Last week at my store we had 4 people who were at the bottom of the seniority list not get any hours for the week and were listed as on call. Yet we were busy and shorthanded all week. None of the on call people were called even though as I mentioned we were short handed, and had about five people quit storewide. This going on in your stores?
What you describe is a problem a majority of us see every day of the week. Kroger is like a lot of other companies out there - the goal is to maximize profits while minimizing expenses. The idea is staff the stores with as few people as possible and then expect those people to not just give 100%, but 300% effort all for minimum wage or slightly above minimum wage. The corporate big-shots don't want to actually staff the stores with the appropriate number of people needed to give Customer 1st service because that would cut into the already obese paychecks and bonuses they get. Instead, managements whines and complains about poor Que-Vision scores, dips and poorly-scoring receipt trackers and pushes for the employees that are scheduled to be capable of multiple talks and able to do the work of two or three people in an effort to get scare people into performing well enough for the stores to "get by" and maintain the illusion that the company is better than the competition in the customer service that it offers.
As long as you work for Kroger, you're going to be underpaid for all the work you're expected to do and subjected to a stressful and hectic environment. This is why you know of people that have left and are planning to leave just like I and others know of people that have left and are planning on leaving. I'm one of them that is planning on leaving. Kroger though doesn't care because the high turn-over rate doesn't phase the company even though it would make better sense to try and retain those that do care and do make an effort and do get positive results. Kroger pushes, pushes and pushes its employees to do more work for a pitiful amount of money and we should not be content to go in every day and work for a company that treats its employees so terribly and lies so heavily to customers. We're better than the kind of people Kroger takes us for and need to realize there are better companies out there to work for.
What you describe is a problem a majority of us see every day of the week. Kroger is like a lot of other companies out there - the goal is to maximize profits while minimizing expenses. The idea is staff the stores with as few people as possible and then expect those people to not just give 100%, but 300% effort all for minimum wage or slightly above minimum wage. The corporate big-shots don't want to actually staff the stores with the appropriate number of people needed to give Customer 1st service because that would cut into the already obese paychecks and bonuses they get. Instead, managements whines and complains about poor Que-Vision scores, dips and poorly-scoring receipt trackers and pushes for the employees that are scheduled to be capable of multiple talks and able to do the work of two or three people in an effort to get scare people into performing well enough for the stores to "get by" and maintain the illusion that the company is better than the competition in the customer service that it offers.
As long as you work for Kroger, you're going to be underpaid for all the work you're expected to do and subjected to a stressful and hectic environment. This is why you know of people that have left and are planning to leave just like I and others know of people that have left and are planning on leaving. I'm one of them that is planning on leaving. Kroger though doesn't care because the high turn-over rate doesn't phase the company even though it would make better sense to try and retain those that do care and do make an effort and do get positive results. Kroger pushes, pushes and pushes its employees to do more work for a pitiful amount of money and we should not be content to go in every day and work for a company that treats its employees so terribly and lies so heavily to customers. We're better than the kind of people Kroger takes us for and need to realize there are better companies out there to work for.
. . .a fking zombie plague. . . Only way any real change is going to come in these situations is when customers stop supporting things the way they are.
I am hesitant to expect awareness and moral decision making out of a zombie horde. A few here and there drop, but as long as they "think" we are saving them significant money for shopping here. One must remember that the nigh unethical push from corperate to give 300% for 75% pay is all in "service" of those same customers. This behavior has direct benefits for them to some extent, certainly more than it benefits me at any rate.
I've had a few callous customers suggest that we should all be making less money; if I were to be making $4.00/hr the economy would be able to automagically fix itself. Too many of them forget that money today is not the same as 1970, or on Tuesdays, 1930.
-- Edited by Stranger on Monday 18th of March 2013 12:55:27 PM
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It's happening all over in retail. Hell, it's happening all over everywhere. Caterpillar is a good example.
Every month I'm given budget reports/work hours to dispense, and those hours are getting clipped increasingly lower. I'm only saying all this to tell people, it's really not we lowly store managers. Sure, I can slide things around to benefit my departments and their people working them (and I do), but beyond an increasingly finite point, I'm putting my own job at jeopardy.
Bottom line: As long as those customers keep stampeding in to wipe us out, like a fking zombie plague, nothing will ever change. This is how Homo Orifice see it. Every year they see what they've already gotten away with, re hours cut; "Well, we got by with that. Let's see how many MORE we can cut."
Only way any real change is going to come in these situations is when customers stop supporting things the way they are.
I'm lucky that I've been there long enough that I tend to get decent hours. Now the Wal-Mart across the road from us where my sister works,has 23 registers and if you're lucky they might have 7 open. It's usually 3-4 in the evenings with only 3 self-checkouts. They cut hours yet they are slammed all the time.
Krogers managers are not to run registers or build displays. It is in the union book. This is for union workers only. But this has been pointed out to our Union. And proof was printed out what manager was on what register and day time and how long. But the union does nothing. So besides Kroger and there corporate doing not right buy the employee. But the Union is a waste. So speak to the customers and ask them to push the up button.
Krogers does not like it when the customer begins to think and say shame on you. So when your boss or manager threatens you then speak up and say this is harassment and you will talk to a lawyer. Make sure you have time and dates and your union book. Get your fellow employees to file a petition and send it the higher up in Kroger and the union. And let them know you have a had it for the greedy and disrespect for the employee and they are not playing by the rules that are in back and white
Krogers managers are not to run registers or build displays. It is in the union book. This is for union workers only. But this has been pointed out to our Union. And proof was printed out what manager was on what register and day time and how long. But the union does nothing. So besides Kroger and there corporate doing not right buy the employee. But the Union is a waste.
Well before you go blaming the union for supposedly not enforcing the contract, you should open your eyes to the bigger picture.
A) just because your contract says something, does not make it universal across the enterprise. Kroger has a couple dozen union locals; no two contracts are the same, and most actually differ widely.
B) you probably don't know your contract as well as you think you do. While some say mgmt can't do an hourly employee's job period, many, if not most, actually say mgmt just can't be scheduled to do an hourly employee's job, but if there is an emergency, they can fill in themselves if needed. The fact that your union was given proof and did nothing tells me this is probably the case in your contract too.
-- Edited by techelite on Friday 11th of April 2014 11:12:26 PM
Krogers managers are not to run registers or build displays. It is in the union book. This is for union workers only. But this has been pointed out to our Union. And proof was printed out what manager was on what register and day time and how long. But the union does nothing. So besides Kroger and there corporate doing not right buy the employee. But the Union is a waste.
Well before you go blaming the union for supposedly not enforcing the contract, you should open your eyes to the bigger picture.
A) just because your contract says something, does not make it universal across the enterprise. Kroger has a couple dozen union locals; no two contracts are the same, and most actually differ widely.
B) you probably don't know your contract as well as you think you do. While some say mgmt can't do an hourly employee's job period, many, if not most, actually say mgmt just can't be scheduled to do an hourly employee's job, but if there is an emergency, they can fill in themselves if needed. The fact that your union was given proof and did nothing tells me this is probably the case in your contract too.
-- Edited by techelite on Friday 11th of April 2014 11:12:26 PM
if you look at all the contracts they're almost all the same now the union is a joke and has been for at least 15 or so years now. Almost all the union reps know all these store managers and they all go way back that's one reason why nothing gets enforced. Also most of the newer contracts make new hires pay a fee to join the union upfront. So a high turnover is a win win for both the union and kroger new hires last long enough to pay the fee to join then quit shortly after that which means they're gone before kroger has to pay any benefits.
-- Edited by Santino on Saturday 12th of April 2014 12:05:04 AM
What you describe is a problem a majority of us see every day of the week. Kroger is like a lot of other companies out there - the goal is to maximize profits while minimizing expenses. The idea is staff the stores with as few people as possible and then expect those people to not just give 100%, but 300% effort all for minimum wage or slightly above minimum wage. The corporate big-shots don't want to actually staff the stores with the appropriate number of people needed to give Customer 1st service because that would cut into the already obese paychecks and bonuses they get. Instead, managements whines and complains about poor Que-Vision scores, dips and poorly-scoring receipt trackers and pushes for the employees that are scheduled to be capable of multiple talks and able to do the work of two or three people in an effort to get scare people into performing well enough for the stores to "get by" and maintain the illusion that the company is better than the competition in the customer service that it offers.
As long as you work for Kroger, you're going to be underpaid for all the work you're expected to do and subjected to a stressful and hectic environment. This is why you know of people that have left and are planning to leave just like I and others know of people that have left and are planning on leaving. I'm one of them that is planning on leaving. Kroger though doesn't care because the high turn-over rate doesn't phase the company even though it would make better sense to try and retain those that do care and do make an effort and do get positive results. Kroger pushes, pushes and pushes its employees to do more work for a pitiful amount of money and we should not be content to go in every day and work for a company that treats its employees so terribly and lies so heavily to customers. We're better than the kind of people Kroger takes us for and need to realize there are better companies out there to work for.
I guess one should be careful not getting attached/use to people because in the short time i have been at Kroger i have seen numerous people leave....here today and gone tomorrow. I understand there are people that do work hard at there job yet after seeing time and time again the madness Kroger pulls one gets to the point of , " i do what i can" because their is no real enforcement to "continually" DO a good job!
"As long as you work for Kroger, you're going to be underpaid for all the work you're expected to do and subjected to a stressful and hectic environment."
Yea. No ****.
It's not worth $7.25 an hour to bust your ass bringing in carts for an hour that are badly needed because your store is busy but your customers are total morons and make the cart corrals look like a damn broken jigsaw puzzle or weird art deco sculpture, so it takes five minutes just to sort the carts out before you can even grab a row to bring it. It's certainly not worth it to deal with the plastic bags that are supposed to be expandable and hold weight yet every other one of them is as flimsy as saran wrap. It's annoying to have to have only 15 minutes for a single break when you work 4-6 hours, that's not a break, that's a rest period. I could go on. Spills in the store. The other day someone found an ice cream container in the shampoo aisle. THE SHAMPOO AISLE. *sigh*
