Any dept. heads here feel stuck, like you want to get out, but don't want to give up and/or can't because of the pay cut?
That's me now.
I don't *regret* going to the training to become a dept. head but nothing has gone right and it's not what i was hoping for and expecting. My own thoughts and doubt and anxiety are just beginning to eat at me and I don't know what to do. I've reached out for help from my coordinator and she seems willing to help me, but my store manager probably hates me at this point because i do nothing right in her eyes.
A part of me wants to just say f**k it and ask to go back to my old store but i can't because 1. i don't want to give up, and 2. i'd go back down to making a lot less money and i have added expenses i didn't have 6 months ago and would no longer be able to make ends meet on my old pay rate.
It's no wonder there were so many younger people in my training class, my age or even younger...they really question why there's so many dept heads around here stepping down? I guess I was just the one they tricked into being dumb enough to go into it.
Because as a dept head you are the scapegoat for anything that goes remotely wrong. Lazy/incompetent workers who still can't get it together after days on one on one training? Your fault. When you talk to management about getting rid of those employees to another dept and they're still there holding up progress 3 months later? Your fault. When everything doesnt look magazine ready despite you and a single other clerk being the only people there? Your fault too.
The best stores and departments have employees who have department head experience or potential. Unfortunately that is rare except in upscale stores.
I felt stuck in deli as one, because that's exactly what it is. Being a deli manager in Kroger is almost a death sentence. Deli DH has the highest turnover, they know this, so they try to keep the "good ones" exclusively deli. Not only that, deli gets some of the worst employees. There's a reason you almost never see store management helping deli, because it's that bad. You'll see them helping bakery, produce or front end, though. Luckily I got moved into produce management, which is WAY better. Better pay too. But just working as management in Kroger is bad. They offer little to help no help with labor, when they know you're struggling. A real solution is to find another DH job at a different retailer, with your experience now won't be difficult. It's what I did and I'm way happier for it.
I feel same way at times. Before I signed bid, I wondered why there were always bids being posted for Department heads. Wondering, "What happened to the previous one?"
I always got anxiety when I was in charge for a week at a time when the Department head was on vacation. It was a relief to have them to return.
I am going on 2 years as a department head. Everyday seems like a struggle but I don't want to step down.
Don't step down. Keep trying your best with what you are given to work with.
My store managers treat me very well. I think I give myself the stress. I set my expectations of my crew very high and expect more of them. I set very high standards.
Figure out your store managers' expectations and set your goal on reaching those expectations everyday. You would not be a department head if you didn't have what it takes to be one.
"I guess I was just the one they tricked into being dumb enough to go into it."
I hate to agree with this, you probably are a good worker, but I do believe Kroger wants the people who they can deceive.
is it possible to transfer to a different store that will pay you the same or more. Or can you wait your store manager out. will the SM move soon?
The only way i'll be able to transfer is if my coordinator wants me to go to another store. I don't really know if i want to switch stores anyway because i'll feel like i failed in the first one if i leave now...
I'll see how it goes tomorrow. But it's at the point where I dread every day i work because i know something will be my fault. Maybe i'm just complaining and need to work harder. Even though i already very rarely get in a break at all...
4hourrush, I feel you. I've been trying to get the Lead position in the Deli, as you well know. I'm starting to feel like I just want to say **** it! I'll stay a Deli clerk, but then I feel like if I say that I'm a failure. Everyday it seems to get worse. I'm supposed to show I can take the Lead position and do what the Lead does, but whenever I try to I keep getting told, by other Deli Clerks and the Food Safety Manager, I'm not the Lead yet. How can I show I can do it if I keep getting told that? Today I went into work and once again 4 employees working in the Deli, but only 1 person actually working, ME! One was on break, so they had an excuse, but the other 2 just stood back and watched me serve all the customers. I finally said "How am I suppose to be nice when I'm the only one working while everyone else is off doing nothing?" I can't be nice when I get stuck in that kind of predicament. One customer even said "Are you the only one working back there?" I said "No there are others, their just not helping."
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Get to your department, get off your phone, and do your job!
I'm a backup in deli/bakery and I have days where I just want to say screw it and step down. We are in the middle of a remodel that started a year and a half ago to turn our store into a marketplace. We were informed Wednesday that our bakery is being shut down for the next three months and we have to go bake at another store that is about 10 minutes down the road. I'm one of the bakers and they want us to bake 8pm-4 am at that store. We still have no info on how this is all supposed to work.
I have tons of questions and no answers. Not to mention that the schedule for the week this is supposed to start has already been written. Or that fact that we don't have enough people to have both a baker and a bagger for 8 hours each day. I also love the fact that we will be filling the floor from the main freezer, and that we will be decorating cakes from the deli. Just this alone makes me want to step down.
You're definitely a scapegoat. And management really doesn't want to help you out. HR is slow as hell and can't understand what you need then blames you when their new hires don't work out, don't get into the store, don't stay... it's b.s. Few managers understand front end so they want it to just work and run off to depts they can get their brains around because it's product getting onto shelves.
I don't know if I want to keep my front end. As long as I can keep up with the staffing needs and training people but that last a week or two. Management will move people from my dept and not even bother talking to me. P*sses me off! They'll also drop problem people into front end which is the worst. I have a backup who declares to everybody they runs things, not me, but doesn't do anothing but stand around, run their mouth and kiss up to management.
To the FEM (last response) that's exactly what's happening at my store.
Our HR lady hired some teen cashier that keeps calling off on Sundays (I think she NCNSed today). 2 years ago when I was interviewed by HR AND management at a different store, I was basically told that if I can't work Sundays I don't have the job.
We also got some crappy stocker moved to our FE permantly.
Ahhhh, I hope they are not expecting you to transfer what you baked to another store? The local health department might be interested in y'all transferring product in your cars - if I read your message right...
Anonymous wrote:
I'm a backup in deli/bakery and I have days where I just want to say screw it and step down. We are in the middle of a remodel that started a year and a half ago to turn our store into a marketplace. We were informed Wednesday that our bakery is being shut down for the next three months and we have to go bake at another store that is about 10 minutes down the road. I'm one of the bakers and they want us to bake 8pm-4 am at that store. We still have no info on how this is all supposed to work.
I have tons of questions and no answers. Not to mention that the schedule for the week this is supposed to start has already been written. Or that fact that we don't have enough people to have both a baker and a bagger for 8 hours each day. I also love the fact that we will be filling the floor from the main freezer, and that we will be decorating cakes from the deli. Just this alone makes me want to step down.
Ahhhh, I hope they are not expecting you to transfer what you baked to another store? The local health department might be interested in y'all transferring product in your cars - if I read your message right...
Another store came and baked at our store when their oven went out. They bagged and packaged everything at our store and transported it to their store.
Yeah as long as its bagged its no less safe than a customer taking it home in the bag... Only difference is the tag will have the wrong store numberbif they print labels.
I guess it depends on whether you're talking about percentages or raw numbers. If a department has two people and they have to replace one of them, the turnover rate is 50%. On the other hand, if a department has ten people and they have to replace three of them, the turnover rate is 30%.
Ahhhh, I hope they are not expecting you to transfer what you baked to another store? The local health department might be interested in y'all transferring product in your cars - if I read your message right...
Anonymous wrote:
I'm a backup in deli/bakery and I have days where I just want to say screw it and step down. We are in the middle of a remodel that started a year and a half ago to turn our store into a marketplace. We were informed Wednesday that our bakery is being shut down for the next three months and we have to go bake at another store that is about 10 minutes down the road. I'm one of the bakers and they want us to bake 8pm-4 am at that store. We still have no info on how this is all supposed to work.
I have tons of questions and no answers. Not to mention that the schedule for the week this is supposed to start has already been written. Or that fact that we don't have enough people to have both a baker and a bagger for 8 hours each day. I also love the fact that we will be filling the floor from the main freezer, and that we will be decorating cakes from the deli. Just this alone makes me want to step down.
From what was decided yesterday while I was there, we will be baking and bagging it at the other store and putting it in containers for Best delivery service to transport it back to our store.
Yeah as long as its bagged its no less safe than a customer taking it home in the bag... Only difference is the tag will have the wrong store numberbif they print labels.
I asked about that, they are wanting us to label it in their store. We will be only baking dough bread and Danish there. The par bake bread will stay in our store. We will just unthaw them, package and put out. I'm not happy with it, but it is what it is. The donuts are a whole other issue
I asked about that, they are wanting us to label it in their store. We will be only baking dough bread and Danish there. The par bake bread will stay in our store. We will just unthaw them, package and put out. I'm not happy with it, but it is what it is. The donuts are a whole other issue
There is no such word as "unthaw". Thaw means to melt or defrost. So unthaw would mean to freeze.
