Just curious, but given we all know that cell phone usage by employees while on the clock is prohibited, i'm curious if there are any stories regarding cell phones, either placing calls or texting while on the clock.
One of the stores in the area I had heard was confiscating all cell phones from employees on the front end before the start of their shift and would hand them back during break and at the end of their shift.
Our store is a little more relaxed (I've actually seen a department head calling someone on the floor with the co-manager following and talking to him). The backup where I work has also said before that he doesn't care if we text, as long as we got our work done and didn't do it on the floor. If management caught us, we were on our own.
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"The postings on this site are my own and don't necessarily represent the positions, strategies or opinions of The Kroger Co. family of stores."
when our FSM sees a cellphone they just tell them to put it up.
A funny story is that a few months ago i bought an mp3/mp4 player, to listen to during breaks and lunch, and the first time i took it out t check the time they told me to put my cellphone away. i told them "never!" and they told me "what!?" I then responded "it's an mp3 player and i was checking the time." and just laughed.
-- Edited by BagBoy on Thursday 7th of April 2011 10:01:07 PM
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Would you like fries with th... I mean, your milk in a bag?
I think enforcing this policy in any work place will be an up hill battle....they tried it in the public school system, but after all those school shootings, teachers, parents and kids alike said "Bull SH#T! I aint goin out like that!"
Plus, another work place policy is: no personal calls coming in through the switch board to you. So, if you've got a family emergency. . . . . .
As a manager I do have a little bit of a pet peeve with cell phones and employees getting/taking personal phone calls. hell - just the other day I answered the phone. The lady asked for one of the employees there and I told her she was busy working and pretty much hung up. A few seconds later the phone rang in the next department over. it was funny cause I knew who it was for and sure enough a page was made for that person. well she took the phone call and later asked if i was the one who hung up. i prettyy much lied and said 'what the hell are you talking about?'. but she knew she was once again screwing around.
look - i can not be the moral compass for everyone at kroger. people need to look into themselves and do what is right. but also i am by no means perect myself. i bitch with the best of them. i come on here when we all know it is somewhat of a rebellious muntany to do so. yea - i got people around me looking at texts; taking cell phone calls; etc and it is usally the younger generation. one kid who seems to like me and have a real good rapport with i told him ' the next time i see you on that cell i'm gonna drop it in the dishwater' he gets my point.
so anyway --- yea they are a pain but like somebody else said It is definately an uphill battle
__________________
I am no longer part of the oppressed, evil workforce of Kroger! Can you say "Hallelujah"
I don't think I've ever seen customer service affected by cell phones. Once a lady asked me about a clarified butter- I had no clue so I looked it up on my phone and read her the wiki entry. Turns out it is just melted butter. I told her I had no idea but if it was okay with her I would like to google it. She had no issues.
Our cell phones ring on the floor, if we are with a customer we ignore them- if you are just conditioning you might pick it up.
If you ever have a meeting with district leaders I suggest you remind everyone to turn off their phones. Even in conference calls you can hear one or two go off.
I don't think I've ever seen customer service affected by cell phones. Once a lady asked me about a clarified butter- I had no clue so I looked it up on my phone and read her the wiki entry. Turns out it is just melted butter. I told her I had no idea but if it was okay with her I would like to google it. She had no issues.
Our cell phones ring on the floor, if we are with a customer we ignore them- if you are just conditioning you might pick it up.
If you ever have a meeting with district leaders I suggest you remind everyone to turn off their phones. Even in conference calls you can hear one or two go off.
Clarified butter is butter that's been melted and had the water removed and the milk solids skimmed off. In other words, it's pure butterfat.
As a manager I do have a little bit of a pet peeve with cell phones and employees getting/taking personal phone calls. hell - just the other day I answered the phone. The lady asked for one of the employees there and I told her she was busy working and pretty much hung up. A few seconds later the phone rang in the next department over. it was funny cause I knew who it was for and sure enough a page was made for that person. well she took the phone call and later asked if i was the one who hung up. i prettyy much lied and said 'what the hell are you talking about?'. but she knew she was once again screwing around.
look - i can not be the moral compass for everyone at kroger. people need to look into themselves and do what is right. but also i am by no means perect myself. i bitch with the best of them. i come on here when we all know it is somewhat of a rebellious muntany to do so. yea - i got people around me looking at texts; taking cell phone calls; etc and it is usally the younger generation. one kid who seems to like me and have a real good rapport with i told him ' the next time i see you on that cell i'm gonna drop it in the dishwater' he gets my point.
so anyway --- yea they are a pain but like somebody else said It is definately an uphill battle
I've seen both. Our manager pulled three of the worst abusers of cell phones upstairs one day and gave them all a talking to and told them that if they were caught again they would lose their cell phone for their shift. It didn't really work in that they were back texting immediately afterwards, but they saw a backup department head answer his phone while on the clock and head outside and talk for 35 minutes. Needless to say, they turned him in for it.
Senior employees can be just as bad as the younger generation though. It never fails.
I agree with nocturnia though, and I'm not picking on you dude but using the example you gave, what happens if an employees spouse calls you with an emergency and your answer is "S/he's working right now".
__________________
"The postings on this site are my own and don't necessarily represent the positions, strategies or opinions of The Kroger Co. family of stores."
cell phones were a big problem at my store, maily because management had double standars on them so people were confused.
official ploicy, was no cell phones on sales floor, but you could awswer it, if in the back, the restroom, ect.
problem was most dept head were always on their cell phones, claiming it was buisness related, when all they were doing was shooting the breeze with people they knew at other stores. so when something was said to a employee, you had the 'do as i say, not as i do"
management picked who they would get on too, so some got away with it, even on the sales floor, others got introuble if they were heard talking on one in the restroom.
me,i never liked cell phones, but i got one when my son was born. since we couldn't get personal calls,i neeed a way to be gotten ahold of.
I don't think in this day and age, there is a way to control cell phones
MY biggest pet peve was CUSTOMERS on their cell phones, while you were trying to wait on them
i just can not envision being asked/told to hand your cell over for the day. sounds very grade school to me. plus are they actually legally allowed to take it. what if you say no - f* off to them? or say look i will put it in my car's glove box but i will not go thru the inconvenience of giving it up to you...
__________________
I am no longer part of the oppressed, evil workforce of Kroger! Can you say "Hallelujah"
i just can not envision being asked/told to hand your cell over for the day. sounds very grade school to me. plus are they actually legally allowed to take it. what if you say no - f* off to them? or say look i will put it in my car's glove box but i will not go thru the inconvenience of giving it up to you...
They cannot take your cell phone unless there is an existing policy in place and it is explicitly stated that they are allowed to do it or your consent is given to allow them to hold the item.
The same thing happened to me in middle school with pokemon cards and the school got into some hot water over taking my cards from me. This was before they outright banned them at the school which then granted them the right to take them, if found.
No one can take anything that's yours, without your permission. Otherwise it's likened to bullying.
**Not a Lawyer, ect
__________________
Would you like fries with th... I mean, your milk in a bag?
The same thing happened to me in middle school with pokemon cards and the school got into some hot water over taking my cards from me. This was before they outright banned them at the school which then granted them the right to take them, if found.
LOL. Pokemon cards! So you were the one who started the whole banning process of pokemon, magic cards, silly bands, cell phones, etc in the schools....
__________________
I am no longer part of the oppressed, evil workforce of Kroger! Can you say "Hallelujah"
The same thing happened to me in middle school with pokemon cards and the school got into some hot water over taking my cards from me. This was before they outright banned them at the school which then granted them the right to take them, if found.
LOL. Pokemon cards! So you were the one who started the whole banning process of pokemon, magic cards, silly bands, cell phones, etc in the schools....
hey, it's not my fault that the schools can't adapt to changes in pop culture. Along with the cards I had a book that had all 150, at the time, pokemon in it and when they took it they called it "a pokemon bible". It was trulely a wtf moment.
Anyway, yeah if you want to look at it that way.
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Would you like fries with th... I mean, your milk in a bag?
MY biggest pet peve was CUSTOMERS on their cell phones, while you were trying to wait on them
I know you can't do anything about it on the front end but since I work in another department, if I see someone at the counter and they're talking on a cell phone I will not wait on them until they're done. I was in the middle of taking this one woman's order and she had the nerve to pull out her cell phone and start dialing someone. I left and went back to what I was doing. Someone else had to finish waiting on her.
We don't wait on anyone who is talking on the phone. If they walk up, and continue to talk, we just ignore them. If they are aggravated about it, I just say, very politely, "I thought you were on the phone". How can they get mad? If they answer a call while we are speaking to them , we just walk away. I also can't stand when I am waiting on a customer and speaking to them, and they see a friend and just start talking to their friend in the middle of everything. I also walk away when that happens.
...Just had a friend given a D.D. (Decision Day; at Wal-Mart, that's where if you get a second coaching for ANYTHING, they send you home for a day with pay, and you don't come back in without a written plan of action as to how you will correct your error/s) for being caught talking on his cell phone.....while on the clock. This has been a long standing company policy with loose ends: no body in management has as yet tried to take our cell phones. I call this the watered down Darwin Award: if you get caught so flagrantly disregarding a rule, you deserve to get fuqued!
Just curious, but given we all know that cell phone usage by employees while on the clock is prohibited, i'm curious if there are any stories regarding cell phones, either placing calls or texting while on the clock.
One of the stores in the area I had heard was confiscating all cell phones from employees on the front end before the start of their shift and would hand them back during break and at the end of their shift.
Our store is a little more relaxed (I've actually seen a department head calling someone on the floor with the co-manager following and talking to him). The backup where I work has also said before that he doesn't care if we text, as long as we got our work done and didn't do it on the floor. If management caught us, we were on our own.
well i can tell you my last department head was on the cell phone regularly and one grocery manager was good at catching people on it but if you did it god forbid and when the gocery manager would se my department head on her cell phone he wouldnt say dick cause he wanted to lay the pip to her OBVIOUS!!!!
i just can not envision being asked/told to hand your cell over for the day. sounds very grade school to me. plus are they actually legally allowed to take it. what if you say no - f* off to them? or say look i will put it in my car's glove box but i will not go thru the inconvenience of giving it up to you...
They cannot take your cell phone unless there is an existing policy in place and it is explicitly stated that they are allowed to do it or your consent is given to allow them to hold the item.
The same thing happened to me in middle school with pokemon cards and the school got into some hot water over taking my cards from me. This was before they outright banned them at the school which then granted them the right to take them, if found.
No one can take anything that's yours, without your permission. Otherwise it's likened to bullying.
**Not a Lawyer, ect
The only thing I am thinking with taking somebody's cell phone is that a lot of the kids (and some adults) where I work have $200 cell phones such as an iPhone or Android. If it was a cheapy flip-phone I could see it but if they make a kid turn over the phone and it goes missing, then it all comes back on Kroger.
Best thing to do if caught would be writing up. If you are caught four times on your cell phone within 90 days, you are out the door.
__________________
"The postings on this site are my own and don't necessarily represent the positions, strategies or opinions of The Kroger Co. family of stores."
As a manager I do have a little bit of a pet peeve with cell phones and employees getting/taking personal phone calls. hell - just the other day I answered the phone. The lady asked for one of the employees there and I told her she was busy working and pretty much hung up. A few seconds later the phone rang in the next department over. it was funny cause I knew who it was for and sure enough a page was made for that person. well she took the phone call and later asked if i was the one who hung up. i prettyy much lied and said 'what the hell are you talking about?'. but she knew she was once again screwing around.
look - i can not be the moral compass for everyone at kroger. people need to look into themselves and do what is right. but also i am by no means perect myself. i bitch with the best of them. i come on here when we all know it is somewhat of a rebellious muntany to do so. yea - i got people around me looking at texts; taking cell phone calls; etc and it is usally the younger generation. one kid who seems to like me and have a real good rapport with i told him ' the next time i see you on that cell i'm gonna drop it in the dishwater' he gets my point.
so anyway --- yea they are a pain but like somebody else said It is definately an uphill battle
I'll have to say that is some pretty bad "managing" there if you fool around with a person trying to get ahold of another person at work. How do you know its not an emergency or something to that degree? I can stack a whole reasons of why personal calls should be allowed and not to fool around with them:
* I can't pick Suzy up from school. You'll need to do it* - under your policy poor Suzy is at school alone and probably lured into a tinted van for candy.
*your grandmother is in the hospital* - Family Medical Leave Act... see ya!
*you forgot to take your medication* - we have a guy on the front end who did and he can be a mental case or so i've heard...
I have no problems with cellphones in fact I use mine for business. I'll call or text important information to another employee like today we had one "text in sick". Well, I forwarded that to my Market Manager which he was not happy about him calling in sick. I then talked to him on the phone and relayed addiontal information.
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My Views and Opinions do not reflect that of the Kroger company. I'm an indivdual expressing my 1st amendment right.
I only talk on my cell phone when I'm on break. One time I had a manager approach me about it while I was walking back from the U-Scan to the break room.
"Are you on break?" - "Lunch." "Did you already clock out." - "Yes."
She didn't really say anything after that except for to remove my name badge when I am walking across the floor with my cell phone while on break.
