Fat Boy wrote:

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I work as backup in the deli,  as I might have mentioned a few times.. not sure.  Anyway my manager is really useless.  We have more drama than any other department.

I'm wondering if this is common or just something that happens in just my store cause I've seen a few of the comments here that are about the deli and they all seem to be negative.

Today I went into the store to get a few things and my dept manager said,  oh I couldn't finish the truck I had too much to do,  your going to have to finish it tomorrow.  In a year and a half I dont' think she's finished one single truck by herself yet.  She can't wait on customers,  she doesn't help anyone in the deli at ALL.  Day before yesterday I was at lunch and she had to stay at her desk in the deli,  not help them in any way, just stay at her desk for 15 mins.  She all but had a mental breakdown because she was there.  She then left the deli for 3 hours and she came back to get her order book.

I've mentioned to management that the deli manager should,  I don't know,  actually be IN the deli.  They say that she has managerial duties to perform and shouldn't be tied down to one job.  While I agree with this that she shouldn't be working chicken or front counter or baking for her 8 hours,  but all she can manage to do in her 8 hours is fill the floor and do orders.

Ok done whining, and done with background.. here are my questions.

1.  Does anyone in the deli have a manager that cuts meat,  or works like the rest of the crew at all?  She refuses to do anything but fill the floor,  do trucks and do orders,  anything else is not her job,

2.  On the hotbar/steam table,  does any deli add water to the bar/table.  She says that adding water to the steam table is against food code (which I still have no clue what that is)  but seems to me, since I've done fast food and full service restuarant management that a steam table should.. hrm..  contain steam?

3.  Same deli manager can't and doesn't know how to cook chicken,  do cakes,  cant' even write on cakes,  can't make signs for her department, doens't know how to do trays, sandwiches, or even cook a turkey.  Any other crew have a dept head like this?

4.  Does your deli manager take off every other weekend? While refusing any employee requests for weekends?  Does your deli manager work past 4pm?

Ok thanks for helping me understand if my deli manager sucks as much as I think she does or if I'm being unfair and every deli manager just plain has no purpose or helps the deli in any way.  Unless you count ordering 27 boxes of pudding cakes and then holding them in frozen freezer for a month or so, just because they are on sale for 4.99 and we might sell them.

Throw some knowledge my way,  if you guys think I'm being unfair,  I'd appreciate the information.

Ed 

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The store I work at uses the deli as punishment.  There are some people who work back there who like it, but I can think of two instances where people have been put back there that they were trying to get rid of.  One cracked and eventually quit (only to recently be rehired at another store), while the other stayed back there until they realized it wasn't working and moved him back out to where he came from.

 I can't answer any of your questions directly because the only time I have worked back there is emergency situations, so I really don't know what goes on.  I will say this though, the management duties that force department heads to live up to Key Refailing standards keeps department heads out of the department and forces them outside of the departments.

Two of the worst I have seen is Head Cashier and Head Grocery.  When most of your time is spent making schedules and working in the accounting room, you don't have much time to be out on the floor with the customer service department.  Head Grocery spends more time making orders out and making sure the paperwork is up to date.

Hope this helps.  I don't know what goes on in the deli that much, but if its like the other departments, there is probably a reason you don't get much help from them.

Drew, without sounding like I'm trying to force my case. I am her backup. I know what her job duties are. She really hasn't done anything with key retailing. I do her ppst, and her daily sheets, like temps. and dates, and her shelf reviews.

So outside of that, I'm not sure what mysterious paperwork she has?

I actually talked to my co and she said that there really isn't anything she can do. They write her up often (like 3 times a week) for not finishing simple tasks assigned. Or one week she had 30 hours of overtime. etc. My co said that the deli people themselves were being too diplomatic for our own good.

with best practices every job is task driven. So if she can't finish her tasks, we are not responsible to do them for her. IF she says do the chicken truck for me, we do the chicken truck, because anything else is insubordination. However, if we are doing said chicken truck and can't do our own tasks, then we don't stress it. Because if daily tasks are not done eventually it will fall back on her.

Not the best idea, considering, but I have no other option. And If something doens't change, 4 of my best people in the deli are going to move to another dept or quit. These women have been there for 6 to 11 years. So something is better than nothing I guess.


Thanks..

Ed

I know exactly how you feel, my manager is a complete idiot. She does nothing, can't even unload a truck. This new chicken production crap is really stupid also. First I am supposed to do Exactly what it says, then she changes her mind and tells me to use my own judgement. Well, her exact words were"use your own brain",nice,huh? So I am stuck in a catch 22,either way I lose. That way if it alls goes south she can blame me for not doing the right thing. She does this kind of stuff all the time. Just a by-note, she assembled 12 lg. Turkey dinners for one customer for pick-up on Dec. 26,actually TALKED to the customer on the phone and (ta-da),the customer wanted 1 lg Turkey dinner. All that time and labor lost on the 24th when were swamped. Now she is going to re-freeze(???) the turkeys,gravy and stuffing to use on the steam table. I am pretty sure this is a health code violation, not to mention that I have enough work to do than stand around and carve turkey! I have 30 yrs of Deli, Restaurant, food service, etc. and have never worked in such a disorganized, unprofessional business like this one. Cannot wait to find a new job.

My manager has been with the company 25 years. Now there are times where I CANNOT and I mean CANNOT stand her while other times we manage. I am well aware of her duties and have been "handed" them several times. I will start off with her good qualities so that I may save the rest of this for ranting. She does wait on the deli counter. (Usually because she is avoiding doing something else or sucking up to the regular chicken person.) She does go get the trucks. (Usually again to be avoiding something else like the store manager, customers, or to go talk to people in the back. An hour to get one cart? Seriously??) She makes food. (Okay, while I find the concept of making "lunch or dinner" for your employees a nice gesture... tieing up the ONE oven so you can bake an entire ham or steak for an hour while the morning bake or chickens have not even been put in yet!?) She will work a frozen truck (to hide in the freezer)... and take over the entire bakery table even if you are trying to do 5 cakes. Her getting out "ontime" is more important. Oh screw the good... She allows the chicken boy to go on 30-45min lunches all the time and never make up his time because she does the same thing herself. She will halfway in her shift suddenly remember she has to go home early to pick up her kids, take her car in, go to a dr. apt... etc... usually leaving myself or someone else in charge of cleaning up the remnants of the truck that is spread all over the table and this is around noon and you are alone with costumers and temperature sensative items. She yells out for you to do one thing then 5 minutes later you are to do another then while you get interupted from the first thing to help a line of 4 customers, she is telling you a #3 thing to do. By the time she leaves there is a list of about 10 things and if anyone can remember half of them, then they are supernatural. Key refailing was literally dumped into my lap because I tend to be a perfectionist... yeah, that was the only reason. Yet she had the biggest part... labling the deli cooler, given to the least organized boy... chicken boy.  I swear if he wasn't gay, I'd assume something between them-HA. She never does cakes... which I see is apparently common for every other delibakery. Her idea of filling the floor is sticking out 5 sundae swirl cakes to fill the holes for red velvet, boston, swirl, oreo, and lemon... then yelling at whoever worked bakery last(typically her one and only set bakery girl who doesn't even know how to run counter or do chicken... though she tries...) and saying WHY DID SHE DO THAT LOOK AT ALL THESE OUTDATES!? Then come inventory we run out of everything because she would rather NOT have the product to count than to just be organize enough to know what goes in each spot. She treats her backups like crap. Constantly witholding info to make them look bad and trying to promote her chicken boy.... who FYI has left chicken untemped or out of the cooler for 6 hours at a time on a consistent basis... is rarely in the dept... and half-asses most of his work. But obviously he is the better choice b/c he is a drinking buddy... I could go on but I have to get ready for work. See, chicken boy gets set hours 7-3 everyday with the same 2 days off in the week(to promote his bar and drinking schedule...)... while I... a BACKUP... work 4-12, 9-5, 1230-830, 10-6, etc(same with her other backup who has to be at home to give her son shots at certain times) and between my second job I can't get her to give me even one day off in the week. I did really intend to say something nice but I guess I am just too frustrated. Even though I am sick of hearing it.... with today's economy, we are lucky to have the jobs we get. Some people need to understand that more and actually do their job and work their hours instead of taking those hours in a set schedule away from the rest of the fulltime or parttime employees who clean up after them.