Topic: The "complain about work" thread

[Tuxedo Mark]

Starting on the Sunday after Christmas, our store hours (which had been expanded sometime last year to 8-10 daily) were reduced back to 9-9 (except Sundays, which were reduced to 9-8).

On Friday, January 6 (I think), M1 called me to his office to have a discussion (for which he wanted M2 and M3, although he said they didn't have to sit). It lasted around a half-hour. Basically: 7 customer complaints about me during the Christmas season; he was giving me his "last chance of last chances"; I had to sign a form; he said he'd be watching me. Oh, yeah, he said I'm the worst cashier that he has. He also said, probably, a month or two down the line, I wouldn't be here. (I just thought "That sounds about right", because mom had told me that they'd be hiring me at Wal-Mart in February.) He also said "It's not all roses at Kmart", but he said our store isn't closing, because "we're the #4 store in the district". Only stores in Tampa are beating us.

Sometime last week (probably Tuesday), a new pop-up has been appearing on the register screen whenever a customer with a rewards card and an e-mail address on file has paid. It says we're to tell the customers to "go green" by encouraging them to get an e-receipt instead of using paper.

Yeah, it's up to the customer to select it now. It pops up on the PIN pad. They won't get their receipt until they make a selection. The slip that prints out when the e-receipt option is chosen is much smaller than the previous "chit"; it's just a tiny slip of paper.

However, there are only two options: e-receipt and e-receipt + print. Yeah, they'll be e-mailing you no matter what. The only way out of that is to wait for the counter to count down on the register (letting the choice expire) and then choosing to just print the receipt.

I'm waiting for the call from Wal-Mart. I can't wait to be out of here.

article (1/31):

http://www.forbes.com/sites/lauraheller/2012/01/31/is-this-the-death-blow-to-sears/

[aamrun]

Starting on the Sunday after Christmas, our store hours (which had been expanded sometime last year to 8-10 daily) were reduced back to 9-9 (except Sundays, which were reduced to 9-8).

On Friday, January 6 (I think), M1 called me to his office to have a discussion (for which he wanted M2 and M3, although he said they didn't have to sit). It lasted around a half-hour. Basically: 7 customer complaints about me during the Christmas season; he was giving me his "last chance of last chances"; I had to sign a form; he said he'd be watching me. Oh, yeah, he said I'm the worst cashier that he has. He also said, probably, a month or two down the line, I wouldn't be here. (I just thought "That sounds about right", because mom had told me that they'd be hiring me at Wal-Mart in February.) He also said "It's not all roses at Kmart", but he said our store isn't closing, because "we're the #4 store in the district". Only stores in Tampa are beating us.

Sometime last week (probably Tuesday), a new pop-up has been appearing on the register screen whenever a customer with a rewards card and an e-mail address on file has paid. It says we're to tell the customers to "go green" by encouraging them to get an e-receipt instead of using paper.

Yeah, it's up to the customer to select it now. It pops up on the PIN pad. They won't get their receipt until they make a selection. The slip that prints out when the e-receipt option is chosen is much smaller than the previous "chit"; it's just a tiny slip of paper.

However, there are only two options: e-receipt and e-receipt + print. Yeah, they'll be e-mailing you no matter what. The only way out of that is to wait for the counter to count down on the register (letting the choice expire) and then choosing to just print the receipt.

I'm waiting for the call from Wal-Mart. I can't wait to be out of here.

article (1/31):

http://www.forbes.com/sites/lauraheller/2012/01/31/is-this-the-death-blow-to-sears/

You think printing out a tiny slip is cheap ? Cheap is removing toilet paper from all loos. That's what they did at one of my clients in Asia in the high days of the recession.

And yes, it;s better to get out of a place when you have bosses with attitudes like that.

[Jabroniville]

Wow, that's bad news, Mark. What were the seven complaints about? I've had a couple, though they're pretty far apart (like a year or so), so it's never been a HUGE issue. However, I had one recently that me and another cashier "seem to hate their jobs" because we don't smile enough ("they're not quite RUDE, but they seem unfriendly"), and I had to fill a big training form out to improve on smiling and being all friendly to customers and stuff, because I'm not one of those genuinely peppy, smiley people. I think it's rather dumb, as do most of the other cashiers who I told about it, bit it's the Store Manager's thing to make ALL the cashiers smile (only a couple cashiers do that I've seen, though most of them ask more questions than I do). Of course now I have to ask even MORE of the "official" questions (I'm one of the few to skip most of them, because I know a lot of customers hate it). It's not as super-serious as your situation is, though.

Why did Wal-Mart call you in for interviews months ago, only to think about hiring you now? That whole process seems weird- who on Earth would expect someone to stay on the line for them for several months, waiting for a job? It's bizarre.

[Captain Hero]

Okay, granted I'm not exactly the biggest stickler for rules when it comes to retail (generally speaking, as long as the store makes money, there are some cases where bending the rules could be considered a smart option), but to get seven customer complaints in one month is pretty spectacular.

I'm actually sort of interested in hearing what they were all about myself.  I've only ever had one in the seven years I've been in retail, and in that case, it WAS my fault!

And, Jabroniville, I ended up having to wait three months between applying for the job fair, and getting my interview...so, I'm guessing that it's somewhat more common than thought...though after my interview, I started work the next day.

[Tuxedo Mark]

What were the seven complaints about?

He wasn't specific, but I seem to recall him vaguely saying it was about me not smiling / being "rude". Something like that. We got into a discussion about how I don't laugh at the customers' "jokes", because I keep hearing the same crap over and over ("It's free", "I just made it", etc.). M2 chimed in, claiming it's a "coping mechanism" that people use when they feel uneasy around me.

M1 was like "These customers can get you fired."

I suppose I could have asked M1 to show them to me, but I didn't care about the specifics.

Yesterday, shortly before 6:00 PM, I had the rudest customer that I've ever had. I was checking out a girl (teens or 20s). There was a middle-aged, balding man behind her.

Girl: "Could you please not stare at me?"

Man: "I was just staring at your earrings."

Girl: "Well, could you please not do that? It's very rude."

She got her receipt and walked away.

Man: "YOU'RE the one that's rude!"

She didn't reply.

Man: "Miss?!" (to me) "She's rude, isn't she?"

Me: "No."

Man: "Yeah, she is! She's a rude b***h!"

Me: "That's your opinion."

Man: "You're right! That IS my opinion, and I'm gonna express my opinion whenever I feel like it!"

Me: "Okay, but I don't have to serve you if you're going to express your opinion that way."

Man: "Fine, I'll just go to another register. You're not the only one open, right?"

Me: "I am at the moment."

Man: "Ah. Sad for Kmart, huh?"

I didn't say anything. I gave him his change and receipt.

Man: "Have a nice day."

I didn't say anything and moved on to my next customer.

See, that's the kind of "customer that can get me fired", and I honestly didn't care.

This morning, when I came in, I had to do training, because we're getting our schedules online now.

I pointed out to the PM that the online schedule doesn't list our position/department for any of the days, and she was like "That's a nice catch. No, it doesn't."

Check out this disclaimer at the bottom of the schedule:

"Schedules may be subject to change based on business needs or demand"

Why did Wal-Mart call you in for interviews months ago, only to think about hiring you now? That whole process seems weird- who on Earth would expect someone to stay on the line for them for several months, waiting for a job? It's bizarre.

Beats me. I even went through the drug test.

As I said earlier, I have a feeling that they didn't want to hire me, but mom "begged" them (her words). Also, the personnel manager (I think) kept playing "spy games" with mom, walking up to her and whispering about how I'd screwed up, how I'd "almost lost the job again", how to "not tell anyone", but they decided to hire me, etc. The description of the whole thing sounds very childish to me.

Presumably, the official explanation is they'll be moving to the new store that's being built on my street in April, and they wanted to wait until shortly before then to bring me on.

[Biollante]

He wasn't specific, but I seem to recall him vaguely saying it was about me not smiling / being "rude". Something like that. We got into a discussion about how I don't laugh at the customers' "jokes", because I keep hearing the same crap over and over ("It's free", "I just made it", etc.). M2 chimed in, claiming it's a "coping mechanism" that people use when they feel uneasy around me.

M1 was like "These customers can get you fired."

I suppose I could have asked M1 to show them to me, but I didn't care about the specifics.

Yesterday, shortly before 6:00 PM, I had the rudest customer that I've ever had. I was checking out a girl (teens or 20s). There was a middle-aged, balding man behind her.

Really, you just need to find a better job and quit.  When I had a similar conversation like that with a condescending manager at K-Mart, I quit in the middle of my shift.  It's actually the customers who are in the wrong.  You shouldn't have to kiss their *sses to do your job.  The fact your managers are bending over for middle aged psychopaths trying to make up for being complete failures in life by bullying cashiers that do a thankless job for little pay is pathetic.  Not smiling is not the same a being rude.  And not smiling is not even a real critique of anything.  No one smiles all the time.  It's called regular human behavior.

[aamrun]

Man: "Miss?!" (to me) "She's rude, isn't she?"

Miss ?

[Jabroniville]

He wasn't specific, but I seem to recall him vaguely saying it was about me not smiling / being "rude". Something like that. We got into a discussion about how I don't laugh at the customers' "jokes", because I keep hearing the same crap over and over ("It's free", "I just made it", etc.). M2 chimed in, claiming it's a "coping mechanism" that people use when they feel uneasy around me.

M1 was like "These customers can get you fired."

I suppose I could have asked M1 to show them to me, but I didn't care about the specifics.

Yesterday, shortly before 6:00 PM, I had the rudest customer that I've ever had. I was checking out a girl (teens or 20s). There was a middle-aged, balding man behind her.

Really, you just need to find a better job and quit.  When I had a similar conversation like that with a condescending manager at K-Mart, I quit in the middle of my shift.  It's actually the customers who are in the wrong.  You shouldn't have to kiss their *sses to do your job.  The fact your managers are bending over for middle aged psychopaths trying to make up for being complete failures in life by bullying cashiers that do a thankless job for little pay is pathetic.  Not smiling is not the same a being rude.  And not smiling is not even a real critique of anything.  No one smiles all the time.  It's called regular human behavior.

What's sick about the whole "no smiling/no talking" thing is that MANY customers tell me I'm their favourite cashier, because I don't ask "disingenuous questions" (an actual quote by a guy, to me), and get their orders done quickly (I'm the fastest cashier in the store). I'm of the opinion that MOST customers actually don't want all the "did you find everything today?" and "how are you today?" stuff, but the Assistant Manager dealing with me was like "yeah, I get that some like your way of doing things, but we have to blah blah blah" and he basically told me I need to start being more smiley and talking and stuff.

He even gave me the same thing about "not laughing at people's jokes" (though my supervisor pointed out that I DO joke with people, I'm just too naturally deadpan, so people often don't get that I'm kidding). My situation isn't NEARLY as bad as Mark's, though, because I make more money ($20.80 an hour makes me actually put in the effort), and I wasn't threatened with being fired- just being "written up" (Union Speak for getting people in trouble to various degrees), and possibly moved to a less customer-oriented department. I'm basically playing the game (I'm lazy enough the effort to totally alter my personality and smile at random strangers is annoying, but I can still do it), because it looks better to management that way. Who knows if I can keep it up, though? Like most management things, they'll probably give up after a point, or forget about it, though I know the official Store Manager is grouchy about the fact that NONE of the cashiers really smile.

There's no "perfect cashier" either- the smiliest cashiers are often the most annoying to others (overly-chatty and obnoxious, and often they're hiding nastier personalities behind the smiles- more than a few turned out to be conniving and gossipy), or the biggest screw-ups. One is super-nice, but she gets taken in by scams more easily (like people who use Welfare Vouchers to buy Gift Cards- a no-no).

[Biollante]

He wasn't specific, but I seem to recall him vaguely saying it was about me not smiling / being "rude". Something like that. We got into a discussion about how I don't laugh at the customers' "jokes", because I keep hearing the same crap over and over ("It's free", "I just made it", etc.). M2 chimed in, claiming it's a "coping mechanism" that people use when they feel uneasy around me.

M1 was like "These customers can get you fired."

I suppose I could have asked M1 to show them to me, but I didn't care about the specifics.

Yesterday, shortly before 6:00 PM, I had the rudest customer that I've ever had. I was checking out a girl (teens or 20s). There was a middle-aged, balding man behind her.

Really, you just need to find a better job and quit.  When I had a similar conversation like that with a condescending manager at K-Mart, I quit in the middle of my shift.  It's actually the customers who are in the wrong.  You shouldn't have to kiss their *sses to do your job.  The fact your managers are bending over for middle aged psychopaths trying to make up for being complete failures in life by bullying cashiers that do a thankless job for little pay is pathetic.  Not smiling is not the same a being rude.  And not smiling is not even a real critique of anything.  No one smiles all the time.  It's called regular human behavior.

What's sick about the whole "no smiling/no talking" thing is that MANY customers tell me I'm their favourite cashier, because I don't ask "disingenuous questions" (an actual quote by a guy, to me), and get their orders done quickly (I'm the fastest cashier in the store). I'm of the opinion that MOST customers actually don't want all the "did you find everything today?" and "how are you today?" stuff, but the Assistant Manager dealing with me was like "yeah, I get that some like your way of doing things, but we have to blah blah blah" and he basically told me I need to start being more smiley and talking and stuff.

He even gave me the same thing about "not laughing at people's jokes" (though my supervisor pointed out that I DO joke with people, I'm just too naturally deadpan, so people often don't get that I'm kidding). My situation isn't NEARLY as bad as Mark's, though, because I make more money ($20.80 an hour makes me actually put in the effort), and I wasn't threatened with being fired- just being "written up" (Union Speak for getting people in trouble to various degrees), and possibly moved to a less customer-oriented department. I'm basically playing the game (I'm lazy enough the effort to totally alter my personality and smile at random strangers is annoying, but I can still do it), because it looks better to management that way. Who knows if I can keep it up, though? Like most management things, they'll probably give up after a point, or forget about it, though I know the official Store Manager is grouchy about the fact that NONE of the cashiers really smile.

There's no "perfect cashier" either- the smiliest cashiers are often the most annoying to others (overly-chatty and obnoxious, and often they're hiding nastier personalities behind the smiles- more than a few turned out to be conniving and gossipy), or the biggest screw-ups. One is super-nice, but she gets taken in by scams more easily (like people who use Welfare Vouchers to buy Gift Cards- a no-no).

This is why having unions is important.  Although, I guess unions are illegal in my state starting this week now, because our slime ball governor, Mitch Daniels, decided to flip flop and sell out the state to appease the out of state GOP lunatics that are going to make him their next golden boy.

[Tuxedo Mark]

He even gave me the same thing about "not laughing at people's jokes" (though my supervisor pointed out that I DO joke with people, I'm just too naturally deadpan, so people often don't get that I'm kidding). My situation isn't NEARLY as bad as Mark's, though, because I make more money ($20.80 an hour makes me actually put in the effort)

Yeah, I'm naturally deadpan, too.

Also, I make $8.01 per hour (actually less after they take out the tax and health plan money). We haven't gotten raises in probably around three years.

Oh, yeah, during the meeting, when I mentioned how all of the customers' "jokes" irritated me, M2 was like "That sounds really pissant."

[Tuxedo Mark]

On Saturday the 4th, one of the garden guys let me know about an incident that had happened two days earlier.

He was in garden shop, and a guy from Blue Rhino (the propane company) showed up and wanted the keys to unlock the propane case outside. After clearing it with M2 over the phone, he gave the keys to the vendor.

A while later, the vendor came back in and was like "It's too bad about you guys closing." The garden guy was confused and was like "That's interesting, because we're gonna be expanding the hot dog stand." The vendor informed him that he was there to remove the propane.

The garden guy tried paging M2 but got no reply. Around an hour after the vendor left, M2 either called or showed up and was like "Did you get that propane thing taken care of?" The garden guy was like "Oh, yeah, we got it taken care of. He took it all away." M2 blew up and was like "What?! They ripped us off! They took it out right from under our noses!" M2 tried to blame him for it, but the garden guy was just amused by the whole thing, saying stuff like "We're no longer in the propane business."

Apparently, what happened was corporate sent out a memo to Blue Rhino of all of the stores that were closing, and we were on that list. They screwed up.

Or did they? Hmmm...

Last I heard, the propane hasn't been returned.

Yesterday, the same garden guy, upon clocking in, told me that two long-time department leads were let go on either Friday or Saturday. The company had found a way to eliminate their positions. One of them had previously been the overnight lead (back when we had overnight), and he'd been my original supervisor. I'm not sure what he was the lead of now, but he was a key-holder and did stock. I believe I'd also recently seen him back in receiving during a truck-unloading. The other was the toy lead, I think, but she'd also been in garden shop.

After hearing the news, I recalled something that I'd read on Retail-Worker earlier about a "Red Friday" at certain Kmart stores where long-time associates were called into the office one at a time, told their services were no longer needed, and told to vacate the premises.

This just proves there are no depths that this company won't sink to to...avoid sinking.

[Tuxedo Mark]

A bit more about the "Red Friday" event. From what I've read on Retail-Worker, it seemed to be a nationally-coordinated stunt to get rid of two long-employed, benefits-receiving, higher-paid leads from each Kmart store.

Yesterday, I found out that the managers don't want us using the back registers (3, 5, and 7) unless it's, like, Christmas time, because it makes the lines look backed up.

Regardless, today (after I spent 2:30 - 6:00 PM in garden shop, because no one was scheduled there until 6:00 PM), I was on 5, and someone else was on 3.

This morning, mom and I stopped by Wal-Mart, so she could get her schedule (the system isn't online at the moment) and some pet supplies for Misiu, and she told me that the personnel manager had apparently called this morning to get me to come in for orientation today (we confirmed that when we got home). I returned her call at around 1:50 PM and agreed to do it on Wednesday the 29th at 9:00 AM (I work tomorrow morning starting at 10:00 AM). That's when I'll officially start working at Wal-Mart.

In related news, it came out on the 16th that 100 workers were laid off at Sears Holdings' corporate headquarters:

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20120216/BLOGS02/120219838/sears-laying-off-100-at-hoffman-estates-hq

It looks like I'm jumping off this sinking ship just in time.

Fourth-quarter results come out on Thursday before the NYSE opens.

[Tuxedo Mark]

Okay, let's do the big news first:

On Thursday morning, before the stock market opened, Sears Holdings announced its fourth-quarter results. I was expecting a net income of $200,000,000 or less.

Instead, the company lost $2,400,000,000 in the fourth quarter of 2011.

Yes, $2.4-BILLION. Gone. In three months.

Or $3.1-billion for all of 2011.

Corporate even held a conference call with investors at 8:00 AM, after the news was posted.

To illustrate, we've retroactively wiped out all of the profits from 2006 onward, and we're well on our way to wiping out the 2005 profits.

The stock closed UP for the day.

How does that happen?! Well, the company announced some emergency measures, such as selling 11 Sears full-line stores in the hopes of generating $400,000,000-$500,000,000 in cash, spinning off 1,200 small stores (Hometown, Hardware, etc.) as a separate company, etc.

So what's work like for me? Well, today, M2 came up to me and another cashier and got on our cases about letting the e-receipt prompt time out. He said, if the customer doesn't make a selection (e-receipt only or print + e-receipt), we're to reach over and hit print + e-receipt on the PIN pad. We're NOT to hit the Print Only option on our register screens. I pointed out that customers have gotten angry at me for making the selection for them, and the other cashier seconded that. M2 was like "I don't care. You're bringing my numbers down. Could you please do this for me before I start coming up here every ten minutes to see if you're doing it? Because that's what'll eventually happen." I was like "Okay." He was like "Thank you! Always an argument!" After he walked away, the other cashier asked "Did he really just say 'I don't care' when we told him that the customers get mad at us?" I said "Yes, he did."

I kept letting the prompt time out for the rest of the day and hitting Print Only whenever the customer was distracted from the PIN pad for a long enough time.

[Tuxedo Mark]

Oh, I forgot to mention something from yesterday. I was discussing the fourth-quarter results with the garden shop woman. She showed me a bunch of potted palm trees (she said there were 24 of them) in the other room. She said they cost $30 each. Apparently, our store purchased them to DONATE TO THE MALL.

We did some math. That would be like paying me for 90 hours' worth of work.

I then mentioned that they're upgrading the hot dog stand. She said the hot dog stand doesn't make enough money to pay the hot dog woman's wages.

[Jabroniville]

It's good that you finally got that new job, Mark. Does K-Mart know yet, or were you planning on burning that bridge on your way out?