Well it's been a week and between getting called up front for surge and our department being way behind, I've only had three meltdowns LOL! Each day I tell myself this is the last day I'm quitting. I'm past the point of exhaustion, my body aches, my hand is swollen and bruised from repetitive motion, and they keep piling MORE work on me. I hate leaving knowing I didn't get all the work done and coming in the next day with yesterdays work to finish plus another days work. I'm one person. I can't do the work of two or three people in 6 or 7 hours. There is no end in sight. I only switched departments because I was burnt out on the front end. Now I hate being a cashier AND I hate Drug/GM.
I think I'd rather fry chicken and I always thought that would be the worst department - the deli.
Tell the front end super that you can't be on the ****ing register all day. Tell your store manager how much time you've spent up front (write down times) and let him think of something. He may end up firing a couple baggers for calling in too often or write up the Front End Lead if the cashiers aren't meeting ELMS. Hell if you get written up for spending your time up front, just leave. Because someone in your store above you does not care about the customer and likely doesn't care about you either. All of my managers have the 'Customer 1st' philosophy written all over them. They'd **** a brick if someone above you told you to stay off the front when called by management. Welcome to Kroger, where a full schedule on the front is a skeleton crew.
The thing is they call me because I'm the fastest and one of the best cashiers they had. I have different sign in numbers for my department now so they can tell how long I'm on the register. But it doesn't allow for the time it takes me to walk from the back room all the way to the front then back again, only to be called back up front 10 minutes later to ring up ONE CUSTOMER! They need to train the cashiers better. If they are going to call me they need to think about the time it takes me to get up front and see that they can just hustle and ring up one more customer. I did talk to a manager yesterday. She asked what she could do and I told her let me know if she wanted one week or two weeks notice! It was better today, they called other departments for surge but now I'm expected to do all the work I missed the last few days plus todays work then truck tomorrow. Think front end wants to come help me? Hell no!
I feel like I'm still a cashier but they have just added all the extra drug/gm work on me. For the same low pay.
"Each day I tell myself this is the last day I'm quitting."
Hey, me too! Welcome to Kroger! Sometimes I think the ones who actually do quit are the lucky ones.
Just do what you can, don't stress out about what you couldn't get done. (Easier said than done, I know.) Front end ALWAYS tries to suck people into its vortex of despair. Of course people in the front end won't help you - they're stuck in that vortex! Although if you find a bagger doing a sweep or whatnot, you might enlist him/her for a small favor. (They are usually happy for an excuse not to be at the front anyway.) And if management gives you crap about how much work you didn't get done, just explain that you kept getting called to the front, and they need to schedule more people in front end or call literally anyone else who can check up before they call you. Try to remain calm and emphasize these facts.
I know a guy who was GM for the longest time, then became a cashier so he's got the same problem as you; they keep calling him up even when he's scheduled for GM work, and has less time per week to get things done because he's scheduled as cashier on some days as well. He absolutely hates it, he was way happier just as GM, and our best guy back there too. Anyone can check, really, but not everyone can deal with all the chaos in the back. You sound like you might want to go back to cashiering just for the physical aspects; have you talked with management about just doing that from now on? You'd still have to deal with front end, but at least you wouldn't be stuck in the worst of both worlds.
It sounds to me like whoever is in charge of budgeting hours for the front end doesn't know what they're doing. I work at the largest store in my area and the only time you see people from other departments helping up front is during a major holiday like Thanksgiving or Christmas or when there's a snow scare. There's hardly ever any lines and that's because they schedule enough people to get the job done right. Your store sounds like a lot of stores I read about on here: once a checker always a checker. If you really like drug/gm, one thing you could do is inquire about transfering to the drug/gm department at a different store. At least then the people there wouldn't know you know how to check. If not drug/gm, then perhaps some other department at a different store.
They find ways to make one person do two peoples jobs all the time. They recently had to promote two courtesy clerks to cashier because they were using them for surge help but not giving them the promotion and raise. They filed a grievance and won. So now they have found non union employees to abuse. Our courtesy clerks are not allowed to do stocking, only go backs. We have one who they have promised to make a cashier for three months. She keeps being used as a surge checker only. It's really not fair. That just takes hours from the cashiers and the courtesy clerk doesn't get the cashier pay.
i "forgot" how to check most days i'm scheduled in the back. Normally don't hear their calls for help too. eventually the front end started to get more hour... what do ya know about that!
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Would you like fries with th... I mean, your milk in a bag?
i "forgot" how to check most days i'm scheduled in the back. Normally don't hear their calls for help too. eventually the front end started to get more hour... what do ya know about that!
Not trying to be mean but that's part of the reason I get called to the front so much. We have a bakery girl that says she just ignores them when she is paged and so does the girl in nutrition. So they call me.
i "forgot" how to check most days i'm scheduled in the back. Normally don't hear their calls for help too. eventually the front end started to get more hour... what do ya know about that!
Not trying to be mean but that's part of the reason I get called to the front so much. We have a bakery girl that says she just ignores them when she is paged and so does the girl in nutrition. So they call me.
Why not just tell them you're with a customer at the time? make **** up if you have to. screw the front end.
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Would you like fries with th... I mean, your milk in a bag?
All hell is getting ready to break loose after last night. The lazy floor supervisor told me I had to come up and give a cashier a 30 minute break. WTF? I paged a manager, no answer. I saw the FEM and asked her about it and she got mad and said I shouldn't be talking in front of customers. The floor supervisor continually called me up front so she wouldn't have to be on a register. I don't have time to cashier for her so she can stand around and talk to the other cashiers. She was even on a register, had two customers, and sent one of them to my line so she wouldn't have to check them out. Then I saw the FEM and the Floor Supervisor down by Guest Services standing there staring at me. WTF?
I finally got off the register and went into the backroom and there was the Nutrition Lead madder than hell. She said the FEM just came back and gave her hell about not coming up front when paged. Thing is, they aren't ever really that busy up front. I can see if they are swamped, call us. But I get paged, go up front, and there are two or three customers, three cashiers, a floor supervisor and a FEM. That's 4 to 1. They page ME!!
I think the floor supervisor is just mad because they asked her to step down a couple of weeks ago and be a cashier. Maybe this is her way of fighting back by refusing to be on the register.
All hell is getting ready to break loose after last night. The lazy floor supervisor told me I had to come up and give a cashier a 30 minute break. WTF? I paged a manager, no answer. I saw the FEM and asked her about it and she got mad and said I shouldn't be talking in front of customers. The floor supervisor continually called me up front so she wouldn't have to be on a register. I don't have time to cashier for her so she can stand around and talk to the other cashiers. She was even on a register, had two customers, and sent one of them to my line so she wouldn't have to check them out. Then I saw the FEM and the Floor Supervisor down by Guest Services standing there staring at me. WTF?
I finally got off the register and went into the backroom and there was the Nutrition Lead madder than hell. She said the FEM just came back and gave her hell about not coming up front when paged. Thing is, they aren't ever really that busy up front. I can see if they are swamped, call us. But I get paged, go up front, and there are two or three customers, three cashiers, a floor supervisor and a FEM. That's 4 to 1. They page ME!!
I think the floor supervisor is just mad because they asked her to step down a couple of weeks ago and be a cashier. Maybe this is her way of fighting back by refusing to be on the register.
see what i mean? screw the front end. they dig their own hole let them sleep in it
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Would you like fries with th... I mean, your milk in a bag?
All hell is getting ready to break loose after last night. The lazy floor supervisor told me I had to come up and give a cashier a 30 minute break. WTF? I paged a manager, no answer. I saw the FEM and asked her about it and she got mad and said I shouldn't be talking in front of customers. The floor supervisor continually called me up front so she wouldn't have to be on a register. I don't have time to cashier for her so she can stand around and talk to the other cashiers. She was even on a register, had two customers, and sent one of them to my line so she wouldn't have to check them out. Then I saw the FEM and the Floor Supervisor down by Guest Services standing there staring at me. WTF?
I finally got off the register and went into the backroom and there was the Nutrition Lead madder than hell. She said the FEM just came back and gave her hell about not coming up front when paged. Thing is, they aren't ever really that busy up front. I can see if they are swamped, call us. But I get paged, go up front, and there are two or three customers, three cashiers, a floor supervisor and a FEM. That's 4 to 1. They page ME!!
I think the floor supervisor is just mad because they asked her to step down a couple of weeks ago and be a cashier. Maybe this is her way of fighting back by refusing to be on the register.
Your front end sounds like it's completely mismanaged. The only time they should ever need to call for extra help is during a holiday or some type of weather emergency. They're trying to rob Peter to pay Paul. It doesn't work. What store do you work at? It would interesting to go there and see just how bad it is.
Anonymous wrote:Your front end sounds like it's completely mismanaged. The only time they should ever need to call for extra help is during a holiday or some type of weather emergency. They're trying to rob Peter to pay Paul. It doesn't work.
I'm guessing you're one of those people who work at a store that does well on 1+1 and just assume that it's because people at stores which don't do so well simply are either lazy or incompetent, or both. While occasionally that may be the case, most of the time you'd be dead wrong.
All hell is getting ready to break loose after last night. The lazy floor supervisor told me I had to come up and give a cashier a 30 minute break. WTF? I paged a manager, no answer. I saw the FEM and asked her about it and she got mad and said I shouldn't be talking in front of customers. The floor supervisor continually called me up front so she wouldn't have to be on a register. I don't have time to cashier for her so she can stand around and talk to the other cashiers. She was even on a register, had two customers, and sent one of them to my line so she wouldn't have to check them out. Then I saw the FEM and the Floor Supervisor down by Guest Services standing there staring at me. WTF?
I finally got off the register and went into the backroom and there was the Nutrition Lead madder than hell. She said the FEM just came back and gave her hell about not coming up front when paged. Thing is, they aren't ever really that busy up front. I can see if they are swamped, call us. But I get paged, go up front, and there are two or three customers, three cashiers, a floor supervisor and a FEM. That's 4 to 1. They page ME!!
I think the floor supervisor is just mad because they asked her to step down a couple of weeks ago and be a cashier. Maybe this is her way of fighting back by refusing to be on the register.
Be firm with the supervisors. Demand to speak to a manager if they ask you to be up front 30 minutes. Never clean up their messes. That's what the baggers are there for. And never, and I mean never, stay up front if you see a cashier getting off break chatting it up with the FES. If you want to be really anal about it, stay up front, record the time, how long they chat, and tell a manager that someone is stealing time. Again, that's *if* you want to be anal about it.
