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M got suspended yesterday...for standing up to a raving SC. I didn't see the whole thing, but heard some of it.
M was watching SCO and I was over in my corner doing paperwork and talking with my mom and B. Apparently it started innocently enough; a confused customer who didn't know how to use SCO at all (then go to a mainline register!). In addition to entering a store card, M also had to scan SC's items for her.
SC was buying a couple BOGO items. All BOGO sales come off at the very end of the transaction, when you hit "Pay"; the system needs to make sure that you did in fact buy two.
SC: "These are supposed to be buy one get one but you're charging me for both! My store card didn't go through!" (she didn't have her card and needed M to press the "forgot card" button so a store card went in)
M: "The card went through, see the sales that it already took off? The BOGO will come off at the very end of the transaction when you go to pay."
SC: "Are you sure? You don't know what you're talking about!"
My mom steps in. "This young woman is the front end manager, she does know what she's talking about. I shop here all the time and that is how these sales work."
Lather, rinse, repeat a few times until SC breaks the cycle (and the sound barrier) by screeching "You're trying to cheat me! You're trying to scam me!"
Eventually, M could not waste any more time with this loon and extricates herself by saying "Ma'am, I have helped you as much as I can. I have other customers to assist now so I will get another manager to help you."
Sm is called, and SC goes off (I didn't hear what was said). Sm's response is to say to M--in front of everyone who witnessed the preceding--"You're suspended."
Mom then corners Sm "That customer was verbally abusive to your front end manager and accused her of scamming rather than paying attention to what [M] was telling her."
Sm: "Yes, yes..." Clearly Sm was a bit out of her element.
Mom" "You are okay with being verbally harassed. You are telling me that you expect employees to take verbal abuse and accusations and that you will not find out the entire story before taking the customer's side no questions asked and disciplining the employees in public."
Sm: "Well...yes..." (B doesn't think that Sm entirely understood what mom was saying) Sm does not know my mom and we try to keep it that way...nice to have a "concerned customer" who knows what we really go through.
I later found M and told her that I had talked to a customer who witnessed the entire thing and that if she needed them to write something up on what transpired that they would do so (as would I; while I didn't see everything I saw/heard enough).. No word on how long she'll be suspended for. Nobody who saw this or heard about it is happy, and our shop steward was ripshit that she did get suspended (apparently he sat in on a short "meeting" which didn't seem to cover much of substance).
M is my backup for online pickup; this week is going to be interesting (Tuesday especially as that is my day off). The other online-pickup trained fulltimers are going to decline any requests to change their days off; I can't change mine (doubtful that they'll try to ask this late in the game) as I already have plans.
I pulled 9 hours today...didn't punch for a break (although I did manage to take one) as I thought I was leaving at 2 (I usually leave at 10, M then does online pickup until she leaves at 2). Sm's idea of "helping out" is to leave everything for me to clean up...she "voluntold" me to jump on a register and when I escaped I found that she had not put away the cold items from the most recent shop although she told me specifically that she would do it (luckily it was cool enough over there that everything was still at temperature, but if you say you're going to help out then fucking help--I can see that behavior from a part-timer, but a manager?!).
M was watching SCO and I was over in my corner doing paperwork and talking with my mom and B. Apparently it started innocently enough; a confused customer who didn't know how to use SCO at all (then go to a mainline register!). In addition to entering a store card, M also had to scan SC's items for her.
SC was buying a couple BOGO items. All BOGO sales come off at the very end of the transaction, when you hit "Pay"; the system needs to make sure that you did in fact buy two.
SC: "These are supposed to be buy one get one but you're charging me for both! My store card didn't go through!" (she didn't have her card and needed M to press the "forgot card" button so a store card went in)
M: "The card went through, see the sales that it already took off? The BOGO will come off at the very end of the transaction when you go to pay."
SC: "Are you sure? You don't know what you're talking about!"
My mom steps in. "This young woman is the front end manager, she does know what she's talking about. I shop here all the time and that is how these sales work."
Lather, rinse, repeat a few times until SC breaks the cycle (and the sound barrier) by screeching "You're trying to cheat me! You're trying to scam me!"
Eventually, M could not waste any more time with this loon and extricates herself by saying "Ma'am, I have helped you as much as I can. I have other customers to assist now so I will get another manager to help you."
Sm is called, and SC goes off (I didn't hear what was said). Sm's response is to say to M--in front of everyone who witnessed the preceding--"You're suspended."
Mom then corners Sm "That customer was verbally abusive to your front end manager and accused her of scamming rather than paying attention to what [M] was telling her."
Sm: "Yes, yes..." Clearly Sm was a bit out of her element.
Mom" "You are okay with being verbally harassed. You are telling me that you expect employees to take verbal abuse and accusations and that you will not find out the entire story before taking the customer's side no questions asked and disciplining the employees in public."
Sm: "Well...yes..." (B doesn't think that Sm entirely understood what mom was saying) Sm does not know my mom and we try to keep it that way...nice to have a "concerned customer" who knows what we really go through.
I later found M and told her that I had talked to a customer who witnessed the entire thing and that if she needed them to write something up on what transpired that they would do so (as would I; while I didn't see everything I saw/heard enough).. No word on how long she'll be suspended for. Nobody who saw this or heard about it is happy, and our shop steward was ripshit that she did get suspended (apparently he sat in on a short "meeting" which didn't seem to cover much of substance).
M is my backup for online pickup; this week is going to be interesting (Tuesday especially as that is my day off). The other online-pickup trained fulltimers are going to decline any requests to change their days off; I can't change mine (doubtful that they'll try to ask this late in the game) as I already have plans.
I pulled 9 hours today...didn't punch for a break (although I did manage to take one) as I thought I was leaving at 2 (I usually leave at 10, M then does online pickup until she leaves at 2). Sm's idea of "helping out" is to leave everything for me to clean up...she "voluntold" me to jump on a register and when I escaped I found that she had not put away the cold items from the most recent shop although she told me specifically that she would do it (luckily it was cool enough over there that everything was still at temperature, but if you say you're going to help out then fucking help--I can see that behavior from a part-timer, but a manager?!).
Sm was the one being inappropriate, and she knew damn well that M had witnesses (both B and I were expecting to be called into the meeting as well as M is entitled to have backup if there are witnesses), but never were). So M was forced to apologize, but it seems she did it in a manner that shuffled blame onto Sm--but the two of them are too selfish/useless to grasp this.
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