Is it possible to do your job so well you hinder yourself from promotion ?

Date: Apr 10, 2013

Is it possible to do your job so well you hinder yourself from promotion ?

Date: Apr 10, 2013

Anonymous wrote:
I'm a courtesy clerk and its been said countless Times by my coworkers and management how good of a worker I am and everything .. Well I wanna be a cashier .. Management knows this but it seems all the other clerks are becoming cashiers before me . Like today , a clerk started training for register .. But she doesn't do anything . You have to beg her to do stuff half the time but she's being trained to be a a cashier .. The customer service manager was talking about it and she said "You , I can't really explain .. Management likes you doing what your doing " I don't really know if I should take that as a compliment or not .. What do you guys think ?

Had the same thing happen to me. You do well in an area that can be hard to find good people in and they promote someone else. You have to be vocal about it and tell them how you feel. Explain to them you are a good worker and starting to lose motivation when you see others getting promoted from beneath you. You don't want to be punished for doing a good job.

There were some openings GM and working there for 8+ years I asked if I could switch as I was getting tired of dairy and all the cons that come with it. The HR lady said they wanted to hire within and she would definitely look into it for me. A few weeks passed and I checked up with her and she said sorry they had already been filled. She told me it would be hard to replace me.... Out of the people they did choose, one was from another store, one had less seniority than me, and one was part time from another store, and had been working with Kroger for a few months up front. I went to the store manager and explained the situation. Luckily the last girl was also a terrible employee and was calling in from being "tired" before she even went fulltime so they gave it to me once I pointed out how unfairly they treated their dependable employees.

Prior to that there were probably 2-3 other times there was an opening I applied for and had the seniority and knowledge to take all the positions, by a landslide. In fact even helping train the person who got the postion how to order, etc since they had no experience. They don't want you to be choosey either. I had my manager ask me if I'd be interested in a dairy manager position at another store and declined. Like a year later when they was a organics position I interviewed for he chose a girl that had just started a few months earlier from upfront. She quit a few months later and the hired someone else even though I showed interest previously. Moral of the story, you must keep on them about it and don't be afraid to ask the union because they don't want to help someone if they think they can get away with it.

Date: Apr 10, 2013

this is a actual buisiness strategy, its called the dilbert principle.

The Dilbert principle refers to a 1990s satirical observation by Dilbert cartoonist Scott Adams stating that companies tend to systematically promote their least-competent employees to management (generally middle management), in order to limit the amount of damage they are capable of doing.

The Dilbert principle, by contrast, assumes that hierarchy just serves as a means for removing the incompetent to "higher" positions where they will be unable to cause damage to the workflow, assuming that the upper echelons of an organization have little relevance to its actual production, and that the majority of real, productive work in a company is done by people lower in the power ladder. An earlier formulation of this effect is known as Putt's Law.

Basically, unless you have a manager that cares about you, your ****ed. I myself being in a position of "working manager", which i wont disclose any further information, had a manager when i was training literally tell me the best information i ever been given. "a good manager wont hold a person back from either what they want, or what is best for them". He shorted his department and ended up running it into the ground when i left cause his assistant was a incompetent ****tard, i spent 3 years doing the assistants job without anyone noticing but him, and he rewarded me and ended up ruining his own image and that of his stores.

Date: Apr 11, 2013

If there's a seniority issue and you're being passed over then you should get the union involved.

Date: Apr 11, 2013

It should go by seniority. Period.

Date: Apr 11, 2013

if that courtesy clerk wasn't senior to you she should not have been promoted to cashier.

i try to encourage people to move up but some just are happy where they are.

however... they might need you where you are because you're experienced and, more importantly, getting things done.

when i'm on the floor i've got to think about who my clerks are. do they have limitations i have to consider. is somebody no call no show?

does someone have to take up the slack and, if so, where? are they prone to wandering off, hiding, not clocking activities or what?

Date: Apr 12, 2013

I had to wait 8 months for them to hire another daytime utility clerk before they moved me up.

Date: Apr 14, 2013

how many hours are you getting a week? Remember if you move up you may get less hours due to seniority. If that is the case can you afford it? Management may be actually watching out for you by not letting you move up until you have enough seniority. Check to see what cashiers have as much seniority as you do and determine how many hours they are getting every week. Can you work with that amount? It can be a bit of a game trying to move up or to other departments. Show that you can do any job around the store and management may move you to another department where you can get more hours and better benifits. In our district and union the two jobs are not the same. Even if shifts are available as a cc and you are classed as a cashier you will not be scheduled or can you work a cc shift for any reason.

Date: Apr 14, 2013

Anonymous wrote:
how many hours are you getting a week? Remember if you move up you may get less hours due to seniority. If that is the case can you afford it? Management may be actually watching out for you by not letting you move up until you have enough seniority. Check to see what cashiers have as much seniority as you do and determine how many hours they are getting every week. Can you work with that amount? It can be a bit of a game trying to move up or to other departments. Show that you can do any job around the store and management may move you to another department where you can get more hours and better benifits. In our district and union the two jobs are not the same. Even if shifts are available as a cc and you are classed as a cashier you will not be scheduled or can you work a cc shift for any reason.

I disagree with this depending on the contact. In some contracts, courtesy clerks get NO senioity. Therefore, the longer it takes for you to "move up," the worse it'll get. As soon as you go to any other department, you will "gain seniority." Therefore, people who have been courtesy clerks for a while may not have any real incentive to change departments. a "promotion" may well be in reality a demotion (less hours, bottom of seniority list).

Date: Apr 15, 2013

Sine you all have a union. It should be straight forward with changing positions. I work in the manufacturing end of things so I am sure our policys are different than yours. For us to change into a new position you usually take a competency test then train for a while before going off on your own shift. What gets me is they encourage cross training where I work, but from the sound of it our stores actually do not. In the end it only hurts the stores if someone calls in or if you get a rush of customers and there are only a couple registers open. I can say most people at the stores around where I live are always nice to me. I usually go shopping on my way home(leave the kroger shirt on) usually makes me think they are taking pity on me lol.

barada · Guru

I was often praised for being the best at my job, , told who they diddn't know how they could ever find someone else to do it as well,yet was passed up for promotion six times.

course, all that praise diddn't stop them from axing me either

yeah, the dilbert prciple is right on

promote the idiots, to put them where they do the least harm

except to those under them, of course