Utility clerks are Front End employees. Whether you like it or not, the front end supervisors are in charge of you. They can call you up as much as they want. Utility clerks are actually supposed to be the first choice in who we call for bagging help.
Utility clerks are Front End employees. Whether you like it or not, the front end supervisors are in charge of you. They can call you up as much as they want. Utility clerks are actually supposed to be the first choice in who we call for bagging help.
And that's the big problem with utility clerks being a part of the front end. The front end rarely ever has enough courtesy clerks scheduled to bag for all the open registers and keep the parking lot clear. Meanwhile, pulling a utility clerk from his/her job means the bathrooms aren't being cleaned, the trash cans aren't being emptied, the outside walkway and foyer(s) aren't being swept, store sweeps aren't being done, the break room isn't being cleaned, etc... There is so much cleaning to do that even a undisturbed eight hour shift isn't enough for one person to get everything done.
The only time Kroger seems to care about cleanliness and sanitation is when company is coming (big surprise).
And that is my point exactly. In our store the Utility Clerks are *supposed* to be the last call for bagging help (and we can't get OUR jobs done if we are constantly being paged tp help a cashier bag say 4 items.) Yes that has happened. I am of the mindset that if you have a very small order allowing customers to bag their own should be no big deal.
Yes. Utility clerks at my store bag for hours and hours and then are given a hard time about not doing their job. So, sweeps are often falsified, restrooms are generally ignored, and trash is frequently forgotten.
But at least we don't need to hire as many courtesy clerks.
When I was a UC, I ignored ALL calls...well...at least MOST of them. I had MY OWN job to do.. NO TIME WHATSOEVER for other things. The ONLY time I came up is if MANAGEMENT said "ALL help available up front..." if you were a cc, you were available. NO MATTER WHAT. (except if you were on break, lunch, off the clock, helping s customer). When management called for outside depts to help, the call went like this.; ALL associates with checking experience to the front. ALL associates with any checking experience to the front. That's when my fellow UCs went up to bat with me.
But now our UC's ignore ALL calls up front. EVEN those urgent calls for immediate help.
Even more dumb is when a utility clerk is told to go outside and bring in carts. Like, okay... how is that utility clerk supposed to hear and respond to a page for a clean up if he or she is outside the store collecting carts? Should a customer slip and fall as a result of that spill, the potential lawsuit is going to cost far more than had you just scheduled enough help in the first place! That's Kroger for you, though... the mindset basically is cross your fingers and toes and hope for the best rather than schedule properly.
Clearly utility is handled differently at some stores. At the stores I've worked at, courtesy clerks that haven't been trained/scheduled as utility wouldn't have a freaking clue how to clean up a spill or how to do utility stuff in general... that's why we have basically the same handful of courtesy clerks scheduled strictly as utility every week.
HA! UC here, and I do all the above! Bagging, spills, carts, cleaning, carryouts, shopbacks, bailing, and will sometimes help out management with various tasks during the holidays and do things around the store in different areas. Up by me, we have no distinction between CC and UC, although now according to the schedule we are coded as CCs but are still UCs in title and contract. We are the first call for bagging help, and of curse if either satellite help (all checker or bagger trained staff, meaning management, grocery, dairy / frozen, produce, Starbucks, and on the extremely rare occasion, deli) or all available help up front
Psh, i run circles around our younger ones (most of our UCs are minors) and I somehow got bumped up to 4th in seniority out of 14 of us now. I am also one of the UCs who will assist my FES or Service Desk in carrying out the FE emergency procedures or assist during a Code Adam as I am trusted as I get the job done.
HA! UC here, and I do all the above! Bagging, spills, carts, cleaning, carryouts, shopbacks, bailing, and will sometimes help out management with various tasks during the holidays and do things around the store in different areas. Up by me, we have no distinction between CC and UC, although now according to the schedule we are coded as CCs but are still UCs in title and contract. We are the first call for bagging help, and of curse if either satellite help (all checker or bagger trained staff, meaning management, grocery, dairy / frozen, produce, Starbucks, and on the extremely rare occasion, deli) or all available help up front
Psh, i run circles around our younger ones (most of our UCs are minors) and I somehow got bumped up to 4th in seniority out of 14 of us now. I am also one of the UCs who will assist my FES or Service Desk in carrying out the FE emergency procedures or assist during a Code Adam as I am trusted as I get the job done.
How the heck do you get any of your tasks done if you happily go along with all of that?
When I did utility, I was all by myself on utility during my shifts, be it 7:00AM-3:00PM or 3:00PM-11:00PM. Bathroom cleanings would be missed regularly (and bathroom logs would be left blank as a result), store sweeps did NOT happen, some trash cans would get emptied but typically not all, maybe the foyer would get swept once if I had time, same for the outside, and the other things like the break room? Hardly ever got cleaned with any consistency... all because of regularly getting paged to the front end or being told to do something a co-manager didn't want to do because he/she was too lazy to do it. Oh and screw making bales... one day I had been stuck checking, bagging and getting carts for most of my shift while having no time for my utility work and shortly before leaving that night, a guy in grocery had the gall to make a remark to me about the baler being full for the last six or seven hours, implying I should have made one, and I was like, "I've been checking, bagging and getting carts the whole day. I don't recall seeing YOU up there," a somewhat indirect way of making a point of why didn't YOU make one... you are in GROCERY after all.
I got so sick of being used, abused and pushed to do the jobs of multiple people because others didn't want to do or were to lazy to do their jobs that I ditched that store and made it a point of getting off the hellhole that is the front end and moved to another store where I very happily do EXCLUSIVELY ClickList and nothing, and I mean NOTHING more.
HA! UC here, and I do all the above! Bagging, spills, carts, cleaning, carryouts, shopbacks, bailing, and will sometimes help out management with various tasks during the holidays and do things around the store in different areas. Up by me, we have no distinction between CC and UC, although now according to the schedule we are coded as CCs but are still UCs in title and contract. We are the first call for bagging help, and of curse if either satellite help (all checker or bagger trained staff, meaning management, grocery, dairy / frozen, produce, Starbucks, and on the extremely rare occasion, deli) or all available help up front
Psh, i run circles around our younger ones (most of our UCs are minors) and I somehow got bumped up to 4th in seniority out of 14 of us now. I am also one of the UCs who will assist my FES or Service Desk in carrying out the FE emergency procedures or assist during a Code Adam as I am trusted as I get the job done.
How the heck do you get any of your tasks done if you happily go along with all of that?
When I did utility, I was all by myself on utility during my shifts, be it 7:00AM-3:00PM or 3:00PM-11:00PM. Bathroom cleanings would be missed regularly (and bathroom logs would be left blank as a result), store sweeps did NOT happen, some trash cans would get emptied but typically not all, maybe the foyer would get swept once if I had time, same for the outside, and the other things like the break room? Hardly ever got cleaned with any consistency... all because of regularly getting paged to the front end or being told to do something a co-manager didn't want to do because he/she was too lazy to do it. Oh and screw making bales... one day I had been stuck checking, bagging and getting carts for most of my shift while having no time for my utility work and shortly before leaving that night, a guy in grocery had the gall to make a remark to me about the baler being full for the last six or seven hours, implying I should have made one, and I was like, "I've been checking, bagging and getting carts the whole day. I don't recall seeing YOU up there," a somewhat indirect way of making a point of why didn't YOU make one... you are in GROCERY after all.
I got so sick of being used, abused and pushed to do the jobs of multiple people because others didn't want to do or were to lazy to do their jobs that I ditched that store and made it a point of getting off the hellhole that is the front end and moved to another store where I very happily do EXCLUSIVELY ClickList and nothing, and I mean NOTHING more.
Oh let me tell you, I may sound happy, but at the same time, I want to have more peeps in our department to get to my work standard as it is not easy. Most of the time, I am lucky to accomplish all the above at nights in one go, sometimes I do and sometimes I don't. I do my best, but I am only one person and so some of the tasks I will delegate to the closing minor UC (like doing paper refill up front since you don't need a box cutter for that, or having them do a final trash and bathroom sweep if I don't get to it to have management or Night Crew throw if I don't.) There are only 5 UCs above 18, with the rest being minors so most tasks they aren't allowed to do (alcohol shopbacks / damaged, trash / baler, box cutter, etc.)
Sweeps we don't have here, but checks are done as we work, and are all staff's responsibility for our and customers safety. "Look towards the floor while you walk, so you can spot any hazard and quickly remedy it." Bailing I only assist with if Grocery isn't already handling it or if it's a becoming a problem that it needs to be done right then and there.
Nights I work through a task list I self mark off in my head as a example
-Carts? Are we low, if so, go out and haul some quickly to get us ready for any rush that should occur.
-Bagging: Are we ok for now so I can focus on another task at hand, or does my FES have me somewhere else?
-Cleaning: What still needs to be done that hasn't been done by Day Shift utility.
-Bailing: Is the baler nearly full or can it be compacted a bit to let Grocery be able to change it later tonight after I leave?
-Trash: When was the last trash throw (and not just dumping it at the compactor and leaving it?) How are the garbage cans faring around the store?
-Paper and plastic: Are we ok for now, or can I get plastic done later tonight and have the closer do paper?
-Shopbacks: how are we doing on them? Can I knock most of them out to give our closing Service Desk or other FES less to do?
We normally have 3 to 4 of us on Night shift with some Day Shift working til 4 or 5pm to help with coverage. But after that, as the night starts to wear on, it gets easier if we have less activity on FE, but if needed and we get a surge rush, we have satellite help available if it comes to that. Otherwise I usually do my task list and it works fine.
Back before Krog took us over, I also was the one normally who would set up our poles for locking liquor up for the night at 9 after i left. Other times, I did it myself while training the other UCs on how to set poles up correctly and how to do a proper pre and during lockup sweep because I got it done the fastest, while being security minded to not let custys just reach over the poles to grab one. If you tried, you wouldn't get close at all before you either knocked the poles over in your trying or got caught (and tripping the alarm), while if you tried to sneak past, the motion sensors would catch you and the alarm would sound, while our cameras would have video of you being stupid in the process. Hiding in the cooler to try and evade the lockup? Not gonna happen, oh by the way you forget we have security measures in the cooler as well! I sweep cooler as well and would lock-out the door operator to the Secure mode before I do a final sweep and tell CSR they are good to arm while I stand watch and wait for the alarm to arm. Like I said, it's not easy, but sometimes delegation can help
-- Edited by UC151 on Wednesday 25th of April 2018 10:57:48 AM
-- Edited by UC151 on Wednesday 25th of April 2018 10:59:02 AM
It at least sounds like you have some help, which makes the days somewhat tolerable. Kroger stores that I have worked at only have one person scheduled to do utility from 7:00AM-3:00PM and another, either 2:00PM-10:00PM or 3:00PM-11:00PM. One person, by himself or herself, for the entire store... even left completely unbothered by the front end/management, there is never enough time to get everything done, and when bothered, NO work gets done. So glad that job is behind me forever as I wanted to just walk out more times than I can remember.
Utility clerks are Front End employees. Whether you like it or not, the front end supervisors are in charge of you. They can call you up as much as they want. Utility clerks are actually supposed to be the first choice in who we call for bagging help.
I'm sure if it's a small order you guys can handle it.
