So I have been a lead floral clerk for over half of my life. This company was, at one time, a great place to work. My department has great numbers- #1 in sales in my district every week. #1 in overall yearly sales. One of the few that show a positive contribution in profit- and contributing thousands of dollars bottom line. Very low shrink- often negative shrink. Consistently good conditions in the department. Our customers love us, and say that we're the best florist in town.
I was told by my manager today that floral hours are being cut company wide. The company has re-evaluated the budgeting, and we, apparently, aren't up to par to earn the measly hours that we were already budgeted. We are usually budgeted 92 hours. This will decrease to 84 hours. The highest tier in sales is $10,000 per average, not including holidays, and NO store has that. Our average is $8,800 per week, not including holidays. Last years total sales in my floral department were right at half a million dollars.
The thing is- we already use around 112 hours per week. Our manager sees the need for that many hours, and we do what we have to do. And our sales are up 25% average over last year.
I guess I feel defeated. I have built a business for Kroger. I care about my work. My team and I do our best to grow sales. This latest move will hurt the floral departments throughout the company. And, get this: smaller volume stores will have their lead floral position eliminated. It will go to a 26 hour per week part-time position.
I only have a couple more years until retirement. I wish it were sooner.
its just not floral, all the dept's hours are cut, what a great way to "uplift" our associates and provide our customers service by cutting hours, yay!
You have to understand the priorities of the real powers behind this, the OnePercenters. Among those priorities are to cut everyone down to part time, bust the union, make slaves of virtually everyone they can, and have us all groveling on minimum wage.
And they'll get away with most of this, too, because we're talking about unskilled labor---in a time when even the professionally educacated and licensed white collar jobs are being sent over seas.
Oh it's happening in all departments, and as sales numbers decrease (due to understaffing obviously) then ELMS hours are cut even more. it's a vicious cycle.
This is exactly the reason all Department Leaders are feeling defeated. You have busted your behind for years, most likely always doing/working whatever you need to do. Your being told to always work harder after already killing yourself. So if your the high volume store in your area, what are other stores being allowed to schedule? It appears you have 1 person coverage all day, without overlap, which I'm guessing is now the floral "standard".
This is why department heads/back-ups are stepping down more and more.
This is why I REFUSE to let them promote me (more than once to ACSM when I was on the front end, and now, to ClickList Lead, a department I've been in for awhile now).
Kroger doesn't care about the needs of the department or the resources department heads/leads need. They set you up to fail.
No thanks, don't need it. I'm nearly topped out and at full time. I'm happy with my pay and don't want or need the extra stress for a little extra money.
Im the Nutrition Lead at my store, I do about 60k a week, and whenever management tries to tell me anything, I just point out the percent effective report. Dairy and overnight/daytime grocery can overschedule and use up most of grocery hours, dont blame me if stuff doesnt get done. They get quiet real fast.
Actually, Nutrition sales actually include items in every aisle, even for the stores not "integrated". Unless you stock all the ST items in the aisle and all the other "organic" items in the aisle, your including others work inside of yours.
Actually... ELMs shows you what tasks are done for a department every day Down to the hour. With ELMS you get forecasted a certain amount of hours. This is a combination of the tasks that need to be done in the department and the sales of said department.
So when my Hours get cut and go to other departments of grocery , and my percent effective exceeds 100%, then no Im not including other peoples work.
It also depends on how they have the hours flowing in ELMS/eScheudler and how the associates are being scheduled, all nutrition/organic items report under Nutrition. Most likely the grocery department is stocking all the organic items that have been cut into the normal aisles, even if your store is not integrated nutrition. For 60k in sales, I'm guessing ELMS might call for 30-50 hours total.
Well folks- here I am almost a year later. My average weekly sales for last year, minus holiday weeks where we do extra sales but get no hours added for the majority of those holidays (Valentine's day and Mother's day are the exceptions) is over $10,000. That's right folks, over the highest mark for floral hours. enough to get me back to 112 hours per week according to our companies own guidelines. My department has actually been using close to 112 hours per week anyways, because my unit manager realizes that we can't maintain standards and sales on less. So our district manager has a fit about stores going over budget on hours, not just my floral department but many stores and departments district wide. So, according to some powers that be, my average is way less than my figures (which are correct) and I only merit 84 hours per week. I am not looking for a favor with hours, just looking to use the hours recommended by ELMS. someone up the road has some common core, fuzzy voo-doo math. I am dealing with real numbers on my end. I am so disgusted with my company, which I have made my career. All the talk about uplifting associates is a smokescreen. You can bet that any time a new program is rolled out, changes are coming that you won't like. I am still trying to prove my case to anyone who is willing to stand up for me, but so far I have not found that person.
Kroger stock was down about 10% today. They are cutting help in the store and giving it to the e-commerce side of the business. Sales in the store account for 99% of the busines, what did they think would happen.
Good luck finding anyone to listen or care. This week has made me realize more than ever, just how unappreciated I am at my job. For a year and a half, we've had staffing problems in my store. Especially in my department, and our meat department. Yet again (for the 3rd time) I had someone quit with no notice, screwing up my schedule big time. But does our district ops manager care? Nope, he expects 85% standard at all times no matter what. We physically can't keep up. I used to like my job, even with all the stress I liked the job itself, but this week i've realized that they've now taken that away from me.
This guy is an a**hole. He's not me on this "action plan" and if he doesn't see improvement, idk, is he going to get me demoted? I've given 7 years of my life to this company. The day my dad had a heart attack, as we were calling 911, my thought was "i have to call into work".... How pathetic that as my dad is dying i'm worried about work. ****, the only 2 days I've called off in the last like 3 year was the day he had a heart attack and then the day he passed away, I worked ALL the days in between but is it enough for them? No. It's NEVER enough. I've probably deep down secretly resented this company since then but as the pressure builds i'm noticing it more and more.
Every day he wants pictures of our tables sent to him to see if we're at standard. So every single hole I have on the shelf is getting nitpicked. When you only have 2 people scheduled a day, or maybe no one in your department after 3pm, how is this possible?? But don't dare mention staffing to him, because "that's no excuse".
