Is it just me? Or do i work for the most dysfunctionally runned company out there? I honestly dont know how this company gets by on a day to day basis. Theres what - a few thousand stores -- out there, right? I know that my store is pretty F'd up and then I travel to quite a few other local Kroger stores and know they are pretty much in the same boat as mine. I hear on this board about all the sh+t that goes on out there at Kroger stores thru out the country as well. WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!?!?!
Besides being runned by Orangutans from The Planet of The Apes, just the basic degenerate employee base that these stores have totally blows my mind. Some of the crap I see done by my fellow employees truly boggles the mind let alone is downright embarrassing b/c now you have to associate yourself with them on the workforce level. Even the somewhat "good" employees who you kinda like do some really stupid dysfunctional stuff. its like how the hell do you manage to make it this far in the world?
I don't know. Maybe its me. Maybe I just need to find a job where I work alone and do not deal with morons. People who don't fight and back stab each other all the time. People who don't try to find fault in everything that occurs during the work day. People who can hold a decent conversation. People who are helpful and work at least 90% of the time. People who don't go and pee every hour. People who dont talk about others behind their backs. People who know how to find things to do when there is nothing to do. People who are friendly to one another. People who dont have hatred in their soul and are defeated by the evilness found in this secular driven world.
Are there any one out there that work in the perfect Kroger store? Is there such a Kroger Utopia somewhere? Where people just .... Fu+ckin' GET IT??? Damn!
Damn damnnn damn it all
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I am no longer part of the oppressed, evil workforce of Kroger! Can you say "Hallelujah"
I'm sorry but all the stores are like this. Kroger hires the first person to "fall through the door" or "fog up a mirror" they just get warm bodies in the door and you have to deal with them while they are upstairs eating and laughing. With 20 million people out of work Kroger should be more selective in hirings but that would be too much work.
We had a good store. People were fairly happy. We've seen some key management changes; now it's a circus.
The hiring manager has no retail experience so you can guess how that's going.
The current FEM is always sourfaced and doing things that sabotage his front end and by extension other depts. People don't care now. Things aren't getting done, important info isn't getting passed along, making other peoples' jobs harder or impossible.
The company is functional to an extent otherwise it wouldn't exist. I know where I'm at, it's generally a handful of employees in addition to the four co-managers that generally keep it all together and pick up everyone else's slack. We do the extra work to keep the store attractive for the customers. I truly give the co-managers at my store a great deal of credit because not only are they friendly and understanding, but they're hard workers. A lot of the time, they will work beyond their ten hour shifts in order to get stuff done. So then, at least where I work, the co-managers are a big reason the store does as well as it does. We also have a decent percentage (not overwhelming, but decent) of hard working employees that try to make the customers happy while getting as much stuff done as we can while we're on the clock. Could the store be run better? Sure. Give us the hours we need and crack down much harder on the non-performers and under-performers. Then we'd do even more business.
Kroger is, like a lot of companies out there, one that doesn't subscribe to a simple, but overwhelmingly powerful philosophy: if you invest in your employees (offer competitive, reasonable pay with more frequent raises + better benefits) and eliminate those that are more of a burden than an asset, you can then assemble a strong, world-class customer service-focus retail team that will stick around for years. The result is less time/money spent on hiring and a more productive and efficient retail team. When you take the concept of minimizing expenses to maximize profits to the extreme, the result is countless understaffed stores with a disinterested workforce that really just is there to get by with as little work as possible before calling it a day.
The company is functional to an extent otherwise it wouldn't exist. I know where I'm at, it's generally a handful of employees in addition to the four co-managers that generally keep it all together and pick up everyone else's slack. We do the extra work to keep the store attractive for the customers. I truly give the co-managers at my store a great deal of credit because not only are they friendly and understanding, but they're hard workers. A lot of the time, they will work beyond their ten hour shifts in order to get stuff done. So then, at least where I work, the co-managers are a big reason the store does as well as it does. We also have a decent percentage (not overwhelming, but decent) of hard working employees that try to make the customers happy while getting as much stuff done as we can while we're on the clock. Could the store be run better? Sure. Give us the hours we need and crack down much harder on the non-performers and under-performers. Then we'd do even more business.
Kroger is, like a lot of companies out there, one that doesn't subscribe to a simple, but overwhelmingly powerful philosophy: if you invest in your employees (offer competitive, reasonable pay with more frequent raises + better benefits) and eliminate those that are more of a burden than an asset, you can then assemble a strong, world-class customer service-focus retail team that will stick around for years. The result is less time/money spent on hiring and a more productive and efficient retail team. When you take the concept of minimizing expenses to maximize profits to the extreme, the result is countless understaffed stores with a disinterested workforce that really just is there to get by with as little work as possible before calling it a day.
Ok. so your store is dysfunctional too
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I am no longer part of the oppressed, evil workforce of Kroger! Can you say "Hallelujah"
To an extent, yes. I'm sure some stores are better to work at than others, but with corporate's current mindset, you're going to generally find the same problems/same kinds of people at every Kroger store - just to different extremes. As difficult as it may be, you just have to try and focus on your work and not let what's going on around you bug you to the point where you become aggravated. You can't change things, so you have to just accept the situation and as long as you know you're doing your job well, that's all that matters.
The most important thing you can do is do your job well...Do the best job you can, so that no one can say you didn't do your job well...Do that, and don't give a rat's ass about anything else! I'm to the point where I don't care if the kids working in my department are perfect. If they can at least work nights, be flexible, and put out stock on the floor, so that there are no holes, I'm happy. Yes, it's sad to say it, but as long as there are bodies and I'm not doing everything alone, I won't nitpick like some do. And there's a reason for that. In my mind, if you complain about HOW someone does their job (rather than appreciate the fact that they do it at all), you will NEVER...I REPEAT...NEVER...find someone who will do the job better than you can yourself...That's guaranteed!!! Every new guy that comes along will fail to meet your expectations...And seriously, as much as I like doing the job myself, because it ACTUALLY gets done, I am tired of being the ONLY one who knows how to and can do it...It's about time for everyone else to pick up the slack!!! But only with teamwork will you ever accomplish anything!!! In fact, just by doing your job with integrity and skill, you can be a leader for others in your store, even if it's just to show them what a real work ethic looks like!!! And who knows, maybe it will inspire everyone else to want to do better...I'll tell you this, and this is advice for all the new employees out there...It's a LOT better to EARN a paycheck, than to just be handed one!!!
The most important thing you can do is do your job well...Do the best job you can, so that no one can say you didn't do your job well...Do that, and don't give a rat's ass about anything else! I'm to the point where I don't care if the kids working in my department are perfect. If they can at least work nights, be flexible, and put out stock on the floor, so that there are no holes, I'm happy. Yes, it's sad to say it, but as long as there are bodies and I'm not doing everything alone, I won't nitpick like some do. And there's a reason for that. In my mind, if you complain about HOW someone does their job (rather than appreciate the fact that they do it at all), you will NEVER...I REPEAT...NEVER...find someone who will do the job better than you can yourself...That's guaranteed!!! Every new guy that comes along will fail to meet your expectations...And seriously, as much as I like doing the job myself, because it ACTUALLY gets done, I am tired of being the ONLY one who knows how to and can do it...It's about time for everyone else to pick up the slack!!! But only with teamwork will you ever accomplish anything!!! In fact, just by doing your job with integrity and skill, you can be a leader for others in your store, even if it's just to show them what a real work ethic looks like!!! And who knows, maybe it will inspire everyone else to want to do better...I'll tell you this, and this is advice for all the new employees out there...It's a LOT better to EARN a paycheck, than to just be handed one!!!
Exactly! As a dept. manager I've always appreciated my employee's work and thanked them for doing it. If something isnt done "my" way then i really dont care. As long as its not "wrong" ie comprimising product quality or safety, or against some sort of policy or procedure, then who cares? We are all going to do things differently. What looks good to me might not look good to someone else and vice versa. Thank your staff, let them know you appreciate their hard work, and share all the information you can with them. Being that Kroger is a crappy employer, people will complain about pay/benefits/conditions etc. But they know thats not directly under your control. Respect earns respect in return, something a LOT of management people everywhere and at all levels might want to figure out!
Just as a sad example, when I left Fred Meyer, pretty much my entire staff of clerks found new jobs, due to the new manager being a jerk! And I had probably the hardest working, customer service oriented group of clerks in town! Sad.
