Frustrated; need help and advice

[RealUnimportant]

The purpose of what I posted is to explain my frustrations. Not to change things. I realize I cannot change things.

You misunderstand me, and your own situation. What you've said changes the way I should have replied, because you offered more information about why what's happening is a problem. You can change some things, and those may be things that I've brought up - you don't have to accept everything at face value, there are more rules and regulations concerning some of these things than may be geting considered by you, your manager, or your company, and looking deeper will find out what should be done to make your required attendance easiest for you to achieve. They can't just say you need to be someplace else without offering accommodations to your normal working to allow it to fit your schedule without getting you in trouble in other areas of company policy.

What would you do if you were in my shoes regarding my direct manager not ordering product for the fuel center?

As IA says above, leave it. It's not your job, something she seems very keen to have reinforced. It's also not your job to tell her to do her job. Let her fail, let her suffer the consequences, that's why she gets the slightly bigger bucks.

[EricKei]

Another vote for "let her dig her own grave" on the ordering part. If the DM is paying attention, they may simply be giving that manager enough rope to...well, you know. If he asks about the holes, simply apologize and say that the store doesn't have enough stock to fill the holes and do not comment further unless prompted -- if you don't call the goldbricking manager out, they can't complain about you in good faith. I think he knows very well whose job that is.

[snugglegirl05]

You misunderstand me, and your own situation. What you've said changes the way I should have replied, because you offered more information about why what's happening is a problem. You can change some things, and those may be things that I've brought up - you don't have to accept everything at face value, there are more rules and regulations concerning some of these things than may be geting considered by you, your manager, or your company, and looking deeper will find out what should be done to make your required attendance easiest for you to achieve. They can't just say you need to be someplace else without offering accommodations to your normal working to allow it to fit your schedule without getting you in trouble in other areas of company policy.

As IA says above, leave it. It's not your job, something she seems very keen to have reinforced. It's also not your job to tell her to do her job. Let her fail, let her suffer the consequences, that's why she gets the slightly bigger bucks.

Sorry I missed that one.

Thanks for trying to help me regarding this mess.

According to my employer as well as my direct manager, our employer does not pay for travel time to any meetings.

And if the fuel center leads were scheduled to work an 8 hour shift the day of the meeting, they have to have time to eat their lunch before going to the meeting.

For example, you are scheduled to work 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and leave at 12 p.m. to go to the meeting, you still have to have time to have lunch.

Logistically speaking, I do not know how that is possible.

That is the schedule my immediate manager wanted me to work the day of the meeting.

Plus, a former fuel center associate, who used to work at the same fuel center I work at, recently came to the fuel center to get gas. She currently works at another location.

She told me that the location she works at is understaffed.

I also heard that other fuel centers located in the same city we both live in are understaffed.

So, I wondered how scheduing coverage for the meeting at each location was going to happen.

Our work schedules for next week were recently posted on the software our employer uses to post our work schedules.

Turns out I am working 5 days next week, but for the meeting, I am only scheduled the 4 hours for that meeting.

[RealUnimportant]

I guess that explains how it works. They can't have you at the store, AND give you time for lunch and travel, AND 4 hours for the meeting, without causing themselves more problems. How they're going to cover it if this many sites are shortstaffed is a concern, but at least it's someone else's.

[EricKei]

According to my employer as well as my direct manager, our employer does not pay for travel time to any meetings.

In that case (US, correct?), you can maybe claim the mileage both ways on your next tax return. Document the travel (with gas receipts and by taking photos of your odometer reading when leaving and on arrival both ways; be sure to turn on date/timestamps in your camera app). This only applies if you itemize instead of taking the standard deduction, AFAIK. Not a tax pro.

Current rate is 65.5c/mile.

[snugglegirl05]

I posted this thread while I was on vacation so I could get some advice before I returned to work.

I returned to work on Monday.

The department manager over the fuel center makes the fuel center employees work schedule every week.

According to our employer, every departments work schedule needs to be posted by Friday..

According to the opener on Monday, the department manager posted the schedule for the week of 6/18 on Friday 6/16 and posted it on the software our employers use to post employees work schedules.

But then she revised that schedule on Saturday 6/17, but neglected to tell anyone of that.

The opener told me there was a day during my vacation when there was no opener because the person who opened followed the work schedule for Friday 6/16, and he was not scheduled to open that day.

The day there was no opener this staff member was scheduled to work at the front end from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.

She was told by store management to open the fuel center when she got to work.

She told me that she called store management to find out who releived her at 2 p.m..

Store management had to call the employee who was to releive her at 2 p.m. to let her know that she was supposed to close that night.

But that employee was not informed by the department manager of the schedule change on Saturday 6/17.

According to the opener, that employee came to work 3 hours after she was supposed to clock out.

My frustration is that the department manager criticized me for replying to the e-mail regarding the meeting I am to attend because there was no address in the body of the e-mail, yet she could not inform the other fuel center employees that she revised the work schedule on Saturday 6/17.

[EricKei]

In at least some states, it's actually illegal to change someone's schedule without giving them at least 24 hours' notice (this is distinct from calling them in as a substitute). Check your state/local laws.

[workerbee222]

As far as calling you with fuel pump issues: now you know why some of your colleagues don't pursue management. The info about who to call and how to proceed is readily available, and the first thing they did was to call you on a day off, with something that you aren't going to be able to fix. Welcome to management.

As far as the email: I don't think I'd call it unprofessional, exactly. Emails from corporate (especially emails to a group or particular level of employees) are something I wouldn't respond to directly. Emails from corporate fall into a "Don't call us. We'll call you," category. They don't expect or want to hear from each individual in the group and have bigger, broader issues to attend to than "Please tell me where store 913 is?" Those things can easily be answered by your immediate supervisor (you emailed her with the question, anyway) or by Google-ing "MajorGroceryStore Chain#913" and getting the answer in seconds, like I just did. *That's" the kind of initiative that will set you apart from your peers, enabling you to continue to be promoted.

[snugglegirl05]

Long reply

While I was in training to be the fuel center lead, the bottom part of the key to the fuel center kiosk fell off on a Thursday night… This is according to the co-worker who trained me. He opened that day, and when he left work, the key was intact. I opened the following day 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. The overnight supervisor let me into the fuel center. I left at 7:15 a.m. to do replenishment as well as to find the store manager on duty so I could let him know about the key. The store manager took a picture of the key and sent it via text to the District Manager over the fuel center. The store manager asked me if I could return at 9 a.m. to do replenishment because one of the assistant managers comes in at that time, and he has a key to the fuel center kiosk. He gave a spare key to one of the security guards and had him take me back to the fuel center.

I returned to the store at 9 a.m. to complete the replenishment. When I walked into the store, the department manager over the fuel center was at the front end. I told her the following… 1) the key to the fuel center kiosk broke, 2) I left the fuel center at 7:15 a.m. to do replenishment, 3) I informed to manager on duty, who was the store manager, about that, and 4) he asked me to come back at 9 a.m. to do replenishment since one of the assistant store managers arrives at the time, & he has a spare key to the fuel center kiosk.

The department manager over the fuel center response was “1) 9 a.m. is too late for you to do replenishment, 2) I do not want the fuel center unattended at this time, and 3) I will find someone else to do replenishment

The department manager over the fuel center and her granddaughter, who also works at the same grocery store location did replenishment. Both of them came to the fuel center at 1:15 p.m. with the scanned out products that were on the replenishment list. So, I had 45 minutes to put up the products.

Her granddaughter was working at the fuel center a couple nights a week from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m., but according to one of the fuel center associates *there were 3 of us working there at this time*, her mother, who took her to work, did not want to take her to work at 2 p.m. and pick her up at 10 p.m. or take her to work at 6 a.m.

The problem is this… Those are the only available shifts at the fuel center.

I sent the department manager over the fuel center an email the 3rd week of May regarding my submitted vacation request for the 3rd week of June asking her to find coverage for vacations

She had me train 2 employees who worked inside the grocery store… One employee I tried to train did not know how to count out change… Bills or coins… So for example, if a customer was due $8.65, I had to show him how to count out the exact amount. The other employee worked at u scan. I told the department manager over the fuel center the problem with the first employee

As of last week neither of them work at the fuel center. We are back to 3 employees, and the employee who trained me is due another week of vacation this year. I am too

At the meeting 2 Thursday’s ago the District Manager over the fuel centers asked us if any of us order products for the fuel center. Several leads raised their hands. I did not because I followed the advice to not order products. The District Manager told us that the department manager’s over the fuel centers are supposed to do that