So I am a bagger that got promoted to bakery. Sounds cool right? Well...... my experience was just a ****ing train wreck from the start...
So, it took 2 months for them to get everything ready for my promotion. I get this call from the bakery manager literally *the day before* I was supposed to go train at another store that I would have to arrive by... 2:30am....! Which was fine, i think, oh thats just for training. So I ride my bike to the store (!!), didnt sleep much at all, and... well, not to be rude but the person supposed to be training me didn't speak English that well :( So we spent most of my training period desperately trying to communicate. Fun, right? Well, needless to say i didn't learn much....
then... I get my schedule for the week, and apparently they want be to be the baker and want me to come in at 430am every day. This is the first time I find out about this. Now... I'm not really comfortable with these hours because well, I'm a lady riding a bike to work. So, in essence nobody cared about that...
....well I suck it up, and come in to work, and find out that what I barely learned from training wasn't even applicable to my store. So I was given two more days to learn about the breads and stuff... and then they had me on my own, in the department, trying to "be fast" and whatever, It was so stressful! I couldn't finish anything! Then my manager sent me to the back to get breads from the freezer without a jacket or gloves.
"You don't have a jacket? You need one." "Umm. well. i didn't know i had to bring one." "Well... ok... go get bread."
Well i walk into the freezer and like, struggle to go through the cap and pull all the breads. Its painful, and horrible. I look at the clock and realize I had to go to lunch in ten minutes. So I call my manager and she says.
"Finish the bread and then you can go to lunch."
Well, finishing the bread took me one and a half hours...! So I missed my lunch....! and you know what she says?
"We'll just fill out a maintenance forum its ok."
So I did get a lunch....... eventually... but it was skipped and like, working 6 hours without any kind of break is ****ing brutal. Especially if you're in a freezer. With no gloves. And I only got a lunch because I refused to work any more without one...!
Needless to say.... like I'm really burnt out. I asked for a demotion but I'm just so ****ing pissed off that like, they did all that **** to me. I just feel like nobody cared about my feelings and that I was set up to fail. I don't know how people in service deli or bakery ****ing survive...! At least in my store, they grind those people into dust with the workload. Maybe im just being whiney.
What happened to the person who was doing the baking before? Did someone quit? In that case, they should use someone who's already in that department to do the baking. Even though they may have never baked before, they've been around it long enough to figure out what to do. As someone who's worked in the bakery department for over 20 years, I can tell you they should never put a new person down to bake. It just doesn't work, especially if you've never worked in a bakery. You need to start off just bagging the bread to learn the different types of breads and rolls first. Then, when you feel more comfortable, you can help the baker pan out, proof, and bake the bread. Baking is more about organization than anything else. As far as going into the freezer, we keep coats and jackets around for just such a thing. You should also inquire about getting a Kroger jacket. Gloves should also be provided. Ask one of the guys working in frozen food if they could get you a pair. By the way, how much bread do you have to bake?
Our state law is pretty clear as far as lunch is concerned. You get one if you're working a full shift, no earlier than 3 hours into it and no later than 5, and if you miss it, you get a lunch punch violation. If they can't get the bread done or whatever, that's their problem, and you would have been completely in the right to take your lunch right at the fifth hour regardless.
The bakery is a hard job - harder than what most people give us credit for. Many people (including new hires) seem to think OH HEY YOU WORK IN A BAKERY YOU MUST GET TO DECORATE CAKES ALL DAY~~~~~~~~~~ No, there's a lot more to it than that.
That said:
Your management must suck ass.
No one in the right mind should ever have a new hire/new person in the department baking on their first day! They should have trained you to do breakout first. Here we do breakout in the evenings. This gives you a chance to learn what all the different types of breads are. How can you bake them when you don't even know what everything is yet?
I'm really confused as to how they even let this happen to you. :(
What's your new pay per hour? If it's not at least a $1 difference then I'd just quit.
See, that's the funny part!
Pay before promotion = 9.30/hr
Pay after promotion = 9.40/hr...!
Ten cents! Ten ****ing cents!
Not worth it.
Kroger training is a joke and having you bake alone on your second day is unacceptable. there is no way you would even know how to get that started on your second day. They need to have you shadowing someone for at least a few days and someone watching you for another few days. IT'S UNACCEPTABLE FOR THEM TO BE DOING YOU THIS WAY. Complain so hard their ears bleed. whenever you're with someone tell them you need help. annoy them. annoy them HARD.
__________________
Would you like fries with th... I mean, your milk in a bag?
The big thing with the pay difference is now you're on a different scale. I'm going to assume you're in an expensive area of the country with a high minimum wage for a courtesy clerk to be making 9.30. A topped out courtesy clerk under our contract only makes $0.30 above minimum wage.
The advantage to working in bakery is now you're able to get raises past that point. If you were a courtesy clerk forever most likely you'd stop after the first couple. For example here: Topped out courtesy clerk 7.55 after 24months employment. Topped out bakery clerk(part time) 10.55. So, working longer will actually benefit you versus stagnating there around minimum wage. Then, if you ever get full time your raises will be significantly higher than that even, not just an increase in hours.
But, make sure you're tagged as bakery in HR Express to be sure you're not getting screwed.
First few days are stressful at any new job. Pushing carts is pretty easy peezy compared to just about any other job.
Get yourself a jacket or hoodie and some gloves. You'll get used to the freezer after a while.
Your body will adjust to the early am after a while. Don't sleep in on your days off!
I always sleep in on my off days. If I don't have to get up, I don't. Besides, what the heck is there to do at 4:00 in the morning if I'm not going to work?
