There I was at 4am and so was my supervisor. He had headphones in and he was stocking the load I took off the truck from the day before. I walked my department and made a mental note on things I needed to fix before the walk. I noticed that one of the aisle needed more attention and I had a left over task from the day before to complete. I started on the task I didn’t get a chance to finish first. I worked on that. At 7am my part time employee came in and my supervisor asked her to tell me to work on another project… he was with me since 4am and he didn’t talk to me about it. I could have worked on that project instead but I didn’t and to talk to my part time person instead of me? Okay, now I am really mad. I come to work to work. I don’t come to work to play petty immature games. I felt very angry that I was supposed to have off, and I came in really early to make sure that everything looked great so that he would look good. I won’t get credit for how the department looks, he will. If the department looks bad he can point a finger at me and saying it was my fault. Lucky for him the department was flawless, and the President shook my hand and I said only nice things about my job and my leaders because that was the right thing to do. Until tomorrow…

I started my day coming in early because I had plans with my son that required me to leave work in the middle of my shift. I wanted to make sure that I was able to get about eight hours in. I came in and started with my tasks. The store was preparing for the for an important walk with executives that would take place on Sunday 12/15/2019. On Saturdays I get totes of product brought in over night, and I have to sort the items and then put them away on the shelves. I started to sort the load (that’s what we call it) for my part time employees and I was going to work on some other tasks that are a little more time consuming. I normally help with the load but in this situation I wanted to make sure that my over stock was worked as well. My part time employee was scheduled two and a half hours after I started. Within that time frame I only got feedback from the manager on duty which was my store director when she came in at 7 am. She gave me a list that was pretty ambitious but I tried to prioritize what I thought I could get done with the work I already had. My part time employee got into work and she started working on the load. Throughout the day my supervisor was there. He wouldn’t look at me. He wouldn’t address me. He would call my part time employee and tell her what he wanted me to do. It was infuriating. I really can’t stand passive aggressive behavior. I got to the point where I addressed him. I asked him what he wanted me to do, and he put his head down and walked passed me and told me to ask someone else. I had to leave in the middle of my shift because I had a prior scheduled event for my son and I had approval from my store director to do so. I needed to be away for a hour. I rushed to the event and I rushed back. When I came back I noticed my supervisor leaving for the day. I walked into the store and I heard a page from the HR manager needed help in the backroom. I went back there and she was unloading a truck. She looked really flustered so I asked if I could help her. She accepted my help. Unloading the truck takes about 30-60 mins depending on the backroom conditions and how big the load is. It was ten pallets, and it took me about 60 mins. That brought me to the end of my shift, so I told my store director that I would come in early to work on more of my list and I left for the day.

Stay tuned… for Sunday’s update.

Ever since I was eighteen, I have worked in retail (I am 30 now). I started working at Best Buy and at the time I started in the Digital Imagery department. I sold digital cameras and camcorders. I worked with a group of three others in my department including my supervisor. It was an awesome group. My supervisor was awesome, laid back, and he loved to teach. I was so motivated to work. I’d pick up any shift I could because I had such a great time working. When I started there, I had to earn the right to wear my blue shirt. I wasn’t allowed to wear a blue polo until I went through the proper training. My supervisor was in charge of my training and the salaried managers would come around and quiz me on my knowledge. He went over all the stores policies, selling techniques at the time, and our protection plans. I had to be on my toes at all time. It was cool because I was challenged, and I was given an opportunity to show my knowledge on a daily basis. The rest of the team was always on the same page with the supervisor and when he wasn’t there they took over. I had no idea but that part time job developed into 10 years of working there. I really miss that company and the teams/leaders I have worked for. I would love to write more about my time there but what I want to talk about is my current job.

I currently work at a division of Kroger in Wisconsin. I started with this company almost three years ago. I decided to leave Best Buy because of money and the new location with Kroger was 5 mins from my house. I wanted to be able to be closer to home and be home with my family more. I was offered a salaried manager position paying me 10k more a year. Totally awesome right? Nah. The hours were long. I worked 3-4 days a week 12 pm-10 pm and one mid shift 9 am-7 pm. Basically NEVER seeing my kids (Stepdaughter 13 and Son 5). I had a lot of “me” time but I enjoy being a mom. After 2.5 years of working at multiple stores and constantly being stressed out I decided to step down. I chose a position that was all mornings shifts and flexible scheduling. I am going back to school to further my education and to better myself to provide for my family and maybe get out of retail. When I asked to step down, I was placed at a store close to my house and the schedule was in the morning so I can be at home every night with my children. I thought this was the BEST set up, and in theory it was but oh was I wrong.

I started this new position in September, and I walked into a department that was neglected for a LONG time. There is a talented part time employee, but she could only work a couple days a week and she can’t keep up with the needs of the department alone. I was extremely overwhelmed. I should say I am STILL overwhelmed. Every day since September 1st I have multiple leaders telling me to focus on different parts of the department. I spend most my day working on one project and then get scolded for not working on another. I get lists of tasks that take WAY more than 8 hours. I work over my scheduled time almost every day. We are allowed two breaks and I only take one. It’s really getting exhausting. I am asked to work in multiple departments when I have so many tasks to complete. Depending on what salaried manager is scheduled for the day decides the store’s mood.

At my location I have a direct supervisor/department manager, two assistant store directors, and a store director. I will not name them but describe them.

My department manager is a driven person that demonstrates all the potential of being something truly great, but he has a temper and is extremely passive aggressive. He says that he is very direct which is true about his feelings towards me, but he’s not direct in what tasks he wants me to do. He expresses his disappointment in my work ethic daily. I have to take my breaks around his schedule. If I know he is coming in at 2, I make sure that my break is done before then because if it’s not the perception is that I’ve been sitting around doing nothing all day. There is such a lack of respect when he talks to me. He thinks he’s funny. I am a person that talks- it’s probably my fault. I am a very social person. I feed off of the energy of others, so I know that at times comments are needed to keep my focus. There is an effective way to tell someone to keep focused then calling me a ” Chihuahua” which I am not sure what that means… If someone knows please comment and tell me. I am a short woman that talks a lot. The only thing I can get from that comment is that I yap. Okay, whatever. At times I laugh because he has a new comment every day. This week alone he has called me a different name referring to the person who had my position before me. He said that I’m too busy holding another employees hand because we were working on a task together. I find that some comments that he makes are immature and I am able to blow them off in the moment but that doesn’t mean I don’t come home and write about it. ha.

My two assistant managers handle different parts of the store. There is one that oversees the operational side of the business and one that overseas Human Resources. They are also in charge when the store director isn’t in the building and they are equal as far as rank. My operations manager is a clean-cut man who only sees life in black and white. He always complains about how much work he has to do and is never in an approachable mood. When he is in a mood, he makes us all feel it. I wish I record someone of the things he says. One day after I had worked 12 hours and an overnight to make sure that I was ready for the upcoming holiday he said “I do EVERYTHING around here. If I am not in the building nothing gets done”. This comment might not have been directed to me personally, but do you know how bad that stings? After putting in extra hours and missing out on my son’s cub scout outing that I have been looking forward to for weeks. It wasn’t only me in earshot. We have store huddles every day at 9:30 am and in these huddles’ managers are supposed to communicate what is going on in the company and talk sales. My operations manager like to motivate us by telling us what we all did wrong. I never leave a department huddle upbeat and positive. Actually, if I want be completely transparent I stand at these huddles and zone out for 10-15 mins and I count it as my break because his huddles take so long and it’s so counterproductive. He complains about not having enough time to complete his own tasks because he is too busy single handily fixing our store. We have a freezer issue and we have very little room. Our Bakery manager was making space for her product in the freezer. She did make a comment that she was told that she couldn’t have the space she wanted because something else was going to go there but it made sense to her to have her product there, so she kept it there. The next day my operations manager said that he was so pissed that he was going to make it impossible for her to go into her daily production freezer. He was going to put boxes in her way and make it impossible for her to get anything done because that is what she did to him. He said he didn’t care that he was going to it. Then at our morning huddle he complained about the freezer and said that he was going to make it hard for Bakery if they don’t clean up their mess… but I thought you didn’t have time for your daily tasks, but you have to be petty and make it harder for a department? Why can’t we be adults and handle this respectfully. Both parties are at fault but let’s talk about it and work out a better arrangement. Also, this week the operation manager got into a yelling match with a truck driver. I was not there that day, so I don’t know exactly what happened, but the witnesses said that he was in the truck drivers face because a pallet was tipped over in the truck. Again, a frustrating situation but there is a way to talk to someone. According to the witness she said that the operation manager was yelling at the driver and was being disrespectful. The driver ended up threatening the manager and it escalated more. When my manager told me the story, he was bragging about it, making it okay to be disrespectful to another employee. I honestly can go on FOREVER about this manager and his temper, but I don’t have enough internet.

The other assistant manager is in charge of HR in the store. Her position at our home office was eliminated due to a restructure and she was placed back into the store. She was a recruiter for the company. I honestly don’t have much to say about her. She is trying to learn the store’s operations and her own role so it’s not fair of me to assess her. I do get annoyed with the lack of communication between all the managers but she’s not always at fault for that. She has a lot on her plate and although she can be condescending at times, I don’t believe she is doing that’s on purpose. She just has a lot of knowledge and sometimes it comes out as if she is a know it all. Overall, I think she cares, and she is not confrontational. I think she wants to make a difference but with the team she is on, it’s making it really hard for her to stay positive. She never said that to me but when she worked at the home office, she seemed so much happier.

Now on to my store director. I honestly believe that you are only as good as your leadership. That a great leader leads by example. My store director does not do that. She shows up to work late, purchases breakfast, quickly walks the store, and heads into her office. Very rarely she says hello. Normally the first words out of her mouth is “Well that didn’t get done” or something very defeating. We are given tasks every day from our store director from her walk through with the different departments. Mine is the first of the day. She always has some snarky comment insisting I work longer each day. My favorite thing she says “I can give you over time” which is nice that it’s offered considering all the work but when I do stay I have my department manager who makes comments about how slow I’m working, an assistant manager who takes out all his aggression out on the employees, and a store director that doesn’t help us but points and complains about what needs to get done. I would rather go home. That is why I stepped down in the first place.

I am not sure where I am going with my thoughts. I just feel like I am not the only one that encounters some interesting leadership. I would like to stay positive and hopes that my days start to get easier but until something changes, I will continue to go to work, be angry all day, and I am going to take it home to my family.