Lately at our store our department leader has been leaving early and there is no assistant department leader at this point in time. No managers are still there this late. Wouldn't it be the person with most senority and experience?
Calm down. Our department used to close consistently with three new hires, myself included. The guy with the most seniority was only there for 2 months.
We got by without a lead with the magical strategy of doing our jobs correctly.
If your other guys are upset it's because you're bitching at them and using your seniority as a justification. What are they doing that you need to be in charge of them for?
All I said was it's time to pick up because there was only an hour before the end of our shift. The others had agreed to that earlier in the shift. The person refused and walked away, but said earlier to someone else they were going to walk out at the 8 hr mark whether it was cleaned up or not. They finally joined in, but if they want to leave on time. We have to work together and clean up on time. That's not me trying to be the boss, it's called common sense.
The above poster is right. The other guy is a moron if they think you are bossing them around.
Everyone should know what their responsibilities are and what they need to get done before their shift ends.
I am in charge overnight. I direct who does what in the grocery department. When other departments work overnight, they don't need me to tell them what to do. They know their jobs.
The main reason I am in charge is for emergencies only. Like if the building is on fire....(only happened once). At that point, I call co managers and store managers at home and let them be in charge.
there are multiple people keeping tabs on the store at all times. we have two managers and district managers that visit regularly. we also have an HR rep in the store almost every day. we have front end managers and department managers. the chain of command is really organized at my store. someone is always there to keep on top of things from complaints to keeping the team on track.
At our store one time there was NO management whatsoever. NOT EVEN an ASM. Our FEM was coming in MUCH later in the day. Sooooo what happened until they arrived, is that we took charge ourselves. we figured out the fe profile for the day on who did what and at what time. we worked together so there was very little arguements on who went where and how breaks and lunches were set. when our FE manager came in she took control of the reigns and all things considered, she said we did a fairly decent job. Even our manager was impressed with how we handled things. those who did "have issues" on how we handled things we took notes on and management took it up with said persons.
we have good workers and crappy workers. Luckily for us, that day, the good workers outnumbered the bad.
It does happen in a department when your manager and assistant manager are not there at the moment. If everybody else who is left working is pretty much on same level, and if someone is slacking, you can remind them of what he needs to do. But that's all. If he doesn't, your manager will know about that next day and he will deal with that.
It sucks when you have a slacker. Then others have to pick up his slack. Hopefully your manager will see this and make appropriate changes.
If you're in a service department like deli, and your manager and assistant manager are both off, then whoever has been there the longest and knows the most should be in charge. They aren't the "boss" but they should be able to control the situation and know what needs done, especially if your department head or assistant left notes for the night.
It really shouldn't be any different just because they are both off at the moment.
If you're the one in charge of your department and these new guys aren't listening, talk to your department head. I know at least in my store's deli, she wouldn't be putting up with that crap at all.
Order of senority at my store: Store manager, Co-manager's, grocery manager, front end manager, produce manager, drug/gm manager. One of those people should be in store at all times store is open for business. Head night stock clerk would be next in line if none of those people are in store.
