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Short version: Apparently I'm sexist? When I cant even see who is in line?
Long version:
BG: So I'm a supervisor at *store*. At this store we have 20 tills, with anywhere between 10-20 of them in use depending on the business. I don't recall how many I had open at this point in time but lets assume its 15. Each till has a cashier and a packer for groceries. So fast math here thats roughly 30 people on till at any given time. I am in charge of making sure that I have the right amount of tills open and people doing the appropriate side tasks. I also have to make sure people get all their breaks on time. This is why on a busy busy BUSY day i will have about 20 tills open and between 50-60 staff throughout the day.
Long story short I got a lot of shit to run, I do it on the fly, and i run a tight ship.
When i send someone to take over for a break they know they need to do it fast, this doesn't always happen though. This is why the leading cause of breaks being behind is staff taking to long to switch or to long on a break. but I digress....
During a busy period a woman walks up to me and asks to speak to a supervisor....
SC: you know who
Me:Friendly neighborhood spider supervisor
MA: My direct manager (female)
SC: May I speak to a supervisor or a manager PLEASE!
Me: I'm a supervisor may I ask what the question is about?
SC: Your cashiers are sexist! I come here every day and whenever they switch out and count their money they ALWAYS do it when I'm in line. They always wait until I AM NEXT. They always skip the man in front and they make me wait because I AM A WOMAN!
At this point I would like to point out most of our staff, including cashiers, are female and since my breaker teams where exclusively female that day (I double checked afterwards) she was complaining about my female cashiers
Me: Im sorry ma'am, but when they switch they do it as soon as they can.
Sometimes if someone has a small order (and I noticed she had a full cart) they may take them before they switch.
SC: NO they wait until there is a woman and they make them wait. They dont decide to switch cashiers until a WOMAN is involved!
Me: *losing some patience at this point* No ma'am actuallyI am in charge of every switch on this front end. I tell them where and when they need to switch tills. I can assure you I don't pay any attention to who is in line because people need their breaks and that is the priority when a switch happens.
SC: O! So your the one who tells them to wait for women?
Me: I can assure you I dont even loo.....alright would you just like to speak to a manager about this concern?
SC: Yes please!
Me: Alright, I'll get her...
My Manager comes out and talks to the lady for about 2 minutes. Essentially telling her the same thing I did. Some gems from the lady in this conversation....
"You need to run your statistics! This is happening!"
"Your staff feel that women are second class citizens!"
"That supervisor waits for women and your going to let that happen?"
Some gems from my manager...
"We switch cashiers roughly once every 15 minutes. If you would like to stay a whole day and document their transitions be my guest."
"Most of our staff here are actually women"
"I can assure you I have very little staff that would be scared to piss off a man by switching cashiers. I can also assure you we arent to concerned about pissing off anybody when we switch cashiers"
I heard afterwards that this same woman once complained to our store manager about tills closing when it was busy. Those tills? It was home time!
Long version:
BG: So I'm a supervisor at *store*. At this store we have 20 tills, with anywhere between 10-20 of them in use depending on the business. I don't recall how many I had open at this point in time but lets assume its 15. Each till has a cashier and a packer for groceries. So fast math here thats roughly 30 people on till at any given time. I am in charge of making sure that I have the right amount of tills open and people doing the appropriate side tasks. I also have to make sure people get all their breaks on time. This is why on a busy busy BUSY day i will have about 20 tills open and between 50-60 staff throughout the day.
Long story short I got a lot of shit to run, I do it on the fly, and i run a tight ship.
When i send someone to take over for a break they know they need to do it fast, this doesn't always happen though. This is why the leading cause of breaks being behind is staff taking to long to switch or to long on a break. but I digress....
During a busy period a woman walks up to me and asks to speak to a supervisor....
SC: you know who
Me:Friendly neighborhood spider supervisor
MA: My direct manager (female)
SC: May I speak to a supervisor or a manager PLEASE!
Me: I'm a supervisor may I ask what the question is about?
SC: Your cashiers are sexist! I come here every day and whenever they switch out and count their money they ALWAYS do it when I'm in line. They always wait until I AM NEXT. They always skip the man in front and they make me wait because I AM A WOMAN!
At this point I would like to point out most of our staff, including cashiers, are female and since my breaker teams where exclusively female that day (I double checked afterwards) she was complaining about my female cashiers
Me: Im sorry ma'am, but when they switch they do it as soon as they can.
Sometimes if someone has a small order (and I noticed she had a full cart) they may take them before they switch.
SC: NO they wait until there is a woman and they make them wait. They dont decide to switch cashiers until a WOMAN is involved!
Me: *losing some patience at this point* No ma'am actuallyI am in charge of every switch on this front end. I tell them where and when they need to switch tills. I can assure you I don't pay any attention to who is in line because people need their breaks and that is the priority when a switch happens.
SC: O! So your the one who tells them to wait for women?
Me: I can assure you I dont even loo.....alright would you just like to speak to a manager about this concern?
SC: Yes please!
Me: Alright, I'll get her...
My Manager comes out and talks to the lady for about 2 minutes. Essentially telling her the same thing I did. Some gems from the lady in this conversation....
"You need to run your statistics! This is happening!"
"Your staff feel that women are second class citizens!"
"That supervisor waits for women and your going to let that happen?"
Some gems from my manager...
"We switch cashiers roughly once every 15 minutes. If you would like to stay a whole day and document their transitions be my guest."
"Most of our staff here are actually women"
"I can assure you I have very little staff that would be scared to piss off a man by switching cashiers. I can also assure you we arent to concerned about pissing off anybody when we switch cashiers"
I heard afterwards that this same woman once complained to our store manager about tills closing when it was busy. Those tills? It was home time!
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