A month ago I had requested my vacation week to be scheduled for this coming week. The CSM said, oh sure, I've got ya. I mean, this is my first time requesting a vacation, so I assumed everything's good when they say it's good.
Two weeks ago, I see (on the eSchedule/greatpeople site) that I was scheduled to WORK on the week I had requested the vacation. So I was like, well wtf, is that normal. I went and asked CSM about it. They told me, "don't worry about it." I took their word for it. That I shouldn't worry.
The paper schedule for this coming wasn't posted on the wall until today. And guess what, nothing changed, I am still scheduled to work. So I go and mention this to an ACSM, who then phones the CSM, who had already went home, and apparently someone else with higher seniority had already taken my vacation week.
What I don't understand is... why tell me not to worry about it, when I should have been worrying about it? Why didn't you let me know right then and there that the week wouldn't be available? I knew, I knew something was wrong when I kept checking ExpressHR and it still listed my vacation hours as not taken. Why did I think my first vacation request would go smoothly? I should have known better. I should have known there would be games.
Wait, you're in Cincy division, which means that the vacation calendar should have been posted in January. Someone with seniority shouldn't have been taking it, because their vacations should have been picked months ago too....
Vacation calendar? I think I remember seeing something like that. But no one explained to me how that works. And I didn't really care cause, at the time, January was months away from my one year anniversary with Kroger.
So wait, everyone has a predetermined week that they get to take their vacation? You don't get to choose? If you miss it, that's it? Ya gotta wait till next year?
Then if that's the case, I don't even know when my week is supposed to be. Gawd, I hope I didn't miss it.
If I were you, you should say something to the CSM again, saying you make plans because you had confirmed it with them. Hell, with it being summer still and school being back soon, I would be trying to get as many vacations out before I lose all the associates to school. The vacation schedule was always made in Jan, but I always allowed people to change vacation weeks as long as it wouldn't cause issues with staffing shortages and conflict with others. CSM's always have moments where they are told something on the fly and believe its always handled, but if I confirmed something and it wasn't done correctly I always found a solution.
Vacation calendar? I think I remember seeing something like that. But no one explained to me how that works. And I didn't really care cause, at the time, January was months away from my one year anniversary with Kroger.
So wait, everyone has a predetermined week that they get to take their vacation? You don't get to choose? If you miss it, that's it? Ya gotta wait till next year?
Then if that's the case, I don't even know when my week is supposed to be. Gawd, I hope I didn't miss it.
No, you still get to pick your vacation week(s). Each department gets their own vacation calendar in January. All it is is a graph with the names of the employees listed on the lefthand side and the weeks of the year across the top. You simply find your name and go across to the week you want and put an X in that box. If there's another X in that same column, it means someone else has chosen that week also. The names are listed by seniority. So that means you have seniority over anyone that is listed below you, unless the person transfered from another store or department. The chart will also list how many vacations each person gets and if they get any additional vacations after a certain date.
Yeah, even if you weren't at the one year mark you still should have been able to pick your vacation week to put on the calendar.
Your CSM messed this up, not you.
This is part of the reason why associates do not care and never will not "help out" when something happens. If I had an situation like this, I would say go on Vac and not really worry about it, just move people around. If this associate is required to work, I would make sure they set in stone when your going on VAC and then bring it up whenever they ask you to cover someones shift.
"So XXXX needed the day off, but I wasn't allow to go on VAC that you confirmed"
Alright. So I finally got a chance to talk to the CSM today. I asked them about my vacation. They responded by telling me that I need to tell them of my request at least a couple weeks in advance. They said it like as if they completely had no idea that I asked them about this exactly one month ago.
They tell me that I need to fill my vacation paper or something like that. I tell them, "what paper?" They ask me, "didn't you get your vacation papers back in January?" To which I respond, heck no, nobody told me about that or gave me any papers.
I brought up the fact that I asked them, last month, to have my vacation this week. You know, where I told them the week I would like and then they told me to tell their buddy ACSM my week and they'll make a note of it (they even typed a reminder on both their smartphones!). They tell me that, that was only to see if my week would be available that they would get back to me. (Okay, one, they never got back to me. Two, at the time, they didn't say this was a request. The way they said it, it was like as if that was going to be my vacation, and the reminder they were typing in their phone was so that they can put it on the schedule.)
Of course, the CSM doesn't admit to that. Probably doesn't even remember what they told me last month. In their mind, they TOLD me it was only to see if the week I want is available.
Well, I guess that's all water under the bridge now. I guess, it was also my fault too, because I didn't keep asking and asking the right questions to the right people.
Now the CSM has told me they will see which vacation week is available (they set a reminder on their phone) and that they'll get back to me. But I learned my lesson, they will NOT get back to me. I'll ask them about it again in two days. And I'll keep asking till I have something in writing, or until ExpressHR says my vacation time has been taken.
Sounds like a cluster to me, I always told associates to put it in the system or before eScheduler put it in the binder. If someone wanted to move their vacation, I would tell them to pick a week that is open or only 1 other person on Vac. If it wasn't scheduled on the Vacation sheet, it was their responsibility to get me to ok it. If for some reason there were not able to request something off in eScheduler it was also their responsibility to make sure I added. Normally, the associate would never ask me when I was free, but when I was already doing 5 other things. But then again, I learned never to say YES/NO when asked something I was not 100% sure of. Sounds like too many people are part of the schedule process and than the ball gets dropped.
