Way under/over staffed?

[Brighid45]

I work in a small food production plant. We make microbatches of a particular product and variations thereof. The official (BS) name for this is 'artisan food-making', but it's down to my employer being a total cheapskate who has absolutely no interest in setting up a more high-tech way of doing things--why should he when he's making a bundle off his low-tech setup? Anyway, we are chronically understaffed. When the summer/holiday help comes in the situation doesn't improve because the temps are allowed to do whatever they please--and in general, they don't choose to work. Stand around, yak on their phones, chat with each other, sure--but not work. That means we get to babysit them as well as keep up with our own jobs.

Also, when full-time people leave they are not replaced. Imo this is mostly because the other full time employees have been there for years and are paid somewhat more than the temps, so the employer saves some money by having fewer people do more. It's getting ridiculous though--we've been below skeleton-crew numbers for a long time now, with no hope of getting anyone else in. During the summer and especially over the winter holidays it gets really bad. Everyone is crabby as hell and a lot of stupid mistakes get made by too few people trying to do too much in too short a time.

[Ringtail Z28]

It was funny at Target, they would intentionally over schedule on some days, especially weekends or the first of the month, because it was expected that a number of people would call in. So many people would call in at times we would end up short staffed anyways. Of course there was the occasional day where no one would call in and there could be two or three people in a department, not than anyone would complain though, that just gave us a chance to get things done.

The only over staffing that would take place on a regular basis was with management and they were useless anyways. There were times when there would be more managers than cashiers.

[Lace Neil Singer]

I feel bad; my department is horribly understaffed at the moment (two people simply CANNOT do all the work in a Wally World softlines department on a weekend evening!!!!!!) and yesterday I had a migraine but tried to go in anyway, and ended up leaving before I clocked in. Couldn't do it. So last night, they had two people on the floor.

Three would have been inadequate. Two is a nightmare. One of the two is somebody who has just transferred over to us (Thank Gord!). I hated leaving her in the lurch like that, but I could hardly walk, let alone work.

ETA: Turns out there was only ONE person on the floor. They got a couple of other people from around the store to help, but when I heard that I felt worse.

Don't feel bad. I get migraines mostly in the early morning, so I have to take time off for them on weekends mostly cuz of that. One Sunday it was so bad, I was throwing up stomach bile; I could barely even crawl to the bathroom to do so. I felt really guilty about not going in as the supermarket was very short staffed, but I knew I'd never even make it downstairs. My superiors know about my migraines and understand.

[ginlyn32]

Ugh....I always remember the OVERstaffing! That was because the store was so dead but yet they wouldn't send anyone home. THey'd schedule us for Easter or New Years Day when most people are home. After about 5 pm....nothing. This was esp. true for Meijer's. They were so stupid.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Ugh....I always remember the OVERstaffing! That was because the store was so dead but yet they wouldn't send anyone home. THey'd schedule us for Easter or New Years Day when most people are home. After about 5 pm....nothing. This was esp. true for Meijer's. They were so stupid.

Thanksgiving is just as bad. We'll have a little bit of a rush between 10:00 and noon or so, than nothing. Absolutely nothing. And this is despite corporate's valiant attempts to turn Thanksgiving Day into a another big shopping day by starting one of their biggest sales of the year on that day.

Same thing goes for Easter, New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. Deader than dead.

The only day my store is closed is Christmas Day, and I imagine the day is not too far away when corporate decides to have some of its stores open that day as a "test", and then the following year all the stores will be open on Christmas Day. Gotta get a jump on Wally World, you know.

[braindead]

We are understaffed and its getting even worse. Now when full time people leave they are not replaced. We cant have temps because its customer service and takes a good week of training before people can get on the phones not to mention they dont want to. Right now we are a customer service department of 4. 3 for taking live and one to working on calling back. and now our operator is leaving and they are not going to replace her so instead of an operator they will have 16 lines ringing into our phones. Its going to be horrible. we are drowning as it is and its only getting worse.

[I_Hate_SCs]

It was funny at Target, they would intentionally over schedule on some days, especially weekends or the first of the month, because it was expected that a number of people would call in. So many people would call in at times we would end up short staffed anyways. Of course there was the occasional day where no one would call in and there could be two or three people in a department, not than anyone would complain though, that just gave us a chance to get things done.

The only over staffing that would take place on a regular basis was with management and they were useless anyways. There were times when there would be more managers than cashiers.

At my store, the schedule is always inversely related to the rushes and everything. For example, we open at 8am, and we're pretty much dead until 10:30-11am. During this down time, the schedule has at least 12 employees on the floor. About 8 of the 12 arrive a few hours before the store opens, so they leave a few hours before the closing crew would come in. At the same time, the store gets SLAMMED around 2:30pm-5pm. These 8 'early birds' who arrive before the store opens always leave by 2:30pm or so, right at the beginning of the rush, leaving the 4 people left over to run like chickens with their heads cut off answering phones ringing off the hook, customers asking every question known, and customers wanting every thing out of the back, etc. until the closers come in at 4pm. My store is just shy of a SuperTarget, we have the huge food dept, just not the bakery or deli. 4 people (1 of them held captive by SCs in Electronics at the counter) is NOT enough to cover the floor even when we're dead. Its crazy! Its the same way for the cashiers, we'd have 10 opening cashiers at 8am when nobody is shopping, but we would have 3 closing cashiers on a Saturday night when we are totally slammed and have the checkout lines going halfway into the store.