Floor Strip/Rewax Woes

[Dave1982]

Ugh. How I hate the words "floor strip." Never a fun time.

Well, we were due for one this past weekend. In preparation, we spent Friday and Saturday pulling all of the shippers, pallets, stack-ups, and other loose items from teh sales floor and cramming them into the back room, conference room, and into Lock-Up. We also took all the furniture out of the break room (except for the vending machines).

The floor crew was due at 8:30 Saturday night. When 8:30 rolled aournd, they weren't there. The GM and the Ops manager (who had come in specifically for the strip & rewax) were getting mighty pissed.

At about 8:40, one of the floor guys called, claiming that "he couldn't find us." Um, hello? We arent' exactly hard to find. We're also in the SAME PLACE we were last year when you did our last floor job!

Then, shortly after closing, they called again. This time, he asked if we could reschedule the appointment.

OM: NO! No no no no no! We can NOT reschedule! We've spent two days prepping for this. I have everything off the floor! It HAS to be done tonight!........What do you mean?"

The guy had just dropped a bombshell, claiming that his partner hadn't showed up and that he couldn't do the job himself. I'm assuming - therefore - that his little bit about not being able to find the plce was a lie intended to buy a little more time while he waited for his buddy.

They still hadn't shown up by the time I went home. The Ops manager was almost shaking with anger, wanting to call the home office facoliites manager to cancel the contract with the floor company.

The next day when I came in, it was obvious that the floors hadn't been done.

To GM: Well, this isn't a good sign......

GM: Huh?

Me: THe floors.....

GM: Yeah, they never showed up!

Me: Bastards.....

GM: Yeah, tell me about it......

Me: Are they coming back.

GM: They said they'll come tonight. They'd better. IF they don't, I'm putting everything back on the floor and we won't get one this year. Fuck it. I can't keep this up while they get their act together.

They did come, though I didn't know it until one of them let himself into the backroom while the store was still open and started poking around!

Me: Excuse me! This area is for employees only!

Floor Guy: I'm with the floor crew. I'm looking for a bucket.

Me: What?

FG: I need a great big bucket to mix the stripper in.....like THAT one. Can I use that? *points to the bin I was wheeling around*

Me: Ah, I don't think so. This is our damaged good bin. You'll have to check with the manager. *pages GM to back room*

*GM calls backroom phone; tells me they can use whatever is in the janitor's closet*

FG: No! That stuff won't do! I need THAT!

Me: Well, that's what the manager told me to tell you. Plus, this bin isn't stable enough. You fill this with liquid and it'll tip over for sure. Why dont' you come with me? I'll take you up to see the manager and you can discuss it with him.

*as if to drive the point home, the bin suddenly tipped over while I was wheeling it back up front, and it was mostly empty!*

Total situation. First of all, why are you arguing with ME about this? I told you! TALK TO THE MANAGER!

Second, why in God's name do you need US to provide a bucket for you? Isn't it your company's responsibility to provide you with the equipment you need to perform the services they offer? And isn't it your JOB to make sure you have all the gear you need before going o the job site? Not to mention showing up on the day you are supposed to do the job, not the next day? And why are you barging into my backroom unannounced?

And to top it all off, I think they did a piss poor job on the floor. The new wax is very uneven, and all over the store there are this irregular yellow patches that look like spills (or like someone took a leak there), which are apparently the result of "flowback" from stripped that had seeped under the shelves. If I had been the GM, I would have been totally unsatisfied and would have demanded that they come back out and redo it, properly this time.

[powerboy]

When I was working at OfficeMax. We took 2 days to clear everything and get it ready for the floor wax and stripping. They didn't show up either the night, that they said they would. The next night, the Store Manager(someone who you do not want to piss off) and all the managers where there. They all made sure that the floors were perfect.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

At my store, the cleaning crew gets to use our supplies, like buckets, when they are stripping and waxing floors.

And we get to clean up after them.

I ranted about our problems with our cleaners waxing the floors here. Damn idiots did only one little section and haven't been back. Guess we won't be having our floors done for a while now because the store manager has told us to tell the cleaners to go to hell if they ask us to add overnight shifts for when they finally decide to do it.

[protege]

Stripping and waxing floors sucks...especially at camp. Why? Well, the camp ranger didn't have enough stripper, so we were waiting for several hours for him to drive into the nearest town and back to get it. By the time he got back, it was too late to do anything--the building we were working in had to get locked up for the night. Besides, after that day, my OA (Order of the Arrow--a supposed "honorary" society for scouts...but in reality is just a stupid popularity contest) service day (basically hazing) was over, and I went back to my staffing duties. At the time, I was still active with my scout troop, and was working at camp.

Anyway, back to the floors. The floor we were working on was in the former main building down by the lake. Even though it wasn't used as much, it was up to us to strip off the old wax, re-apply it, and then buff the floor. However, that wasn't what happened--I sat around most of the afternoon and read car magazines. Not my fault they didn't have the supplies

However, running the floor scrubber thingie (same machine used to strip the wax) in the dining hall was fun. To us, it was challenging to get it across the floor, without falling on your ass

[SuperDan]

We have an outside company permanently stationed at our store that handles floor maintenance seven nights a week. Every night they sweep and scrub the entire store, then strip and wax one area (it takes a month or so to get around the entire store, then they start over). No trying to clear the floor from the entire store, they clear the floor themselves on the areas they're doing that night. We do allow them use of our brooms, mops, and buckets, but they supply their own scrubbers and all materials. Night crew gang-bangs the aisles they had closed off after they leave.

We did recently switch floor companies though. The old company was careless, used crappy wax, did an all-around crappy job, and we actually caught them stealing in the past but corporate wouldn't let us dump the company altogether at that time. (The floor company did, however, remove the Polish-speaking Ukrainians that we did catch stealing and sent us a crew of Asians, at least one of whom spoke English, and none of whom stole from us, so we were somewhat satisfied with the outcome.) After the old company knew that we were ending their contract, they purposely started waxing floors without cleaning them first, thus waxing down the dirt. They also waxed over the dirt on stairwells that were completely coated in rubber, needing no wax at all.

The floors look great now though, and clean up much more easily.

[lordlundar]

Good Gord! If I was the GM and they demanded the bin, I would have told them to GTFO and phone Head office and fill them in! That is totally unacceptable.

We actually had a similar situation. On the plus side, they arrived on time and did the waxing, on the bad side it was so bad it had to be redone. That company lost the biggest contract they ever had.

[DGoddessChardonnay]

Too bad it's not a free show when the floors strip

We're having one this coming Thursday night, so our backroom will be filled to the brim (as well as the outer hallway where the restrooms are) with shippers/floorstands/pallets. It's always a headache for both our employees and the vendor reps.

And lather, rinse and repeat the next day after it's done (and whoever the manager is that gets stuck having to stay in the store all night long w/the floor crew, is lucky because they get to go home when opening manager shows.) All the displays have to go back out onto the floor, and we have deliveries coming in at the dock as well.

Which reminds me of one memorable floor strip we endured back at the Gate (previous Kitty store) when we had the notorious Tarzan and Cheetah as managers. . . .

Our backroom was filled to the brim . . . no room for anything in that backroom. Even our Dairy Guy had problems getting to the cooler for the crap piled up in there.

It was no picnic for my vendors either. I had Brad coming in with about 7 pallets of soft drinks, and Al Bundy bringing in 2 pallets of beer. And Lee was coming with about 4 or 5 Pepsi pallets

Backroom wasn't emptying out quite fast enough to make space for all these vendor drops. Hell, Damn and all in one sentence.

Al Bundy comes in first, with his usual griping personality. We're both looking around (him griping all the while) about where we could put the pallets.

I see an empty spot right in front of the cooler door, where I though it was safe enough to drop it just long enough to get checked in, then they could be taken out to the floor (salesman was next door at HT, and would be there before it was checked in and I had time to write out the check.)

So, I tell Al to put the pallet in front of the door. He brings the pallet off he truck and plops it down in front of the dairy cooler door.

Next thing we know, we hear the Dairy Guy's voice coming from the other side of the cooler door.

Oooops . . . Al quickly moves the pallet, and I open the door to see Dairy Guy in the cooler, his mouth going at 80 miles an hour at Al.

Al just pointed at me and said I had told him to put it there . . . which I did. We just didn't know anyone was in the cooler.

Ever since then, he's sworn I tried to lock him in the cooler on purpose.

[Delphae]

One morning I walked up to the store to open it and realized that I had forgotten that the floor had been stripped and waxed and that no one had put anything away after. Mind you it was only my boss who has CP (I think) who stayed to supervise. The lobby was full, and so was behind the counter. I squeeze through the lobby and had to sit on the counter to time in.
I couldn't put a drawer on becuase the clearance table was there and I couldn't move it alone. So I emptyed the lobby first. Then some customers came in and one of them helped me movethe clearence table so I could put on a drawer 20 minutes late.
They did a crappy job on the floor too. Lots of liquid leaking out from under the shelve, their junk in the back room, bubbles under the wax, exectra. I spent the day randomly moping up isle four where the worst of the liquid was. There was paper towels every where.

They haven't been doing well with our normal cleaning either. We used to get 2 or 3 people who would start at 8:30 and finish by 9;15. Now we get 1 guy who doesn't start until after we close. Last time it was almost 10 when we left and I had been there since before 8. 14 hours. Three times that night I caught him on his cell phone. I wrote that on his comment sheet.