So as a courtesy clerk, today I was unlucky enough to be bagging for my manager.
This is the same manager whom I have written about both underneath this account and anonymous who wrote me up for insubordination about two months ago when it was accused that I had raised my voice to a supervisor. I had been out in the parking lot moving carts in the heat (90s), humidity, it was a busy day and we were running extremely low, I had no help on my side...etc.etc. typical Kroger day. So this isn't about that, this is about the attitude of this manager. She is the one who told me in the write-up meeting "You could leave today and we would be okay with that." I already wrote up about that -- basically, she meant it in a 'We will leave on a good note' remark but the literal from her was clearly there as well. In other words, this is the b-i-t-c-h who doesn't care that I am working for her or not.
Anyway I got unlucky enough to be bagging for her working as cashier. Now I have been courtesy clerk for five months and do my job well. I'm one of the faster 'baggers' we have. I am also attentive, thorough and pay attention to detail. But this manager, whom in the past has informed me she has been with Kroger 'for more than 20 years', loves to watch anyone bagging for her and make constructive criticism remarks. For example, I have a habit of double-bagging two-liter drinks when I put two of them in a bag, because if you put two together, the bag is heavy. And as anyone who works Front End can tell you (besides my b---h manager), Kroger bags absolutely suck. They are the worst. They tear easily, they rip, they stick together, they are crap. And I know this both from being a bagger and from personal experience bagging my own groceries and having the bags tear while in transit and on arrival.
So she is telling not to do this, I could do that better, all trying to do it with voice lowered WHILE THE CUSTOMER IS THERE. But wait! There's more. The last time this happened -- thankfully it has been more than two months since I got unlucky enough to pull bagger with her -- I tried to question her, and she threatened to write me up (even send me home at one point) for questioning her in front of a customer! Double standard, isn't it lovely? She can say it to me but if I so much as deviate from anything she suggests I am in trouble.
She is one of those 'my way or f-u-c-k you way' managers. I have told the newer cc's whom I have gotten to know that with this manager, if she does that with you, just nod your head, agree, do what you can and move from her as soon as you can. Look, I know I'm whining. I know this isn't really that interesting. But I am good at what I do and I make squat for it with little recognition. If I asked a customer, straight out, "Hey, is it okay to double-bag your drinks because I'm not sure the bag will hold if I don't" do you really think the customer is going to have a problem? And with all these crap bags that end up ripping, tearing, etc. one bag isn't going to make a difference. This is a single instance, but hopefully I managed to get my point across. That I already get pulled in a 360 degree circle, have the stress of trying to figure out when I can go on break, how soon until I 'm in the parking lot, how much will I have to do then, do I have a chance at gobacks...all this crap...and here I get more from this manager. And I know I am not the only person whom has ever felt uncomfortable with her, multiple employees have had similar stories from her in the past. How the hell she manages to stay in Kroger I have no idea. Oh wait yes I do. Kroger has her soul at corporate headquarters in a jar with all the others souls it has collected.
And if that was not bad enough, I had to do parking lot twice, one three hours before 11 pm. and then from 10 p.m. - 11 p.m. to close the lot. The OTHER manager, the one that's more or less the same level as this woman mentioned, the same manager whom was sitting in on that write-up meeting and didn't blink an eye when she made her remarks, micro-managed me BOTH times. First to tell me to get carts on the side of the store, so I did. I'm the only one out there, you want the job done, but sure whatever. THEN when I am clearing the parking lot he calls down to the FES on duty and tells her that there are carts outside the pharmacy entrance on the OTHER side of the store. I know there is nothing there because I JUST CAME from that side clearing everything. Still I waste five minutes going there and checking. I took a picture with my cell phone and went inside to show her that yep, i was right, nothing was there, and I just wasted five minutes on a job that I know is going to take 35-40 at least in total checking what this person said was there that wasn't there.
Jeezus. I feel like I am working in Office Space. I try not to think about while I am at work that I have several FES that I report to. I try not to think about all the poor communication issues. I try not to think about all this crap. But when the micro management starts to clash with what you want me to do for you as a job, you either have to take what the results are or shut the hell up, stand back and let me do what you know that I can do! *sigh*
Find out what kind of car she drives and then slash or have someone slash her tires. Just make sure you/they wear a disguise and you park your car far enough away so the cameras don't catch your car leaving the parking lot.
Find out what kind of car she drives and then slash or have someone slash her tires. Just make sure you/they wear a disguise and you park your car far enough away so the cameras don't catch your car leaving the parking lot.
lolwut
Terrible idea, we had a disgruntled employee take a **** on one of our manager's cars once and he was found out pretty easily.
Find out what kind of car she drives and then slash or have someone slash her tires. Just make sure you/they wear a disguise and you park your car far enough away so the cameras don't catch your car leaving the parking lot.
I just avoid her as best as possible when I see her working on the register. I know every time I bag for her, it won't matter what I do, it's never going to be good enough for her.
She is always going to find something wrong and it will always be her way or no way at all. She has the authority to write me up for the dumbest or most frivolous reasons and to send me home for the same. Basically my complaining was based out of stress from her, I don't need to feel like I have to look over my shoulder or feel nervous or like I could screw up just because she is standing there watching me with her eagle eyes. I know I am good at what I do, I don't need her trying to take down my confidence, throw me off 'my game' or make me feel inadequate just because if I don't do as she says I could be terminated or sent home. But she is indeed a b-i-t-c-h, I know for a fact other employees, including courtesy clerks, have had similar experiences with her.
Besides, dude --- if someone slashes her tires, that means she will have to be at the store longer. I want her to be able to leave as soon as she wants to!
-- Edited by FrontEndSlave on Monday 28th of July 2014 01:25:24 AM
my advice to you.. get a new job. It sounds to me like they didn't fully explain the manager/employee relationship in your training classes. It is rude to question a managers authority. They don't bust their rears 10 hours a day with little to no down time to eat or take a break for your smug ass to question them training you. Grow up or get a job where someone can hold your hand and tell you it will all be ok. Managers who actually take some damn time to correct you or explain to you a better way to do something are far better than the ones who continue to allow you to screw up until you do something so crappy you cant save your job in the end.
I'm a cashier and I double bag 2 liters as well. It just makes the bag easier to carry when there's 2 in a bag. At my store, everybody double bags the 2 liters. Sounds like she's full of it. If I were you, I'd go to a higher level manager and explain the situation.
my advice to you.. get a new job. It sounds to me like they didn't fully explain the manager/employee relationship in your training classes. It is rude to question a managers authority. They don't bust their rears 10 hours a day with little to no down time to eat or take a break for your smug ass to question them training you. Grow up or get a job where someone can hold your hand and tell you it will all be ok. Managers who actually take some damn time to correct you or explain to you a better way to do something are far better than the ones who continue to allow you to screw up until you do something so crappy you cant save your job in the end.
Wow. Where did that come from?
I double bag the two-liters because as someone else pointed out, they are heavy and easier to carry.
I am thinking of the customer and I am thinking of Kroger. If the customer doesn't have to worry about or doesn't have the bag break because Kroger's products are crap (in this case, their cheap plastic bags) then Kroger does not get any complaints or calls about it.
This same manager also told me "You cant put glass on the bottom because that is dangerous" and told me that I have to stand glass items up when I put them in the bags. Well, that's fine, but my manager is apparently so sought-in to Kroger that she ignores a little thing called gravity. Nine times out of ten even when I try to do it carefully as soon as I put a bag of an item into a grocery cart, let's say spaghetti sauce as an example, the damn thing falls over on its side. And if I am extra-super-duper-special careful and go slowly and try to make sure it stands back up, I am delaying the rest of the items to put into bags. I can't win.
kitty you must be FES or something. You already have the attitude for it.
I double bag the two-liters because as someone else pointed out, they are heavy and easier to carry.
I am thinking of the customer and I am thinking of Kroger. If the customer doesn't have to worry about or doesn't have the bag break because Kroger's products are crap (in this case, their cheap plastic bags) then Kroger does not get any complaints or calls about it.
This same manager also told me "You cant put glass on the bottom because that is dangerous" and told me that I have to stand glass items up when I put them in the bags. Well, that's fine, but my manager is apparently so sought-in to Kroger that she ignores a little thing called gravity. Nine times out of ten even when I try to do it carefully as soon as I put a bag of an item into a grocery cart, let's say spaghetti sauce as an example, the damn thing falls over on its side. And if I am extra-super-duper-special careful and go slowly and try to make sure it stands back up, I am delaying the rest of the items to put into bags. I can't win.
kitty you must be FES or something. You already have the attitude for it.
That manager doesn't know what she's talking about. Whenever I buy 2 liter soft drinks, I always double bag them because the handles always break if you don't. As far as not putting glass items on the bottom, if you put them on top, they're more likely to fall out and break. If the jars are always falling over, then you need to put some boxed items in with them if possible to act as walls.
So as a courtesy clerk, today I was unlucky enough to be bagging for my manager.
This is the same manager whom I have written about both underneath this account and anonymous who wrote me up for insubordination about two months ago when it was accused that I had raised my voice to a supervisor. I had been out in the parking lot moving carts in the heat (90s), humidity, it was a busy day and we were running extremely low, I had no help on my side...etc.etc. typical Kroger day. So this isn't about that, this is about the attitude of this manager. She is the one who told me in the write-up meeting "You could leave today and we would be okay with that." I already wrote up about that -- basically, she meant it in a 'We will leave on a good note' remark but the literal from her was clearly there as well. In other words, this is the b-i-t-c-h who doesn't care that I am working for her or not.
Anyway I got unlucky enough to be bagging for her working as cashier. Now I have been courtesy clerk for five months and do my job well. I'm one of the faster 'baggers' we have. I am also attentive, thorough and pay attention to detail. But this manager, whom in the past has informed me she has been with Kroger 'for more than 20 years', loves to watch anyone bagging for her and make constructive criticism remarks. For example, I have a habit of double-bagging two-liter drinks when I put two of them in a bag, because if you put two together, the bag is heavy. And as anyone who works Front End can tell you (besides my b---h manager), Kroger bags absolutely suck. They are the worst. They tear easily, they rip, they stick together, they are crap. And I know this both from being a bagger and from personal experience bagging my own groceries and having the bags tear while in transit and on arrival.
So she is telling not to do this, I could do that better, all trying to do it with voice lowered WHILE THE CUSTOMER IS THERE. But wait! There's more. The last time this happened -- thankfully it has been more than two months since I got unlucky enough to pull bagger with her -- I tried to question her, and she threatened to write me up (even send me home at one point) for questioning her in front of a customer! Double standard, isn't it lovely? She can say it to me but if I so much as deviate from anything she suggests I am in trouble.
She is one of those 'my way or f-u-c-k you way' managers. I have told the newer cc's whom I have gotten to know that with this manager, if she does that with you, just nod your head, agree, do what you can and move from her as soon as you can. Look, I know I'm whining. I know this isn't really that interesting. But I am good at what I do and I make squat for it with little recognition. If I asked a customer, straight out, "Hey, is it okay to double-bag your drinks because I'm not sure the bag will hold if I don't" do you really think the customer is going to have a problem? And with all these crap bags that end up ripping, tearing, etc. one bag isn't going to make a difference. This is a single instance, but hopefully I managed to get my point across. That I already get pulled in a 360 degree circle, have the stress of trying to figure out when I can go on break, how soon until I 'm in the parking lot, how much will I have to do then, do I have a chance at gobacks...all this crap...and here I get more from this manager. And I know I am not the only person whom has ever felt uncomfortable with her, multiple employees have had similar stories from her in the past. How the hell she manages to stay in Kroger I have no idea. Oh wait yes I do. Kroger has her soul at corporate headquarters in a jar with all the others souls it has collected.
And if that was not bad enough, I had to do parking lot twice, one three hours before 11 pm. and then from 10 p.m. - 11 p.m. to close the lot. The OTHER manager, the one that's more or less the same level as this woman mentioned, the same manager whom was sitting in on that write-up meeting and didn't blink an eye when she made her remarks, micro-managed me BOTH times. First to tell me to get carts on the side of the store, so I did. I'm the only one out there, you want the job done, but sure whatever. THEN when I am clearing the parking lot he calls down to the FES on duty and tells her that there are carts outside the pharmacy entrance on the OTHER side of the store. I know there is nothing there because I JUST CAME from that side clearing everything. Still I waste five minutes going there and checking. I took a picture with my cell phone and went inside to show her that yep, i was right, nothing was there, and I just wasted five minutes on a job that I know is going to take 35-40 at least in total checking what this person said was there that wasn't there.
Jeezus. I feel like I am working in Office Space. I try not to think about while I am at work that I have several FES that I report to. I try not to think about all the poor communication issues. I try not to think about all this crap. But when the micro management starts to clash with what you want me to do for you as a job, you either have to take what the results are or shut the hell up, stand back and let me do what you know that I can do! *sigh*
If a manager wants you to do a pointless task, then go ahead and do it. You get paid by the hour. If your manager decides that they want you to mop up rain for $7.30, then that's fine. Because somewhere down the road a certain task will not be complete and then the store manager or a co-manager will be on her ass about it.
I double bag the two-liters because as someone else pointed out, they are heavy and easier to carry.
I am thinking of the customer and I am thinking of Kroger. If the customer doesn't have to worry about or doesn't have the bag break because Kroger's products are crap (in this case, their cheap plastic bags) then Kroger does not get any complaints or calls about it.
This same manager also told me "You cant put glass on the bottom because that is dangerous" and told me that I have to stand glass items up when I put them in the bags. Well, that's fine, but my manager is apparently so sought-in to Kroger that she ignores a little thing called gravity. Nine times out of ten even when I try to do it carefully as soon as I put a bag of an item into a grocery cart, let's say spaghetti sauce as an example, the damn thing falls over on its side. And if I am extra-super-duper-special careful and go slowly and try to make sure it stands back up, I am delaying the rest of the items to put into bags. I can't win.
kitty you must be FES or something. You already have the attitude for it.
That manager doesn't know what she's talking about. Whenever I buy 2 liter soft drinks, I always double bag them because the handles always break if you don't. As far as not putting glass items on the bottom, if you put them on top, they're more likely to fall out and break. If the jars are always falling over, then you need to put some boxed items in with them if possible to act as walls.
That's a part of what she was trying to tell me, I think, was 'walls'. But she is still blind to the reality that the Kroger plastic bags suck. I can't tell you how many times I pull one open and another comes with it, or I am putting groceries in and the bag randomly rips, or something like that. During this same time period ol' Eagle Eyes told me that I could put more than just two cereal boxes in a single bag. Yea. Uh-huh. Okay. So I'm going to make the cereal boxes as 'walls' and put items in between them. That's fine, but these bags are not made out of the same material as a Slinky. If I use cereal boxes as walls and try to put in between, I'm hopefully going to have only two more items, at the most, because as soon as I push those two cereal boxes and make them a left and right wall that bag is going to start to stretch and snap.
Like I said, she has fallen so deeply into the Kroger way of thinking that she can not see anything related to reality. She only sees what she knows to be trained or is in a manual. I avoid her like she is an undead zombie. And I have no doubts she will try to bite.
Do what your manager asks of you. Sounds like they're pushing your buttons hoping you'll quit.
My guess is they're having trouble with people not getting the lot clear. Once you establish yourself as trustworthy they'll question you less. Given some of your posts here you're manager is probably not high on you. One way to change that is to do what they ask.
Don't do the typical "Im busting myself for peanuts routine" that many CCs do. We've heard it before. Many of wish our only job was to have to deal with go backs, bag, or push carts. If it sucks that bad quit. Heck, try hang out and not work just like office space. Maybe they'll promote you!
You're thinking task-orientedly. Whether the bag can hold. Whether it's going to rip. Whether making walls is good or bad. You can't think like that. What if a customer demands of you what the manager is? Answer: you do it. You give in to most customer requests and demands even if they're stupid, inefficient, phrased impolitely, even if you don't get paid enough, even if you have much better ideas. Because that's what people-oriented jobs, i.e. customer service in retail, are all about. You're going to have pressure from multiple directions and stress from multiple sources. You might even see what your manager is doing as a sort of on the job training. Maybe they're testing you to see if you're fit for a promotion. Or maybe you can see it as testing yourself, to see if this kind of work is really what you want to be doing. It's not for everybody.
Unmarried older women make bad managers, life has beat her down and turned her into a nagging hag. With no man wanting to be with her she outlets her misery on underlings at work
