The Woolworths Thread (12 Viewers)

[yoddle]

Aah what a great forum to bitch on...

Today was my first ever shift as a supervisor. my customer service manager didn't even bother to talk to me about it or train me in opens in any way shape or form (although the 2IC said 'you'll be right', which really tipped the velvet in terms of helpful advice), so i got there and pretty much had to make it up with help from the cash office woman and what i'd picked up from other supervisors.

it actually went all right for a while because it wasn't so busy and i had good staff, and i was like 'hey, this isn't so stressful'. Then i called the duty manager and was like 'yo are you right to do my break at seven?', and she goes '(scoff)..No!' and just outright refused and told me it was my CSM's job to make sure there is someone in the store able to do my break (surely that's her!!) So then i just decided not to have one. And it went downhill from there in the form of extreme busyness, express alerts (which no-one responds to) and annoying customers who always ask for the most difficult things at the worst of times. So it was flat-out, all registers open and me with no formal training and the duty manager doesn't even bother glancing in front end's direction!, let alone help. and she responded to like one call over the PA, i usually had to go hunt her down.

Surely that's just irresponsible management?

Also, the other day, our store manager was doing duty and at the end of the night -i was an operator- he told me to pack my own register and was all shocked when i told him that the supervisors do that. He reckons its part of our job and made me do it. But that must be against the rules because can't i just slip a few fitties into my pocket and say i've counted them??

 

[shinji]

Which woolies is this? lol. If you have a real beef with it, just contact head office/HR.

 

[yoddle]

Woolworths Scottsdale. In rural Tasmania.

Yeah but then if head office bothers to follow it up the duty manager will know exactly who made the complaint and be a vindictive bitch...

But about the other question, do other operators have to pack up their own registers in other stores? The manager who insisted was fresh from Victoria...

 

[babikakez]

Aah what a great forum to bitch on...

Today was my first ever shift as a supervisor. my customer service manager didn't even bother to talk to me about it or train me in opens in any way shape or form (although the 2IC said 'you'll be right', which really tipped the velvet in terms of helpful advice), so i got there and pretty much had to make it up with help from the cash office woman and what i'd picked up from other supervisors.

it actually went all right for a while because it wasn't so busy and i had good staff, and i was like 'hey, this isn't so stressful'. Then i called the duty manager and was like 'yo are you right to do my break at seven?', and she goes '(scoff)..No!' and just outright refused and told me it was my CSM's job to make sure there is someone in the store able to do my break (surely that's her!!) So then i just decided not to have one. And it went downhill from there in the form of extreme busyness, express alerts (which no-one responds to) and annoying customers who always ask for the most difficult things at the worst of times. So it was flat-out, all registers open and me with no formal training and the duty manager doesn't even bother glancing in front end's direction!, let alone help. and she responded to like one call over the PA, i usually had to go hunt her down.

Surely that's just irresponsible management?

I'm really sorry to hear that hey. Tomorrow is my first (real) supervision shift and I was told today that I can't rely on the duty manager because he knows nothing about checkouts. I'm sorry, but I really think that the store manager should be competent in all departments.

 

[babikakez]

Woolworths Scottsdale. In rural Tasmania.

Yeah but then if head office bothers to follow it up the duty manager will know exactly who made the complaint and be a vindictive bitch...

But about the other question, do other operators have to pack up their own registers in other stores? The manager who insisted was fresh from Victoria...

All of ours go to the cash office and they are counted there. But I am in WA.

 

[danberg]

Woolworths Scottsdale. In rural Tasmania.

Yeah but then if head office bothers to follow it up the duty manager will know exactly who made the complaint and be a vindictive bitch...

But about the other question, do other operators have to pack up their own registers in other stores? The manager who insisted was fresh from Victoria...

At out store (which I've discovered from reading this blog is pretty good- the store manager/ duty manager and other staff will often help out on express when really busy!)

On packing registers? I am from Victoria, we don't get every operator to pack up their register at night- only the service supervisor does that- but if you have time and supervision numbers, I guess you can be asked to.

 

[rachana12]

hey guys,
i got my discount card finally.it took 6 weeks.
wooooooo
n had my assesment 2day which was already done.Thank god everything is positive.i just signed the form.

now waitin for contract.........
can anyone plz tell me how long does it take normally?????

 

[meow-says-kitty]

Yoddle if you mean count a register then only a supervisor can do that, but bagging a register like just putting the money in bags anyone can do.
Also I'm not suprised your manager wouldn't do your break, I've never seen a manager do someones break. Its your dept managers responsibility to roster someone on to do your break. Its happened to me before on a 9 hour shift and I just couldn't have a break coz there was really no-one to do it, its just part of agreeing to be a supervisor. But if you do get a shift like that make sure you leave a note (if its a close shift) so the next morning the supervisor can write on the adjustment sheet that you had no break therefore you will get paid for it.

/crappy advice.

 

[asdads333]

You'll automatically get paid the correct rate. I remember townie saying that each week the office cashier prints a list of the people who have had birthdays and need pay rates changing. So for your company induction you'll get paid at the 20yo rate, everything else will be now at the adult rate.

Thnx again i understand now.

Oh yeh shinji you still gonna write about the deli? because im still interested if you can be bothered!

 

[shinji]

Thnx again i understand now.

Oh yeh shinji you still gonna write about the deli? because im still interested if you can be bothered!

haha woops, sorry. Shall write a quick summary of what we have to do in deli & the positives/negatives about it:

Basically the job requires you to stay on customer service 80% of the time if it's a busy day (friday night, sat & sunday) and the rest of the 20% of your time, you would be helping filling/rotating/facing up stock.

When it's quiet, you want to try and get everything done asap, because you never know how long till you have another chance of filling the window. It also depends on your Dept manager. Some managers are lenient, but others are pretty anal about you doing as much as you can. For eg; my manager tells me to do one thing, and another thing at the same time (kent, fill chicken, kent rubbish needs to be taken out & boxes need to be chucked into the box pressor)

There are basically 3 types of shifts that you can have during the day. The morning shift (opening the dept, preparing stock to be in the window), day shift from around 10am onwards or so, night/close shift.


Open: You either rotate the ends of the case (salads, frankfurts, bacon, olives, etc). Fill it up if it's empty, wipe down the salt of the frankfurts, etc.
Set up chicken - Chicken (raw chicken) has to be taken out every night. So what you have to do is put the chicken in the window, and place new stock at the front (which is called rotating stock; so old stuff gets sold first). A vital thing to setting up chicken is to check if it's off or not.
Slices & Shaves - You won't be working on this. I have only worked on slices & shaves after ~2 years of workign here. but basically filling it up, making it look nice and good.

Opens take around 1hour on average. (more for the slices & shaves though)

- Day shifts
basically keeping the level of stock full in the window, rotating stock, cleaning, maintaining safe working environment, customer service, etc.

- Close shifts:
You have a lot of things to do in these shifts.
Basically cleaning tubs, cleaning chicken warmer, cleaning slicers, cleaning oven, serving customers, pulling out chicken, topping up the case so that it loosk nice before you start on the cleaning the slicers, etc. Also have to clean the floor which is pretty fun may i say. =p


Misc things people do during the day are:
- Unpack chicken & deli load.
- Clean coolroom floors.
- Wash up the tubs you put the food in
- clean benches
- Clean the display case

and that's all i can think of atm.
If you have any quesitons, don't hestitate to ask. lol

now to go to sleep. I have 6am shift tomorrow T_T
Btw, may I ask which deli you're working at?

 

[asdads333]

haha woops, sorry. Shall write a quick summary of what we have to do in deli & the positives/negatives about it:

Basically the job requires you to stay on customer service 80% of the time if it's a busy day (friday night, sat & sunday) and the rest of the 20% of your time, you would be helping filling/rotating/facing up stock.

When it's quiet, you want to try and get everything done asap, because you never know how long till you have another chance of filling the window. It also depends on your Dept manager. Some managers are lenient, but others are pretty anal about you doing as much as you can. For eg; my manager tells me to do one thing, and another thing at the same time (kent, fill chicken, kent rubbish needs to be taken out & boxes need to be chucked into the box pressor)

There are basically 3 types of shifts that you can have during the day. The morning shift (opening the dept, preparing stock to be in the window), day shift from around 10am onwards or so, night/close shift.


Open: You either rotate the ends of the case (salads, frankfurts, bacon, olives, etc). Fill it up if it's empty, wipe down the salt of the frankfurts, etc.
Set up chicken - Chicken (raw chicken) has to be taken out every night. So what you have to do is put the chicken in the window, and place new stock at the front (which is called rotating stock; so old stuff gets sold first). A vital thing to setting up chicken is to check if it's off or not.
Slices & Shaves - You won't be working on this. I have only worked on slices & shaves after ~2 years of workign here. but basically filling it up, making it look nice and good.

Opens take around 1hour on average. (more for the slices & shaves though)

- Day shifts
basically keeping the level of stock full in the window, rotating stock, cleaning, maintaining safe working environment, customer service, etc.

- Close shifts:
You have a lot of things to do in these shifts.
Basically cleaning tubs, cleaning chicken warmer, cleaning slicers, cleaning oven, serving customers, pulling out chicken, topping up the case so that it loosk nice before you start on the cleaning the slicers, etc. Also have to clean the floor which is pretty fun may i say. =p


Misc things people do during the day are:
- Unpack chicken & deli load.
- Clean coolroom floors.
- Wash up the tubs you put the food in
- clean benches
- Clean the display case

and that's all i can think of atm.
If you have any quesitons, don't hestitate to ask. lol

now to go to sleep. I have 6am shift tomorrow T_T
Btw, may I ask which deli you're working at?

Hmm seems like alot of cleaning hehe.

Anyway thnx alot this is very informative so i can't really think of any questions for now =\

Also I'll be working at the basshill plaza deli.

 

[meow-says-kitty]

Some weeks you'll get no shifts. Go in one day and speak to the produce manager and let him/her know you're available if needed.

Yeah groceries would probably give you shifts if they have the hours, ask the grocery manager.

 

[yoddle]

Yoddle if you mean count a register then only a supervisor can do that, but bagging a register like just putting the money in bags anyone can do.

No he meant count and pack up. OK that clears that up, and confirms he doesn't really know anything about service. Thanks!
Yeah I was talking to my CSM today and she said i should have just got one of the kids to it. but i didn't really wanna leave them at the mercy of the duty manager. She also said that she's going to try and put me on sup. shifts when she is duty. yay.

 

[lordtopcat]

Would we get in trouble if we muted the radio station that they play all their music, ads etc on ? There are a few of us (SM included) that are fed up with their lack of good music and over repeating ads. We want to unplug theirs and plug in a CD player. I'm guessing that this isn't allowed, but just wanted to see anyway.

The good news is that I don't have a speaker in my cool room (produce) so I can't hear their crap anyway. I bought a small radio and just have that on all day. Another good thing is I can't hear pages

 

[bdude]

For a Coles person: What's the difference between duty manager and CSM?

Would we get in trouble if we muted the radio station that they play all their music, ads etc on ? There are a few of us (SM included) that are fed up with their lack of good music and over repeating ads. We want to unplug theirs and plug in a CD player. I'm guessing that this isn't allowed, but just wanted to see anyway.

At coles, I heard an Amy Winehouse song last night that had the f word in it and hoped any little children/old whiny people didn't hear it.

 

[babikakez]

For a Coles person: What's the difference between duty manager and CSM?

CSM = customer service manager. Basically runs checkouts.
Duty Manager = the highest ranking manager who is on the shift. In my store it goes Store Manager (obviously), then Store Trading Manager, Store Services Manager, Grocery Manager.

 

[babikakez]

Would we get in trouble if we muted the radio station that they play all their music, ads etc on ? There are a few of us (SM included) that are fed up with their lack of good music and over repeating ads. We want to unplug theirs and plug in a CD player. I'm guessing that this isn't allowed, but just wanted to see anyway.

The good news is that I don't have a speaker in my cool room (produce) so I can't hear their crap anyway. I bought a small radio and just have that on all day. Another good thing is I can't hear pages

Nope, probably won't be allowed. The ads are there to suck customers in, and most of the time the music has been specially selected to promote particular shopping habits.
Its just like you're not allowed to rechannel the plasmas in the staff room onto anything but WOWTV.

 

[jirwin]

Regarding the issue about packing up a register, I work at Coles and we pack up our registers if we are night shift. We count and bag it which involves counting the money and puting into the computer, then putting all the money in the bag and signing a form. Everyone does this - whether u're a supervisor or just started working there. On Sundays its a different process but everyone does that too.

 

[townie]

Would we get in trouble if we muted the radio station that they play all their music, ads etc on ? There are a few of us (SM included) that are fed up with their lack of good music and over repeating ads. We want to unplug theirs and plug in a CD player. I'm guessing that this isn't allowed, but just wanted to see anyway.

The good news is that I don't have a speaker in my cool room (produce) so I can't hear their crap anyway. I bought a small radio and just have that on all day. Another good thing is I can't hear pages

big trouble, as babikakez says the music is designed to induce shopping, and companies paid a lot of money for the ads.

also, the radio can be used to transmit messages where there is an urgent need (e.g. if there is a total EFTPOS breakdown then authorisation for manual EFT isnt required for amounts under $500), or to let stores know an upgrade is about to begin and not to use the computers etc.

 

[bdude]

You guys get plasmas in your staff rooms?