How does your store handle TL coverage re: payroll plan?

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NotCynicalYet

Joined
Jan 8, 2021
Messages
600
As a fulfillment lead, I notice a big difference in how effective I am as a manager, and how effective my team is when I'm scheduled as part of the coverage vs. not coverage. I've also noticed there seems to be no accounting for the time it takes to lead, especially with a 20+ member team, which is when administrative tasks and general leadership duties start to become quite heavy (training/scheduling/planning/hiring etc.). This is in addition to the very busy job of tracking down INFs and solving general WtF mysteries all over the store.

Some weeks my hours are pulled out of the coverage and I have time to be a leader. Often (more often this year), I'm just coverage and everything I do as a leader is crammed into the margins of my schedule, and the results are bad.


How does your store handle leader hours vs. coverage hours? I really only understand the scheduling end of Front End and Fulfillment. How does it work in your store?
 
I've been out of the company for quite awhile, but the front end etl was on a lane last time I shopped. WTF things must be bad. Also pushing truck at like 2 on a Friday yikes.
 
NotCynicalYet said:
As a fulfillment lead, I notice a big difference in how effective I am as a manager, and how effective my team is when I'm scheduled as part of the coverage vs. not coverage. I've also noticed there seems to be no accounting for the time it takes to lead, especially with a 20+ member team, which is when administrative tasks and general leadership duties start to become quite heavy (training/scheduling/planning/hiring etc.). This is in addition to the very busy job of tracking down INFs and solving general WtF mysteries all over the store.

Some weeks my hours are pulled out of the coverage and I have time to be a leader. Often (more often this year), I'm just coverage and everything I do as a leader is crammed into the margins of my schedule, and the results are bad.


How does your store handle leader hours vs. coverage hours? I really only understand the scheduling end of Front End and Fulfillment. How does it work in your store?
Click to expand...
The hours for your time are in the fulfillment work center the same a GM or Food TLs hours are. I forget the exact number but I’ve talked to the payroll partners before when they swapped specialty and GM work centers a couple years ago it’s something like 60% of your time is expected or assumed to be doing physical TM work and the other 40% leading. So roughly 15 hours a week you’re “leading” and the other 30-35 are picking.
 
gsa4lyfe said:
The hours for your time are in the fulfillment work center the same a GM or Food TLs hours are. I forget the exact number but I’ve talked to the payroll partners before when they swapped specialty and GM work centers a couple years ago it’s something like 60% of your time is expected or assumed to be doing physical TM work and the other 40% leading. So roughly 15 hours a week you’re “leading” and the other 30-35 are picking.
Click to expand...
Cool, thanks for the info.

I don't think this makes sense with 20+ tms (about 12-15 on a given day) who have a difficult-to-manage break schedule, plus the frequent INF and related searches and problem-solving, and writing the schedule and hiring and performance tracking and coaching and supply management (all the SFS related crap) and audits and meetings and personal development and planning and closing 1-2 nights per week.

Plus, how would I account for this split in the scheduler (coverage graph) in a sensible way, rather than in a purely reactive way? I know retail requires dynamic thinking and changing plans on the fly, especially in time-sensitive areas, but damn. It seems insanely dumb to run 15%-20% of store sales through this sort of wringer lol. There is no way the payroll savings is worth the damage to management/leadership and quality.
 
NotCynicalYet said:
There is no way the payroll savings is worth the damage to management/leadership and quality.
Click to expand...
Staying under payroll is unfortunately one of those holy things we call a "metric" and to pass metrics comes above all.

The rest can be accomplished by cracking the whip and telling the employees they need to do more with less. Employees who get fed up and leave are replaced by newbies or in the case of management people fresh out of college who can be paid less.

This appears to be how the management here thinks.
 
Employees who get fed up and leave are replaced by newbies or in the case of management people fresh out of college who can be paid less.

Ignoring the fact that any money saved is offset by less efficiency in your workers.
 
Dream Baby said:
Employees who get fed up and leave are replaced by newbies or in the case of management people fresh out of college who can be paid less.


Ignoring the fact that any money saved is offset by less efficiency in your workers.
Click to expand...
In my case I've been "quiet quitting" for a couple years now. It's almost funny - they'll get on my ass about every little thing and give me the occasional bad review but because I show up they also say I'm "reliable."

I've begun joking that I'm slowly turning into Wally from Dilbert.
 
NotCynicalYet said:
Cool, thanks for the info.

I don't think this makes sense with 20+ tms (about 12-15 on a given day) who have a difficult-to-manage break schedule, plus the frequent INF and related searches and problem-solving, and writing the schedule and hiring and performance tracking and coaching and supply management (all the SFS related crap) and audits and meetings and personal development and planning and closing 1-2 nights per week.

Plus, how would I account for this split in the scheduler (coverage graph) in a sensible way, rather than in a purely reactive way? I know retail requires dynamic thinking and changing plans on the fly, especially in time-sensitive areas, but damn. It seems insanely dumb to run 15%-20% of store sales through this sort of wringer lol. There is no way the payroll savings is worth the damage to management/leadership and quality.
Click to expand...

flow4areasonuno said:
Staying under payroll is unfortunately one of those holy things we call a "metric" and to pass metrics comes above all.

The rest can be accomplished by cracking the whip and telling the employees they need to do more with less. Employees who get fed up and leave are replaced by newbies or in the case of management people fresh out of college who can be paid less.

This appears to be how the management here thinks.
Click to expand...

Dream Baby said:
Employees who get fed up and leave are replaced by newbies or in the case of management people fresh out of college who can be paid less.


Ignoring the fact that any money saved is offset by less efficiency in your workers.
Click to expand...
Welcome to retail. This is a tale as old as time.
 
flow4areasonuno said:
In my case I've been "quiet quitting" for a couple years now. It's almost funny - they'll get on my ass about every little thing and give me the occasional bad review but because I show up they also say I'm "reliable."

I've begun joking that I'm slowly turning into Wally from Dilbert.
Click to expand...
Not really applicable in retail but I just heard the term "Bare Minimum Monday"
 
Dream Baby said:
Not really applicable in retail but I just heard the term "Bare Minimum Monday"
Click to expand...
What's funny is they notice. But they don't write you up for it. They just keep hounding you to do basic parts of your job that aren't really necessary, like standing at the end of your aisle or dusting your register. They HAAAAAAAAATE seeing you just stand there, even for 3 seconds.

I'd probably make more effort if the reward for it was more than "good job" and messing up wasn't rewarded with a 10 minute lecture about how I'm supposed to know better.
 
TL responsibilities are integrated with regular TM tasks. It sucks, especially for FOTL and GMTL Operations this time of year, as workload for the department is often higher than what is actually accounted for with payroll.

The store I was at was a non-SFS location but regularly did 3000+ OPU units daily, so the TL was struggling to follow up or create routines around performance because they were often picking 90% of their shift. They'd be one of the 4-6 fulfillment TMs scheduled for the day, essentially.
 
Dream Baby said:
The important thing is they are saving payroll!
Click to expand...
This is true lol.

What bugs me the most is how often they pull people from the floor to cover FF and front end. Honestly I don't understand why the leaders for Style and GM don't kick up a big fuss. They are essentially stealing hours from other departments. We have one Style TM who is pulled for FF every single time they are scheduled, usually for the entire shift. If I were the Lead I would be livid. Our department looks like shit so that other areas can meet their goals. But I should not be surprised as Style is the least important area of the store, apparently.

I don't know why I'm complaining, not having to make the department look perfect honestly takes the burden off us peons, lol. They get what they get, I can only do so much as one person. But I could never be part of Style leadership, it would be torture me to see my area get paid dust and look like ass every day.
 
happygoth said:
What bugs me the most is how often they pull people from the floor to cover FF and front end. Honestly I don't understand why the leaders for Style and GM don't kick up a big fuss
Click to expand...
Because they steal cashiers for OPU and DU! Even if the front end has enough people they steal them for fulfillment somehow.
 
I myself have worked very hard to avoid ever learning FF. Given I move pretty slowly the "lazy" strategy has worked so far. They don't want me, I'm sure
 

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