Policies and such you'd like to see?

[mjr]

What are some good policies and such you'd like to see, either in "Corporate America" in general, or in the industry/career in which you work?

[EricKei]

- Every "white-collar" worker in a Corporate office (does not include janitors, for instance) -- from the mailroom all the way up to the CEO -- is required to work as a "grunt" in a random store a certain number of hours per year; let's say, 1 hour of work per thousand dollars in their salary, with a reasonable limit. They would be forbidden from ID'ing themselves to anyone aside from the SM/ASM as anything beyond "temporary help," and would not count against payroll. If the location is far away from home, they get put up in a cheap motel and have reasonable expenses covered. Basically, the idea is to let them know where their money is coming from - the good, the bad, and the ugly. People who started at the bottom and worked their way up over the years are exempt for their first decade in Corporate.

- Corporate will be held accountable for any net profits lost due to automatically catering to customers who repeatedly escalate to Corporate -- meaning, one complaint/one little gift card? Let it slide. Same person gets $1000 in gift cards every year because they complain on pretty much EVERY trip? Guess what? You've just identified one of those "bottom 5%" customers, the ones who need to be fired.

[KellyHabersham]

One which I'd like to see in the library system I work in - whomever is in charge of ordering magnets, blocks, puzzles,...etc., for the children's area is the one responsible for cleaning up when customers have made a mess.

[Android Kaeli]

-- If an employee says "no" to having to help another department out, or coming in on their day off, their response should be respected. They should not have to be yelled at or have their job threatened because they dared to say "no". This should be across the board and all corporate managers should sit down with their store-level management to discuss this.

-- The Open Door policy should be something that needs a desperate overhaul. Too many lowly minions are too scared to use said policy, either for fear of retribution or they don't want to be called out as a tattle-tale.

-- Managers should be forced to work at least two months a year in their employee's job, in the same conditions they are forced to work in every day. No back-up, no help, same grind as the minions do.

[deysongrey]

-Work begins when we start suiting up. Its mandatory so its part of work. I clock in, suit up, then at breaktime, its gear down thdn break starts. After fifteen minutes you have to start suiting up again. End of day, gear off, clock out.

-I like the previous idea of making higher ups work for a bit. That should apply to everyone
everyone. Just to give them a realistic idea. Sometimes they like to work for like fve minutes, at top speed and then think everyone can do that ten hours a daym
day.

-Scheduling should be held to the same standard we are. Two weeks in advance.

[Dreamstalker]

--Whoever is scheduled to watch SCO stays on SCO. Period. Whoever signs the key out is responsible for anything done with it. Shift leads are NOT allowed to poach the SCO attendant to ring; if this is unavoidable, the lead must sign the keycard out under their name/numbers. (can you tell I'm sick of being scheduled for SCO and then told to ring?)

--Anyone who lets a perishable return turn into a damaged item due to laziness will be forced to work damages for that department for a day (department head decides what day)

--A clocked-in break starts when you actually get your food.

[Kit-Ginevra]

On behalf not just of the staff,but also those of us who have to follow.

If you wish to try on items in the fitting room,you must be wearing underwear of some description...

[mjr]

- Every "white-collar" worker in a Corporate office (does not include janitors, for instance) -- from the mailroom all the way up to the CEO -- is required to work as a "grunt" in a random store a certain number of hours per year; let's say, 1 hour of work per thousand dollars in their salary, with a reasonable limit.

This is intriguing. Would this be in, say, an "Undercover Boss" kind of way?

I think I'd extend that to retail and foodservice, too. I think they can be out of touch, as well, though there are many cases where the store manager actually worked their way up through the ranks.

- Corporate will be held accountable for any net profits lost due to automatically catering to customers who repeatedly escalate to Corporate -- meaning, one complaint/one little gift card? Let it slide. Same person gets $1000 in gift cards every year because they complain on pretty much EVERY trip? Guess what? You've just identified one of those "bottom 5%" customers, the ones who need to be fired.

Good idea here. I don't think that "Corporate" realizes just how much money it costs to retain an "irate" (as my wife would call them) with constant "freebies".

-- If an employee says "no" to having to help another department out, or coming in on their day off, their response should be respected. They should not have to be yelled at or have their job threatened because they dared to say "no". This should be across the board and all corporate managers should sit down with their store-level management to discuss this.

I'll go you one better here:

1. If you DO come in, your hours for that time frame should be specified, and you should not be penalized for leaving when that time has been reached.

I speak somewhat from experience on this one. I made the mistake of answering a call like that one day to "just work through the lunch rush" (which would have been 11AM - 2 PM, about 3 hours).

I had nothing better to do, so I went in. I was finally told I could clock out at 5 PM -- 3 hours longer than I was supposed to be there. And I was VERY mad. Sure, I got those 6 hours worth of pay, but still...I was NOT a happy camper. In fact, I threatened to leave at 5 PM that day whether someone was there to cover for me or not.

-Scheduling should be held to the same standard we are. Two weeks in advance.

I wanna add to this one. No changing of the schedule after it's posted without consultation. I've had that happen to me. a couple of times.

[Dreamstalker]

If someone is called in and then sent home, they shall be paid the minimum (4-hour shift) plus one hour immediately in cash. If this is not possible, the employee can make sure that said hours are entered into the computer in a way that they cannot be changed.

[EricKei]

Would this be in, say, an "Undercover Boss" kind of way?

Yes, that's the general idea of what I had in mind. The idea being, it would not be effective unless they get treated the same way -- for better or for worse -- as any other wage slave at that location. If a store is known for high turnover/lots of complaints about working conditions, I'd say not even the SM should know who their temps really are.

No changing of the schedule after it's posted without consultation. I've had that happen to me. a couple of times.

I oncehad this happen to me. I worked dayshift Friday (around XMAStime), and was off the next day. Got a call at around noon from a manager wanting to know why the hell I wasn't there. Long story short, he discovered that I had been "penciled in" AFTER I left for the day Friday. He told me that it was my responsibility to keep up with my schedule...in other words, that I should have called in and checked to see if my schedule changed Friday night. For better or for worse, my refusal to come in Saturday (I was away and would not be able to come in for several hours) was put down as an NCNS, resulting in the loss of that job. Not really sorry it ended, just annoyed at the absurd mental machinations they went through to end it.

[BrenDAnn]

I wanna add to this one. No changing of the schedule after it's posted without consultation. I've had that happen to me. a couple of times.

I've had it happen once, and it's a good thing I look at the schedule every time I go in, and all they changed was when I got off one shift. The rule I would like to add about scheduling is more of an employee thing. An employee should not be allowed to alter the schedule an excessive amount of times after it's out, unless it's for emergency medical/family reasons. I hve this problem at work with an employee right now. Four times she has traded days on a future schedule. Four.

[dawnfire]

A percentage (50% and up) of all profits are returned to the workers in form of bonuses.

[MoonCat]

No manager should get a bonus unless the employees also get one. Revenue is up? Great! Oh, manager gets a bonus now? Nope, not unless I get one too. It's my work that made your bonus possible.

I should be able to make decisions on small credits. If we make a dumb mistake I should be empowered to fix it. I've been here 36 years. I know what I'm doing and I'm not going to go crazy giving money back. If you can't trust me after this long on the job, I feel sorry for you.

[jedimaster91]

--Dear docs, when one test tells you what a patient's problem is, you stop there. No more tests. They are unnecessary.

--Hospitals shall hereby be properly staffed. No more forcing us to take on unreasonable patient loads.

--Don't call in a call tech for anything less than a life or death emergency. Of which there are two, maybe three exams that qualify. If something can be rescheduled on an outpatient basis, do it. There is no reason to call in a call tech on a weekend for a routine procedure.

--Order the best exam for the patient. Sometimes ours are not the best. If they are candidates for better suited exams, do those instead.

[Kristev]

All promotions must come from the pool of available workers in the current store. That means the new store manager has to be someone who has actually worked in this exact store for a long period of time.

It is all right to promote one of the second-in-commands of our exact store to become the new store manager and then look to someone under them to promote to a second-in-command post. It is grossly improper to bring in a totally new store manager from out of nowhere who knows nothing about us, our workers, or our consumers.

The same should be true of district managers. Only someone who is from our district and has a lot of experience there should qualify.

Corporate and managerial pay must take into account how many workers were fired, forced to quit, or laid off; but not so they can have a bonus for keeping payroll down. The purpose of this will be to tie high turnover and employee dissatisfaction as signs of inept management. Meaning you'll make bonus money if you keep your workers happy and employee moral up, but forswear your bonus and possibly your job if you cut your workforce to the bone.

Employees should no longer be a cost management can control. That means all departments must be fully staffed as best as is possible, without relying on a computer to do your scheduling, and it shall be considered a fireable offense if you intentionally understaff your business.