. And leaving my schedule wide open, so they can use me as a back up person to call in when others call off. I wouldn't mind this if it got me closer to full time. But any time you mention full-time to the managers at my store. They are like yea we have such an uneven number of FT to PT associates right now. But yet and still they keep playing games with actual peeps that want the FT hours. As I think it is ridiculous that I'm down to 15 to 24 of my own regular hours at times. But gain more time by filling in for someone else. I swear if I knew they had a position to just be a back up person, I'd take it. As being there for your own hours half the time just is not going to happen.

-And my personal fave the supervisors that don't remember my name! And worse yet, refuse to even ASK me how to pronounce it. Would rather just say "Hey THERE!" Along with the good mornings to everybody. Like seriously? Am I not a person?! It even annoys some of my associates half the time too. As they are like, "your name isn't that hard to say". But to some people it is I guess. Or worse yet, two other times when the dude got my name right. The first time he had to ask someone else what it was(which I had thought he finally got around to remembering it on his own but nope) and second time he kept calling another black chick by my name. We don't even look alike, and aren't even the same age!

Yep, we are in the union. But unless it's something really serious, I don't think I've seen or heard of them doing very much.

Anonymous wrote:

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useally in a union it is hard to start out as a lead

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 Ehh I didn't start out as a lead, per se. I worked for Frito Lay and the Frito schedule wasn't going to work with my school schedule. This Smith's (Kroger store in Western US) was on my route for Frito, so management knew me already and  they had seen me working. When they heard I was quitting Frito, they asked what kind of experience I had, which comes out to about 5 years of grocery experience, and they asked if I wanted to come supervise the freight crew because everyone on it was brand new (most seniority was a couple months). I said sure, and I put in an application. They hired me on as a journeyman freight guy ($14.51) and then a couple of days after hiring on, I had to apply for the Freight Lead spot internally and they gave it to me. That was how it truly worked out; they knew they wanted me to be the lead so we just hurried through the process. Anyway, that bumped me up from $14.51 to $16.01, plus that 25 cent night differential, which puts me at $16.26. Not bad for a 21 year old bachelor. I'm sick of the split nights off already though. Tough to do anything when you work graveyards and they split your days off.

I have another opportunity to go work in a Sun Corporation factory. The pay is less, but the time off is amazing: first week, you work 3 12-hour shifts, so you get 36 hours for that week and 4 DAYS OFF IN A ROW. The next week, you work 4 12-hour shifts and get 3 days off in a row. that's 36 hours every first week, 48 every second week, 4 hours of guaranteed overtime. Pay cycle is every 2 weeks. The time off would give me so much free time for school and my music stuff... But I think the pay is down around $13. That overitme might make up for it, and on the phone, the HR lady told me that they are more than happy allowing people to work their days off, overtime is apparently never an issue. 

What do you guys think? What would you do?