Archived Anyone else hate the morning STL/ETL/TL "walk" they do?

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I find it appalling that "We're on a walk." is any reason to not respond to a team member, take a call, meet a vendor, or help a guest. It happens whether it is just the in-store management or when we have our special visitors. This is not the example that management should be setting. If you don't want to help, give your freakin' walkie to a tm that is willing to respond instead of wasting our inadequate supply of equipment.
 
Sorry to play the otherside but in my opinion the morning walks are super useful and pretty satisfying for both parties involved. It might be that your STL/ETL/TL are just not taking the full advantage of what those walks are about. Sure there will be some issues pointed out but those are ops not blatant blaming.take the time as well to give feedback to the person walking you. The reason we do them is so we can keep updated with the going ons in the store. Having large teams things can get lost unless you spend that 1on1time with them.

Also a walk isa valid excuse not to be able to take calls or break away to do something in most situations. you have dedicated the time to your team member and should ensure they are your priority. Of course try to resolve what you can over walkie or delegate but they are not always in the wrong for doing that.
 
I was turning down a frozen food aisle once and saw the STL and three ETLs walking towards me. Their pace was slow with that ominous, old Western movie feeling. "*spit* You ain't from around there parts, are ya?" "I... I'm just g-g-going to the Backroom."
 
I hate the walks. There's the morning walk between the early and mid LOD, and the evening walk between the mid and late LOD.

I call them the "asshole walks" because they basically walk the store, find reshop, and complain about endcaps not looking zoned, which they could easily fix themselves.
 
Kaz said:
Sorry to play the otherside but in my opinion the morning walks are super useful and pretty satisfying for both parties involved. It might be that your STL/ETL/TL are just not taking the full advantage of what those walks are about. Sure there will be some issues pointed out but those are ops not blatant blaming.take the time as well to give feedback to the person walking you. The reason we do them is so we can keep updated with the going ons in the store. Having large teams things can get lost unless you spend that 1on1time with them.

Also a walk isa valid excuse not to be able to take calls or break away to do something in most situations. you have dedicated the time to your team member and should ensure they are your priority. Of course try to resolve what you can over walkie or delegate but they are not always in the wrong for doing that.
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No, sorry, you are wrong. Sure, the walks are helpful to see what is going on, but the walks have become a little social event more than anything else. They have also become some kind of twisted ego trip. "Oh, look at us. We get to walk and shout commands from our walks while doing nothing to contribute because we are just too good for it"

Here are some recent examples of what I am talking about that come to mind:

1. Electronics TM was the only one working the boat. We were incredibly short handed on the floor that morning. Me and another TM were team lifting furniture for a guest, leaving only the electronics TM free at the moment. All of a sudden one of the ETL's on the "walk" got on the radio and commanded a TM to come to section A to pickup a sign that had fallen from the shelf. (Yes, a freaking sign on the floor that needed to be put back on the shelf 3 feet away) That electronics TM had to go all the way from electronics to where the sign was located (pets). In my store, pets is literally on the opposite site of the store from electronics, leaving no TMs to help any guest that came to electronics. The ETLs (all freaking 5 of them) couldn't be bothered to simply put the sign back themselves. It would have taken them 5 seconds literally.

2. Another morning we were short handed. It was me and two other sales floor TMs. We were super busy in electronics at the time, so it was me and another TM helping guests back there. Then, all hell broke lose. The call button went off in toys, market, and domestics at damn near the same time. I ran to toys, the other TM on the floor ran to domestics, and the other TM was still stuck with guests in electronics. All of a sudden the ETLs on the "walk" get on the walkie and start demanding to know who is going to get the market call button. All 3 of us tell them we are with guests and can't do it. Call button in market goes to 3rd request. I manage to get free of the guest and run to market. What do I find? Four freaking ETLs on the "walk" literally standing next to the freaking market call button waiting to see when a TM is going to come and clear it! Literally, they let it go to 3rd request. Then, when I got back there to clear it after 3rd request, they demanded to know why I let it go to 3rd request despite the fact I told them as soon as it went off I was with a guest. Worst part of all? THERE WAS NO FREAKING GUEST! They were the ones that pushed it to "test" if we were "providing good floor coverage". When I told them that it was only 3 of us on the floor and we all were with guests one of them said "Oh, well back room should have come out to clear it. We will have to talk to them". WTF?

3. TLs at my store are not allowed to go on walks (this used to piss me off when I was a TL at my old store because it was the same way). I was present one morning when our electronics TL asked to go with them on the walk through electronics to know what issues they saw. One of the ETLs rudely told him "no, we need you at the boat. You need to be providing guest service". Despite the fact I was working toys, was standing right there, and easily could have worked at the boat for 5 mins. The ETLs did their walk, then came back and told our electronics TL that he had "major issues in the department". When he asked them what issues one said "Well there were several issues. We didn't take notes but they are very obvious. You just need to walk it and take care of them. We will be back later to check". I was thinking Wow, just wow. Clearly, those ETLs were truly concerned about making the store better and not just walking and socializing with each other while excluding those who were beneath them.
 
It's really annoying to watch them saunter around the store en masse and make a list of things that they could have fixed in the time they stood around and talked about who they were going to delegate it to. My other favorite thing is listening to them talk about me like I'm not there. "We'll have nolongerspecial do this this and this." Hello! I can hear you! No need to write it down and come back and tell me later.
 
*ETLs walk by front-end*

"Can we get someone from flow to get on a lane?"

The epitome of ETL privilege is to walk around without a care in the world, meanwhile criticizing someone for not 'vibing' enough or not getting enough of a large workload done.
 
For the Signing TM the ETL walk is especially annoying.

"Commiecorvus, there is a sign down in toys."
"You mean the one I told you two days ago I had to order parts for?"

"Commiecorvus, we need you to move all the infant furniture to meet this notice that we just got from Spot."
"You mean the one I told you about last week and you said we didn't have the hours for?"

Commiecorvus, drop everything and come put this sign back up."
"I'm up in the air right now taking care of the last thing you wanted."
 
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Sot, I am sorry about your etl's who didn't answer the call button. At my store, anyone would answer the call button, no matter what. To impress the dtl.
 
commiecorvus said:
For the Signing TM the ETL walk is especially annoying.

"Commiecorvus, there is a sign down in toys."
"You mean the one I told you two days ago I had to order parts for?"

"Commiecorvus, we need you to move all the infant furniture to meet this notice that we just got from Spot."
"You mean the one I told you about last week and you said we didn't have the hours for?"

Commiecorvus, drop everything and come put this sign back up."
"I'm up in the air right now taking care of the last thing you wanted."
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Bahahahaha i 100% agree with this. My stl would walk the store and call me every 5 mins with another signing problem she had. My list would be so long after her walk I would have no time for why signing workload
 
Wow, I feel bad for you guys. At my store all execs including the STL back up to calls/call boxes if they are on the floor. Whenever I need back up to electronics and nobody can respond, my STL will come back to help if he is able. Sure I see them going on walks, but they usually fix whatever is wrong, including picking up signs knocked on the floor.
 
Electronics Man said:
Wow, I feel bad for you guys. At my store all execs including the STL back up to calls/call boxes if they are on the floor. Whenever I need back up to electronics and nobody can respond, my STL will come back to help if he is able. Sure I see them going on walks, but they usually fix whatever is wrong, including picking up signs knocked on the floor.
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Sounds like you've got one of the good ones.
Pray that they stick around for a while.
 
It seems like you guys have a very different system than we use in Canada. The morning walks in our store are not the leadership team in its entirety but like one STL walking an ETL or an ETL walking a TL or TL walking a TM or something in that mixture. The STLs and ETLs have meetings off stage once every 2 weeks for big issues. Even during these meetings walkies are on and we are responding to calls where needed.

I'm sorry to hear thatyour leadership uses their walk asa bit ofa power trip. As an ETL myself this doesn't sit right with me. Does your store do a morning huddle?
 
Kaz said:
Sorry to play the otherside but in my opinion the morning walks are super useful and pretty satisfying for both parties involved. It might be that your STL/ETL/TL are just not taking the full advantage of what those walks are about. Sure there will be some issues pointed out but those are ops not blatant blaming.take the time as well to give feedback to the person walking you. The reason we do them is so we can keep updated with the going ons in the store. Having large teams things can get lost unless you spend that 1on1time with them.

Also a walk isa valid excuse not to be able to take calls or break away to do something in most situations. you have dedicated the time to your team member and should ensure they are your priority. Of course try to resolve what you can over walkie or delegate but they are not always in the wrong for doing that.
Click to expand...


As a new ETL I must also play on the other side. I haven't posted much but I read a lot and the purpose of these walks is indeed to keep tabs on the store and projects that are going on. More importantly, the DTL visits... A lot of TM's, 99%, dont know anything about these visits which is unfortunate because your leadership should be providing you feedback, meaningful feedback, about how the visit went. It also sounds like 1 of 2 things are going on.... 1. You guys alllllll have terrible leadership which is believable to an extent OR 2. You are always having a negative attitude about something which again is understandable depending on your situation in your store.

My advice, if you are lucky, is to proactively ask to take part in ONE morning walk or a hand-off to get the perspective of what leadership is looking for. If you get denied then that is a sad situation but you could always play the open door policy game. Seek to understand what it is that is supposed to happen and if you still get upset about the walks then it's just a rough situation but chances are your eyes will be a little wider from that moment on.

I disagree with Kaz about not being about to take calls and help out because all of the ETL's at my store get side-tracked helping out a guest, or TM, or correcting signing issues as we see them. There are appropriate issues to consider delegating but I and my peers always answer the phone, or calls over the walkie.

Not everybody will be pleased but thats life
 
It's the afternoon "walk" they all do together that I hate. I've never seen them do it when our STL is there. I work in 2 stores though. There's the one I work at when he's there & the one I work at when he's not. (Which is most of the time) Guess which one I like the best.
 
I would say the morning walks are as constructive as your stores leadership makes them. Two stores I have worked at make them very beneficial to everyone and are not afraid to help out. One store I have worked for make it a morning tea and testosterone party, making sure everyone knows whose in charge from the start.
 
I had no idea what you guys were talking about until we got our new STL. Oh my fucking god! I hate these walks. STL drinks coffee while he does it. Thank god I work nights.
 
As a regular maggot TM I got to join my STL and 2 other ETLs on a walk once. I got some of the meanest looks ever lol Felt kinda good being on top for just a moment even though it was just a "walk"
 
We have one brand-spankin-new senior TL who is all about putting on a leadership show. He does at least 5, yes, FIVE, walks of various area's or departments in addition to their opening walk and mid-day walk. It's ridiculous.
 
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