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Post Info TOPIC: Why can't they hire new people for deli/bakery?
Anonymous

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Why can't they hire new people for deli/bakery?
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Just wondering. We're so understaffed. Someone going on vacation in the deli is disastrous. They're even worse off in the bakery - some people have come in to work on their vacations because of their understaffing issues. There's literally only 3 people + the department head working over there and maybe about 5 of us in the deli (including people who exclusively work in chicken shop and not the deli counter.) Every day, our HR person brings new people on their tour of the store and every time we meet them she says "oh yeah this is the new hire, he/she is going to be working in clicklist!" How many people does clicklist need vs the deli? 



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Honey, I feel your pain. We have TWO people in our bakery. I am the ONLY person who does kitchen (chickens, hotbar, etc). Our deli/bakery manager works 70 hour weeks often because she has NO ONE else to cover shifts. We have a great team, we are just so short staffed. Not counting manager and back uo, we have 2 people in bakery and 5 in deli.

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Anonymous

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Seltzer wrote:

Honey, I feel your pain. We have TWO people in our bakery. I am the ONLY person who does kitchen (chickens, hotbar, etc). Our deli/bakery manager works 70 hour weeks often because she has NO ONE else to cover shifts. We have a great team, we are just so short staffed. Not counting manager and back uo, we have 2 people in bakery and 5 in deli.


 That sucks. I don't understand why Kroger is doing this. The deli and bakery are some of the most involved departments in the stores. A lot of times when we only have 2 people working on Sunday evening, we get a huge line of people and the manager has to come over and give everyone half off because they've been in line so long.  How is this efficient?  

It's super irritating to see the nearly daily parade of new hires while we're suffering.  If they want to get rid of the deli and bakery, they should just do it already, because they obviously don't care about these departments anymore.



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It's the same story everywhere. Deli and bakery cannot get any help, and the people we do get don't last long at all.

My bakery department right now has 4 full time people (including me) and 2 part time people who call off at least once or twice a week. Half the week i don't have anyone in the bakery after 4pm because of their call offs and one of my full timer's availability. When i first came to this store we didn't even have the part timers. We were barely functioning with only 4 people in the department. One of my full timers is getting ready to leave though because they're being promoted. Which will leave us with me, 2 full timers, and 2 very unreliable part timers who take 8 hours to do one task. And it's close to graduation cake season and vacation season.

Usually, the deli is just as bad but they might finally have hired a couple new people who are decent. But a lot of days, they only have 2 openers and 2 closers, and there's even been 1 to 3 hour gaps with only one person in the deli before.

A lot of it honestly, in my opinion is because we're a more labor intensive department, people don't want to work in our department when they can push a cart around the store collecting groceries all day.

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Anonymous

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4hourrush wrote:

It's the same story everywhere. Deli and bakery cannot get any help, and the people we do get don't last long at all.

My bakery department right now has 4 full time people (including me) and 2 part time people who call off at least once or twice a week. Half the week i don't have anyone in the bakery after 4pm because of their call offs and one of my full timer's availability. When i first came to this store we didn't even have the part timers. We were barely functioning with only 4 people in the department. One of my full timers is getting ready to leave though because they're being promoted. Which will leave us with me, 2 full timers, and 2 very unreliable part timers who take 8 hours to do one task. And it's close to graduation cake season and vacation season.

Usually, the deli is just as bad but they might finally have hired a couple new people who are decent. But a lot of days, they only have 2 openers and 2 closers, and there's even been 1 to 3 hour gaps with only one person in the deli before.

A lot of it honestly, in my opinion is because we're a more labor intensive department, people don't want to work in our department when they can push a cart around the store collecting groceries all day.


 Personally, I'd rather be busy all day.  I can't stand not having anything to do.  I for one like the variety of tasks I have to do in the bakery: bake the bread, pull the outdates, pull the artisan bread wall, clean it, refill it, bake the bagels and put them out, put away the frozen order, put tomorrow's order on if no one else does, do the CAP, do the breakout, help bake cookies if there's still time (not likely).

I think in order to get a good person in the bakery, they have to have an aptitude for it.  I've always baked as a hobby.  The back up baker worked in bakeries in New York City and owned a bakery once.  The cake decorator decorates cakes for friends.  I know they (Kroger) are trying to make everything foolproof now to the detriment of the quality of some of the products, but people still avoid the bakery becasue they don't think they can do the work.



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Anonymous

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4hourrush wrote:

.

A lot of it honestly, in my opinion is because we're a more labor intensive department, people don't want to work in our department when they can push a cart around the store collecting groceries all day.


 I think a lot of people don't want to stay in the deli in particular because of how late you have to stay. Bakery, chicken shop and starbucks all close down at 8, deli stays open til 10. We have a lot of new people who try to change their availability so they can't work that late and when they don't get approved, they quit. I think 10 is too late myself, but what can you do?



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Anonymous wrote:
4hourrush wrote:

.

A lot of it honestly, in my opinion is because we're a more labor intensive department, people don't want to work in our department when they can push a cart around the store collecting groceries all day.


 I think a lot of people don't want to stay in the deli in particular because of how late you have to stay. Bakery, chicken shop and starbucks all close down at 8, deli stays open til 10. We have a lot of new people who try to change their availability so they can't work that late and when they don't get approved, they quit. I think 10 is too late myself, but what can you do?


 The times must vary from store to store, because here, bakery and starbucks are both open until 9, and we don't have a separate chicken shop, it's just all in the deli. However, they shut down the steamtable at 7 but the deli is still open until 10.



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Bakerchick25

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Anonymous wrote:

Just wondering. We're so understaffed. Someone going on vacation in the deli is disastrous. They're even worse off in the bakery - some people have come in to work on their vacations because of their understaffing issues. There's literally only 3 people + the department head working over there and maybe about 5 of us in the deli (including people who exclusively work in chicken shop and not the deli counter.) Every day, our HR person brings new people on their tour of the store and every time we meet them she says "oh yeah this is the new hire, he/she is going to be working in clicklist!" How many people does clicklist need vs the deli? 


 I more than hear you. I think out of many deli and bakeries I've read about on here, the marketplace I work at sounds like it is a little better staffed than most(9 peeps for bakery and 10+ for deli and bistro areas. And this is including both DH and three back up managers). However, I would still say that depends on who you have working really.

Because there are times when you can come in to do a closing shift for deli and have either way too many folks on for deli and there is not much to do. And then other times you come in and there is just barely any one there. But some how you can still get behind, and not always do to customers. But simply because some folks just don't have that drive to get on stuff that needs doing. Which makes it all highly annoying and aggravating for those that have to catch up with everything.

But yea, as to your original question, I honestly do not have a clue as to why they aren't down for hiring very many peeps for bakery(I'm leaving deli out of this one as we always get about EVERY new person to our department going down that way). I don't know if they just aren't asking the right questions or no one is being real with them about what it's like to actually work in the bakery. Because honestly, if they had folks come in and shadow someone or each department a little bit before they chose which one they worked in. I would imagine most would be more eager to work in the bakery. As honestly we aren't doing all that much heavy lifting per se like some of the other departments. Still stocking things for the sales floor naturally. But even the baking isn't really all that hard and a lot of it is mostly prep for the bakers to handle for the next day.

Truly not a hard job at all. But I think the lack of knowledge of what we actually do turns people away. Like they are thinking and expecting you to be super skilled with decorating or baking on the regular. And I'm sure that would be awesome. But still Kroger's has it's way of wanting things done and thus far, aside from actual decorating work the decorators do. There is nothing super fancy or special about what the rest of do at all. Nothing to run from but definitely a freezing cold freezer to brace for to say the least.

I do hope they manage to figure something out though, as we have once again lost two new people. One from each of the deli and bakery in less than a few days of each other. And now we are forced to have deli peeps come down and close most days or re-scheduling the resident loud mouth to be both back up decorator and closer. Or be forced to close the bakery at 5 p.m. cause there isn't a closer available. Be great if they saw things like that in management and start putting some thinking caps on to figure things out.



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Bakerchick25

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Seltzer wrote:

Honey, I feel your pain. We have TWO people in our bakery. I am the ONLY person who does kitchen (chickens, hotbar, etc). Our deli/bakery manager works 70 hour weeks often because she has NO ONE else to cover shifts. We have a great team, we are just so short staffed. Not counting manager and back uo, we have 2 people in bakery and 5 in deli.


 See, I think that is just criminal to have one of the departments to be that severely understaffed. I heard about something similar from my former "trainor", who finally got a back up position at another store. And she is like it's like one person for chicken, one for deli, may two for bakery(her and one other chick). And it's like how is that even possible to get anything done? I mean there is no way you are completing even half of what you need to do to even stay above ground for the next day.

So I am more than sorry you are experiencing the same thing Seltzer. That is crazy.



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Bakerchick25

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Anonymous wrote:
4hourrush wrote:

It's the same story everywhere. Deli and bakery cannot get any help, and the people we do get don't last long at all.

My bakery department right now has 4 full time people (including me) and 2 part time people who call off at least once or twice a week. Half the week i don't have anyone in the bakery after 4pm because of their call offs and one of my full timer's availability. When i first came to this store we didn't even have the part timers. We were barely functioning with only 4 people in the department. One of my full timers is getting ready to leave though because they're being promoted. Which will leave us with me, 2 full timers, and 2 very unreliable part timers who take 8 hours to do one task. And it's close to graduation cake season and vacation season.

Usually, the deli is just as bad but they might finally have hired a couple new people who are decent. But a lot of days, they only have 2 openers and 2 closers, and there's even been 1 to 3 hour gaps with only one person in the deli before.

A lot of it honestly, in my opinion is because we're a more labor intensive department, people don't want to work in our department when they can push a cart around the store collecting groceries all day.


 Personally, I'd rather be busy all day.  I can't stand not having anything to do.  I for one like the variety of tasks I have to do in the bakery: bake the bread, pull the outdates, pull the artisan bread wall, clean it, refill it, bake the bagels and put them out, put away the frozen order, put tomorrow's order on if no one else does, do the CAP, do the breakout, help bake cookies if there's still time (not likely).

I think in order to get a good person in the bakery, they have to have an aptitude for it.  I've always baked as a hobby.  The back up baker worked in bakeries in New York City and owned a bakery once.  The cake decorator decorates cakes for friends.  I know they (Kroger) are trying to make everything foolproof now to the detriment of the quality of some of the products, but people still avoid the bakery becasue they don't think they can do the work.


 I agree with you on the keeping busy part. I do give it up to our bakery as well for that. I just hate having to be the one doing the MOST of everything though at times. As it's like I can barely get through doing a couple of tray of cookies to bake before they want me to run up to the front to fill some spot on the floor or some spot in the back by dairy for that table. As nobody else is really going to stop what they are doing to help. Hence that's why I went for the deli full-time position I got.

As for having an aptitude, I can't really say that is the case for myself. As I doubt I could actually bake myself out of a paper bag if I had to, lol. Or even have any real skills at cooking anything. As I just never grew up being taught those sort of skills all that much. But I think my work ethic, willingness to get on things without having to be prompted all the time. Not lipping off about stuff either never hurts. But that's just always been the kind of person that I am since I was a young kid. If I never got any other notes or comments from teachers about anything else I was doing. I was for sure getting comments about how adaptable and on top of things I could be. So I may not have the technical skills for any of the cooking and what not. But if shown how to do something, I can totally pick it up no problem(save for some math skills, that still befuddles my mind at times). So honestly, I think to work in bakery it takes having a strong resolve to get things done, let BS run off your back, and be able to show your value and worth in your work. 

But I honestly don't think those are the kinds of people Kroger interview all the time. But more like the folks that 4hrrush mentioned, that aren't expecting all the work and are wanting something really easy like pushing a cart. Which is kind of sad. Cause when you think about it, working in any retail place you have to have your mind right to handle orders and putting stuff away properly so it doesn't hurt you or any one else, etc.. For that matter even the product itself. So to think you are going to get hired and not do anything. Is a crying shame.



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Bakerchick25

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4hourrush wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
4hourrush wrote:

.

A lot of it honestly, in my opinion is because we're a more labor intensive department, people don't want to work in our department when they can push a cart around the store collecting groceries all day.


 I think a lot of people don't want to stay in the deli in particular because of how late you have to stay. Bakery, chicken shop and starbucks all close down at 8, deli stays open til 10. We have a lot of new people who try to change their availability so they can't work that late and when they don't get approved, they quit. I think 10 is too late myself, but what can you do?


 The times must vary from store to store, because here, bakery and starbucks are both open until 9, and we don't have a separate chicken shop, it's just all in the deli. However, they shut down the steamtable at 7 but the deli is still open until 10.


 Par for the course. I mean I'd rather stay til 10 maybe 11 for the bigger holidays at the end of the year in deli. As opposed to being at the store til actual closing of 1 a.m. like how some the front end peeps have to do.

Yea, they do, Starbucks and bistro close at 7 at my store. Deli closes at 9 and as per usual on the sign it says bakery closes at 8. But we are usually scheduled til 9 or 10. Although they have been trying to bump it up to 8 or 9 for closing down there. And yes, you still have to assist the customers and wait on blue line if they haven't called it yet. Which gets you even more behind which is totally ridiculous.



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Anonymous

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This doesn't help, but it's an across the labor board reality. Nobody anywhere wants to hire/pay anyone for ANYTHING. It's all about 100% profit with 0 % loss. and you'll hear every excuse imaginable: 'Oh, applicants can't pass the drug tests' and 'we've posted jobs, but no body's applying' and 'it's just not in the budget to hire right now, sales are down, maybe next quarter' --- that one's my personal favorite, because we all know damn well that's a lie. 



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Anonymous

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For the same reason they can't hire new people in any other department.

At my store, it could be worse.  Deli/bakery is immune from cashiering and package help.



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Anonymous

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Anonymous wrote:

Just wondering. We're so understaffed. Someone going on vacation in the deli is disastrous. They're even worse off in the bakery - some people have come in to work on their vacations because of their understaffing issues. There's literally only 3 people + the department head working over there and maybe about 5 of us in the deli (including people who exclusively work in chicken shop and not the deli counter.) Every day, our HR person brings new people on their tour of the store and every time we meet them she says "oh yeah this is the new hire, he/she is going to be working in clicklist!" How many people does clicklist need vs the deli? 


 working your vacation? There is no reason to even consider the idea. 



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Bakerchick25 wrote:
Seltzer wrote:

Honey, I feel your pain. We have TWO people in our bakery. I am the ONLY person who does kitchen (chickens, hotbar, etc). Our deli/bakery manager works 70 hour weeks often because she has NO ONE else to cover shifts. We have a great team, we are just so short staffed. Not counting manager and back uo, we have 2 people in bakery and 5 in deli.


 See, I think that is just criminal to have one of the departments to be that severely understaffed. I heard about something similar from my former "trainor", who finally got a back up position at another store. And she is like it's like one person for chicken, one for deli, may two for bakery(her and one other chick). And it's like how is that even possible to get anything done? I mean there is no way you are completing even half of what you need to do to even stay above ground for the next day.

So I am more than sorry you are experiencing the same thing Seltzer. That is crazy.


 Its truly is impossible to get most tasks done. I was on track to get the hot bar set by 11am, then we had a rush (3 to 4 people in line at service case and 3 or 4 at the hotbar and 2 at the sub bar with a few more coming up to each area before the rush ended).  By the time I got back to my tasks from helping with all the customers I was already 35 minutes late on the hot bar and still needed to make multiple things. Same story for the hen house. Then our store manager came by and had the nerve to ask me about why things werent done. She had been standing there talking to someone for the ENTIRE time we were trying to handle all those customers. She literally SAW why it wasnt done and still acted like I should magically be done with everything. 

And this is just normal daily tasks. There was zero time to work trucks, backstock, condition the department...I mean...its just stupid, lol.



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Anonymous

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Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:

Just wondering. We're so understaffed. Someone going on vacation in the deli is disastrous. They're even worse off in the bakery - some people have come in to work on their vacations because of their understaffing issues. There's literally only 3 people + the department head working over there and maybe about 5 of us in the deli (including people who exclusively work in chicken shop and not the deli counter.) Every day, our HR person brings new people on their tour of the store and every time we meet them she says "oh yeah this is the new hire, he/she is going to be working in clicklist!" How many people does clicklist need vs the deli? 


 working your vacation? There is no reason to even consider the idea. 


 Right? I would never do that. And yet it's something that happens on a regular basis in the bakery. I even asked if they were getting time and a half for being there on their vacation and the lady said "no, they're just going to give me next Sunday off to make up for it."



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And the real fun part is when they do their little store manager walks every day. Most days i get in the 80ish range which i can accept, but one comanager lowballs it all the time and gave me a 70 one day, that really bothered me. i don't know why i take these things so personally, but i'm like really, a 70? i'm trying my best to bust my ass for this department and you give me a 70? In order to strive for that 85 we need more and better associates.

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Anonymous

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My store cant keep people in deli either. Bakery seems stable.



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Bakerchick25

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Seltzer wrote:
Bakerchick25 wrote:
Seltzer wrote:

Honey, I feel your pain. We have TWO people in our bakery. I am the ONLY person who does kitchen (chickens, hotbar, etc). Our deli/bakery manager works 70 hour weeks often because she has NO ONE else to cover shifts. We have a great team, we are just so short staffed. Not counting manager and back uo, we have 2 people in bakery and 5 in deli.


 See, I think that is just criminal to have one of the departments to be that severely understaffed. I heard about something similar from my former "trainor", who finally got a back up position at another store. And she is like it's like one person for chicken, one for deli, may two for bakery(her and one other chick). And it's like how is that even possible to get anything done? I mean there is no way you are completing even half of what you need to do to even stay above ground for the next day.

So I am more than sorry you are experiencing the same thing Seltzer. That is crazy.


 Its truly is impossible to get most tasks done. I was on track to get the hot bar set by 11am, then we had a rush (3 to 4 people in line at service case and 3 or 4 at the hotbar and 2 at the sub bar with a few more coming up to each area before the rush ended).  By the time I got back to my tasks from helping with all the customers I was already 35 minutes late on the hot bar and still needed to make multiple things. Same story for the hen house. Then our store manager came by and had the nerve to ask me about why things werent done. She had been standing there talking to someone for the ENTIRE time we were trying to handle all those customers. She literally SAW why it wasnt done and still acted like I should magically be done with everything. 

And this is just normal daily tasks. There was zero time to work trucks, backstock, condition the department...I mean...its just stupid, lol.


 I can believe it. They do that to one of the chicken shop peeps at my store as well. In particular when she has just come in to her shift. And they jump on her case about why there aren't enough birds on the floor at a particular time. But that is totally nuts. I swear they expect us to be miracle workers at times.

Oh I can believe it. I think that is why our truck comes early in the morning when there is somewhat enough folks on for both deli and bakery. But even still as the truck person(which I will be tomorrow for bakery), we have to break it all down and still deliver it to the deli. And sometimes they can be just as busy and unless the DH ask someone to stop doing something to put away the deli stuff. Some of the morning deli folks expect the truck person to put their stuff away for them too. And some days when things are very over ordered, I will admit it is a uber pain in the ass to try and put away both bakery, deli, pallets, get residual done, come back and bake everything, do slack out, and fill the floor in between helping customers. Just truly a hot mess of a situation.



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Bakerchick25

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4hourrush wrote:

And the real fun part is when they do their little store manager walks every day. Most days i get in the 80ish range which i can accept, but one comanager lowballs it all the time and gave me a 70 one day, that really bothered me. i don't know why i take these things so personally, but i'm like really, a 70? i'm trying my best to bust my ass for this department and you give me a 70? In order to strive for that 85 we need more and better associates.


 I can believe it. It's like they truly don't understand the situation at all. When they clearly can see what is going on and can even ask what is going on. Talk about a major blind eye.



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Anonymous

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We are a combined deli bakery so we have a total of 10 people typically that can do most jobs, we've been short 3 people at one time, two on sick leave another got a promotion and left the store, yet management doesn't seem to understand why it's not perfect. Or you know why we'd want to go home or have days off cause that's just crazy. And of course all I see all day long is then helping literally every other dept never ours most of the time they don't even ask if we need help, and one even a manager could bake some freakin cookies. 



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