We need to get a big 10 every time!

[happygoth]

That's very much an ASANTS.

We schedule the same handful of people at the service desk 99% of the time, only six people have closed the front end at my store since GSA was officially done away with, and four of those six were previously GSA's.

There's no chance in hell we'd be training cart attendants at the service desk.

Our cart attendants ring, cover service desk and run out drive-ups. I don't think we have any front end attendants who are strictly carts anymore.

 

[Nauzhror]

Ours backup cashier occasionally, and I think some of the others scheduled as service advocate have them help them with driveups in the morning before we have many people in for the day, but whenever I open I do all the driveups myself.

Never seen any of them at the service desk though.

 

[Rarejem]

To be honest, our store typically assigns those on the autism spectrum to front end attendant. They work hard, are consistent, show up and are on time, and don't have to worry too much about the stress of guest interaction. It's a good job that meets their disability's needs. They get carts, backup cashier and occasionally cover SCO, and take care of our front end hangers, carts, and a variety of other tasks that need to be done daily. They are trained at drive up and service desk, as all front end people are at our store, but pretty sure that's "on paper" as they do not work there on a regularly scheduled basis ever.

 

[Dead and Khaki]

I remember when our store dis this. We even had to take it further and phsycially walk the guest uo and check them out ourselves to get the score for our team. Thst wa horrific anx I do not miss it

Wow. So they basically wanted you to pressure the guest to end their shopping trip right then and head up to the checklanes with you? Bet that did wonders for sales.

 

[countingsheep]

Wow. So they basically wanted you to pressure the guest to end their shopping trip right then and head up to the checklanes with you? Bet that did wonders for sales.

Lol yup was the only way to proove YOU got that red card not the cashier ringing uo the person. It was absolutely ridiculous. And dis not last long. One of the dumbest things our stl at the time came uo with 🙄

 

[JiJi]

Man this is so sad - going above and beyond used to earn people promotions, now it's expected and everyone is doing it to compete for that raise.
There's legitimately no reason to go above and beyond, and no reason to work harder other than fear of being fired at this point.

 

[NKG]

I just had possibly the dumbest talk with one of my managers. A 'mid year review'. Did I get a raise? Hell no. I thought maybe my IPH was low or something like that, they had said I wasn't doing so well. It was the front end numbers that weren't doing well.

Let me give you the bullet points so you don't lose the brain cells I did.

1) Quizzed on GUEST's meaning.

2) Our 'were you greeted' and other service scores were ok, but not as good as they could be. Greet EVERYONE who comes into your line, and if you're watching self checkout, GREET EVERYONE who comes in there. You heard me.

3) Lines are too long, we need to move them quicker. Do this and this when you call for backup. What's that, coverage is awful? We still need to move faster! Guest satisfaction! Even the SCO line needs to move faster!

4) Redcards! Get one every week, and guess what, you're going to have to get more than that soon. The required number's gonna go up, up, up! Ask everyone if they want one. People are going to get talked to unless we get these redcards. IF I WANTED TO FLOG CREDIT CARDS I WOULD GO WORK AT SAM'S CLUB OR SEARS!

5) Never touch the card screen for the guest. Even if they are 100 years old and standing there not looking at the screen at all, not inclined to look, nope, nada. Also don't encourage the guest to hit 'skip' on Circle.

6) Big 10 every time. They want all perfect scores whenever a survey comes in. EVERY TIME. Make sure to speak in the most patronizing, condescending voice possible.

I hate this. I hate my life right now.

Sounds like your SETL is dranking the Kool-aid.

 

[sunnydays]

the job requirement is asking about loyalty, not getting redcards

as long as you're asking there is no problem. just make sure you are consistent about asking so you can't be, you know, observed not doing your job


honestly my takeaway here is that there is a lot of weird elitism here about guest advocate roles and responsibility

 

[Mikuhl]

5) Never touch the card screen for the guest. Even if they are 100 years old and standing there not looking at the screen at all, not inclined to look, nope, nada. Also don't encourage the guest to hit 'skip' on Circle.

I agree with this though. It's so sketchy to touch the terminal for them. Just ask "Do you want to put a phone number on the screen?" And 99% of the time they will do at least something to let you continue the transaction. If not just remind them to select an option on the screen so we can proceed.

 

[FlowTeamChick]

And this is why I never complain about my work load being overwhelming a lot of the time - means no one expects me to respond for back up. I actually like cashiering and the interactions with the guests, but the relentless pressure for red cards was over the top. I'm just ringing up a couple of guests to help you out, so back off! But then the DBO model came into play and I can barely keep up, which, it turns out, has its advantages.

 

[seasonaldude]

I agree with this though. It's so sketchy to touch the terminal for them. Just ask "Do you want to put a phone number on the screen?" And 99% of the time they will do at least something to let you continue the transaction. If not just remind them to select an option on the screen so we can proceed.

I disagree. So many guests, especially older guests, just start punching in their phone number. I tap the option for them, and ask them to start again. Makes it easier. I also quickly hit skip if an obvious minor is paying. Minors don't need to be enrolled in loyalty programs without parental permission and we don't have time to walk the parents through any privacy concerns, if the parent is even present.

 

[Far from newbie]

don‘t take a conversation like that with your ETL/HR/SD lightly.
Check on workday if it was documented.
step 1 of “being performanced out” is having a record that you were AWARE of the expectations.
If you don’t meet them, after being told what they were, it is a paper trial with a reason to terminate.

Take these ‘suggestions’ seriously. I think someone is watching.

 

[sunnydays]

team members were supposed to get mid year performance check ins this year. don’t need to get OP worried about their job, don’t be conspiratorial

 

[60SecondsRemaining]

I just had possibly the dumbest talk with one of my managers. A 'mid year review'. Did I get a raise? Hell no. I thought maybe my IPH was low or something like that, they had said I wasn't doing so well. It was the front end numbers that weren't doing well.

Let me give you the bullet points so you don't lose the brain cells I did.

1) Quizzed on GUEST's meaning.

2) Our 'were you greeted' and other service scores were ok, but not as good as they could be. Greet EVERYONE who comes into your line, and if you're watching self checkout, GREET EVERYONE who comes in there. You heard me.

3) Lines are too long, we need to move them quicker. Do this and this when you call for backup. What's that, coverage is awful? We still need to move faster! Guest satisfaction! Even the SCO line needs to move faster!

4) Redcards! Get one every week, and guess what, you're going to have to get more than that soon. The required number's gonna go up, up, up! Ask everyone if they want one. People are going to get talked to unless we get these redcards. IF I WANTED TO FLOG CREDIT CARDS I WOULD GO WORK AT SAM'S CLUB OR SEARS!

5) Never touch the card screen for the guest. Even if they are 100 years old and standing there not looking at the screen at all, not inclined to look, nope, nada. Also don't encourage the guest to hit 'skip' on Circle.

6) Big 10 every time. They want all perfect scores whenever a survey comes in. EVERY TIME. Make sure to speak in the most patronizing, condescending voice possible.

I hate this. I hate my life right now.

Welcome to every job you will ever have ever in retail.

Inexperienced leaders leading even more inexperienced leaders will always push metrics. They cannot tell you how to improve - only that you must.

You will find this at every entry level "low skill" job (aka jobs that don't require a degree...which requires no skill to get anyway). The people leading you have absolutely no idea how to help you improve, they just get shit on by their boss who in turn was shit on by their boss. It's all a giant hill, and you're at the bottom my friend.

 

[flow4areasonuno]

team members were supposed to get mid year performance check ins this year. don’t need to get OP worried about their job, don’t be conspiratorial

I was already worried about this anyway, but thanks for some comfort. Like I said, they told me my numbers were bad...but then it turns out that's the whole front end.

I swear if I were only a guest all the stuff they want me to push/ask would just ensure that I only shop at Walmart. It's a craphole one we have in our town but you are left alone the entire time. Better know where the stuff is that you want tho.

The people leading you have absolutely no idea how to help you improve, they just get shit on by their boss who in turn was shit on by their boss. It's all a giant hill, and you're at the bottom my friend.

I guess it's better I'm at the bottom than higher up though, seems they have a bigger headache than I do, and more to do also. And with all this pressure they wonder why the college kids stop showing up after 3 days. I would too if it was an option

Man this is so sad - going above and beyond used to earn people promotions, now it's expected and everyone is doing it to compete for that raise.
There's legitimately no reason to go above and beyond, and no reason to work harder other than fear of being fired at this point.

This is why I am trying to give less sh!ts. There is no reason to work hard other than to not get fired. It won't make my raise any bigger and I definitely DO NOT want to move up in this company.

 

[Frontlanegirl]

Welcome to every job you will ever have ever in retail.

Inexperienced leaders leading even more inexperienced leaders will always push metrics. They cannot tell you how to improve - only that you must.

You will find this at every entry level "low skill" job (aka jobs that don't require a degree...which requires no skill to get anyway). The people leading you have absolutely no idea how to help you improve, they just get shit on by their boss who in turn was shit on by their boss. It's all a giant hill, and you're at the bottom my friend.

Because they are not “leaders” and all they do is try to manage. A leader would work with a TM to help them improve.

 

[flow4areasonuno]

Got talked to because I was on SCO and not greeting every guest that comes through. Literally pulled off the floor and taken to their office and talked to about it.

This is getting ridiculous. I didn't do what I was scheduled for at all today - is it too much to ask to be able to do what is on my schedule? The anxiety has never been worse and the only thing defining how bad it is is which manager is working that day.

I have no way of knowing what my day is going to be like, no way to mentally prepare because it seems like once I get there everything goes out the window and everything I do is wrong. It takes me a while to learn/remember to do a new thing and by the time I learn it I get a condescending talking to about "that's not how we do it here", only to do it the way they asked, and then be told by someone else that that's not how they want it done. Don't relax. Don't be idle even for a single second because they'll pounce and give you something to do so you WILL be busy.

I'd look for another job but I don't think it would be any different than this. I just want to have some way to know what the day is going to be like so I can mentally prepare, instead of stressing all day.

 

[Tessa120]

A new job will be different. Im working in a job now with barely more pay than Target and zero benefits, but the job is very supportive. Shout outs for meeting metrics happen evrry morning. 90% of the time i will meet the inbound phone metric, but i still get a shout out every time i do. And the other metrics i dont meet, i dont get shit for not meeting them because they know i try.