I really like my job but the morale in our store is for the pits. Today I witness a comanager in front of 3 dept heads tell another dept head that she was the best in the store and that the food service head should watch her back or this Deli head will have her job.I was shocked I am not in this area often but I think if coments are made like this often no wonder my head is often stressed which makes us stressed.I only work parttime and need my job or I would of spoke up.Help what can I do tomake the morale better
Join your store Cultural Council and assist in the formulation of proposals to improve the shopping conditions for customers and the workplace for your fellow associates.
sadly, this has become common in kroger. the truly bad part is, they will talk bad about the same person, that they were praising,when they arn't around. kroger is filled, not with sharks, but phirana, all willing to eat each other, if nothing else is avalible
I have been with Kroger 30 years, and have never seen morale so low. I am a member of the Cultural Council (what a joke) and we do a whole lot of nothing. The associate tracker results are horrible. It's like they keep asking "Are you happy here?" over and over, and they think that if the question keeps being asked, eventually they will get a positive answer. Hours get cut every week, even though our sales are good and the expectations remain high. I think that the programs this company has come up with (inclusion, green leadership, etc. ) are just a cover for the real attitude, which is to ride us until we quit. At our store, we feel like the only thing that we can do right is sell a whole lot of stuff and stay really busy all the time. Otherwise, we are treated like scum.
"At our store, we feel like the only thing that we can do right is sell a whole lot of stuff and stay really busy all the time. Otherwise, we are treated like scum."
Isn't that our job? Sell stuff and work while we are at work?
flower child wrote:
I have been with Kroger 30 years, and have never seen morale so low. I am a member of the Cultural Council (what a joke) and we do a whole lot of nothing. The associate tracker results are horrible. It's like they keep asking "Are you happy here?" over and over, and they think that if the question keeps being asked, eventually they will get a positive answer. Hours get cut every week, even though our sales are good and the expectations remain high. I think that the programs this company has come up with (inclusion, green leadership, etc. ) are just a cover for the real attitude, which is to ride us until we quit. At our store, we feel like the only thing that we can do right is sell a whole lot of stuff and stay really busy all the time. Otherwise, we are treated like scum.
yes,this is our job and jobs are hard to find right now so,is this why managers and co managers have no respect for us and morale is so low. Because they realize that they can hire someone new the next day so why should they care.
What I meant by my comment that the only thing we can do right is sell a whole lot of stuff is that we do exactly that, but are constantly on the company's s--t lists. We have trouble with key retailing. We never get praised, but feel like we are constantly under the gun by upper management. So all we can do RIGHT is what really counts, but that is not good enough. Most departments are #1 in sales in our district EVERY week, but yet, when sales are down a couple percent from last year (due to two competitors opening up) our managers are called to the carpet about it. The pressure never lets up, and the store conditions are going down because we are understaffed.
-- Edited by flower child on Friday 21st of January 2011 10:56:34 PM
-- Edited by flower child on Friday 21st of January 2011 11:00:19 PM
The council in theory does work well, however they have been forcing us to look into productivity and other things that have no bearing on what the council was created for. Once again kroger has turned something that would have been great for the employees into something that is focused on making someone else more money.
I don't think that with key refailing and the cut in hours we can manage to pretend to keep up anymore, but now they want to find ways to cut even more hours and have us do more. I understand we get paid to do a job, I get that. However, shouldn't there be a middle path that we feel like we are even wanted at Kroger?
I don't know of a way to even begin to fix this. We are going thru this at our store as well. We even had the new ADM come by for a "day of listening" because our associate tracker scores were so low. Her answer was, have a special event every month.
Stop throwing hotdogs at me. Treat me with respect and that will help morale. I don't really care for a hot dog party or a pizza party. To be honest, even a raise wouldn't really help. We want to be valued, and treated like we make a difference.
Em, I agree with you, that is what we are there for, but you can never work hard enough to please management. I am not a new employee, and I have received many complements, and high praise from various higher ups, I have numerous keys, have been on the culture counsel, etc. and yet I have had my pay, and hours cut. They keep having us fill out their stupid survey every year and keep saying that it helps them to make a better work environment for us but I do not see it. Why are all the questions on that survey only answerable by choosing a letter or number on a scale, if they really cared about how we feel they would have a written comments box.
I worked at Kroger four 6 and a half years. When I first started, the job wasn't too bad. Sure, it was hard work, but the store was adequately staffed, and most of the employees seemed satisfied to work there. I started out as a bagger, but transferred to Non foods after being there for 6 months. I worked my way up to being the Asst. Drug/Gm manager and thought that this company may be a good place for a career. Then ELMS came along. At first it was a pretty big adjustment. At first they made it sound pretty good saying you'll get plenty of hours. Even though our sales were increasing, my department head and I watched our department's hours decrease. We kept getting less and less and less. It got to the point where only one person was scheduled during the day, to keep up with customer demand, and do all the other jobs within the department. After 4 and a half years of ELMS, i had to call it quits. I couldn't take it anymore. I felt as though we were always behind, and our department just never could catch a break. When I first transferred to non foods, we had 14 people. When I quit last september, our department was cut down to 5 employees. Tell me how 5 people are supposed to do the work of 14. I still keep in touch with some of the people I worked with at Kroger and they say it is getting worse and worse. Morale was incredibly low in the store, and still is. I feel sorry for anybody that works at Kroger. Good Luck and hopefully the company will finally come to its senses, although I don't see that happening anytime soon.
When I, as a member of the cultural council, was asked what the problem was at our store, and I gave thoughtful, honest response, the response from our district manager was to be glad we have a job. He asked for feedback, and was not prepared to hear it. I told him that a free hotdog or a shining star might inspire our high school kids, but the adults were tired. I told him that every department head was frustrated and overworked, and that we could never get ahead. Yes, we are glad to have a job. But this company should stop wasting money on personnel programs that they do not adhere to, and start focusing on running their store properly, and treating their employees like human beings. If they don't really care what the employee trackers say, which they obviously do not, then save that money and stop being hypocrites.
Isn't that our job? Sell stuff and work while we are at work? 
Dont do it!
