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Post Info TOPIC: How hard is it for you to control your temper when dealing with lazy co-workers?
Anonymous

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How hard is it for you to control your temper when dealing with lazy co-workers?
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I know I'm not the only one that has to deal with this. Look, I admit that I have my once in awhile moments where I'm not 100% on the ball. I'm not perfect and I don't claim to be. I don't expect any of my co-workers to be 100% productive 100% of the time. We're all human (I think... I hope) and at times, get distracted by something (or someone) and maybe chat it up a bit too much with a co-worker or something along those lines. It happens. My blood isn't going to boil over something relatively minor and something that I'm guilty of from time to time.

... Still, what does tick me off though is when a select few of us in a department are on the go 95% of the time whereas a handful of others (especially when two or three certain people have overlapping shifts) spend seemingly more time talking/laughing and showing things to each other on their phones while the rest of us do a big chunk of the work and while the department head is standing right there not saying a word. A department head that I know is too scared to get tough on people when more than half the department is threatening/talking about quitting.

So, the department head pretty much depends on the hard workers within the department to carry a big part of the workload while others get away with getting paid to socialize/be on their phones (even after not two weeks ago our department head made us all sign paperwork prohibiting phone usage while on the clock). I feel like myself and others even have to work extra hard because other employees just aren't doing even half of their fair share. 

I need advice on how to control my temper before I lose the ability to control my tongue. I realize the obvious answer here is to just focus on my own work and not let what others are doing around me bother me... but we all know that's easier said than done! To be clear, I do like the store I'm at for the most part and I do generally like the department that I'm in, it's just this is really, really starting to grate on my nerves.



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Guru

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Completely understand where your coming from!! 100% UNDERSTAND!!

The issue is Kroger is between a rock and hard place because of the staffing environment, you cant be "hardcore" or even "middlecore" because of associates lack of caring! Most of today's employees do not care about getting written up or even fired!

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Anonymous

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Its not easy as a dept head.  It takes time to deal with lazy workers. You also need management support.  Ive had management bury writeups and tell me I cant take disciplinary action for staffing or other reasons. Its bull**** but its not my store, right? 



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AnonymousKS

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It is quite the tumultuous task for me to control myself when encountering lazy co-workers.

As you've stated, we all have moments where we are a little slow for that day and not feeling 100% productive. Heck, ALL of us get lazy sometimes but to observe co-workers whom are lazy and unproductive ALL of the time is quite frustrating.

I work at King Soopers in Colorado so terminology might be different but I'll explain.

I work front-end, The easiest job physically in the store. Yet I still have co-workers who seem too lazy and sometimes inept when it comes to completing the simplest of tasks.

The older co-workers typically feel entitled to certain registers and U-Scan because they are easier to control and don't require much work. If you tell them to work another register, they throw a fit. One of our older checkers used the "seniority card" to get U-Scan full-time because she didn't want to do anything physical on a regular register. My CSM and Head Clerks (FEM) let her do this out of fear of retaliation.

The younger co-workers have to be told what to do all of the time or else they will just goof off. If it is a slow time with few customers, they will stand around talking instead of doing anything that gets front-end cleaned and ready for the next day.

I've had co-workers shut off their lanes to talk while I was in clear need of help because a line of customers were all coming to me and they just stand there like jerks when I ask them to open up yet they expect precision when it comes to their breaks or for them to go home.

The CC's are not the best as well. Most of the ones at my store are entitled know-it-alls whom never do anything out of their perceived job descriptions. If we ask them to clean up a mess, they throw a fit. If we ask them to run a perishable back, they throw a fit. If we have them on a checkstand for a bit, most of them ask us to do everything for them that requires effort like lifting heavy items or paging for help. I have one specific CC that will never page for anything because he hates the sound of his voice, he never does anything extra, and always barks out orders like he knows how to run a front-end.

I've even had to help out my lazy managers, head clerks (FEM) and CSM, because they refuse to get on a checkstand to help with lines or breaks if breaks are late. I've called out a few of my managers to their faces about standing around and talking while we've needed help. The thing I hate the most about my managers is the fact that they don't communicate with me. They change my schedule frequently past the store deadline, never tell me and expect me to be okay with it. They never help with front-end closing duties even when they are done with their manager stuff, they do anything to avoid helping. They are constantly allowing my lazy co-workers to be lazy and yet if I were to behave the same way, it would be a big deal.

TO CONCLUDE

Point being,  Kroger doesn't really hire the best people. One could theorize that workers with decent ethics probably go on to office jobs or something but even those jobs are rife with laziness and chaos. However, this may be presumptuous of me but low-end work typically attracts low-end workers.

How do I deal with it? Well I'm personally abandoning the notion of socializing with co-workers because it doesn't seem fulfilling to me to be sociable. Instead, I'm focusing more on become stoic and focused only talking with co-workers when pertaining to the job. I am abandoning the workplace politics and constant laziness and only focusing on my tasks and personal goals. I'm not 100% there yet, I still manage the front-end without actually being a manager because if I don't do it, it typically doesn't get done. Self-Isolation It is how I deal with it, not saying you should do the same.

Being a good worker isn't actually all that hard but at Kroger, and jobs like it, it seems like rocket science to most of your co-workers. They legitimately expect to come in, stand around, and be paid decently for it.



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Anonymous

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Just do the best you can and go home..thats all any of us can do



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tov


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It's hard to keep your cool when dealing with lazy coworkers. Because it's us that get yelled at for things not getting done, us who are chased to work faster and harder. Because management knows, yelling at lazies will give them no results. They were like that already years ago, why would they speed up now?

And we would go faster and harder, except we are already balls to the wall the whole shift. There is no extra time to squeeze out, no break to make shorter, no going faster. We are at the limit. I wander what will give first. Hopefully it will not be my health.

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Its a bigger problem than that its how kroger operates. There was this stocker in dairy what worked overnight. He had been there a while (basically a lifer) so it would be difficult to get rid of him. More and more he was NOT working alot of the stock and leaving it for the next shift (days). One morning i came in almost the whole truck for diary was still in there. So the only way you can remedy that is to hustle to get the stuff out of there. Yet you have brilliant management come in and COMPLAIN about the cheese being low. In one of the managers exact words it was a "crisis" so i did work some of the cheese to get it out of there but got some of stock out so when the next truck came in they wouldnt be hurting as bad!



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