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Been a while since I've posted a new story here, not for lack of suck, but just for lack of my remembering the details.
This post is going to be a combination of Sucky Customers, General Work Chat, Cursing Out Coworkers, and Morons in Management, for warning.
Locked safe
So for starters, we've got the auditors in the wholesale club this week, which means everyone's on edge, we're toeing the line, and we're STILL getting findings out the wazoo. I clock in yesterday, end up having to wait ten minutes to get my till, because the safe in the cash office has been locked, the cash office clerk is on her lunch, and the first MOD I found didn't know how to get the lock to work on the safe. So that's just a preview.
While they were trying to figure that problem out, I offered to go up to the door to give BL, our FDLP, his last break. TC, our service desk clerk, immediately told me No, citing that the cashier on Express needed to go, she was going to miss her bus, so...
TC: "Go relieve her."
J2K: "..."
TC: "Where's your till?"
J2K: "I don't have one yet."
TC: "MS is right there, he can get you one--"
J2K: "No, he can't, the safe's locked, and he can't open it."
We went back and forth before she realized I was stuck, I again offered to go take care of BL's break while they figured it out, she AGAIN said that the Express cashier needed to go, and finally ZE, one of the other MODs, comes out to unlock the safe for us.
I go to relieve the Express cashier at last, and she hands me a walkie-talkie, telling me, "This is so you can call to get something looked up, so you don't have to step away from your register." I was pleased about this, given the auditors would ding us in a heartbeat for something like that, and they also don't like cashiers having to yell to get someone's attention.
At the same time, however, I know the walkie's going to be pretty useless, since something that's proven true is that nobody at the desk really pays attention to them. Even with the auditors around.
Sure enough, a couple hours into my shift, this happens.
Wrong Sign
These two women come through Express, and everything goes well until I scan this 8 lb. bag of Tropicana California Cara Cara Oranges. They ring up at $8.99. The two women say the sign said $7.49. I ask if they're sure it wasn't for a different kind of orange, and they tell me, "No, they were in a separate bin all by themselves." Not unusual, and a plausible excuse, even.
No problem, I think (yeah, right), I'll radio the desk and have someone look it up. So I radio the desk, "I need the price for Cara Cara Oranges." (I specified the type of oranges, given we sell navel oranges as well, and I know those are a different SKU.) TC acknowledges the call, which is better than getting no response.
(I like it better when I know they heard me and THEN ignore me, since it gives me better reason to gripe later, as opposed to no-response-ignores, when they can excuse it by "the radio was turned low," or something.)
No answer. I finish up the rest of their order, they decide they don't want something, I void it out, and we continue waiting. Another customer comes up behind them. Great. So I repeat the request over the radio. No response this time.
I wait a few seconds, then repeat the call, and add, "Customers waiting." No response. Then ZE, who'd overheard me on the radio, pops over to check, I hold up the bag, "I need the price for these. Cara Cara Oranges." She goes over to check the computer. A minute later, TC radios up with a SKU, which rings up as California Navel Oranges, for $6.49.
Now suddenly the women say THAT is the price they saw (a dollar cheaper than the price you originally gave me? How interesting...), but I try to tell them, "That's a different item altogether. Completely different item. Someone must have put the wrong sign with the item." Their response? "Well, that's not our fault, we should get that price anyway."
Now, let me pause for a moment to work out this logic. The bag of oranges they brought me CLEARLY says "Cara Cara Oranges." (It even rings up as "CARACARA8#" in the computer.) The sign they read presumably says something like "CA NAVEL ORANGES," which come in a completely different-looking bag. The sign is obviously not for the item that's in the bin. They should get that price anyway?
Hey, why not? While we're at it, that thousand-dollar big screen TV that was put on a pallet under a sign for Duracell batteries for twenty bucks? Sure, that TV's twenty bucks, right?
I know, I know, oranges are oranges, it's a somewhat valid course of logic, but at the time, I got annoyed by it. Even moreso when ZE came back over, and when I tried to explain to her that the women were claiming that the sign said $6.49, but it wasn't the right item... but ZE tells me to override the price and give it to them for $6.49.
Work Suck
Now, let me rant a little bit about the wholesale club. I know the economy is limping along, people aren't spending as much money as they normally would, but I know for a fact that our company is turning a profit when most of our competitors are not. Yet our payroll has been slashed (or so the managers keep claiming), so we can't schedule nearly as many people as we need.
This time last year, we ALWAYS had at least three cashiers scheduled. One for Express, two for the regular registers. (Admittedly, one of those cashiers usually ended up watching self-checkout, but we had a cashier handy if the lines got long.) We also usually had two service desk people.
Now, we only get two cashiers, one of which has to go to Express, the other on a regular register, only one service desk clerk, who also ends up having to run self-checkout. The managers are supposed to come out and help if the lines get long (and by "help," I mean "open a register"), but they don't always respond.
The result is we end up getting very long lines-- longer still on the weekends, when we're REALLY busy-- and customers complaining "It is ridiculous that you guys only have ONE cashier, look at that line," etc. On the weekends, when I'm working FDLP, I can only shrug helplessly and use the excuse that corporate cut our payroll.
I've even had to tell some of my friends who were looking for a job, "I wouldn't recommend coming to our store. Even if they hire you, I dunno that you'll get the hours."
Furthermore, management has even let some people go, citing the payroll issues, which I believe in some cases. But VB and ES, two of our demo ladies, were very good at their jobs, the customers liked them, and seemed unlikely to get downsized. Wrong.
RK, one of our food court people, also got "downsized," but everyone who knows her and the problems she was having with management knows that the payroll cuts were the excuse they'll use for firing her. (Short version, RK and our GM don't get along, and when RK got into a loud argument with a drunk and verbally belligerent customer (who started cursing at her), RK was the one who got in trouble and put on three months probation. One morning, RK and the GM got into another loud argument about something-- I very pointedly did not pay attention, and refused to back up GM's side OR RK's side when the GM filed a report about it-- and within two weeks, the "payroll cuts" came up, and RK was one of the ones on the chopping block.)
I'm getting increasingly frustrated with working at the wholesale club, and the main reason I haven't left since this suck started just before the holidays is because I'm in my last quarter of my Associates Degree program at ITT Tech. Once I'm finished with it, I'll have a better platform upon which to look for a better job, and then I can sit back and watch the club go into Panic Mode over losing an eight-year employee.
This post is going to be a combination of Sucky Customers, General Work Chat, Cursing Out Coworkers, and Morons in Management, for warning.
Locked safe
So for starters, we've got the auditors in the wholesale club this week, which means everyone's on edge, we're toeing the line, and we're STILL getting findings out the wazoo. I clock in yesterday, end up having to wait ten minutes to get my till, because the safe in the cash office has been locked, the cash office clerk is on her lunch, and the first MOD I found didn't know how to get the lock to work on the safe. So that's just a preview.
While they were trying to figure that problem out, I offered to go up to the door to give BL, our FDLP, his last break. TC, our service desk clerk, immediately told me No, citing that the cashier on Express needed to go, she was going to miss her bus, so...
TC: "Go relieve her."
J2K: "..."
TC: "Where's your till?"
J2K: "I don't have one yet."
TC: "MS is right there, he can get you one--"
J2K: "No, he can't, the safe's locked, and he can't open it."
We went back and forth before she realized I was stuck, I again offered to go take care of BL's break while they figured it out, she AGAIN said that the Express cashier needed to go, and finally ZE, one of the other MODs, comes out to unlock the safe for us.
I go to relieve the Express cashier at last, and she hands me a walkie-talkie, telling me, "This is so you can call to get something looked up, so you don't have to step away from your register." I was pleased about this, given the auditors would ding us in a heartbeat for something like that, and they also don't like cashiers having to yell to get someone's attention.
At the same time, however, I know the walkie's going to be pretty useless, since something that's proven true is that nobody at the desk really pays attention to them. Even with the auditors around.
Sure enough, a couple hours into my shift, this happens.
Wrong Sign
These two women come through Express, and everything goes well until I scan this 8 lb. bag of Tropicana California Cara Cara Oranges. They ring up at $8.99. The two women say the sign said $7.49. I ask if they're sure it wasn't for a different kind of orange, and they tell me, "No, they were in a separate bin all by themselves." Not unusual, and a plausible excuse, even.
No problem, I think (yeah, right), I'll radio the desk and have someone look it up. So I radio the desk, "I need the price for Cara Cara Oranges." (I specified the type of oranges, given we sell navel oranges as well, and I know those are a different SKU.) TC acknowledges the call, which is better than getting no response.
(I like it better when I know they heard me and THEN ignore me, since it gives me better reason to gripe later, as opposed to no-response-ignores, when they can excuse it by "the radio was turned low," or something.)
No answer. I finish up the rest of their order, they decide they don't want something, I void it out, and we continue waiting. Another customer comes up behind them. Great. So I repeat the request over the radio. No response this time.
I wait a few seconds, then repeat the call, and add, "Customers waiting." No response. Then ZE, who'd overheard me on the radio, pops over to check, I hold up the bag, "I need the price for these. Cara Cara Oranges." She goes over to check the computer. A minute later, TC radios up with a SKU, which rings up as California Navel Oranges, for $6.49.
Now suddenly the women say THAT is the price they saw (a dollar cheaper than the price you originally gave me? How interesting...), but I try to tell them, "That's a different item altogether. Completely different item. Someone must have put the wrong sign with the item." Their response? "Well, that's not our fault, we should get that price anyway."
Now, let me pause for a moment to work out this logic. The bag of oranges they brought me CLEARLY says "Cara Cara Oranges." (It even rings up as "CARACARA8#" in the computer.) The sign they read presumably says something like "CA NAVEL ORANGES," which come in a completely different-looking bag. The sign is obviously not for the item that's in the bin. They should get that price anyway?
Hey, why not? While we're at it, that thousand-dollar big screen TV that was put on a pallet under a sign for Duracell batteries for twenty bucks? Sure, that TV's twenty bucks, right?
I know, I know, oranges are oranges, it's a somewhat valid course of logic, but at the time, I got annoyed by it. Even moreso when ZE came back over, and when I tried to explain to her that the women were claiming that the sign said $6.49, but it wasn't the right item... but ZE tells me to override the price and give it to them for $6.49.
Work Suck
Now, let me rant a little bit about the wholesale club. I know the economy is limping along, people aren't spending as much money as they normally would, but I know for a fact that our company is turning a profit when most of our competitors are not. Yet our payroll has been slashed (or so the managers keep claiming), so we can't schedule nearly as many people as we need.
This time last year, we ALWAYS had at least three cashiers scheduled. One for Express, two for the regular registers. (Admittedly, one of those cashiers usually ended up watching self-checkout, but we had a cashier handy if the lines got long.) We also usually had two service desk people.
Now, we only get two cashiers, one of which has to go to Express, the other on a regular register, only one service desk clerk, who also ends up having to run self-checkout. The managers are supposed to come out and help if the lines get long (and by "help," I mean "open a register"), but they don't always respond.
The result is we end up getting very long lines-- longer still on the weekends, when we're REALLY busy-- and customers complaining "It is ridiculous that you guys only have ONE cashier, look at that line," etc. On the weekends, when I'm working FDLP, I can only shrug helplessly and use the excuse that corporate cut our payroll.
I've even had to tell some of my friends who were looking for a job, "I wouldn't recommend coming to our store. Even if they hire you, I dunno that you'll get the hours."
Furthermore, management has even let some people go, citing the payroll issues, which I believe in some cases. But VB and ES, two of our demo ladies, were very good at their jobs, the customers liked them, and seemed unlikely to get downsized. Wrong.
RK, one of our food court people, also got "downsized," but everyone who knows her and the problems she was having with management knows that the payroll cuts were the excuse they'll use for firing her. (Short version, RK and our GM don't get along, and when RK got into a loud argument with a drunk and verbally belligerent customer (who started cursing at her), RK was the one who got in trouble and put on three months probation. One morning, RK and the GM got into another loud argument about something-- I very pointedly did not pay attention, and refused to back up GM's side OR RK's side when the GM filed a report about it-- and within two weeks, the "payroll cuts" came up, and RK was one of the ones on the chopping block.)
I'm getting increasingly frustrated with working at the wholesale club, and the main reason I haven't left since this suck started just before the holidays is because I'm in my last quarter of my Associates Degree program at ITT Tech. Once I'm finished with it, I'll have a better platform upon which to look for a better job, and then I can sit back and watch the club go into Panic Mode over losing an eight-year employee.