Sick employees and SCs

[drjonah]

Got told a couple gems from a former co-worker at Awful Mart.

1)Busy time and floor associates are running register to help out. One of the cashiers suddenly has her sugar bottom out, collapses and starts convulsing. People rush to her to help out and someone else hops on the register quickly to finish the line and get it shut down.

A few minutes later, cashier is still on the floor waiting for paramedics when suddenly an SC pipes up 'Why aren't there more lanes open?' They try to explain to him about the person on the floor FIVE FEET AWAY FROM HIM when he barks back 'I don't care! These registers need to be open so we can all get checked out, your cashier should be fired if she can't handle it' Really??? Fire someone for collapsing and not being on register???

2)Three cashiers I guess are currently on medical leave because they are in the hospital. Old coot barks to one of the CSS's about why there aren't more lanes open. They apologize and mention that they are short handed because three people are in the hospital. His reply was 'Well go get them and bring them to work or fire them for not showing up for work and hire people who will be here!'

Yeah, I'm sure the hospitalized cashiers will really appreciate you demanding they be at work or firing them for being in the hospital. I'm sure they won't mind working in a hospital gown with IV's hanging all over them, just as long as you get to buy your bananas and Special K, that's all that matters

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

But it would be different if the SCs were the ones missing work due to illness.

Several years ago we had a guy collapse in the pharmacy from a brain hemorrhage which ultimately proved fatal. The pharmacist and a couple other pharmacy people were calling 911 and doing first aid when some bag barked "Can't you just roll him off to the side? I need to pick up my prescription!"

[Monterey Jack]

Several years ago we had a guy collapse in the pharmacy from a brain hemorrhage which ultimately proved fatal. The pharmacist and a couple other pharmacy people were calling 911 and doing first aid when some bag barked "Can't you just roll him off to the side? I need to pick up my prescription!"

Good God, were I another customer within earshot of that, I would have punched her right in the fucking mouth.

[XCashier]

"Why sure, Mr. Entitled Jackhole, we've got an extra-speedy checkout line just for you! Just step in here... ...yep, you've checked out, all right!"

Seriously, it's disgusting how self-centered some people can be. Someone is very obviously taken ill in front of you and all you can think about is your own inconvenience?! you. That's all.

[Seshat]

No, we can't 'just roll her off to the side'. We're human.


Some people....

[Food Lady]

But it would be different if the SCs were the ones missing work due to illness.

Several years ago we had a guy collapse in the pharmacy from a brain hemorrhage which ultimately proved fatal. The pharmacist and a couple other pharmacy people were calling 911 and doing first aid when some bag barked "Can't you just roll him off to the side? I need to pick up my prescription!"

I have no words.

[Air_Stewardess]

I did CPR one on a passenger who had collapsed and some old hag was ringing her call bell demanding a gin and tonic even though she could see all the crew were trying to save someone's life.

[Mike Taylor]

I would have invited the SC to put their things down, leave the store, and never return. A lost sale is worth not having to put up with that sort of heartless selfishness.

[TheSHAD0W]

I hope this doesn't count as FTSTS... With companies trimming their employee roster to the bone, having one employee down is a bigger problem than it ought to be. The more people a store has, the more chance of emergencies happening with them, and having an extra person or two on shift to cover for such should be part of customer service, even if they're just doing miscellaneous cleaning and tidying most of the time. I think upper management should take part of the blame, and if these noisy sucky customers take their complaints there, it might result in some benefit. (Or not... )

[XCashier]

Your theory is correct, Shadow. Problem is, the corporate bean-counters don't see it that way. They only see the money, and they want to keep as much as possible. I honestly don't think they care about coverage, customer service, stocking, cleaning, any of the stuff that store-level employees have to deal with since Corporate doesn't. And on the rare occasion that customers do complain to Corporate about lack of help or stock, Corporate responds by giving the customer a gift card...and cutting employee hours even further!!!

[drjonah]

Corporate responds by giving the customer a gift card...and cutting employee hours even further!!!

Exactly, whenever sales/profit is down, the first thing to get cut is payroll.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Your theory is correct, Shadow. Problem is, the corporate bean-counters don't see it that way. They only see the money, and they want to keep as much as possible. I honestly don't think they care about coverage, customer service, stocking, cleaning, any of the stuff that store-level employees have to deal with since Corporate doesn't. And on the rare occasion that customers do complain to Corporate about lack of help or stock, Corporate responds by giving the customer a gift card...and cutting employee hours even further!!!

Think this is a good time to drop this here.
Yeah, it's Gawker, but it's from somebody working at the corporate office of a major American retailer.

The thing that stands out most to me is they staff the corporate office assuming everybody is working at 50% of their capability, because they expect their corporate people to spend so much time in pointless socializing, meetings, team-building events and volunteer events. Keeping your head down and pounding out the work is viewed negatively.

So for those of you scoring at home:
Corporate office-- 2 people doing a job 1 person can do.
Retail location-- 1 person doing a job it takes 2 or more to do.

Now what is it I always say? Oh yeah--the biggest expense in any company is not the employees. It's the corporate office, and that's because they choose to be.

[ComputerNecromancer]

I hope this doesn't count as FTSTS... With companies trimming their employee roster to the bone, having one employee down is a bigger problem than it ought to be. The more people a store has, the more chance of emergencies happening with them, and having an extra person or two on shift to cover for such should be part of customer service, even if they're just doing miscellaneous cleaning and tidying most of the time. I think upper management should take part of the blame, and if these noisy sucky customers take their complaints there, it might result in some benefit. (Or not... )

The problem is that the folks figuring these stupid staffing levels don't understand probability and statistics.

They see that *on average* X staff are required.

What they don't understand is that BY DEFINITION 50% of the time they'll need *more* staff if they staff at that level.

I bet if you were to ask them "Do you want to be understaffed 50% of the time?" they'd say no. But getting them to understand that staffing for "average" (mean) customer flow is *ensuring* exactly that will take a lot of work, and many won't get it no matter how hard you try to explain.

With even a first year stats student and figures on customer levels at various times and days, you can easily calculate the required staffing for any desired level of coverage. &5% and 90% are a couple of the standard figures for such calcs. You can even go for 99% but that is going a bit far unless you are dealing with something truly critical.

but getting middle managers to understand the very *concept* is unlikely. Getting them to sign off on it? I don't think so.

[fireheart]

I hope this doesn't count as FTSTS... With companies trimming their employee roster to the bone, having one employee down is a bigger problem than it ought to be. The more people a store has, the more chance of emergencies happening with them, and having an extra person or two on shift to cover for such should be part of customer service, even if they're just doing miscellaneous cleaning and tidying most of the time. I think upper management should take part of the blame, and if these noisy sucky customers take their complaints there, it might result in some benefit. (Or not... )

It still doesn't justify some of the responses in the thread. Most UNDERSTANDING human beings will see that something is going on and offer assistance if they can (or at least understand that these things happen on occasion) The rest will be the stories in this thread

[otakuneko]

50%....at a MINIMUM.