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I work for a big Australian supermarket chain as... well, I wear many hats. I'm a produce assistant, cashier, ex-store safety team leader (current safety team member), run the store social club and to top it all off, I'm the store union representative. I've had a loving gutfull of this job. For a variety of reasons. - I'm over-qualified, but have been straight up told by the store manager that I don't have any "management qualities", and that he didn't see me as a leader. I have 2 bachelor degrees and a Cert 4 in business, that I'm considering turning into a diploma, with prior experience as an Assistant Store Manager. I am treated as a supervisor by all of the department managers and am often asked for advice regarding staff management and other managerial duties by several of them. I was the backup backdock operations manager (filled in for him when he went on holidays/was sick) up until the company decided to remove the pay grade for that role. They still wanted me to fill in for him (as did he; then he could enjoy his time off without worrying about returning to a shitstorm) but as the role was now no longer considered a "specialised position", there would be no corresponding pay increase while working it, so I refused. I honestly don't care if the managers take my ideas, freely given, and don't give me credit. I'm happy to help. I don't even want to be a manager, since I see them get made to work 14-16 hour days for what amounts to less money than I'm on (due to the sheer number of hours and that they are on a salary). I couldn't be a manager these days anyway; the company has removed the annual bonuses they used to get, and any new managers they bring on since about 2 years ago have gotten increasingly worse salary packages, (A person who was promoted 2 years ago could expect around $900-$1000 a week - now the same person could expect $700-$800 a week after tax, with regular shitkickers making $700 before tax) and my personal circumstances have changed due to having kids (my wife works in the medical field and gets a lot of on-call work, so my available hours are pretty much limited to within the 6am-5pm timeframe ie. the hours the kids can be in daycare. What pisses me off is the blatant "Yeah, we'll use you like a manager, ask your opinion and even take your advice, and fully understand and defer to your knowledge and skills, but when asked directly, no, you're absolutely not suitable for any position above what you currently are. No chance." - I generally enjoy my role as a union representative, but gently caress me does it get frustrating when I have a member approach me with a problem, ask my advice, then ignore it. Especially if it's serious. Staff member: "Oh no, *so-and-so* has accused me of theft, and *manager* has taken their side, even though I have reciepts and witnesses that prove my innocence! Also, security cameras prove it! But they've still stripped me of my supervisor priveliges and told everyone I stole! Whatever can I do?" Me: Holy poo poo, you were accused, proven innocent by 2 sets of evidence to the contrary and multiple witnesses, and you were still punished?! Well for starters we can get you your old job back, and backpay, and nail some asses to some walls, that is what we can loving do. Staff member: "I thought so! It is so unfair! Thank you, but nevermind, bye!" The company has something against efficiency, I'm certain of it. I'm positive they want people worked off their feet for the entirety of their shifts. For example, our produce department used to have a refrigerated cabinet that contained all the corn, capscicum, swedes, leafy vegetables and carrots, that sort of thing. The old cabinet allowed 1 crate of capscicum to go up, maybe 1.5 crates if you stacked it properly. You filled that, then maybe you'd have to top it up on a normal day, about 3 or 4 hours later. Spring onion shallots you'd get 2 and a half crates up comfortably, then fill them again in about 3 hours. Broccoli, there is an easy 4 crates, refilled every 1.5-2 hours. Now, after a refit, our new and improved cabinet certainly looks pretty, but you cannot fit more than half a crate of capscicum up. Spring onion shallots will only fit 1 crate up on their stupid refrigerated stairs, and broccoli, you will barely fit 1 crate up. So instead of having 3 employees opening the department in the morning, filling, say, shallots, then filling capscicum, then broccoli, then filling whatever else, and so on, by the time they have finished filling everything, the poo poo they filled first will be empty, so they have to start again. Now that looks great on paper, but that is 3 people doing nothing but filling shelves all day - that doesn't include cutting fruit for display/sale, the ticketing that needs to be done, the price increases and decreases, rostering, putting the load away, rotating, marking down soon to be out of date stock, filling the pre-packed salads and breaks. And the department only employs 6 people - the manager, the 2ic, 2 full timers, 1 part timer and a casual, to cover the stores entire opening ours monday to saturday. But increase the wage budget? Not on your loving life. The icing on the cake is I got called up into the office last week to be told I needed to "pull my weight" and "step up my game" because the store manager had heard - from my peers - that I was lazy and unwilling to work, wasting time and generally being a terrible employee. I flat out told him to speak to my line managers, and review security tapes if he wanted to - both would give more than enough evidence as to my work ethic. Hell, I'm only in produce at the moment covering for the 2ic because he is on holiday - so I'm doing everything he would have normally done during startup, as well as my own work. His reply was that since I was the union rep, the staff look up to me, and I should hold myself to a higher standard. gently caress the place. I need a better job, and I need it 4 years ago.
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Aug 18, 2015 10:42
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grimcreaper posted:I think one of my co-workers hates me or something. Someone reported my posts in this thread (the guy getting knifed story, and the 3 issues i reported to HR) via printing them out, and information detailing "Grimcreaper = This Guy, heres proof" and giving them to my HR Manager. (she was livid when she approached me with the paper work. Pissed her off even more when i refused to sign it) I cant even refute it and say it wasnt me, becuase they have the knife incident on official record, with my hand written account, and the camera showing me right at the scene when it all happened as i described in the forum post. Yeah, HR is right sorry. If you post poo poo about your job and they find out about it, they absolutely can make life poo poo for you. Even "liking" a facebook post someone else has made about a workplace you're employed at counts as if you'd posted it yourself. Basically, never post about your workplace unless you're absolutely certain you won't get identified or sincerely don't give a poo poo about losing your job. That said, whoever turned you in is kind of a huge dick. Guy who turned in grimcreaper, if you return to gather more evidence, please know you're an rear end in a top hat. Die in a freak grease fire. Thanks!
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Oct 14, 2015 09:42
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I have a front end/checkout manager who is actually pretty decent - on a good day. I can see why she got the job. Every other day, however, any time anything goes wrong, it's somebodies fault. Never hers, though. Last week I was in charge of the self service area, and running low on bags. She had only ordered more bags the previous Friday, before a long weekend, so we were dangerously low on bags, with more stock expected to arrive that Friday. I got her attention and asked if, when she got a moment, could she please get me some more bags (self service operators are not allowed to leave the self service area). Then she gave me a big speech about how we were low on bags and we had to be more careful with how we used them, since we were nearly out and I had to be more responsible. I replied that "Yeah, I fully understand that. But that doesn't change the fact that I still need those bags". She got annoyed and called the store manager on me, who asked me what was up. I explained (I mean, if you want self service areas to be functioning, you're gonna need them to have bags.) and he was like "Eh, fair enough." Then today she chewed me out because I was 3 minutes late to the front desk. I signed in on time, but grabbed some over the counter meds for my cold out of my locker before heading up to work. I explained I wasn't late, and in fact was early to work by 15 minutes, but since nobody opened the door for myself and the three other early staff before we opened (even though we were ringing the "let us the gently caress in" bell) I only got in literally as the front doors opened. She replied it wasn't her problem, since she wasn't in charge of opening the doors, and that I needed to be more organised. Then later a customer bought phone credit at the self service area but the reciept printer jmmed, so I reprinted their reciept and told them to go to the front counter and the staff there would sort out a replacement for her (since re-prints XXXXXX out the authorization number for phone credits). So the manager comes to me and is like "Did you reprint this reciept?" "Yeah, the printer jammed." "You know we cant' reprint phone credits." "Yeah, I know. So I sent her up to you to get a replacement." "But I need to know when it happens." *confused look* "We can't reprint phone credit and I need you to inform me as soon as it happens." "Well she brought the reprint straight to you -" (cutting in) "I would appreciate it if you'd let me know what was happening." "Okay. This lady tried to buy phone credit but the printer jammed and she needs a replacement." Jesus gently caress just do your job and stop bitching at me instead.
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Oct 15, 2015 04:05
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We had one guy a while back who was hilariously inept. Our company issues these customer reward cards that you scan at the checkout for (originally) fuel discounts (a couple of cents off per litre) if you spend $30 or more. A while ago they expanded the whole customer reward card to include discounts on certain products in-store. So now, when the new specials come out each week, you've got regular prices, special prices and rewards prices. Regular and Special are self explanatory, but rewards prices are full price, but are discounted up to 20% off if you scan your card at the checkout. So now if you're observant you can save a decent amount of money on your weekly shop, in theory. (In practice it seems like only the most obscure and worst selling stuff gets the rewards prices) Anyway, on your receipt, if you buy something with this special, it reads something like: | | |Canned soup $1.00 ------ $0.80| | REWARDS -$0.20 | | | On the checkout operators screen, at the end of the transaction when it tallys the whole amount up so the operator can say something like "That comes to 378 dollars and 67 cents" it also displays a "REWARDS SAVINGS" line, where it tallys up how much you've saved using the card, so the operator can say "Oh and look at that, your rewards card has saved you 12 cents!" This space cadet was, for a whole week after this new system was introduced, seeing the savings line and then giving the customers that amount in cash, on top of their usual change. For the first 2 weeks of the new system, by the way, in order to promote the whole thing, it was popular lines all the way, in bulk. So you've bought 10 cartons of soft drink at $16 a carton, but saved yourself 20% per carton? This dipshit will give you $32 cash after the transaction. It took them a WEEK to catch on that something was wrong. Even then, they thought he was pocketing the money himself, but when they watched him, he wasn't, he was just conducting "normal" transactions and giving "change". Eventually they asked him directly and he straight up told them what he was doing. He had no idea he was loving up.
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Oct 15, 2015 09:18
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Pumpy Dumper posted:Please tell me he was fired immediately. hahahahahahaa nope! And yeah, the discrepancy is picked up at close. I have no idea how it took them a week to notice. My theory is that the first couple of days it was out by under $10 because the front end managers seem to think that tills being out by that much either way is normal and therefore not worth worrying about. But then, like I said, after a few days the customers figured out where the really good deals were, and started taking advantage of them, which led to bigger savings and so he was giving them bigger cashbacks to the point where holy poo poo dude where is al your cash going?! Not fired, retrained. I guess they felt sorry for the idiot? I don't know. Then he was moved to trolley collector, where he lasted a month more or so, then quit.
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Oct 15, 2015 21:48
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Our computer systems glitched out or something last week which resulted in no milk arriving last Thursday or Friday. Annoying, we were extremely low or completely out of milk to sell, but since the system was fixed, everything was going to return to normal. Until some manager behind a desk in another state in a city saw our country town was out of milk, and decided to fix the problem. Saturday morning saw us recieving 12 pallets of milk. Compared to our normal 2 - 3 pallets... that last us 3 or so days. Also among the milk was flavoured stuff that isn't zoned for us - they don't scan. We have no way of adding them to the system either, since they shut that part of the system down months ago. We sell Pauls 1 litre milk bottles. Maybe a crate (12 bottles) a day. If we're lucky. We recieved 90 crates. There is so much milk. Milk. Milk. Milk. It's all just milk. I think the backdock manager is going to take a long weekend just to travel the 900km to the fuckwad that did this and murder the poo poo out of him.
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Oct 16, 2015 03:00
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grimcreaper posted:Well, my previous posts ended up doing a few things I wouldn't have expected. The HR regional manager was here until about an hour ago and talked to me privately. Said he wasn't happy with the posts from the other day but he's a little more perturbed by what I had said regarding turn over rates and general moral of associates in the store. ... ... ... I have never heard of anything like that happen. It's always "you said a thing about the company/people in the company, you're hosed". I guess that's good news then? I guess there is a chance at some change there. Cool.
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Oct 17, 2015 03:39
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Leal posted:Was tasked with checking under basedecks to find any product that was thrown under them and found this lol the 2nd week of my job filling shelves I found 2 cartons of long life milk out of date on the shelf - out of date by 2 years.
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Oct 17, 2015 09:49
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Picnic Princess posted:I worked at a jewelry store from 2006 to 2013, and they had items that they brought into stock in 1999 that were still there when I left. The problem was that they were made of plated base metal so they couldn't be melted down by the goldsmiths and made into something else, but they were so horribly ugly that even at 70% off no one ever wanted them. You know something is ugly as gently caress when it's $25 in a jewelry store and still won't sell. I went on a cruise a couple of weeks ago and the fact that the onboard Effy jewellery store was selling Stirling Silver Pearl earings for $3,100 made me incredibly angry. I don't give a gently caress if it was 2013 stock and "half price" (so actually $1,500) that should be criminal. Blatantly preying on little old ladies who simply don't know any better.
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Oct 17, 2015 13:20
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PCOS Bill posted:Little old ladies aren't known for ever having bought jewelry in their lives to understand pricing? Well they were going crazy because it was all "50% off!!!!!", so I guess not?
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Oct 17, 2015 17:41
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Years ago in the original "Resaons I No Longer Desire to Work in Retail" thread, I posted about my store manager. To recap, he would throw tantrums and kick displays over, throw everything on the service desk on the floor because it "looked like a brothel" and tell the front end girls to clean it up, threaten to fire entire departments, yell and insult staff in front of customers and was generally a huge fuckhead. Hilariously, he refused to let me not work nights or weekends - a big deal because my wife is in the medical field and works on-call, so nights and weekends she is often away at work, and I'm needed to look after our two kids. I tried to compromise and offered to work the shifts he wanted - but if my wife got called in to work, I would have to head home. He refused because he didn't trust me to honestly only go home if I was needed. So my wife, unbidden by me, called him. She tried to explain to him what her job entailed (medical scientist working out of the Pathology lab at the local hospital). He told her to stay home and look after the kids. She explained if she did that, the only person able to distribute blood and do emergency pathology results was located 400km away. (We're in a small town). She explained that her job was important, because if she didn't go to those call outs, people would die. His reply was that his job was just as important, because people need to eat, and if people don't eat, they die. He makes sure the food is there. He then got very upset when she laughed at him over the phone. Anyway, I eventually was able to get enough people to lodge complaints about him, and he was removed from the store. To manage a store near where all the area and state managers worked, so they could keep a closer eye on him. This was a very difficult and tiring thing for me to do, since I'm the union rep for my store, and he had a friend in HR who did her absolute best to do nothing. Eventually I was able to bring the myriad of problems to the attention of her boss, who hosed him off. Here is the happy ending! At his new store, he didn't improve, because of course he didn't. A couple of months ago, he harrassed the poo poo out of his front end manager, who lodged a complaint. He continued to harass her (you're useless, absolutely poo poo at your job, all that kind of stuff) and in the end, she kept all the texts he sent her abusing her and calling her names and, hilariously, pictures of some dudes testicles he sent her. (I don't know if they were his). She showed all the messages to the union, who arranged a meeting with HR and showed them, at which point everyone told him they had the messages and he suddenly went on sick leave, then stress leave, then holidays until the company told him he had to return to work or quit. The undertones were "come back to work so we can fire you", so he quit. He's had similar problems at every store hes worked at, but it turns out he has on several occasions threatened HR that he'd play the discrimination card because he's gay. I don't know why that would stop them, they have had plenty of evidence that he's terrible for a long time.
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Oct 18, 2015 22:28
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So that front end manager didn't order bags - again - this time we completely ran out. We had a lot of pissed off customers today. Turns out she was told a little while ago that she's only allowed to order a maximum of 2 pallets of bags a month. An absolutely bullshit order, since we go through a pallet in a week, (more some weeks when the people who live on rural properties come in and do a months worth of shopping) and we're coming up on Christmas, so that's going to increase the bags too. Not to mention that since the store refit they removed 2 checkouts and replaced them with self service checkouts (bringing our number of self service checkouts to 8). Customers pack their own bags there, and will not be told how to pack more efficiently because gently caress you that's why. If you need more supplies to make your department run, loving order them. Don't just watch helplessly as everything turns to poo poo then blame some bullshit "maximum order" directive. I'd rather go over budget than piss off an entire town and have everyone bitching out my staff because I couldn't loving think for myself.
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Oct 22, 2015 10:44
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Marchegiana posted:In my old store, any store supplies that went over budget had a negative impact on the managers' end of year bonus. So if your store does things in a similar fashion she's probably using that bullshit to hide her greed. Used to be that way. These days managers don't get bonuses (except store managers and ASMs I think, and even that is poo poo). Being in management in my company is poo poo, especially these days. Department Managers used to get put on a decent salary of around $55k, with 2ICs getting around 50ish. Now they're lucky if they get $40-45k a year. Have to work overtime, no bonus any more, metric fucktonne more responsibility for maybe $5000 more a year than your average poo poo-kicker. Don't get me wrong - I'd totally be a manager if offered - but gently caress that salary business right off, I'd only do it if I could stay an EBA employee who got bumped up 2 or 3 pay grades. Extra couple of hundred buck a week and you get to piss off after your 38 hours. (Unless you're really needed, then it's all sweet sweet overtime). The option is there, but the company never does it, for obvious reasons.
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Oct 22, 2015 14:45
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The Lord Bude posted:That's an exaggeration. I'm pretty sure we work in the same company. A full time grunt at grade 2 pay would earn just over 42k a year gross, assuming they never work sundays or public holidays. Department managers on EBA rather than salary earn grade 4, which would give you an extra $70 a week, not the couple of hundred you suggest. Ok for a 2IC, certainly not worth it for a department manager. Salaries start low (likely not as low as you're suggesting though - I'd say late 40s to maybe 50k would be a more realistic starting salary) but the whole point of salaries is that once you're on a salary, for the first time ever you are subject to a formal performance review process which leads to regular increases to that salary, even if you never move past department manager. There are department managers in my store who have been in management for a number of years who are getting salaries around the 70-75k mark - even without bonuses, that's decent pay, and if you work say, front end, you can comfortably get a way with working 40-45 hours a week outside of christmas and easter. Not in my store. Sure, under the old system department managers could possibly make up to 70k but not for a couple of years now. The salary they are offered now (at least in my store) is laughably low. Case in point, we have a produce manager who was promoted to management before the changes who is on $58k now (only one pay increase in the last 4 years) and a deli manager who was promoted just after the changes who was on 45k. I've spoken with the managers and they all agree that it's simply not worth it anymore. I'll compare my wage with that of a manager in the job 3 years and you're right, they're making about $70 a week more, which is hosed. I'll concede that I may be wrong generally, as I don't have experience outside my store, but where I work it is absolutely true. That produce manager I refered to started on $55k. And don't even get me started on the performance reviews - if the store manager decides he doesn't like you or decides he wants someone else in the job, lol if you think you're getting a good one.
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Oct 22, 2015 21:43
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The Lord Bude posted:That's an exaggeration. I'm pretty sure we work in the same company. A full time grunt at grade 2 pay would earn just over 42k a year gross, assuming they never work sundays or public holidays. Department managers on EBA rather than salary earn grade 4, which would give you an extra $70 a week, not the couple of hundred you suggest. Ok for a 2IC, certainly not worth it for a department manager. Salaries start low (likely not as low as you're suggesting though - I'd say late 40s to maybe 50k would be a more realistic starting salary) but the whole point of salaries is that once you're on a salary, for the first time ever you are subject to a formal performance review process which leads to regular increases to that salary, even if you never move past department manager. There are department managers in my store who have been in management for a number of years who are getting salaries around the 70-75k mark - even without bonuses, that's decent pay, and if you work say, front end, you can comfortably get a way with working 40-45 hours a week outside of christmas and easter. Okay, so you got me thinking and I decided to check my facts. You're right, there are department managers making $70 - $75k in the company, but those are apparently in "big" stores and that kind of money is few and far between. They've also been with the company a hell of a long time. My wife used to work with the company in a remote mining community and apparently DMs get great salaries there too, simply because getting staff to move to those sorts of places is next to impossible. The average is $50 - $55k a year, according to our ASM. Still not worth it when you're doing 15 hour days all week. Managers promoted after the changes are extremely lucky if they break $50k, at least in my store. When you factor in the hours they pull, and extra days, they're not making much more than the average worker.
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Oct 23, 2015 04:18
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Thank God I'm in Australia where 99% of all that bullshit you guys put up with is illegal and we can actually earn a living wage. Retail still sucks, though.
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Oct 24, 2015 18:37
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WarLocke posted:I'm amazed that people don't simply refuse to worse for sub-livable wages. If nobody would work these jobs then the pay would have to come up because these companies aren't going to just close all their stores. Unionise. Retail unions seem to work pretty well in Australia. Livable wage, free legal advice and representation, 38 hour work week and we get overtime pay and loadings for excess hours or unsociable hours. People don't realise that the major retailers are members of their own union, and constantly push to lower wages and abolish holiday rates etc. You can't be fired for "nothing" either, or have your hours suddenly reduced if you're permanent part or full time. An awful lot of that dickery I read about from retail shitkickers in America is flat out illegal here. Edit: I fully realise that it isn't that easy, and you have to fight an uphill battle. I'm also aware that some unions you do have are absolutely nuts, or have absolutely no teeth and are unable to do anything useful. It sucks. I think from a cultural stand point, Americans seem to be far more "gently caress you, got mine" than Australians, and are less willing to pay union fees that will make others better off than themselves. IE "Why am I paying fees that go towards making the wage higher for that rear end in a top hat Steve" even though said wages are also higher for them. princecoo fucked around with this message at 08:56 on Oct 27, 2015 |
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Oct 27, 2015 08:49
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The Lord Bude posted:The fact that we just get a union membership form in our signup packet, is itself a tribute to Australian values (and the fact that Woolies and Coles get a significant cut of your Union fees). In the US major retailers are vehemently anti union - staff watch anti union propaganda, and worst case scenario staff who try to unionize will just get fired and replaced, since employers have unlimited rights to fire people. I know - full disclosure, I'm a union rep in Australia - I'm just lamenting the fact that if enough Americans took to the streets and actually stood up for themselves, and each other, they could (probably) get some change for the better. In Australia, unions were treated like the devil too, way back in the day. Dudes got fuckin' killed for trying to unionise. But enough people stood up and said it was bullshit and now we have actual rights and don't get treated like dirt (and if we do we can actually do something about it).
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Oct 27, 2015 14:18
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Magog posted:It's not all sunshine and rainbows down under though, the union itself that gets these employees signed up by the supermarkets (SDA) isn't necessarily the most concerned with getting it's members a fair agreement. Not sure what you're refering to here - in my experience the SDA is the best retail union. Our agreement is actually pretty good. I do know, however that the South Australian SDA did do a really weird agreement not too long ago that seemed a bit poo poo. I'm in the Queensland SDA and they've been pretty on target with every issue. The Lord Bude posted:I detest the social conservative stuff the SDA campaigns towards (anti marriage equality, pro church bullshit, etc) but when I look over to what is happening in the US I consider myself fortunate. What? The SDA I know keeps the hell out of that. It's not work related, so they don't campaign for or against any of that. The last 2 campaigns were about lowering the age where someone could be considered an adult (previously 21, now down to 20 with the ultimate goal being 18 - so that you start getting paid a full rate at 18) and fighting off a push by the retailers to abolish penalty rates. Before that I think there was a big thing about a big shopping center charging staff there by the hour for parking. I don't remember a non-work related campaign ever even mentioned.
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Oct 27, 2015 19:47
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Not religious, but there is a couple of guys who frequent our store who are unique. I'll start with Ronny. Ronny is a little old man, by which I mean he looks old, but has that meth-head agelessness. He is extremely thin and has long white hair and a face that reminds me of a rat or ferret. Ronny is, I'm pretty sure, handicapped in some way. He likes to collapse all over the store. Like, obviously fake slipping over on dry ground, or pulling a box of cereal on himself and flailing around like someones pegged him with half a brick. Then he plays dead until somebody comes over and goes through the motions because of the off chance that the nutbar one day actually does get hurt. He speaks in a mumbled whisper and after one of his "falls" he always just says he's okay, it's fine and leaves. For a while he added "fake concussion" to his schtick and after a couple of times the ambulance refused to come for him. They are based across the road from our store, and usually if called for a customer they come over with 2 paramedics and the ambulance but now if a call goes out in store for Ronny, one of the duty guys jogs across the road to eyeball the situation and prevent everybody wasting their time. The other guy is handicapped and has a carer take him around to do his shopping. He's tall and has a goatee and wears this big cowboy hat everywhere, and goddamn does he talk. Like, he will straight up pin you down somewhere and yap at you without drawing breath. You should see the floor clear when the staff see him come in. Suddenly everybody is "on-break" or remembers something vitally important to do out the back. A typical conversation:  Excuse me, can you tell me where the reduced to clear milk is? Sure, it's right over here, in the reduced to clear bay. Oh good because I was looking for the reduced to clear milk because it's so much cheaper compared to the regular fresh milk although I suppose you guys must have to reduce it to make it sell quickly before it's use by date like how I had to try and sell this extra set of chairs I have but they don't have a use by date on them because they're just chairs but really nice chairs not like the chairs they have at the RSL, those are really uncomfortable to sit on but I guess in your job you don't really get to sit down much do you, huh, hey do you still have last weeks special catalogue, there was a great special on tomatos that I wanted to show one of my friends it was a really great price I know it's not on special this week but I just wanted the old catalogue to show them this great price it was really cheap and they're not on special this week because the specials change every Wednesday and it's Friday today which means I have to get down to the library and talk to the librarian I have some videos to check out, did you know you could do that? I didn't but you can and it's really easy but you can't do it on the weekend its too late and they're not open which isn't really fair in my opinion, what do you think? It's not fair if you can't get down during the week but I can which is good because otherwise I wouldn't be able to go shopping today and get this reduced to clear milk becuse it's so much cheaper than regular fresh milk but still just as good you just need to make sure you drink it sooner and................................................................. You can see peoples eyes glaze over after a few seconds of having to interact with him, I honestly don't know how his carers can spend a whole day with him. What is fun is sending new staff out to aisles he's in and watching them start out eager and helpful and then try and fail multiple times to politely end the "conversation" to get away.
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Oct 31, 2015 08:41
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The Lord Bude posted:In Australia if you kill a snake (or any other native wildlife really - have a possum in your roof? the nice possum man will catch it and release it, but no more than a block away so it doesn't get lost) you are paying a 6 digit fine. 99% of the time if you get bitten by a snake it's your fault for being stupid - snakes don't randomly go on people killing sprees, leave it alone and it won't hurt you. PCOS Bill posted:Wow that's stupid. Most of our native wildlife are endangered. That's why there are such big fines. That said, I don't know any enforcement officer who would slap you with a fine for killing a venomous snake. Aside from kangaroos (which you need a permit to shoot, like deer) I don't think there is any reason, in Australia, for civilians to carry a handgun. Notable exceptions are primary producers like people who run cattle or sheep, for when that stupid sheep breaks its legs wandering off a cliff and you're 4 hours from home and your 357 is required to put it out of it's misery. Or if you've stopped for the night in a workers hut on your property and a snake has already moved in - you're not going to pay and wait for some snake catcher dude to fly in from the closest town to deal with that one snake. You've got to sleep, damnit. Even in those exceptions, if the gun isn't being used it must be in a lockbox securely located inside a locked vehicle (or gun safe) at all times. Our wildlife will absolutely gently caress you up 10 different ways but like Lord Bude said, won't hurt you if you leave them alone. Edit: The nice possum man will release the possum in the closest bit of bushland he can find. If that means the big national park that is your backyard, then sure. The nice snake catching man will relocate the snake to bushland far away from human habitation, however. The nice crocodile catching man will relocate the crocodile a loooong way away from human habitation. The nice cassowary catching man will tell you to lock your doors and stay inside until the demon bird goes away and promises to come immediately but manages to arrive just after it has left. princecoo fucked around with this message at 21:26 on Oct 31, 2015 |
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Oct 31, 2015 21:22
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PCOS Bill posted:Two legged predators Once again, this comes back to the differing cultures. I won't say that we have less lunatics running around, but the lunatics we do have don't have guns. Getting a gun isn't hard in Australia, if you really want one. You just do the day long safety course for a couple hundred bucks, register with a local gun club and pay the membership fees, apply for your license which takes a few weeks to arrive, then go buy whatever gun you want (provided your license says you're permitted for it, most people only get licensed for rifles and shotguns, not handguns - that's a seperate safety course tacked on to the regular one). It is fairly expensive and time consuming even before you get your hands on your own gun. Once you have your gun, you must attend a certain number of sports shooting events and have a certain number of hours on the range each year to maintain your license. Let it lapse and you lose it. This is because "self defence", from memory isn't an option when you apply. Most people choose "sporting", and that is what most gun owners in Australia do - Kangaroo shooting or competition shooting. Your gun must be locked up - properly locked up and unloaded when you don't have it out hunting or competing, rendering it useless for self defence. The most common gun deaths we hear about these days are when a depressed farmer decides to shoot his entire family then himself. With a rifle. Bought and primarily used to defend his stock from dingos and putting stock down. So no. We don't really need guns to defend ourselves from other nutty Australians, because those Australians don't have guns either. We are as capable of running from a crazy lunatic armed with a knife as any other person, with the added advantage of having lots and lots of practice due to our wildlife thirsting for our blood every second of every day. On topic, we too had to wear halloween costumes on the 30th and 31st. I didn't work Saturday, but I was not going to be wearing a store provided costume. So I suited up, and told everyone I was our companies upper management. It was pretty popular, everyone at work loved it, except the store 2ic (acting store manager while our manager is on holiday) who "didn't get it" and our area manager, who came out for a routine walk-through, who deadpanned me. The loss prevention manager was out for a visit too, and he thought I was actually a manager, so that was fun.
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Nov 1, 2015 21:46
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Bathroom duty? lol in Australia management cannot make employees deal with bodily fluids ie piss poo poo vomit or blood/pus. If someone blows chunks all over the floor somewhere, management has to make the decision on how to deal with it, and they cannot make a staff member clean it. We have janitors for that. That said, if someone volunteers... Public toilets are usually located right outside the Aussie grocery stores, inside the shopping center (mall). So if you need to go, just go on your way in, or take your trolley up to the front and ask the staff to hold/watch your groceries while you go outside to the toilet. This way the store doesn't have to pay someone to keep the toilets clean (aside from staff toilets) because it's the responsability of center management.
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Nov 4, 2015 21:16
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Sankis posted:maybe you and bude should make your own thread about how great working in australia apparently is Working in retail in Australia still sucks. We have the same dipstick managers, awful customers and ridiculous corporate expectations. We're just paid better and have more rights and entitlements. Just because I get a living wage and can't be arbitrarily fired for thinking aloud "Unions are okay I guess" doesn't mean the job isn't soul sucking.
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Nov 5, 2015 10:48
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So the assistant store manager (acting store manager while the boss is on holiday) made the front end manager cry today. Normally I wouldn't give a poo poo, since she's an idiot and is overdue a good kick up the arse over her general uselessness. Problem is, what she got reamed for is bullshit, in my opinion. They want all the baskets that are lined up at the entrance to be straight. As in, each stack the exact same height, uniformly across all 10 or 12 stacks. One line, no stacks in front of the existing line. We have hundreds of baskets; to accomplish this a good many would have to be taken out of circulation, but they won't allow that. Also, the wheeled baskets are only allowed to be stacked 8 high. This fucks up the uniform height they're going for, since a full stack of the carry baskets is almost a foot taller. Also, with customers contantly taking them, the very idea that such a thing is even slightly possible is ridiculous. He actually expects front end staff to go over and redistribute the stacks so they're evenly distributed among the stacks throughout the day. And this information was delivered in such a way as to reduce a manager to tears. He then decided to tear a regular staff member a new one in his office over her uniform, and being late. He accused her of wearing an unironed shirt (it was ironed, just got a bit crinkled at the back on the drive into work - she's not a small lady) and of being late. That whole episode reduced her to tears as well. Thing is, I was 2 minutes late today, with that staff member entering right behind me, and when he decided to pull me up for uniform and lateness he was all smiles and "oh hey, can you just make sure you're wearing the right shirt for the department you're working in? Oh, you were 2 minutes late? Ah well, there is a 5 minute grace period, so that's alright, but just try to be here on time, okay?" Yeah, you're a big man, tearing strips off an older not-too-bright lady with a naturally nervous disposition, but you sure pull your head in quick when you have to talk to someone you know will bite back.
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Nov 5, 2015 21:26
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Our store got a visit from the area manager today. The Produce department manager is away, and his brother (a "floating" department manager, used to run deli then front end and is now doing bakery relief since the bakery manager is taking a bunch of time off since her 2 daughters both had babies within days of each other - both girls also work in bakery, as does one of the fathers) is standing in for him. So we have a manager in produce who has no idea what is going on, and needs me to tell him how everything works and what needs doing and how to do it. The department 2ic is off today (her regular RDO) so we have the stand in manager, the young guy who slacks off (but is actually a pretty good worker when the going gets tough, like today, so hes not so bad), the new absolutely useless and lazy girl who gives zero fucks about WHS and food safety and... me. And I go and finish my shift for the day on front end every Friday so I'm out after lunch. The stand in manager is a good guy, just completely overwhelmed by having an unfamiliar department thrust upon him with a days notice and the area manager looking to poo poo on everyones day. I've volunteered to work the whole shift in Produce, since let's be honest, he's going to need someone in there who can passably get poo poo done, since literally nobody else can do price changes, tickets or stock adjustments. I feel for him, but front end won't let me go do anything important except stand in one spot and swipe poo poo across a scanner for 5 hours so...
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Nov 27, 2015 03:02
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So today the front end manager had a go at me, by proxy, about my bagging. She sent the front end 2ic up to talk to me about bagging properly. You see, she had noticed that some bags that were headed out to the parcel pickup area from my register only had one or two items in them. And as we all know, we need to be very careful and efficient with our bag usage, because we've already completely run out of bags twice now (you'll recall my previous posts in this very thread about her sheer stupidity for not ordering bags). The 2ic is actually pretty intelligent and not an idiot, so she walks up and goes "So... I've been sent up here to talk to you about your bag usage." "What about it?" "Well apparently some of your bags headed out to the pickup area have only a couple things in them, and could be more full." At this point, I see red. I lower my voice and growl out: "I see. So we should just tell the customers to gently caress off when they request only a few things in a bag? Maybe that's a good idea? Or start putting a loaf of bread in with a whole pumpkin, or wrap up some deli meats with the loving ratsack, is that it? Tell the customer to go gently caress themselves?" "Uh, well no." "Well it seems we are at an impass, since I wouldn't dream of telling the department manager to go gently caress themselves, now would I? What do you think we should do?" *smiles* "I think we should go to lunch." Lunch was good. Watched 8 Out Of 10 Cats, had a burger. Returned to work slightly less angry. I was already pissed off because yesterday the same manager accused me of being late to work because I walked through the front doors at exactly 8am, literally as they opened. I did this because ringing the staff bell at the staff enterance for the previous 20 minutes didn't get anyone to let me inside for my 8am start, so I just walked around and used the front doors at 8am. gently caress you, if you can't get off your arse to let me (and the 3 other employees who did the same) in, that's on you, not me.
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Dec 8, 2015 08:52
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For the past few months I have been feeling depressed and unhappy while at work. I often find myself while on checkouts considering suicide. This is unusual because I am generally a positive, bright person, and quite open to others, or at least I consider myself to be. Lately I have become withdrawn and find it hard to get motivated at work. I believe at least part of the reason is my position on checkouts. When I work in my other department, Produce, I feel better and am more “myself”. I don’t even think about suicide or feel depressed; I’m open and positive with my co-workers. The same applies at home too – when at home with my family, I feel fine and don’t think negative thoughts at all or feel depressed. It seems to be checkout exclusive. I don’t know why, although I have a few theories. Today, at approximately 8:50am, whilst on checkout number 5, I let the store manager know how I’ve been feeling. He asked why I hadn’t shaved this morning – I replied that it was the usual reason – no longer see the point, considering suicide and such. He told me that Woolworths has services for that, but it was no excuse and that I was expected to be at work, enthusiastic and ready to go. I said that I just wanted off checkouts, that I thought it would help. He said “This is where you are.” Then instructed my department manager to send me home to shave. As I walked out, by the way, the customer I was serving was coming back in (having forgotten something) and asked me where it was. I told her and she thanked me, then added that she felt that Heath was totally inappropriate. I do feel sorry that she had to witness the exchange, though. I left work at 9:00am, and have made an appointment to see my doctor today. I think that my negative feelings stem from a general displeasure with my prospects; I don’t see myself getting and higher up the “ladder” as it were with the company. I don’t feel that I have anything to work towards or strive for at work, just the same thing every day. For a while I tried to make my goal be “Be better than you were yesterday” but I feel that such efforts, once accomplished effect nothing. So what is the point? I don’t feel like I can stand in one spot for 8 hours a day just to collect a paycheck anymore, if it doesn’t lead on to anything better than another day standing in one spot. I’ve got qualifications and management and leadership experience and I’ve worked extensively in other departments. I feel that my acquired knowledge and skills are absolutely wasted on a checkout. Without opportunities to use my skills, is it any wonder I feel under-appreciated? Additionally the department manager is dismissive and condescending. She seems to like to micromanage me, which is patronizing because it makes me feel like she doesn’t trust that I can do my incredibly simple job. She manages to make me feel insulted at least once a day, although I honestly don’t know if it’s intentional or not. I'm so loving done. I'm sitting at home ("shaving") right now and I just could not be hosed going back to work. I was there an hour today and my morning went smoothly up until I clocked in and took up position at register 5. I just wanted to die. They will call me at home soon, asking where I am. I'll tell them I have a doctors appointment. If it's the DM I may even let her know she makes me want to kill myself. If its the store manger I may ask him why he told an employee who just told him they were suicidal to go home and use a razor. gently caress this. gently caress it all.
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Dec 10, 2015 00:45
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Thanks everyone. I went to work the next day, that's the day I'm rostered to start at 7am in produce, go to lunch at 11am and then work front end when I come back until 5pm. I like the produce department, the team there are great to work with and you're constantly moving and can think for yourself. I fully intended to do my produce shift then gently caress off at lunch, but the front end manager wasn't on that day, the 2ic was and she was fantastic. She'd obviously heard about what had happened and came up all concerned and asked if I wanted to run the parcel pickup that day, if I didn't feel up to dealing with customers or other staff. She was nice and understanding and compassionate, and I didn't feel too bad that day, doing my own thing. I was so appreciative of how she treated me I bought her a box of chocolates as I left for the day. Monday I had a cry in the car before heading in. It was a poo poo day but I got through it. The department manager wasn't there until midday. Today I went in at 8am and put on self serve, to find there were no bags in the section. Department manager had been there since 6:30am. I asked her for some bags and she told me I'd just have to wait. I don't have to wait, you retarded wench, the customers do, because you've failed to provide bags. But the customers will blame me, because I'm there. And I can't do anything about it because if I so much as put a toe outside the self serve area, you'll go off on one of your condescending little diatribes about how I need to stay in my section. The woman who was supposed to do parcel pickup today has hurt her back so I got retasked to do that, which is fine, but while puting someones groceries in the fridge the spring loaded pull handle on the big fridge snapped shut on my finger and... well, I guess the technical term is "degloved" or skinned it. Just tore all the skin and some flesh away from basically the entire pad (plus a little more) of my finger, leaving the nail and the skin on the top of the finger. My dominant hand too. I had a few things to say about that to the empty air out there by myself, then I stormed out to the front end holding my profusely bleeding and very painful hand aloft. The dipstick manager saw me coming (and to be fair, I am certain my face looked like I was going to straight up murder someone) and asked me what I was doing and I showed her my hand and said "'I'm going out the back to deal with this." She said "Ok, I was sending you for your break anyway." So I went out and found someone to help me open the first aid kit and I walked them through patching me up (I'm a first aid officer). In the middle of this the manager called me back to the front end, since apparently my break started the moment she said "I was sending you for your break anyway". I ignored the call, had a bread roll and thought about going to the hospital. After my break I decided the hospital would probably just unwrap my bandage, take a look then rewrap it again and tell me to do exactly what I had already done, so I figured I'd just get on with it and go back to work. I headed back to parcel pickup and as I passed the front desk the manager asked me if I was okay. I replied that no, I was not, then continued onward. She called out to me so I stopped and turned, at which point she told m that if I didn't shave, I'd have to be sent home until I did shave. Alternatively, if I didn't want to be here she would just send me home and replace me for the entire day. I said "Right. Goodbye" and walked out. She called after me something about not understanding my poor attitude. And the shaving thing, yeah it's company policy but I'm not a hairy dude. I shaved before work Monday and generally don't have to do anything until Wednesday morning, on average. This is when a supervisor of the same department is growing a beard, and the deli/cafe manager clearly hasn't seen a razor since the weekend. The store manager himself is regrowing his goatee after he shaved it for his holidays. On the upside, today I was less "suicidal" and more "homicidal", so I am going to chalk that one up as a win.
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Dec 15, 2015 17:53
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Update: I returned to work Thursday and immediately went through the incident report and everything over my finger. The fuckstick manager claimed she didn't know how to do it, and that was why she didn't do anything on Tuesday when it happened. I didn't do anything because I was so pissed off that when she gave me the opportunity to go home I just loving took it and ran. So that's dealt with. The Store Manager is supremely unwilling to do much of anything since he recently got his marching order to move to another store across the country, so come the second week of January, he's gone. I will be mostly sorry to see him go, as he was generally pretty good to work with. I think he did give her a talk though, since she's been sweet as pie since, although it's clearly an act. Today I'm in self service again (because of my finger) and I noticed that the sliced deli meats were setting off the bagging area scales. I checked the weight of some against the regular scales customers use for fruit/veg and found that the weights on the meats were a good 20 or so grams lighter than what they actually were. So I ask my idiot manager to let the Deli know their scales are out, but she doesn't give a gently caress, and gets a random checkout operator to call them. By the way, my manager was genuinely puzzled as to how I'd managed to figure out the deli scales were wrong. She actually asked if I'd figured it out on accident. Apparently that brand of stupid is catching, since I then get the checkout operator calling to me "They want to know how you know". Uh, I looked at the meat and had a loving guess? I had a moment where your mind kind of gets a shock and goes blank for a second, beause seriously, are you all this dumb? I weighed it. I also had a customer get uppity because a self serve register had no bags, and they couldn't use it because it had no bags. I apologised and pointed out that said register was also turned off with a blank screen, and a big "Due to unforseen technical difficulties" sign detailing why it was out of service. So sorry buddy, lack of bags isn't the biggest hurdle you would have had attempting to use that machine. Also, I removed the bags from that machine to redistribute among the other machines, since as we all know, te manager can't order bags to save herself, and I was told by the ASM that I needed to keep all the bag holders full, for appearances sake. My reply was a long blank look. I have not heard more about the matter.
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Dec 21, 2015 03:44
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The Lord Bude posted:Also - does your store have a shop steward? It sounds like you need one. Funny story - I am the shop steward. A good one, believe it or not. If any of this happened to anyone else I'd have had this poo poo all sorted within a week, but for some reason lately I've just been unable to put up a fight for myself. Hell, last week there was an issue brought to me by multiple people in one day, and I got that fire in my belly and had that issue straightened out by the end of the day. It was great, I felt good. Then I returned to stand in one spot and pretend to be an automaton for 8 hours a day. I don't know what my problem is. I just have to not beat her to death with a can of peas for 3 more days. Then it's Christmas, and I have Friday (Christmas Day) off, Saturday (Boxing Day) is a public holiday, Sunday we are shut anyway, Monday is a public holiday because of Boxing Day being a Saturday, Tueday I have off because I miss out on the Boxing Day holiday because I don't work Saturdays anyway, Wednesday is my RDO, Thursday I'm taking off because why bother since Friday is New Years Day, another Public Holiday. Then I have Saturday and Sunday off as usual. So TLDR I get from 25th of December until the 3rd of January off. I loving need it.
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Dec 21, 2015 09:07
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The Lord Bude posted:I'm taking all of January off. If you normally work Mondays and not Saturdays, how come you're getting an RDO for Saturday? Your public holiday would be treated as being on the Monday would it not?: We are open on the substituted day as the public holiday this year - Monday. As such, I get TOIL because I don't work Saturdays anyway, and Monday is a voluntary public holiday. So I am taking Tuesday. I wasn't sure either, since to be quite honest holidays are the most complicated part of the EBA, so I called up my organiser and got confirmation. Eh, I'm taking Tuesday off no matter what anyway.
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Dec 21, 2015 22:36
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Great news! I sat down with the store manager this afternoon and we talked over everything - my attitude lately, the front end manager and getting the gently caress off checkouts. Long story short, he's told me that in 2 weeks, he'd make sure I had a position in another department. He's also aware of the front end managers behaviour and was going to sit down and talk to her about it. The catch is he wants me to be more enthusiastic when at work - which shouldn't be a loving problem, if I'm off checkouts. All in all I'm feeling much more positive - considering I've been rostered into produce for my entire next 2 shifts - then I'm off for a week.
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Dec 22, 2015 08:57
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Today I got praised for having really white mushrooms on display. The area manager was in another store on the other side of the state last week and saw some really nice, white and fresh button mushrooms on display, and he got amped up and sent out a blanket email gushing over them, and asking to see every other stores mushrooms. So, I worked very hard, and placed a box of mushrooms where it is supposed to go on display, then I took the lid off said mushrooms so their glorious whiteness could be viewed by all. Truly I am an asset to the company. To be fair, it is a small miracle the mushrooms looked as good as they did, since we are a country store and it takes at least 3 days for any stock to reach us, but still. I suppose if the mushrooms had been slightly greyer or something like they normally are, I would be given a stern talking to over it? They are mushrooms. They are what came on the truck. They are what I put up, assuming they are not noticably poo poo. Also, the next several weeks are going to be interesting, because the Store Manager, Assistant Store Manager, Longlife Manager, Produce Manager, Deli Manager and the salaried replenishment manager are all leaving. Literally the only remaining managers are Bakery, Butchers and Front End. This is because the produce manager got a promotion, so he's off to another store, and all the other managers have collectively decided to transfer either back to their home-towns or out of state because the HR manager for our area has decided that they no longer get any incentives to stay out here.
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Jan 5, 2016 07:42
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It's even worse than that - if somebody hears the conversation about managerial rear end being favourable, and takes offense, you can be considered to have sexually harrassed them. It is unlikely that random customers will think of it that way, but Lord Bude is right, the easily offended ones will complain and hoo boy is that a councelling session I'd rather not have to sit through. Which reminds me of the time the (male) store assistant manager was banging the (female) nightfill manager in her husbands car every night during their "smoke breaks". The time a used condom was found one morning in the middle of the backdock. The time the married longlife manager was walked in on banging one of the (extremely unfortunate looking) front end girls in the dairy fridge. The time the baker was accused of raping the under age daughter of the front end manager - who he was engaged to - only for that to explode amazingly when it came to light that said daughter had propositioned every male she worked with. (Including me. I declined.) The time a different baker kept grabbing the asses of female employees when walking between the bench and the bakery oven, citing the cramped space resulting in "accidental" touching. The time a trolley boy was found to be very loudly enjoying a good old fashioned wank in the toilets. Also every few months somebody is climbing the concrete wall into our fenced off outdoors backdock area (for storing pallets/crates/damaged equipment) and taking enormous shits. Just a surprise turd in a milk crate or a produce box with a monster cable laid out inside.
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Jan 5, 2016 14:34
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Butyraceous posted:also the register company outsources to India and the guy we got didn't speak very good English, he kept replacing words with the word 'purple'. At one point my manager said, "At the purple pin palace? I don't know what that is.", which made me laugh a lot. He was also really loving quiet which didn't help us understand his accent, nor did it help to try to figure out what the gently caress he meant when he replaced a word with 'purple'. He asked me if I had "Booted up and purple the register of 6." That's hilarious. Our IT help desk are notorious for being lazy, unhelpful and above all, loving rude. I remember one time an assistant front end manager was trying to get a newly installed phone system to work, and she got on to IT who told gave her some instructions involving some switches that were supposed to be on the underside of the phone base. They weren't there. Overhearing her explaining that to him, my first thought was they had the wrong model number or something, and they should double check they were talking about the same unit but he instead opted to call her a "loving idiot" for being unable to find non-existent switches. She hung up. I know she reported it, then the next day tried again and got as far as introducing herself when IT hung up on her. Don't know if anything came of it though.
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Jan 5, 2016 14:40
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The Lord Bude posted:What the gently caress are they putting in the water where you live? It's bore water. Smells like poo poo and tends to result in lovely people.
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Jan 5, 2016 14:58
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So we have an interim store manager. We are a small town store. I mentioned a few pages ago that nearly the entire management team are leaving. Well, they've all pretty much left to go to other, better stores. The store manager and his inventory manager wife have taken positions in Western Australia. The longlife manager and his deli manager wife have gone to the next closest town to civilization. The produce manager has taken a position in the closest city. So, the bakery manager is now the produce manager. She's a little overwhelmed, but I think she'll be good at it. One of her daughters has taken over as bakery manager. (the other, older daughter will be the bakery 2IC.) The cafe is now managerless, for the most part, because the guy who was supposed to be the manager there is now the deli manager (which isn't so bad because he used to be the deli manager and was very good at it). We have no inventory manager, but that's okay for now because our new longlife manager is actually very good at his job. I respect that, even if he is an arrogant fucker with no interest in associating with anyone who isn't a manager themselves. The assistant store manager was supposed to step up until they could get a replacement store manager (because he's getting the gently caress out ASAP too) but he whinged (because he's a poo poo store manager - don't get me wrong, he's a great assistant store manager, but he's definitely a follower kind of guy and I think he knows it) and they sent out T. T is an rear end in a top hat. We had T for 2 weeks, doing relief for our store manager while he was on holiday. In the first week, I had more complaints in 5 days than the whole previous 18 months. He had the entire bakery department ready to quit (and 3 did straight up walk out) He pulled the produce assistant manager (who trained the produce manager, ran the department for 4 years and trained the assistant store manager, and was offered a job as a produce specialist in NSW) into the office and told him to his face that he was the worst most useless manager he'd ever seen, and that if ity was up to him he'd fire him on the spot. Because said assistant produce manager had the audacity to be "negative" - he voiced the opinion that expecting the department to run efficiently with 2 less people and an added minimum 3 hours of procedures a day would not work. He tried to write me up for spreading false information and negativity throughout the workplace - because a bunch of people asked me about uniform policy and I explained to them that we didn't have a uniform, we had a preferred dress, and directed them to our EBA which layed the whole deal out for them. When I argued the point, (and he realised I knew more about it than he did) he changed the subject to trying to get me to work with him to promote positive environments or some poo poo. All that was the first time, in 2 weeks. Now, he's back. For 8 weeks, at least. Our store has a reputation for being a shithole - not because it's dirty or a bad town or for any real, concrete reason, but because it has gained a reputation as being the store the company sends it's fuckups to, so they don't have to think about them. Our past 2 managers were Paul, the fat lazy turd who grabbed the deli manager by the throat and shoved him into a wall - for not shaving - and often threatened violence upon staff when he wasn't playing flight simulators on his laptop or watching cricket in his office. Paul got fired after, wow, just the longest goddamn list of complaints. Then came Aaron, who I had the pleasure of dealing with nearly every day. I believe a previous incarnation of this thread chronicled his rear end-hattery. Throwing full-blown kick-over-displays tantrums, setting up private, illegal surveillance of the store for him to access from home, telling pregnant staff to quit because maternity leave wasn't a thing (it totally loving is), the list goes on and on. I got him removed from the store after a long, arduous campaign, the result of which had him moved to a store directly under the area managers operations and the HR woman who protected him the whole time got shifted too. (He eventually quit after taking leave after being accused of harrassment by his new front end manager, and she kept the abusive texts he sent her - including pictures of some dudes nuts - and the company basically said quit or come back so we can fire you) Then came Heath, who was actually not too bad. A lying backstabbing dick at times, but certainly worlds better than the previous two. He tried his best, and was pretty well liked, and got the store running really well. But I think his (voluntary) moving to our store tainted him in the eyes of all the other managers. He went from a front-runner for the area managers job (which he didn't get in the end, then decided that hey, may as well go for our store because of the perks and he liked working small towns in the past) to "lol i hear that store is all kinds of hosed, why would he go there? he must actually be poo poo". So now everyone thinks you only get transfered to our store if you're a fuckup. So T hates being here. He only agreed to it (he's actually the store manager elsewhere) because they offered a ludicrous incentive package for the duration. But he has made it clear he sure as gently caress will not be taking over (they even offered an extra $40k a year for him to move, they are that desperate to get someone in) The reason for all this? Well one HR dude decided to take it upon himself to remove all incentive packages for all his areas stores. To save money, I guess. The company is up the poo poo because of a really, really loving bad investment (tried to branch out into hardware, got their asses handed to them) so every cent counts, right? Except then, with no good reason to stay (company car, rent paid, extra bonuses and holidays and allowances, all taken away) all the upper management guys just went gently caress it, if I'm not getting perks I may as well work in a city with actual prospects, things to do, rather than some rural town. State manager has since crawled down HR guys throat and skull hosed him from within because of course they're going to leave. The packages are back, but the damage is done, and still nobody wants to wind up here, looking like a fuckup. princecoo fucked around with this message at 14:52 on Feb 1, 2016 |
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Feb 1, 2016 14:46
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Yeah, it's pretty random. In a town full of cafes, they decide to put one in, right up the front next to the service desk, late last year during the incredibly overdue refit. Only seats about 12 people because the cafe that is already in the shopping center pitched a fit about it. It seems to do well enough, but it's mostly staff who are customers during their breaks.
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Feb 1, 2016 22:33
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No, we don't have a sushi bar. There was talk about it, and I know they were playing with the idea that deli would occasionally do sushi stuff but I think that was put in the too hard basket.
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Feb 2, 2016 09:09
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