I started working in the Nutrition dept about a month ago, and I'm starting to realize it's more like a management job. Whenever i come in at 2pm, my manager stays for about an hour until all the backstock is done, and when she leaves for the day, I'm by myself basically 'managing' the whole department. Usually my manager will tell me to work the milk, eggs, and yogurt first, finish backstock, or unload deliveries from dairy. Then, at the end of the day, condition the department. Since there is such a high volume of product, I find it rather difficult to accomplish all of this myself. Not to mention, sometimes it gets lonely (with the exception of customers) and boring when I'm not working on a team, so I lose focus easily. Lately Ive been having trouble getting things done, and the managers are starting to notice and 'take' over my department. I'm starting to have anxiety that im going to lose my job, which i cannot afford. My question: how can i do my job better? how can i manage stress on the job so i can get things done? any advice from more experienced nutrition associates would be nice.
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In my store nutrition is only one person. Are you the nutrition lead or not? Sorry I don't know anything about that department, i'm just curious. Were you talking about your produce manager or your nutrition manager?
Seems like that whole falling behind thing does exist in other stores.
Yeah, our nutrition head is like that here. She's the only one on most days. Of course she'll fall behind. Giving someone only eight hours to do the work of basically an entire department (yeah, it's under produce, but with all the crap that goes into it then it might as well be by itself) will just not work out.
i believe the nutrition 'lead' is the same thing as the nutrition manager. the hr coordinator labeled my position as nutrition 'clerk' so im assuming its below the managerial level. the only difference between clerks and leads is they control the markdowns, order products, do business with vendors, responsible for sales goals, and if someone isnt doing their job, the lead is the one responsible for the whole team ( i guess). but for how much the clerks are responsible for, seems like an unrealistic expectation. 80% of my shift im running the dept by myself, during our peak busy hours. by that i mean, doing what im told, getting as much backstock and milk, eggs, yogurt stocked as i can, conditioning displays, and trying to help customers while making sure everything gets done by 10pm. it just doesnt make sense to put a new trainee on the front lines, alone, during busy hours and expect great results. thats just my opinion
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Associate of Applied Business in Webpage Management Technology E-Portfolio Web Site -brandone-portfolio.net84.net/index.html
I do not think Nutrition is that difficult if you stay organized and on top of what needs to be done. What do you mean, "and the managers are starting to notice and 'take' over my department"? The Produce manager or store managers? Are they getting you extra help? Or just making demands of you?
In most Michigan stores, there is only one Nutrition person and they are the Nutrition lead. They take care of the entire Nutrition department.
A month is enough time to know if you are going to sink or swim. You being concerned about not getting enough done means you care about what you are doing. I am confident you will be able to improve your workflow. Find a way to focus on what you need to get done. Know what tasks are most important and get those done first. Then, put the least important at the end.
Do what you are told and try to do your best.
The managers would not have put you in that department if they did not think you could handle it. Getting familiar with the department is normal at first. Then, you can pick up the pace after that.
There were about 50+ bids for Nutrition lead in Michigan last year. I am curious if they are starting to finally hire clerks to help. The nutrition lead at our store has to hustle to get the work done but he is seasoned and has been doing it for a while.
If you are in Mi, do you have a Nutrition lead? What is the 1st 2 letters of their first name?
We had two clerks fill Nutrition bids from our store. One was organized, one I am not sure about. If you got the second one as your lead, I can see why you are having issues...
I never worked nutrition, but I did do dairy for awhile. At first it's kind of hard since there's a ton of product and you have to do everything yourself, so what you want to do is learn what stuff needs to be rotated and what doesn't, it will make your life A LOT easier. Ex: stuff like Chobani blueberry/vanilla/strawberry and Mountain Dairy 2% gallons never need to be rotated since you'll be selling everything on the shelf every day, probably multiple times over, so unless the dates are really far off (one month for yogurt, a week or two for milk, a month or two for butter, month for eggs, etc) just wait for them to sell and then throw them.
If you do that with the wrong items you'll end up missing markdowns so stay conservative, don't keep throwing coconut plain yogurt that expires in two months in front of stuff that expires in a week.
You need to have good prioritization and organizational skills. Generally: Mountain Dairy + QFC gallons > top selling eggs > top selling yogurts > juice (usually the ****tiest part) > other milks > coffee creamers > alternative (soy, coconut, almond) milks > butter > less popular yogurts > everything else. Always be focused on reducing boxes and crates, if you end up having to crate up excess yogurts and juices a lot you're probably throwing stuff too aggressively. I don't usually even bother opening a case unless I can throw everything because if I start opening stuff that won't all fit I'd end up with **** tons of backstock in crates and I have no idea where it is, when it expires, etc and that causes problems when you're trying to meet the target controllable OOS.
When you're about to leave just throw a few more gallon milks and make sure your eggs are faced and thrown and you should be good.
If you can't handle working alone you should try moving to produce or the front end, dairy and, I'm assuming, nutrition are pretty lonely and I've worked shifts where I didn't say anything other than "Can I help you find something?" the entire day. That's fine by me, but if you're more extroverted it's probably ****ty.
Nutrition is the strangest department. They have a little bit of every department really. Organic groceries, organic dairy products, organic drug/general merchandise, organic frozen products, etc. Usually a couple produce guys SHOULD be cross-trained to work nutrition if you ever need a LOT of help. I would flip if I had to work there. Working grocery is so much easier. Nutrition is a lot better than frozen though. I will say that about it. ;)
Total pain in the ass. Get control of your orders. Get control of CAO. Once you get CAO under control (AND YES, YOU WILL NEED TO, THE PREVIOUS CLERK PROBABLY SCREWED IT UP), review every single order with the hand held and the computer. Be proactive about distributions as well. Do not let them pile up. Get the product out, with a sign, it will sell. Make sure the place looks neat, no one will buy stuff from a trash heap.
I was just put in our nutrition dept. It is really messed up. I have worked a week so far and I am ready to say good bye to it!!! There is sooooooooooooooooooooooooo much backstock, I feel like I am drowning. I am by myself also. I have had no training at all. I have never ordered, so I don't know how to do that. I never used a handheld in my other department, except to scan backstock. I feel like a total moron!!! The dept. was totally screwed up before I got it, and right now I am playing catch up. I am the lead clerk, and really the only person! I have someone else who works 2 days a week, but is mad at me for getting the position, so that is not going so well! I did not ask for it, I got it because they ran out of hours in my old dept. They did not tell me I was walking into such a disaster. Nobody has told me what to do or how to do. I want to do a good job, but it is hard when you don't know what you are doing. I have told managers I need help, that I don't know about ordering, but they just say "you can do it". That does not help!!!
So until I can get cao figured out I will be getting a lot more backstock!!!! Nutrition is a full time dept. but they only give you part time hours. For one person, it is a lot to do. At least it is for me right now until I can get the dept straightened out, if I can!! Nobody wanted this dept., I know why now!!!
