So our new operations ASM is trying to get a bunch of people trained as a relief cashier since our front end is screwed up and the front end manager can't write a schedule. It bothers me that she's trying to pull people from their jobs to cover up other crap in the store instead of fixing the main issue. I'm the nutrition lead at my store and have no desire to be a cashier, I never was one to begin with.
So, what if I say no? She can write me up? It's not in my job description and I'll tell her go for it. I don't have any so far and I'm in the union. I'll probably tell her I'll turn her in for stealing time since she leaves early basically every day...I'm not playing games. It'd be different if she wasn't a huge bitch.
If they don't send you to either corporate or another store to get Formally trained, I would refuse to ever run register. They cant make you do a job that you have not been trained to do properly. I am the d/gm backup and they have tried multiple times to make me a relieve cashier. I just tell them straight up "No, I am not gonna be responsible for Cash, especially running a register with a till several other people have already used." You do not want to put yourself in a position when money comes up missing and they try to pin it on you, even though 5 other people also used that register during the day.
If they don't send you to either corporate or another store to get Formally trained, I would refuse to ever run register. They cant make you do a job that you have not been trained to do properly. I am the d/gm backup and they have tried multiple times to make me a relieve cashier. I just tell them straight up "No, I am not gonna be responsible for Cash, especially running a register with a till several other people have already used." You do not want to put yourself in a position when money comes up missing and they try to pin it on you, even though 5 other people also used that register during the day.
Exactly, that's my whole thing. There's too much that can be pinned on you that's out of your hands. Like I have no problem bagging or grabbing carts, but I want nothing to do with that till.
Its funny how SO many stores are in the same situations, but yet no real solutions has been discovered! FE can't hired people, because of the constant workload, pay, but yet FE people are allowed to go to other departments.
I was asked by the store's co-manager to handle the register for fifteen minutes last month as the front end was completely barren of employees. I work in the fuel center and was given no training but I apparently did a good job. Learning the register is not exactly trying to repair a 30 year old VHS player (which I successfully completed after an hour of trying to figure out why a gear was sticking).
The problem is once you learn something, you end up being stuck as the go to person every time the job needs to be done. That's why in my 25+ years of working at Kroger I've never learned to tie the baler because I know every time it needs to be tied I would be the one that they would call.
Its funny how SO many stores are in the same situations, but yet no real solutions has been discovered! FE can't hired people, because of the constant workload, pay, but yet FE people are allowed to go to other departments.
i think their new program is to reduce the front end people and have more self check out machines
Yup, I'm not sure if its reduce (because there's not really anyone working the FE anymore!), but its to allow more "Self Serve". I think its funny, a few years ago it was all about "Service" and having registers open for customers when they wanted to be checkout! I know personally my store could take 2-3 more SCO clusters and most customers would not really care....its all about giving the option. But when they add SCO they need to at least staff the remaining registers well, not just 18 SCO robots and 1-2 registers!
Talk to the union. You're probably out of luck, but how amazing would it be if you didn't have to be a relief cashier?
At my store, a dysfunctional front end is actually destroying the other departments. The departments have to cashier for hours, and then get written up for their departments getting destroyed in the meantime. Next time, they just don't come up and get written up for it. If the front end is hurting enough, they are bullied into becoming cashiers, further robbing their departments. Cashiering sucks and our store can't write schedules either (20 hour weeks? lol), so they quit as soon as they can find something better. Consider that list now includes Walmart, it doesn't take very long. On top of that, we lose A LOT of help failing background checks a few weeks in.
So, now the store is being held up by old timers while new employees just get churned under. And under worse contracts each time.
If I wasn't already a cashier on my way out, I'd steal or reprint receipts and make customer comments about empty departments.
Since you are probably going to have to be a relief cashier, drag your feet and do a terrible job. Do everything wrong and call for a manager all the time. They need to be reluctant to call you up, or else they might force you to leave your department to become a cashier.
