Manager Too Good to do Work at Wal Mart

[LillFilly]

I was at WalMart today. I asked for help in a department so the employee paged someone who knew that section (I'd had to go into gardening before I finally found someone to help me in the toy section!).

While I stood there in the toy department, for 15 minutes or so, I saw a manager (dress shirt, ear piece, walkie) go past about 5-times talking into his piece "Where's an employee? Why is this cart of go backs still sitting here? Why isn't this shelf stocked?" We made eye contact several times, but he never stopped to ask if I was the one who needed help, or if I or ANY of the other people in the section needed help. I was thinking, 'why don't you stop bitching about this and that not being done, put on your work underwear and do it yourself? Or are you too good to get dirty like a common employee?' In any case, I tracked down an assistant manager in another section who looked up the item I was looking for, saw it was in stock, and got it for me from the back! I told her she was awesome and SHE should be the manager over that other guy!

PS. I actually ordered the item on Wal Mart online to be shipped to the store while I despaired of finding someone to help me. Then I found that assistant manager and the product. So now I have 2X the amount I needed but hey, can you really have too many Nerf guns...?

PPS. She had a neat work app on her phone that she signed onto, typed in the name of the product, scanned the tag on the shelf where it was supposed to be, and found if they had them in stock and if they were in the back. Neat!

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Sounds about right for retail management, I'm sorry to say.

The manager sits in his office and delegates, occasionally coming down to the floor to complain about the work not being done, while the assistant manager (if there is one) is doing the actual work.

[MelindaJoy77]

Heyyyy....we have some managers like that at our store! From what I understand with talking to some of my co-workers, you probably waited in part because basically every area of the store is under-staffed, and that's the fault of corporate. Yep, pretty much normal unfortunately.

[Evannah]

That's managers for you. Our manager, although nice, has this mentality that drives me nuts. She drinks a lot of coffee, and always leaves half empty cups lying about, and always uses new ones as well. So when the washing up bowl is full, she'll get one of us to wash her cups for her. One of my coworkers asked her why she doesn't do the washing up and my manager said, "Because I'm the manager, it's not my job to wash up."

[Miss Maple Leaf]

In my store it's the dealer who's like that, while the manager works his ass off every shift.

The dealer comes in, spends most of his time in the office, and never works a full shift or closes. The manager works 12-hour shifts at a minimum (14 if he's closing that day), helps out in every department, and is always on the go. Seriously, we need 5 of him in the store just to take care of some of the work so that he can slow down a little bit.
I really don't know how he does it.

[Dreamstalker]

Our SM will roll his sleeves up and pitch in bagging, blocking, stocking shelves, I've even seen him ringing once.

ASM will ring and/or bag if it gets really busy on the front, but never block or do anything else that the peons can do (he's too busy 'servicing the customers' -_- ). Last night at closing he was behind the desk yelling at everyone else to 'focus, hurry up and work as a team' (...hey, that means YOU TOO). He did let me (tell me) to stay an extra hour past closing to block; I didn't get everything done exactly the way he wanted, but I wasn't supposed to be there and I knew there was a big load coming in so wanted to get out of the night crew's way.

[Catwoman2965]

I've had managers on both ends of the spectrum. Some who do nothing, yet feel the need to keep telling US to get it done, and others, who will pitch in, and do whatever we do. our new GM, thankfully is like that. She's apparently on a trial only, but I hope she stays. Last week, RM was supposed to come. She opened, so she started work about 8:30am. ANd stayed until almost 8 at night, doing displays in preparation for the visit.

Next day, day before, she was there until 1am, lives about 40 minutes away, and came BACK in at 6am. and then the visit was canceled at the last minute

[SixFortyK]

That's managers for you...One of my coworkers asked her why she doesn't do the washing up and my manager said, "Because I'm the manager, it's not my job to wash up."

Can't stand that type of manager. My last manager was on the sales floor one day, and my coworker he was talking to introduced him to a regular customer that approached them.

CW: This is Joe, the new manager. He works here now.
Joe manager: Oh, I don't work here. I run the place.

[raudf]

At my closest Hell-Mart, I can, will, and have dragged a manager into doing what I need them to do as a customer. Of course, I'm in there often enough that I know which managers actually do work and which ones are just there to keep their suits clean. I don't care, if you have a tag on and are on the floor, you shouldn't ignore customers. The busy ones even take a moment to nod and smile.

[otakuneko]

I probably would've stopped him if I was annoyed enough.

I don't mean just say something. I mean stand in his way and talk loudly so the message is clear: either help me or tell me why you won't.

[KatherineB]

That's where I would want to adopt a Sucky Customer persona and demand he get off the phone and help me right now! No, I didn't want anyone else to help, I wanted him and if he wasn't going to help me I would complain to corporate about him by name and never shop there again!!!eleventy!!!

Let him see what the peons go through for once.

[Tama]

I understand that the big corporate muckety mucks might not do work. They probably don't know how to anyway.

But if an AM or SM, who is not escorting aforementioned muckety mucks around, isn't working, they need to get their butts in gear.

[prjkt]

If I have a visitor from head office, even if they're here to see me, I will apologise , and serve a waiting customer...

I don't really understand managers who don't do any work

[Sulhythal]

If I have a visitor from head office, even if they're here to see me, I will apologise , and serve a waiting customer...

I don't really understand managers who don't do any work

I had a couple managers who expressed it this way. "Managers MANAGE, they don't WORK"

more or less an exact quote, as I recall it, from one. The other just had the same attitude.

Considering they were both on small teams, and sometimes the ONLY one there TO work...their attitude did not endear them to the rest of us.

[blas]

I watched a manager (well, some tard in a suit with a blue tooth looking thing) berate one of the blue polo shirt team members about how messed up the girls' clothing section at Wal-Mart was (no, it's not my go-to shopping place, but their junior tanks work great for my work because they are dirt cheap and easily replacable as I get more and more holes in them at work). Right in front of a customer.

Unbelievable.