I'm a new Kroger employee. My store is located in VA. At first it was fine, I got pretty much ft hrs (yet still called pt cause it never goes 40 hrs for 12 weeks straight ).. Then it seemed to normalize (for what pt should be, around 20 hrs a week or so, I have another pt job I'd like to keep, so this is important). But all hell has broke lose in my dept., someone moved from another area into mine. Someone not popular with anyone, it seems.. Anyway, she threw a hissy, and now she's there again (they tried to put her else where, but she's a 10 yr vet and has seniority, a union thing I guess, I've never in my life worked for a union company before, but have been pro union, until now, maybe..lol) How is it I now have to have more hrs for her to be there? Why? Ok, somehow she did get another person thrown out of the area, took his shift, mornings.. I didn't get many mornings after the first 4 week or so, but hell, at least I got some! And when I did come in evenings it was at least not 8 & 1/2 hr days! I'm not far from the time I too can join the union, what are my chances of getting more morning hrs and a ligher work week after joining? Is it worth it or should I just leave? I'm not lazy.. the dept. heads me tell me they like my work, etc. I'm just wondering. I guess my first mistake was in how I filled out my availabilty, stupid om my part. But I didn't know it was going to be this much drama..lol. Also, this is my first time working in a grocery store, but I have worked general merchandise retail for yrs, I'm not a youngster. I have worked at WalMart, for exmaple, and my experience there was not all that bad, up until before I left, they were changing things and it started to get unpleasant, so I got out will the getting was good!
Mornings are usually considered "preferred shifts" meaning those with the most seniority get those shifts unless they don't want them. Officially joining the union won't change anything...well, except for the fact you'll be paying union dues. In other words, if you start at minimum wage, you'll make less than minimum wage after initiation and dues. Unions are great like that. Below minimum wage is a competitive wage from what I've seen union people say in defense of unions...
I don't know why your hours increased per say...did the guy she replaced get more hours than what she is requesting/getting?
You can actually request a set number of hours as well. From what I've seen, you can probably get 24 hours every week by request, but, if you want to work less hours, you could always make yourself unavailable for everyday but the weekend. This prolly wouldn't be wise though because you're still on your prohibitionary period. Also, I have no idea what you originally put for what hours you can work on your initial application.
As for not liking 8 1/2 hour shifts, I like them because you typically get to work fewer days if you get em. Example would be if you only work weekends you could work 4 hours on Saturday then 8 hours on Sunday getting the minimum of 12 hours to still be considered an employee.
Basically, what it boils down to is seniority is everything. You'll get a lot more say in things after you're there for a while. And the more people who leave who have more seniority than you, the better. You'll get better shifts when they leave.
I put limited times I can come in for the days I work my other job (just a few days), otherwise it's 6am to 10pm (my big screw up), for my availably.. However, I note the limits I put on those days I have my availability set up are starting to be ignored. It's not to bad at the moment, cause the other job has me in way eariler than Kroger would have me (for holiday reasons), 2am, 4am, etc.. But, that can be a bit much, going in so early one place then pulling a full 8 at Kroger, maybe if I was in my 20's no problem. But I'm approaching gray hair land, won't be to awful long until I can get a a old fart discount..lol. Kroger told me when they hired me it was pt, and the most I'd get was 20 hrs a week (sucker!). Now I could leave my first job, but I do like it, I like going in early.. that's why I stay with it.
Anyway, this lady that came over, I can tell I'm gonna be the sucker picking up the slack. She won't do certain things. I know another person was to come in after the holidays, he goes to school and only works certain times. But now I don't know if even he's coming in. The dept. head he said his hands are tied. So.. and if joining the union won't help me (another worker told me it would, as I could change my availably and they could not fire me). I guess I'll either be sent to another dept. or store, or out the door. As to the guy that got moved, he will be under a different dept. now. The next few weeks will be busy, but after that I don't know. I honestly don't know how my hrs could go up when another person comes in who is ft, looks like they should go down. And why move that one guy? Should it not have been me? Since I have been their less time than him? Logic I see is fleeting at K-World. I have been told horror stories about this lady that came over, getting people fired and whatnot for things she did.. So I might not be there much longer anyway, if she takes a dislike to me. I guess I just haven't been there long enough to understand this strange new world.
Oh well.. you live you learn. Thanks for the reply!
At my Kroger, you're only technically allowed one unavailable day. That's it. If you only have one unavailable day, you can maximize your schedule and get the most hours according to seniority.
On the flip side, those with little to no seniority aren't really guaranteed any hours at all if they're unavailable for more than one day. This is especially true if someone with more seniority than you has every day unavailable except for the weekend (and maybe Friday). The hours you can work are thus given to people with more seniority and you can get stuck "having a job" but not actually working.
Thus, it still goes back to a matter of seniority. When you have more of it, you can get preffered shifts over those with less seniority than you.
So, yeah, you might be able to hold onto the job after the 90 days like your friend told you, but if you limit your availability too much, they don't have to give you hours.
Like I said before though, as long as you keep weekends free and probably Friday free you'll probably be safe. You should check to see if the people above you have one or both of the weekend days unavailable to get a better idea if those days are available to work. Friday and the weekend are the busiest days at Kroger, so they usually want as many people as they can get in working. This can work to your benefit those who've worked there a while probably don't want to work all the weekend because of other committments or just don't want to come in because of how busy it can get.
Thanks for the reply. My pal is a bagger, he thinks it's great.. I guess it depends on what area you work. Up front it would be rare to just have, say, one bagger and one cashier working a whole shift, I'm guessing. However, as a low dog in a dept, it sucks to be left alone on the busiest days and hrs, to get the **** shifts ALL THE TIME, loads of hrs and still be called pt, and see lazy ass people do whatever, and nothing is said. Frankly, I'm not sure my body can hold up much longer with the workload I'm getting. I'm no spring chicken. I want to hold onto my other pt (real pt hrs at hat) job to. I am gonna see when I can join this union thing (starting to this it's not so great, but a nesscery evil), but if little to no change, I'm gone. I am to damn old to be treated like a piece of **** at this stage in my life. I have put up with some crap on jobs in my time, Walmart for example.. but as bad as it was at times.. I still got an hr lunch, and two brakes, I might be alone on some occasions, shift gaps, someone calling out, etc., but never ever for weeks on end, and never worked 40 hrs and called pt, when I went to school, I talked to my manger, and got the shifts I needed to accommodate my class times (bet that **** wouldn't happen at Kroger, unless I was a teen or something, and/or been there a while), weekends were shared, I worked every other weekend, morning and night shifts were split up even, everyone worked both, none worked one or the other all the time. And yep, WM went down the bog hold later, but it wasn't bad there for a big chunk of the time I was there. Oh well.. if I leave, Kroger's loss, that's how I see it.
