I am employed with King Soopers and have been for a little over a year and a half. Before that, I "worked" for Walmart for a year, then after a long unemployment period, Target, before finally ending up in the Kroger Co. As a bakery clerk, I was started out doing 8-4:30 shifts, which is typically the "manager" shift without even realizing it because my manager at the time was down a cake decorator and needed to fill in, so naturally I got her shifts since her Assistant Bakery Manager was out on LOA. I was taught how to perform the CAP and Residual Scans (except back then it was called Backstock Review), properly follow the CAP report and put away backstock, and picked up on it fairly quickly. The Assistant position was mentioned to me, and once the wage was made known to me, I was all for it. Upper management also began to notice I did pretty well, and started pushing me to get promoted, saying they were gonna get me on "the fast track." Then, began to learn how to bake (which is by far my favorite shift), close, and the early morning icing shift. Even icing cupcakes, creating, packaging, and labeling all of the cake decorator's product, though I never did get the hang of decorating. Eventually I was taught how to upload the order for the department, occasionally wrote it when I baked or iced, got to write our schedule a couple times, learned how to do inventory, make signs, change ad, reset the department's schematics, and E40 out our product to other departments or stores, and was generally able to complete every shift's amount of work in five hours or less efficiently. The Assistant Store Manager pushing me to get promoted got demoted, and the Bakery Coordinator that wanted to promote me ended up getting promoted to Store Manager herself. That, and the fact that I eventually cut ties with my estranged father and his wife with whom I lived left me sleeping in my car and staying at hotels when I could save enough money (you know, since rent for a 1 bedroom apartment in CO is about 1400/mo) I was truly hurting for money and lost hope. I then took it upon myself to pester my store manager about the promotion daily, especially when the new Bakery Assistant Manager they had brought in no-call no-showed on Valentines Day, leaving me to dip and package at least a thousand chocolate covered strawberries alone. When the answers he was giving me weren't anything more than vague comments, I decided to go over him and speak directly to the new coordinator as well as the Human Resources lady in corporate. I did get the position, and am now living on a 1 bedroom apartment, able to pay my bills, and it's nice. The real kicker is when I got promoted, they said I had to be transferred, ironically to harder, busier store and working over the cake decorator who transfered out of my old store to get promoted herself. That has been a nightmare all itself, but now I'm wondering if I had pissed off my old store manager enough to have me sent to this new store, where my new store manager and him are friends, and I'm the boss of a bitter coworker so I could get sabotaged. I've been getting write ups left and right for petty things, my clean record is now tarnished. Every assistant store manager in my new store, and even my coordinator have told me I'm doing a good job, but this man is impossible to please no matter what I do, especially when my cake decorator is present, since they've worked together for years, bull**** and joke together, I know she gets satisfaction watching me get ripped up on the salesfloor. I've thought about transferring to another location, one closer to my house, though I'm not sure how likely it is that I will. I just wanted to post this to vent, and see if you guys had any opinions, thoughts, or advice to share. I appreciate any input you may have.
Being sent to another store is more than common for managers and supervisors. They tend to get shuffled around quite a bit so I wouldn't really look at that as a result of pissing someone off. Whoever is writing you up just doesn't like you. If your doing your job exactly the right way, than there should be no reason for a write-up. If they still try to anyways, remember you don't have to accept it.
Well, I was told that I would possibly get transferred out when promoted because it's more difficult to take on an authoritative role above the people you once considered equals, but the store I was in, 1/2 of the department heads were promoted in-store. Plus, as a clerk my team at my old store already respected me as a leader and did their jobs, my new team however consists of an ex-bakery manager who is bitter towards the company and finds any loophole she possibly can to make me feel incompetent or not do her job and a group of young people who don't care about their jobs or doing a good job. It's especially funny because I was moved to a store where my old cake decorator worked. So everyone already had some form of preconceived opinion of me before showing up. Her bitterness towards me has subsided and she does her job well, but I'm sure without a doubt my other clerks don't respect me because I took "her" position. And I'm starting to think that the store manager having me written up doesn't like me because they are friends with my old store manager. The things I'm being written up for aren't wrong, but in my opinion a bit unnecessary. Regardless, if I weren't to accept the write up, my Union Rep would come in to fight a losing battle because I'm being disciplined for job technicalities.
Keep doing your job to the best of your abilities. If your coordinator likes you and says your doing a good job, that's a good sign. Keep it up and hopefully you'll get transferred to another store soon. At least in my area, department heads get moved around quite a bit too. You might move on to a better store soon!
My management team seems to be very fond of my work ethic and they have wanted me on that metaphorical "fast track" as well but I have been hesitant because being a part of management almost requires a loss of perspective and requires even more blind devotion to the company and to arbitrary rules that only make life more complicated. You almost have to become a robot, a good Kroger robot.
I'm technically just a checker but because of people quitting out of the blue, transferring or getting fired, I've had to learn Fuel Center and Service Desk in a matter of a few weeks. They have even begun to show me managerial tasks and the logistics behind them all because they want to. Funny thing is, they keep telling me that I'm the best candidate for management because of my temperament but I'm the only one who doesn't want it. I have two less qualified, less tenured people whom have already submitted their managerial interest papers but the writing is on the wall with how well they would do. I, supposedly the "best candidate" do not want it.
Unfortunately, I think you are just a victim of circumstance. For what ever reason, at your current position, your superiors do not like you and will write you up for the most minor conceived infraction. Yet if you were to watch them performing their tasks, I'm sure you would find that they are not doing everything 100% right. Drunk with power is what they are.
Your situation sort of necessitated that you got a promotion but my best advice would be to stay true to who you are. If you are honestly doing a great job and doing it the way that got you praise before, keep at it. If the situation gets much worse, transfer or even quit and find a new job.
I commend you for stepping into a high position relatively quickly. Mentally, I don't think that I could do it. I would feel as though I've lost too much of myself.
Thank you guys for the positive words. I find myself becoming more of a robot, which is difficult for me because of my connection with the people who work for me. It's become my job to discipline them when they aren't getting things done, knowing they are working their butts off. It's terrible, almost inhumane. I do my best to guide them and reassure them they're doing a good job when I see fit. I know I can be a good manager, because of my temperament and mental fortitude and my generally positive attitude, the people above me and the heads of the company make it so difficult sometimes. The company is desperate for people to step up in management roles, yet as soon as they say that they begin changing the standards, raising the expectations, and generally cracking down on everyone and everything they see fit, which applies more stress and pressure to everyone in the store. I guess they want the right people for the job, but anyone, no matter how good they do their job or how long they've been doing it can possibly succumb to the mental deterioration of morale and self worth at this point. At least one department head is stepping down a day in this company. That's sad.
