Haven't even returned to work and the shit is already hitting the fan

[Chained to the counter]

I am planning on returning to work next monday after taking 5 months of maternity leave and am already having a shitload of trouble.

I gave notice of my intention to return over a month ago and with only 1 week left i have still not received a roster, i have been in to see the SM about 6 times to discuss my availability and always get no problem, i'll call you and have a chat and that phone call never happens.

Today i went to the store manager to see if she could get him to pull his finger out of his arse, she asked what hours i can do and because of hubby working nights i have to be finished work by 2 or 3pm to look after the kids.
When she heard that she blew up at me saying i'm not being flexible and because i'm a senior i'm required to work late and i can't pick and choose my hours

I totally understand the importance of being flexible but with 3 kids to take care of and a hubby who works nights it's hard to be and she can't seem to understand that.

Anyway, moving on some new policies have started where if a customer asks you where an item is you have to physically walk them to that aisle find the item for them and hand it to them, you even have to do this when you're on a checkout serving people.
It's going to piss alot of people off if you have to say I'm sorry i have to show this person where something is, very hard if your on a large checkout with 4 trolly loads of people to put through.

Ok i'm done, if you've gotten this far you can have a cookie

[Ljt09863]

i get a cookie! i get a cookie! can i get two, since im in a very similar boat as you? i posted mine in Morons in Management, so im not going to hijackj this thread. i just wanted to know if i could have two cookies....

and how did you get 5 months? i only got three....

[MadMike]

Anyway, moving on some new policies have started where if a customer asks you where an item is you have to physically walk them to that aisle find the item for them and hand it to them, you even have to do this when you're on a checkout serving people.

They had a similar policy at the home improvements store, although I can't speak for the part about being on checkout, since I never was.

It was annoying to the employees, and the customers if they'd try to say, "You don't have to take me to it, just point me in the right direction." I think most of us, myself included, eventually started to "forget" that moronic policy. I never got in any trouble for it.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Anyway, moving on some new policies have started where if a customer asks you where an item is you have to physically walk them to that aisle find the item for them and hand it to them, you even have to do this when you're on a checkout serving people.

This has been the policy at my store since I have been there. You have to walk the customer to the product but you don't have to hand it to them.

This is one of the things our secret shoppers grade us on every month, and they will often "trap" us. They will approach somebody who is distracted, such as a person doing a carryout, heading up to the registers to backup cashier, or already walking another customer to a product. The distracted employee isn't going to drop everything to help this one person find the sewing suupplies or whatever, so he/she just points and gives the customer a description. BAM--the employee and the store loses points for not walking the secret shopper to the product.

These scores are then used in computing an employee's yearly raise (twice--the store's score is factored in, as is the employee's if he/she got the secret shopper).

While I think my store is excellent in many areas as compared to some of the other stores in the company, our secret shopper scores are not so hot (I believe one month we had the third-lowest score in the company). Of course, the crappy secret shopper scores are what corporate focuses on....

[BookstoreEscapee]

They had a similar policy at the home improvements store, although I can't speak for the part about being on checkout, since I never was.

It was annoying to the employees, and the customers if they'd try to say, "You don't have to take me to it, just point me in the right direction." I think most of us, myself included, eventually started to "forget" that moronic policy. I never got in any trouble for it.

BN has that policy but it doesn't apply to cashiers. Especially if you are the only one because you can't leave the cashwrap unattended. But if you are at the CS desk you are supposed to walk them over. However, if the customer told me they could find it themselves (especially if it was busy) then I wouldn't necessarily do it.

BTW I get a cookie too! Are they chocolate chip? (I just got a bag of Pepperidge Farm Dark Chocolate Mint Chunk cookies...so yummy!)

[SuperDan]

My store has that policy, although it was never made clear whether or not it applies to cashiers at their registers. If someone waits in the register line and says they couldn't find something, we generally call someone else to just bring it up for them. Walking a customer to the product is also not on the cashier secret shopper sheet (nor is it on the Deli/Bakery sheet for that matter) but it is on everybody else's sheets.

Our instructions are to take the customer to the product, not necessarily hand it to them but show it to them. If we're taking another customer to a product when asked, we either take the customer along if they're looking for the same thing or point them in the right direction then try to follow up on it once we're done with the first customer (if we can even find the second customer by that point we make sure they found the item). If a customer refuses once, we remind them that it's our job to take them to the product above anything else we're doing. Along with this first refusal, if it's something I know damn well they won't find even if I told them where it was, I will let them know of this fact and don't tell them where it is, just repeat my offer to show them. A second refusal gets an "Are you sure?" then if they still refuse we send them off with an aisle number (and a general area in the aisle if we know it).

Seriously though, it is a helpful policy once you get used to it. There are some items in my store that nobody would ever find if I didn't show them to it, and there are some items that I don't know the exact location of but I have a better chance of finding it by looking than you do.