Herding cats, nailing Jello to a wall...

[Dreamstalker]

I still don't have the team I was promised...the current CDH is helping me out (while she doesn't need to seeing as the front end is also woefully shortstaffed, she knows much more about online pickup that the actual managers) and she told me that everything is on SM's head now; he has the most to gain by having this work out and only he can get us people. Now I get to enter the fun world of "what misogynistic fun is C going to do this week?" He does seem to be more condescending/impossible with the female supervisors (we're in the majority currently).

I was thrown on SCO pretty much my entire shift--thankfully no orders came in. I didn't have the online-pickup cordless phone on my person when babysitting that stupid--we cannot be distracted while watching those lanes (I can't get any reception on that phone at all unless I'm in my 'corner office' anyway). A call came into the service desk that was for Grocery and it was transferred as such. I come back from helping all four lanes and SM is holding the cordless phone out to with with an open line while saying "You have an online pickup call, your phone has been blowing up, please take it." I never heard that phone ring and I would have. Before I manage to escape into my corner he mouths off with "Let's keep the phone on us at all times, mmkay?" (the person on the other end of the line can hear all of this)

The person on the other end was very confused; it turns out that was the same call for Grocery that had come in 30 seconds prior. My cordless cannot easily transfer calls into the main system (by design; no need to), so the person had to call back on the primary line and get transferred again. I told SM that the call was not even for my department and reiterated that my phone did not ring, and according to policy I shouldn't have it on me when I'm not actually doing online-pickup duties. I'm definitely not taking it with me when I'm on an unpaid lunch.

I came in this morning to find that someone had written my phone number on the back of a receipt and left it in plain sight on the desk (not marked with my name, but just the idea that it was out there is disturbing--yes I did remove it). If I find that person there will be trouble. If the company expects me to be reachable for that stuff when I'm not at work then they can pay for another cellular device (and explain my new 'on-call' status to the union).

[Kristev]

Typical mismanagement tyranny.

[Dreamstalker]

At least now I know he's a misogynist moron....mom thinks I (and the 2 other female sups) scare him in some way. I did get him to admit that I am far more tech-savvy than he is. I was supposed to train him last week...nuh-uh, I know he's not gonna jump in if we get in the weeds and CDH only wants me to train people that she thinks will step up. We can already see he's trying to hamstring this process; it started with an improper remodel (we somehow got the layout for a larger store rather than the 'compact' setup we actually needed).

Mom was not happy that the home phone number was left in public view (and that another manager called the house at 8PM with an 'issue' that could have been solved by reading the reference sheets I had typed up and left on the desk in a clipboard labeled "Reference Docs for Pickup Procedure"). Since I was royally screwed on being able to train coworkers, I am creating my own 'training' binder...basically everything that one needs to know and it will live in the desk so if needed, one can do the basic shopping/carryout part of the job using the binder alone as reference. The image programs we have access to on the work computers is laughable (MS Paint, really?) but I'm going to try to put a watermark on any docs I create (and am definitely going to make myself a copy of the files, possibly set the one on the shared drive to read-only).

[Dreamstalker]

Graaaar. I found out while doing a shop this morning that the handheld scanner completely shits itself at the back of the store (I would go so far as to say the entire back half of the building is no-go, possibly because there's too much interference from badly- or un-shielded equipment). Luckily I had printed the pick list out just in case and it was a small order, but I had been trying to do a substitution when it failed. I finished the shop by hand, made my way back to the front and staged everything; before finalizing I checked the out-of-stocks just in case...good thing, because the subs I had scanned never went in. I already had the sub items in the basket so I fix that, send, all's well.

As I'm composing an email to the helpdesk and writing down the chain of events, C pokes his head in "So, how are things going?"
"Fine, I have an order being picked up at 1, everything's finished but I did have some system issues, I was able to work around them but am typing the issues up for the helpdesk now."
"Oh? What issues are we finding?"
"The wifi signal at the back of the store isn't strong enough and the handhelds are losing the connection. If it fails right after I've scanned something that item will not register and that's not clear until you're actually on the computer reviewing the pick."
"So what else are we doing?"
"I'm emailing the helpdesk now."
"But what are you doing? We always have to be doing something."
"I'm doing this, temp logs, bagging, watching SCO..."
"Well we need to keep the cordless on you all the time." IT GETS SHIT RECEPTION AND IS AWKWARD AND HEAVY YOU KNOB (he does not know about my texting-customers idea and will not know until the DM finalizes the details with me)

I was only scheduled until 1 and the 1PM customer had not arrived by the time I had to leave--no OT evah on holidaze--of course I could not find C to tell him that if he expected me to deliver the order he had to let me stay. I clocked out at the last possible second before needing the override card (I have the secret keypad override for the override, but he does not and will not know that). I did leave a note on the staged carriage so I hope everything gets out okay.

[RealUnimportant]

"But what are you doing? We always have to be doing something."

And what else was he doing while interrogating you about a task that cannot really be done in unison with anything else? Gah, I hate the micromanaging that goes on in jobs like that - I've spent hours, days in offices just reading paperwork, but if you're even remotely involved with customers then every second counts, like they're somehow not getting their fraction of a penny per second value out of you.

[Dreamstalker]

The only time I saw him down on the floor was when he was badgering me or taking a phone call (that really did not require his being down there at all).

I feel he's just doing this because the promotion was not his idea and he's trying to set me up or find anything wrong...because my "process" doesn't match his. I am literally the best--possibly only--one there who can do this with any degree of competence and he has to know that.

We ganged up on him again about moving the pickup parking spaces to where the camera is actually aimed (safely under the front overhang, very close to the doors)..."no, that is where the spaces will be, all year" (then what the is the point of the camera then?!) Right now the parking spaces are at the ass end of the parking lot in a little-used section full of potholes that I've seen people use as a speedway. That's a huge potential liability when the weather gets bad...given that it is out of camera range, I'm sorely tempted to pretend to fall in the snow/ice; something that results in my coming back in the store a soggy mess (I'm pretty good at faking a limp if I need to).

[csquared]

I am beginning to wonder if it is time to start sending documentation of the store's deficiencies up the chain?

Better still:
Surprise store inspection! Where is Stuart when you need him?

[Dreamstalker]

I've been communicating directly with the district manager for this entire program; he is well aware of the parking space issue. I'm going to start photo-documenting all of the potholes out there, and possibly recording the danger posed by moving cars.

ETA: Both of the orders I had today just pulled up to the front parking area...and the software we have that supposedly notifies us to someone's arrival did not work. One guy parked in front and came into the store, and the other one was in the fire lane and called.

[Kittish]

"What are we doing? Well, right now I'm stood here answering your inane questions. I'm not sure what YOU think you're getting out of this, but I hope you decide you've wasted enough of MY time soon."

[Dreamstalker]

C stayed out of my hair today, mainly because I was helping B (our awesome but ridiculously overworked file-maintenance manager) put up tags. C does not mess with B (or any of the other female supervisors) at all.

We only had one order today; the customer called from one of the designated pickup spots (again the software did not alert me at all) and insisted on driving up under the front overhang seeing as it was absolutely pouring

And an awesome customer bought me one of our markdown bakery items (sweet potato pie--YUM) because "it has to suck running orders out in this mess and you look like you need a sugar infusion."

[Dreamstalker]

C stuck his nose in my biz this morning while I was processing 2 orders. My system for dealing with out-of-stocks is: shop the order as well as I can, minimizing hunting for items to keep my pick time down; after everything is staged and I'm no longer on a timer, I will then go through the OOS list and hunt down the remaining items/subs if I have time to do so (this is why I try to shop orders the second they drop into our system). I don't know if repick attempts are tracked, but I try my hardest to get everything and IMO that metric is what counts.

C: "So how are we doing with out-of-stocks?"
Me: "Decent, I'm just trying to track some items down now."
C: "No, we're actually not doing well with OOS at all." *cue lecture about how "we" should be doing everything possible to minimize OOS...I am doing everything I can you nimrod!*
Me: "I am checking everything I can. We are getting orders containing products that we do not have in the building at the time an order drops and have not been able to get. That's a supply-chain issue."
C: "if we don't have an item in the store, people can't order it."
Me: "Yes they can. That's why we have out-of-stocks."
*lecture about checking with departments...which I have been doing. Then blaming the poor CAO clerk. Then a patronizing mini-lesson on how exactly to OOS and sub items*
Me: "I know all this. I am doing my job."
C: "We just need to check everywhere for items, ok?"

Later I decided to humor him by actually going down into the basement and taking an extra 5-minute break hunting for an item....which I knew we had, the only barrier to it being on the floor was the simple fact that we do not have enough people to stock stuff. Hey, if he wants me to exhaust all possibilities...not my problem that he fails to grasp the process. I've given up even expecting to train him on this; I suspect that if I'm on record as training him, he will find some way to screw something up (or misread what I'm showing him) and drop it on me.