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Post Info TOPIC: Just letting off some steam
Anon E Moose

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Just letting off some steam
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I'm sure everyone has had their fair share of times when they felt that they need to relieve some steam or be forced to deteriorate, both physically and mentally, over it. So here I am to relieve some of the pressure without having to balls up to do it to someone who could change things.

 

I've been working at a relatively small Kroger store for the past eight months (A short time, I know) and have realized that this job is absolutely stealing away every bit of resolution and determination I had before I started. For the first month it was fine, I was learning how to do my job, enjoyed doing so, and was even finally getting on good grounds with my co-workers. However, the fecal matter seemed to hit the fan the moment I had my one month evalutation. Everything went well, getting satisfactory marks for everything until I was asked two questions. These were 'Do you believe that you are a team player' and 'What do you think is your biggest weakness here.' Or near enough. (I was never good at quoting verbatim.)

 

At the time I believed I should answer honestly and without hesitation. For the first question about being a team player I answered in a way that I think threw off the conducter. I told her that I couldn't answer without being heavily biased towards my own side and would find a better answer to her question by asking the people who I'm supposed to be part of a team with. My co-workers. After a moment of silence she told me she was putting me at unsatisfactory when it came to teamwork. I can understand her being disgruntled by a question that could've been been answered with a simple yes or no answer but seeing as how I was attempting to convey that the question was impossible to answer honestly from a non-biased view it seemed that the wrong approach was taken. This honestly didn't bother me as much as how the second question went.

 

The second question. Oh god that second question. I don't know why something so small irks me so badly but never-the-less it instantly made me boil. When I was asked what my biggest fault would be I answered sincerely. I told her that my bagging speed was not on par as to what I originally thought would it be at. I was instantly told that being at Kroger for a month should've given me time to be adept at bagging. Mind you, I never said that I believed I was slow at bagging nor did I imply that I didn't understand the concept of bagging groceries. (Such a thing shouldn't even be considered.) I simply told her that I didn't believe I was bagging as fast as I thought I would be and saw that as my biggest flaw currently. I was immediately put down as unsatisfactory. I should've seen it coming. That question was geared to turn whatever the person said against them. But even if I had said I'm perfect in any and all aspects and situations presented to me that would be a character flaw as well since perfection exists to be imperfect in ways that prevents the ability to learn from mistakes and thus improve. Perfection would mean one is only mediocre and will never become better. After the evaluation I was told I would receive another at the three month mark.

 

Over the next two months after the first evaluation I decided to hone my skills as a courtesy clerk. I wouldn't be deemed unsatisfactory in such a manner. Because of that incident I ended up bagging far faster than anyone else in the store without losing much accuracy even when I have to tear through a mountain of piled up groceries when a lane is being ignored by the current courtesy clerks. As the third month approached I began to look forward to my evaluation as I believed that I was ready to prove to the woman that I was far beyond what would be deemed as satisfactory to my previous flaw that was used against me.

 

The third month mark came and went without the evaluation. Curious, I asked her what had happened. An easy to make mistake by over looking something? No. She claimed to have never 'heard back' from the 'people' that the evaluation was sent to. When I pursued it for purposes unknown to me at the time, and even now, I would be given the same answer and eventually told me to stop asking. In the end I respectfully complied and continued to do my job. Around that time, the store I work for hired on several new courtesy clerks. To the point where hours were cut for everyone down to only sixteen a week.  I was thinking that this would be a good opportunity to make good work relationships with the new co-workers. Everything went as expected. However it didn't last long. Within a single month everyone new that been hired on (Mostly teenagers) they were all moved to several different departments a few being made checkers. Curious as to why I was left out of this sudden explosion of massive movement I asked.

 

This of course heralds the arrival of month four. The answer to my question was at best was around the bush. Perhaps I didn't show enough drive or ambition for them to consider me for training in different departments or simply were waiting for a better time. After the mass movement I found myself back in the same position, working with the same courtesy clerks who had been there anywhere from one to ten years. I honestly couldn't complain, I still enjoyed working there.

 

Month five and six passed without too much incident although I had started to lose my enthusiasm about working. From going to work every day with a full of resolution drive to do my job I started to become less and less interested in the daily tasks. While I would still do my job to its full detail and always tried to never let my lack of interest show I found myself caring less and less for the company. At times I thought about quitting and going after something else with more appeal but those thoughts were often shrugged off. I've never been the type to do things in a half arsed manner and any job at the time was a god send.

 

Month seven marked the rapture itself of my confidence and ability to keep the smile on my face and the teeth to my tongue. The management, who I was rather fond of, changed. The new manager is green. Even with me not having much life experience it was easy to tell. (Although he made it blatantly obvious by what he said to us.) However, he was not my level of hell that I had to contend with. In most aspects he was like the last manager and I get along with him well enough for the type of work relationship that's required between us. It is the co-manager who has my name written onto his forehead and apparently many of my co-workers' names. I laid under his radar for about a week or so but the inevitable eventually happened. Our Kroger store isn't the most well maintained one when it comes to the outside techno doo-dads such as the buzzer to herald the arrival of people at the back door. One night while doing my nightly trash duties I pushed the buzzer. Unknowingly I had set in motion one of the most painful events at Kroger that I've had. The buzzer stucked and the front end was ravaged by the sound of that painful sound for a full two minutes. All the while me sitting outside in the pouring rain with the same goofy grin I wear not even knowing what happened. Eventually they finally let me in. I should've known something was wrong the moment I saw one of the floor supervisor's look. Seeing him walk outside and inspect the button should've hinted what had happened but I was a bit more concerned about finishing the trash detail. Dumping my current load I went to the break room to purge it of the filth it had attained I was suddenly cornered by the co-manager. A short man. I suppose it'd be funny if someone walked in not knowing of the circumstances to see such a short guy cornering a relatively heavy set person who would look more suited for sumo combat. But I'll detail that in the next section since I think this one has grown too large.

 

The co-manager didn't ask me, didn't pull me aside privately, didn't so much as hint as what had happened. Infront of a few co-workers he suddenly assaulted me with accusations of purposely holding the buzzer down while I was outside, and with a relatively loud tone of voice too. (Yelling, I suppose although not quite.) I guess this didn't quite strike me as right for anyone to do. I was never the type to take such actions lightly when targetted at me. So , naturally, I responded to his tone of voice with an equally powerful one, telling him to address me with more respect than he currently was or I wouldn't listen to him. His title may be different than mine and his end of the year figure is higher than mine but I refuse to let that fact qualify any man or woman lead to any belief that they are superior to me as a human. I had to explain it to him like I would a child that I had not pressed the buzzer that long and if he had any sense to him he would realize the buzzer was still going off despite the fact that I was already in the break room. The rest of the incident is mostly a blurr in my memory but in the end I suppose I made him out to be a fool infront of people that he wanted to show his muscle too. Since then it seemed that he has slacked off of my other co-workers only to amplify the pressure upon my shoulders. In ways I'm glad that I was able to derail him that badly for the others but in return I find myself growing more and more irritated at his holier-than-thou attitude that I find myself hard to keep my mouth shut.

 

Since then, other than having to deal with the co-manager, I have had a fairly normal experience with my daily work with Kroger although my schedule took a massive turn and I now seem to work more evening shifts than anything else. Perhaps it's because the store would rather not have me constantly ruffling the co-manager's feathers constantly during the day. I have no clue.

 

I know this is a pretty big wall of text and most people won't bother with it, but it's helped me by simply talking about my experience with Kroger. Perhaps I try to look too much into every situation that pops up before me, perhaps it's me who has their feathers ruffled too easily, or perhaps I'm just a big cry baby that found a connection to the internet. Either way, I don't really care although I'd love to hear back to this. Whether it's taunting insults or just idle comments. Hell, maybe it'll be all spam. It'll be interesting at least.

 

Ciaossu~ n_n

 

-Anon E Moose



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**WOW**.......Ummmm, let's start with your answer to the First Question, re team playing. I think you seriously pooped in your boots with your answer----colorful as it was! Tho it probably amounted to the first shovelful of dirt you dug for your own hole.

Moving along..............Well, it's clear you're intelligent and have a clear, concise way to express yourself in writing. That said, if your living day-to-day experiences at Kroger in any way reflect the ways and means of which you wrote of them, man, you must be a real character to work with LOL!! I say that in all kindness; I was laughing myself silly reading most of your post.

My personal request is that you tell us more about what goes on for you there, for the time remaining you may have.....HMMMM.....On the other hand, you may end up describing your Store Management tales, as I've seen your kind (no bullsht) promoted beyond ALL BELIEF~~~~

Salamat, Pinoy~

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Hello there Mrs Moose & welcome to the kroger employee forum!

I for one took the time to read in length your diatribe on your particular kroger store.  in doing so it seemed to me that you are relating a typical work situation that any person who punches the time clock runs into at some time.  ITS WORK and IT SUCKS! 

maybe tonight after i get back from my day at hell I will post one of the crazy stories I had to deal with during my time with this silly company.

hang in there!  and please come back and be part of our forum.  you'll have fun



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Oh, boy. I like you Mr Moose. I really do. You're a man after my own heart and I believe you're an honest and hard working employee.

Don't let your lack of enjoyment get you down... it's a job.
As for you being put on night detail.... look at the people below you on seniority... are they getting all the earlier shifts? TAKE THEIR SCHEDULE! You can do that.
Manager got you down? Fine ignore them and just do the best damn job you can do!.
You have two great weapons in your fight against workplace injustice. Harassment and Grievances.

If your manager hassles you tell them that you're not afraid to file a grievance. Even though you said that the buzzer was stuck he continued to humiliate you? I'd, honestly, have told him to stop harassing me when it was obvious that he was wrong. But, to each his own.

About your interviews.... Don't let something like that get you paronoid. Those evaluations mean nothing and you were honest to the giver. Their BS means nothing in the log run. I believe it's just a case of you putting pieces where there isn't even a puzzle. :P

I have had several run-ins with my stores co-manager on grounds of being "rude in front of customers". I'm a man that uses great sarcasm daily and things I say tend to come out as such even when I might not mean them to. Management knew this when they hired me and now that it happens they don't have the right, in my mind, to argue me about it. Anyway, I digress. Stick to your values. Work your best, ignore the idiots, and get things done.

Wanna know something strange... I, too, started about the same time you did. Somehow i've managed to stay happy.... probably because I avoid my "upper management" by sticking to nightshift.

Welcome to our little space on the internet. Hope you...((puts on his best Deckard Cain voice)) stay a while (and listen). ((/DeckardCain))



-- Edited by BagBoy on Friday 24th of June 2011 07:17:14 AM

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Anon E. Moose

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I really wasn't expecting so many replies in such a short time but I'm happy none-the-less. I'll try to answer each post in order.

 

@Nocturnia

 

I do admit that it would've been best handled with a yes or no answer, but seeing as how I was after to give the most honest answer I found myself unable to resort to doing that. Even if it means that I'm the one who will dig my own grave. It was a calculated risk that I lost. To answer the next bit of your post, I typically fill in the position of keeping moral up around the front end when everyone is having a bad day. So in ways, yes, I'm quite the character to work with. It's hard for me to let a day go by without a few corny jokes and an attempt to keep everyone in good spirits. I don't like it when people I work with have bad days because that just ends up rubbing off on me. As far as personal experiences go, however, I mostly described how everything has went since I've been there, besides a few other incidents that didn't quite perk my interest as much as those that I've already addressed.

 

@thedude

 

Quite understandable. Work was never meant to be enjoyable but I won't let that small fact get in my way of still attempting to give it my all while also trying to enjoy doing it. I do enjoy the satisfaction of doing something well, whether it's a hobby or work. Also, I'd like to hear a few stories of what goes on. Like I've said, I'm not even a full year into working with Kroger and I'm relatively interested in what all I still have to look forward to. Even if it's with dread.

 

@BagBoy

 

Quite so, as already said I know work wasn't meant to be enjoyable. But still, if I manage to find enjoyment in what I do that's just the icing on the cake and I'll continue to strive to find enjoyment in what I do. Concerning Senority...I have none specific to the front end. Those who were brought in after me soon left to various other departments and I'm a full year behind the next in line so I doubt I could use that to my advantage in hours or shift preference. However, evening shift seems to suit me quite fine. It gets awfully hot here and during the evening it starts to cool off quite a bit so I really can't complain. It's one of the few random things that happened that I honestly enjoy to its fullest. Ah..Management. Like I've said. I get along with nearly every single one of my superiors save for the co-manager and since the buzzer incident I simply respond to his attitude with a smile right now whenever I'm scheduled to work while he's at the store.

 

With the interviews, I supposed as much. I am the type to over analyze a situation to the extreme to make sure that I'm not missing anything. However, the idea that it won't weigh too heavily on me is reassuring.

 

On a last note about the grievance, I'm a patient person who doesn't have too many buttons. I've made it abundantly clear that I would like to be addressed respectfully and like a fellow human being and would prefer to settle any problems in a professional matter. (Such as taking me aside in private instead of cornering me in a relatively public area with the buzzer incident.) Besides one other instance he has humored my request and I'll remain patient until it becomes habitual. He has already riled several others and I wouldn't be surprised if his stay at my store is a short one. I for one won't be shedding my tear at the loss.

 

Because I feel like being a chatter box I'd like to share a story concerning a certain coworker. This particular coworker, while not exactly lazy, is the type to suddenly call out leaving little to no time to cover up his absence. This story concerns what happened when he decided to do that during the Memorial Day weekend. He and I were scheduled to work through the weekend with a few others. Saturday however was one of the best days I've ever experienced at Kroger. It was towards the evening hours when we suddenly heard that he would not be coming in due to his seventh or so family emergency that week leaving the front end to work on a skeleton crew. The only relief help we had was in the form of the third courtesy clerk who showed up but unfortunately didn't accept the extra hours formed by the other's sudden abandoment and left at about five thirty or so which left me as the only one working the front end as a courtesy clerk. I admit, the extra hours I gained that day was absolutely great and it was a good challenge to see if I could keep up with all the lanes active at once. I wouldn't've been able to had it not been for the on and off help of the floor supervisors. I full heartedly admit that things happen and some days are harder than others and frankly, I absolutely adored that day and have been on the look out for something similar to happen. The stress of having little to no help during such a busy time seems to work well with how I adapt to it. There's no reason for me to really share this experience outside of balancing out the bad points with one of the best days I've had at work.

 

Once again, thanks for all the replies and of course I'll be snooping around this little hidey hole plenty more now that I've found it. Oh. And is that Deckard Cain I hear? Well I do have all these rare unidentified items that I found laying around. Care to identify them for me?

 

Ciaossu~

 

-Anon E. Moose.



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When I have time for a proper reply, I will offer up some advice as well. My main piece of advice right now that I give to everyone.. Read your union handbook cover to cover. Know your rights! And don't settle for abuse of any kind, verbal or otherwise. Report Abuse, theft, Harassment, breach of ethics, and other such crap to 1 (800) 689-4609 and to your Union Rep.



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Well, to be honest. I think every Kroger employee has had that type of management. It's the kind that kroger likes. I used to think that I was alone and in a new and original situation. But to be honest, I'd hazard a guess of 65% of the higher ups in kroger believe we are expendable useless trash they have to keep on.

And I'm such a freakin ray of sunshine.

Look at it what it is, it's a paycheck with decent benefits until you find something better.

Oh and Deckard Cain.. HA

But yeah, erm, no, erm, yeah.. whateva Umm you haf to pay me 100 gold to identify stuff.. i ain't bovvered..

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So it's not actually as bad as I figured it was in my mind? That's a load off I guess. In any case I wish you the best and I hope you can work and go home as happy as you started.

'Cause in the end that's what really matters... your happiness!

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LOL thats so funny you mentioned that bagBoy.  i just got done typing up my letter of voluntary demotion.  I'm not going to hand it in any time soon but just want to have it ready and handy.  Do you ever have the 'sixth sense' that something is about to happen?

Well anyway - in my final paragraph - I typed in my personal mantra.  It is to 'go to work happy, work the day happy, then go home as happy as you were when you arrived."

so many people come to work and either get caught up in the bull**** OR they create it.

just be HAPPY!  ITS JUST WORK DAMN IT



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I am no longer part of the oppressed, evil workforce of Kroger!  Can you say "Hallelujah"  

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I'd like to chime in, too...Here's something to think about...Always do your job, no matter what. I've seen more bosses come and go, and yet, longtime employees are still around. What else is new? I've been able to deal with any and every situation that's been presented to me. When you first start out, you think it's just you. You take everything personally. Then, you realize after a slow parade of bosses and many years (and maybe, a few tears...blood and sweat, too...) that YOU are not alone, that nothing surprises you...I don't try to be too jaded. I don't want to say that I've seen it all...I try to leave just a little room, in case I'm surprised by something. Otherwise, keep your head down and work hard, and after work, keep your head up all you want. I've learned a very important lesson...Learn to separate your work life from your home life. Stick by your values, but know which fights to pick. Ask yourself...How important will this day, or this situation, or this person be in the long run? I've had bad days, too, where things didn't go my way, or I had to deal with some unruly people...maybe it's a new boss...could be a co-worker...disgruntled customer...just a bad day in general...doesn't matter. There have been times I'll go to sleep, and what's really bad...you dream about work while you are sleeping...And sometimes it's a nightmare! They've stolen 8 hours away from me already. They are NOT gonna steal another 8 in my dreams (if I'm lucky to sleep 8 hours...)!!! YOUR TIME is YOUR TIME!!! Don't let ANYTHING get in the way of your happiness! Don't let life get you down! Stay positive!

Other than that, I always try to learn something new every day. You can even learn things from people you might not really like...like what NOT TO DO or how NOT TO BE...it's still a learning experience, albeit, sometimes a painful one...But you grow a thick skin, you get smarter, you don't get fazed often...years of work will teach you this. And this problem is not limited to Kroger. I've dealt with similar circumstances and experiences at other jobs...and even other chains...other stores. Union...Non-union...It's all the same...I've seen companies come and go...people come and go...That's why it doesn't bother me...Do your work to the best of your ability, and continually learn new things. I do. Sometimes, I might think I know it all sometimes, but I don't...so I try to gain as much insight as I can into every situation. Stay on the side of those who will support you. Ignore the negativity, or bear with it the best you can. Years of work taught me that it never goes away, but YOU can change how you react to it...I always like to think of my store as a little dysfunctional at times, but ALL families have some dysfunction in them, don't they? We all get along as best we can with a few, minor quirks along the way.

Above all, don't let anyone or anything negatively change who you are as a person...not a job...not a boss...not even a situation. Be as positive and customer-friendly as you can be, and do your job the best you can. Continually learn, grow, and give it your all. They can't expect any more than that, and in the end, nothing else will matter. Always appreciate others, too. Don't forget...they might have also had a bad day. Build morale where you can. To paraphrase a good ol' boy named Travis W. Redfish, "Everything will work out fine, if you let it".



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