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

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paidtosmile said:
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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He just doesn't want to work so he looks busy but does nothing.

There are other posts in this thread I want to respond to but will take a moment to craft my reply. Cause frankly I was insulted.
 
paidtosmile said:
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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Best practice, as the LOD, is to walk the store about once every hour or two. You should not bite off projects or task that are going to tie you down, but instead spend 10-20 minutes in each area and help them with what THEY are working on, and then move on to the next area. This keeps you visible and reminds the team you are around, while giving you the chance to monitor vibe, instocks, and progress in each department.
 
There are usually at least two walks per day in my store, unless there is a visit or the STL is doing a walk with all of the ETLs. The two standard walks are to turn over between the early and mid LOD and the mid and closing LOD. If they want to make themselves unavailable, they will usually have a TL or ETL that isn't the current LOD cover calls. It's when they go into the STL office for their pow wows that I get pissed off.
 
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?
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Ha! Would have liked to overhear that conversation.

_____

ETL: "Hey, BR Joe, a call box went off in grocery, why didn't you help the guest?"
BR Joe: "I never heard it on the walkie."

:crickets:

BR Joe waits for ETL to realize BR is on channel 2, and call boxes are heard on channel 1.

:crickets:

ETL: "Ok. But make sure you're paying attention, next time."

:crickets:

:facepalm:
 
Some of our walks are productive, others are used to socialize. Depends upon the participants.
 
It doesn't bother me much since most days they skip electronics by going in one backroom door then coming back out the other door and walking away without anybody seeing me at all
 
I especially love it when they have to stop by Starbucks and get their drinks first. Meanwhile, us cashiers stare daggers at them while we drink our water and try to keep smiling at the guests.
This was not on a walk but one time I walked back in the office area to clock out and there were several leaders back there putting together their orders and money for Chinese for their lunches. The front end was BLOWING UP! I can't remember exactly what I said...something about the gstl needing help up front. They all kinda looked at me and got on the walkie to ask for backup. I was pissed! They should be glad I'm not the stl because they would freaking hate me! lol They have WAY too much free time!!
 
Our leaders are finally starting to participate in the front end when it gets busy. I told our ETL-GE that "I know getting on a checklane sucks, and probably even more so for you exec's, but I'll gladly jump on a checklane and help get through busy times if one of you could just come up here and stand on Checklane _____ (the default GSA/TL workspace) and watch for supervisor calls. We just need to be supported by you guys, not 30 minutes of cashiering."

It seemed to do the trick
 
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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My current ETL group is like this now. A former ETL would have me come and do the most simple things sometimes though, like the sign thing, that they could of just taken care of in the time to tell me and me having to come over and do it.
 
Our ETLs work pretty hard. It's the STL that acts like he's better than everyone else. One time he took them out to lunch for a meeting. I was not happy.
 
konk said:
Our ETLs work pretty hard. It's the STL that acts like he's better than everyone else. One time he took them out to lunch for a meeting. I was not happy.
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I feel like this is common practice. Definitely not every meeting, but sometimes for recognition or motivation. As long as there is a senior in the building still.

Edit: I don't think it's necessarily the right thing to do though.
 
Yeah, it rubbed me the wrong way. At my other job though, we have to cook food for the execs and set up the room and clean up after them, so I guess it could be worse.
 
Love it. I love me a good dog and pony show!! I just never seem to have my ribbons on me at the right time. I usually have a tail from pin the tail on the donkey, but it's hard to decide which jackass to pin it on. I should get lips, like the wax ones, for the biggest kiss ass perhaps ??
 
I've been noticing these more and more lately and god they're annoying. And they always move at a snail's pace through the aisles. It almost makes me feel paranoid as if they're looking over my shoulder.
 
My store used to do these when I first started. Now we all hit the floor running when we get there. No time to walk until the hand off. Any issues? Just fix it if you can or communicate/delegate to the appropriate TM. I hated the walks though. I see a mob of red come around the corner and I think 'oh hell, here they come'.
 
The walks between logistics and dayside team were pointless. When I came in they would tell me the horrible day they had and how they didn't get anything done - also they had no plan to finish their work (CAFs, reshop, zone, backstock) and left shortly after the store closed. They expected us to pick up where they left off and have it finished before the morning. However, if I was short staffed that night they expected me to stay extra (after putting in 12 hours) to finish my unload. Eventually I started leaving as soon as the morning LOD arrived, especially for this one B that I didn't get along with.

Another thing I hated about walks - I don't want to spend any more time than I have to at the store. I just worked all night - I don't want to go around changing end caps that your team didn't accomplish - nor do I want to go around zoning. If I finished the entire process at 5am (which became the norm after a while), I slept in my office until the LOD showed up. Then I was out.
 
As a SrTL I'm often a part of these walks and even I hate them.

With certain ETL's it's nice and gets us on the same page, especially after a couple days away, but with others and the STL it seems so unproductive and the amount of fake small talk during these is unbearable
 
I used to call it the "asshole walk" way back when I first started. They've kind of been eliminated at my store. It's basically now just the opening LOD walks with mid LOD (if we have one) or the closing LOD. If there's a mid, they walk with the closer.
 
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