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who to blame for all this... NOTE: this thread is going to contain weeks of complaints about my job situation currently, and will wrap up around last night's bull...
Rules for UScan:
1) NO MORE than two 'customers' per transaction. In a stunning case of too many chefs and all that, the more people hanging around a station, the more trouble they produce. Pick two people, say, whoever pushed the cart, and whoever's paying, and everyone else go AWAY!
2) Do NOT bring an overflowing full cart through UScan when there are full size registers open... even if they're backed up! If the registers are backed up, so am I, and you'll just slow my line down to a crawl... hell, I'm reluctant to close down malfunctioning registers, because one register down destroys my casual wait times...
3) Scan the liquor first! Particularly if you're in around midnight... Liquor laws in my state prohibit us from selling liquor of any sort after midnight unless it's Saturday... and our system WILL lock you out if you start the transaction before midnight but scan your liquor after... TOO bad, so sad, can't sell it now. No, there isn't a single soul in the entire company who can override your late ass purchase. Take it up with your senator. And, I'll just take that six pack right now, thanks, goodbye. Alternately, if you have liquor, and want cigs, too, well, then, scan the liquor first, and I won't have to override your age check twice, saves us both time.
4) You CAN buy multiple bottles of liquor and I will only have to ID you once... see, our system has a flag in it that if you've been IDed or overridden, you're okay to keep buying.
Man, that sucks...
So, the front end manager that I close with most nights has a condition of some sort (not sure of the specifics) that makes his feet/legs up to the knees at least, go numb/cause constant pain if he stands up for too long, and he recently got doctor approval to have some sort of surgery that would have them install wires and a control box into the base of his spine to... shock? stimulate? the nerves in his legs, so they won't go numb... last week, he had a test device put in, and it worked fantastically, he said, and, three days later, they had to take it out, even though it was working just fine. Now, he has to wait for his insurance to okay a permanent one.
The screwed up part of all this? The week that he had the thing installed? He started throwing up Monday morning, so badly that he called in sick. His surgery was Thursday, and he was scheduled to be off until the following Monday, so he could recover. Wednesday, he found out the company won't let you take a single day off at a time like that until you have three weeks vacation available... otherwise, it has to be all or nothing... (I have NO idea why) so, he wouldn't be able to take the weekend to recover, which is insane, he told me he might have to come in Saturday, walking with a cane, and trying not to bend over so he wouldn't tear the stitches... and, from what I hear, he DID come in the next day... that's almost as insane as my coworker who had the stroke and came back a week later. Pretty sure I posted her story...
Why have two time clocks then?
We have two time clocks in the store, one by our guest service desk, and one in the breakroom. For the past few weeks, there has been a sign on the one by guest services saying it is broken... I talked to a couple of coworkers, and one of them said management did that to make us use the one in the breakroom... because that's where the community postings board is, and they want us to read/see all the notes from management... yeah, wonderful, except, I see them constantly anyway, and read them, and fix their gods damned spelling errors, and the only notice up right now is one that's been there since the store opened about where we are supposed to park. So, the other time clock being broken is just an excuse and screw them...
Oh, right...
So, we recently got another UScan attendant, who is apparently older than Moses, at least as far as the company is concerned, so, he has seniority over the rest of us, and he only wants to work closing shifts. Guess what that means for me, who just bought a car? Yup... two, maybe three shifts a week... just out of the blue... talked to Ex Bitch about it, and she went, "Oh, right... the car... well, I could put you back on greeting/sampling..."
J: "Okay..."
"It would get you more hours, at least."
J: "Do it, then. I need the money."
Two weeks later? I'm still scheduled for UScan... although, I am getting 30 hours this week...
Nepotism much?
Last night was insane on general principles... it was slammed full the moment I clocked in, and hardly anything got done... as I found out when I talked to the closing manager while he was pulling money later that night, two baggers called out sick, and Ex bitch's daughter was supposed to be working the night shift as well, but Ex bitch changed her schedule at the last minute so she could work in the morning, since she had 'family business' to attend to... Ah, no, screw you, we can't change our schedules on the fly like that....
When the hell are you going to fix that?
I've been making myself heard the past few weeks about one of the registers on the main door, as the bottom of the scanner doesn't scan, at all... and customers just don't listen for more than a few seconds when I say, "Scan to the back, the bottom's not working..." one item might get scanned, but they go right back to trying to scan on the bottom after...
A few weeks ago, the register developed a sudden case of Terminal Bill Jam that required the company that put them in for us to come out and do maintenance, and in fact, they had to fix a terminal at the other bank of them as well...
I'm off that day, of course, but I'm back the day after, and I ask the attendant I'm replacing, "So, does the scanner work on that one?"
"No...?"
"They did come in and do maintenance on it yesterday, right?"
"Yup... for the bill jam..."
"They were supposed to fix the scanner, too!"
"They didn't, then..."
Three weeks later, the scanner's still not working.
So, onto the insanity of last night
Again: down two baggers, everyone and their mother decided last night was the perfect night to go shopping, so, around 8:30, night manager comes walking by, and blurts, "Oh, crap, I have to give Juwl a break, too!"
I look up... "Too? Does everyone on front end need a break?"
"Yes..."
"Even K? I swear I saw you covering her break earlier...?"
"Oh, yeah... I forgot about that."
Manager goes outside to pull the two cart gatherers inside so they can bag temporarily, and sends me on my break, I go and grab food, and come back, wandering into the end of K's register to grab a Pepsi, cause her's is the closest machine, and she blurts, "Juwl, can you go to another register to check out?"
"I wasn't planning on going through your line anyway, as I hate to look at you..." I grab my soda, with some difficulty, and wander over to the UScans, and poke manager, and tell him what K just said, and he gets angry. "I would've gone through her line just to spite her..."
"Me too, but I really don't like her attitude and it hurts her numbers if she's idle, so..."
Manager turns to glare at her, and realizes she's standing there, filling up her change machine with her register light off, with ten minutes to go in her shift. Big no no! He goes over and admonishes her for everything, and has to come back over to get my change, as the register I used had absolutely none in it, and I was handing out change all night because of it.
Last manager out...
12:30 and the night shift manager (ex front end manager) goes home, leaving me as the highest man on the totem pole as far as the registers go... time winds down toward closing, and, at the ten till mark, I get a customer through with a cart full of two orders, and she has coupons galore... not an unknown sight, but, something about it screwed up my computer... during her second transaction, I was scanning her coupons at the terminal, and it kept telling me to remove the manager's key, which is impossible, as the key wasn't in the terminal, nor was it turned... so, I couldn't scan her coupons there... I took them over to my register, and tried to put in the first one, and found out my keyboard wasn't responding at all... NOTHING on it was working... couldn't type in amounts, couldn't select terminals... nothing... I handed her back her coupons and said she could come in tomorrow and guest services could probably apply her coupons...
"Is there a manager in who can verify that?"
"Nope, just me... sorry..."
"Well, what if I hit 'coupons' on my register?"
"Won't do any good, as my keyboard's not working, so I can't take that buy one get one coupon as it requires I type in how much the freebie item is... on the computer... but, I'm not sure, maybe I can do it on the hand scanner... yeah, hit coupons really quick, and I"ll see if the hand scanner works..."
I try it out, it does, but I still have to return one coupon to her that only works if you press a button for which department the coupon is connected to... which is only on the keyboard... everything else works, and she finally leaves about five minutes after close, along with another customer who came up AT close, but only had a small purchase, luckily...
I did what I could to do my audit, but realized after I tried to close the registers that my screen wasn't responding either, so, the whole terminal had locked up... and I could do nothing, as all the registers were still running... and I couldn't pull my cash report, so it looked like I was $200 something in the hole from the numbers I COULD get... I left a note, and locked the computer, and went to clock out, and on the way, realized I could've at least turned the registers off at the computer, without logging out of them, so they couldn't be used overnight... and came back down, tried to unlock the computer, and got nowhere as the keypad wasn't responding, and then the manager key wouldn't override the login at all... so, I HAD to leave the registers running all night.
We apparently have a new night stock manager, as he came up to walk me out... and I walked past the other door, and realized the cart door was still wide open... so, I tried to call the guest services phone to let someone know, seven rings later, I said, "Screw it... I tried..." and went home.
Oh, and not that I cared much, but apparently someone must've hit a skunk upwind of the store, cause the front end smelled like skunk about the time night manager went home... but I like the smell of skunk...
Rules for UScan:
1) NO MORE than two 'customers' per transaction. In a stunning case of too many chefs and all that, the more people hanging around a station, the more trouble they produce. Pick two people, say, whoever pushed the cart, and whoever's paying, and everyone else go AWAY!
2) Do NOT bring an overflowing full cart through UScan when there are full size registers open... even if they're backed up! If the registers are backed up, so am I, and you'll just slow my line down to a crawl... hell, I'm reluctant to close down malfunctioning registers, because one register down destroys my casual wait times...
3) Scan the liquor first! Particularly if you're in around midnight... Liquor laws in my state prohibit us from selling liquor of any sort after midnight unless it's Saturday... and our system WILL lock you out if you start the transaction before midnight but scan your liquor after... TOO bad, so sad, can't sell it now. No, there isn't a single soul in the entire company who can override your late ass purchase. Take it up with your senator. And, I'll just take that six pack right now, thanks, goodbye. Alternately, if you have liquor, and want cigs, too, well, then, scan the liquor first, and I won't have to override your age check twice, saves us both time.
4) You CAN buy multiple bottles of liquor and I will only have to ID you once... see, our system has a flag in it that if you've been IDed or overridden, you're okay to keep buying.
Man, that sucks...
So, the front end manager that I close with most nights has a condition of some sort (not sure of the specifics) that makes his feet/legs up to the knees at least, go numb/cause constant pain if he stands up for too long, and he recently got doctor approval to have some sort of surgery that would have them install wires and a control box into the base of his spine to... shock? stimulate? the nerves in his legs, so they won't go numb... last week, he had a test device put in, and it worked fantastically, he said, and, three days later, they had to take it out, even though it was working just fine. Now, he has to wait for his insurance to okay a permanent one.
The screwed up part of all this? The week that he had the thing installed? He started throwing up Monday morning, so badly that he called in sick. His surgery was Thursday, and he was scheduled to be off until the following Monday, so he could recover. Wednesday, he found out the company won't let you take a single day off at a time like that until you have three weeks vacation available... otherwise, it has to be all or nothing... (I have NO idea why) so, he wouldn't be able to take the weekend to recover, which is insane, he told me he might have to come in Saturday, walking with a cane, and trying not to bend over so he wouldn't tear the stitches... and, from what I hear, he DID come in the next day... that's almost as insane as my coworker who had the stroke and came back a week later. Pretty sure I posted her story...
Why have two time clocks then?
We have two time clocks in the store, one by our guest service desk, and one in the breakroom. For the past few weeks, there has been a sign on the one by guest services saying it is broken... I talked to a couple of coworkers, and one of them said management did that to make us use the one in the breakroom... because that's where the community postings board is, and they want us to read/see all the notes from management... yeah, wonderful, except, I see them constantly anyway, and read them, and fix their gods damned spelling errors, and the only notice up right now is one that's been there since the store opened about where we are supposed to park. So, the other time clock being broken is just an excuse and screw them...
Oh, right...
So, we recently got another UScan attendant, who is apparently older than Moses, at least as far as the company is concerned, so, he has seniority over the rest of us, and he only wants to work closing shifts. Guess what that means for me, who just bought a car? Yup... two, maybe three shifts a week... just out of the blue... talked to Ex Bitch about it, and she went, "Oh, right... the car... well, I could put you back on greeting/sampling..."
J: "Okay..."
"It would get you more hours, at least."
J: "Do it, then. I need the money."
Two weeks later? I'm still scheduled for UScan... although, I am getting 30 hours this week...
Nepotism much?
Last night was insane on general principles... it was slammed full the moment I clocked in, and hardly anything got done... as I found out when I talked to the closing manager while he was pulling money later that night, two baggers called out sick, and Ex bitch's daughter was supposed to be working the night shift as well, but Ex bitch changed her schedule at the last minute so she could work in the morning, since she had 'family business' to attend to... Ah, no, screw you, we can't change our schedules on the fly like that....
When the hell are you going to fix that?
I've been making myself heard the past few weeks about one of the registers on the main door, as the bottom of the scanner doesn't scan, at all... and customers just don't listen for more than a few seconds when I say, "Scan to the back, the bottom's not working..." one item might get scanned, but they go right back to trying to scan on the bottom after...
A few weeks ago, the register developed a sudden case of Terminal Bill Jam that required the company that put them in for us to come out and do maintenance, and in fact, they had to fix a terminal at the other bank of them as well...
I'm off that day, of course, but I'm back the day after, and I ask the attendant I'm replacing, "So, does the scanner work on that one?"
"No...?"
"They did come in and do maintenance on it yesterday, right?"
"Yup... for the bill jam..."
"They were supposed to fix the scanner, too!"
"They didn't, then..."
Three weeks later, the scanner's still not working.
So, onto the insanity of last night
Again: down two baggers, everyone and their mother decided last night was the perfect night to go shopping, so, around 8:30, night manager comes walking by, and blurts, "Oh, crap, I have to give Juwl a break, too!"
I look up... "Too? Does everyone on front end need a break?"
"Yes..."
"Even K? I swear I saw you covering her break earlier...?"
"Oh, yeah... I forgot about that."
Manager goes outside to pull the two cart gatherers inside so they can bag temporarily, and sends me on my break, I go and grab food, and come back, wandering into the end of K's register to grab a Pepsi, cause her's is the closest machine, and she blurts, "Juwl, can you go to another register to check out?"
"I wasn't planning on going through your line anyway, as I hate to look at you..." I grab my soda, with some difficulty, and wander over to the UScans, and poke manager, and tell him what K just said, and he gets angry. "I would've gone through her line just to spite her..."
"Me too, but I really don't like her attitude and it hurts her numbers if she's idle, so..."
Manager turns to glare at her, and realizes she's standing there, filling up her change machine with her register light off, with ten minutes to go in her shift. Big no no! He goes over and admonishes her for everything, and has to come back over to get my change, as the register I used had absolutely none in it, and I was handing out change all night because of it.
Last manager out...
12:30 and the night shift manager (ex front end manager) goes home, leaving me as the highest man on the totem pole as far as the registers go... time winds down toward closing, and, at the ten till mark, I get a customer through with a cart full of two orders, and she has coupons galore... not an unknown sight, but, something about it screwed up my computer... during her second transaction, I was scanning her coupons at the terminal, and it kept telling me to remove the manager's key, which is impossible, as the key wasn't in the terminal, nor was it turned... so, I couldn't scan her coupons there... I took them over to my register, and tried to put in the first one, and found out my keyboard wasn't responding at all... NOTHING on it was working... couldn't type in amounts, couldn't select terminals... nothing... I handed her back her coupons and said she could come in tomorrow and guest services could probably apply her coupons...
"Is there a manager in who can verify that?"
"Nope, just me... sorry..."
"Well, what if I hit 'coupons' on my register?"
"Won't do any good, as my keyboard's not working, so I can't take that buy one get one coupon as it requires I type in how much the freebie item is... on the computer... but, I'm not sure, maybe I can do it on the hand scanner... yeah, hit coupons really quick, and I"ll see if the hand scanner works..."
I try it out, it does, but I still have to return one coupon to her that only works if you press a button for which department the coupon is connected to... which is only on the keyboard... everything else works, and she finally leaves about five minutes after close, along with another customer who came up AT close, but only had a small purchase, luckily...
I did what I could to do my audit, but realized after I tried to close the registers that my screen wasn't responding either, so, the whole terminal had locked up... and I could do nothing, as all the registers were still running... and I couldn't pull my cash report, so it looked like I was $200 something in the hole from the numbers I COULD get... I left a note, and locked the computer, and went to clock out, and on the way, realized I could've at least turned the registers off at the computer, without logging out of them, so they couldn't be used overnight... and came back down, tried to unlock the computer, and got nowhere as the keypad wasn't responding, and then the manager key wouldn't override the login at all... so, I HAD to leave the registers running all night.
We apparently have a new night stock manager, as he came up to walk me out... and I walked past the other door, and realized the cart door was still wide open... so, I tried to call the guest services phone to let someone know, seven rings later, I said, "Screw it... I tried..." and went home.
Oh, and not that I cared much, but apparently someone must've hit a skunk upwind of the store, cause the front end smelled like skunk about the time night manager went home... but I like the smell of skunk...
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