DoSE

Safeway Service and Safety Class, part 1

2011-06-09T18:48:00.000-07:00

Today is the long-awaited (due to being postponed a couple weeks!) orientation training for Safeway. Or, as they like to call it, the "Service and Safety Class". The district manager was unfortunately indisposed for the class (being away on 'corporate business'), so the district store manager is hosting the course in their stead, and (in her own words!) "winging it!" As you can probably tell from her choice of words, the district store manager is very laid-back for a manager, and is admittedly the least conservative Safeway store manager in the whole district. So overall, the class has been very easygoing, and smooth-sailing.

The first 20 minutes or so were dedicated to going through the "secret shopper" checklist, a 10 point system for evaluation of Safeway employee's quality of service. I asked the manager if I could have a copy of the checklist (for reference purposes), but she denied my request (for confidentiality reasons), and jokingly accused me of being a spy! I wonder if my work here at DoSE qualifies me as such? ;-)

The 10 point checklist is based upon the 10 key attributes of Safeway "World Class Customer Service"'; these "top secret" attributes are the following:

1. General Shopping Experience (appearance, cleanliness, aesthetics).
2. Professional Interactions / Image
3. Verbally Greet in a Friendly Manner (smile!)
4. Anticipate a Need Voluntarily
5. Offer to Escort / Take Item
6. Friendly Parting Comment:
a. Thank customer by name
b. Tell them to have a great day

7. Special Request Handled / Problem Presented and Resolved
8. Checkout Success
9. Order Packed With Care
10. Social Selling (in-store sales).

The Safeway Service class (the first half of orientation) covered each of these categories in detail, enphasizing the importance of "World Class Customer Service". In fact, the first question the manager asked at the beginning of the class was "What is the one thing that Safeway is known for that gives us an edge over the competition?" She was very approving that not only was I quick to answer, but I gave exactly the right answer to the question, answering correctly and in full.

After the manager covered each of the customer services areas (the ones on the checklist) in-depth, we watched a bunch of short videos-- they covered the same exact material I had watched as part of the computer training a few weeks ago, so-- nothing worthy of note.

The single most interesting point that she made in the class, was in regards to the empowerment of Safeway Employees as representatives of World Class Customer Service:

"You are empowered to use up to $500 (assets) to satisfy a customer"

Now if that's not dedication to world class customer service, I don't know what is!

Doing Closing

2011-06-07T21:55:00.000-07:00

3rd week at Safeway now, and I'm doing closing :-) Most people hate closing, because it means a lot of extra work and stress, and you're responsible for the completion of a lot more tasks. If someone else screws up, it just means more work for the people who do closing-- if the people closing screw up-- they get in trouble with management, who will see all your mistakes and things you neglected to do, when they do morning inspections. So basically, if you don't do closing perfectly, your boss(es) will definitely know, and you'll get called into the office if you slack off too much.

But for me, who is a perfectionist to begin with, I see this as an opportunity to demonstrate my strong work-ethic, and to get more much-needed experience doing go-backs. Perhaps after a couple of weeks doing closing, I will have nearly the entire store down-- that would be good.

The biggest problem I had with doing closing today (other than the go-backs-- which sadly I am still having way too much trouble with, although I'm fast improving!) was with sweeps, which I had to do twice as fast (the whole store in 15 minutes) in order to have time for all the other closing duties stacked onto the regular stuff. I had to work really fast, and tried my best (but somewhat failing) not to cut corners to get everything done. All the other courtesy clerks cut corners, but not me. I need to stay ahead of the pack if I want to be successful here.

Closing duties consist of turning off the power to the secondary entrance (to optimize traffic) at 9pm, taking out all the trash and recycle, both in and out of the store, replace all the garbage bags, refill all the plastic bags for the checkstands, pick up all the trash around the checkstands, wipe down the barcode scanners and food belts with windex, put away all the carts, and....of course go-backs. There are also other closing duties that need to be done from time to time, but these are the ones you do every day (if you're closing).

First day of closing, I did everything right, except I didn't know I was supposed to refill the checker's bags, and I still had a lot of go-backs leftover when I had to check out. I'll do better with closing tomorrow, hopefully.

Going To Make A Map!

2011-06-04T21:53:00.000-07:00

It's the last day of work this week, and I've got the whole system down-- well, almost the whole system-- the hardest part of the job is still go-backs, naturally. And helping customers is just as hard for the same reason: I still don't know where so many things are! To make matters worse, most of the customers here are fairly intelligent and knowledgeable of Safeway stores, so they almost always ask about the stuff that can't be answered by common sense or even a basic knowledge of the store-- the stuff that really is hard to find, like tofu, wheat germ, and mint leaves.

From the very beginning, I had been planning on creating a blueprint of the entire store, so that I could memorize everything about the store in a week or two, and be done with it. Yesterday I spent hours painstakingly surveying the entire store, literally down the the millimeter (scaled to the millimeter, mind you!) I used my footsteps to measure the store (an ancient, but very effective measurement scheme known as "paces"), and scaled each footstep down to a millimeter using a ruler. I then charted out a map of the main store area using North, South, East, West, NE, NW, SE, and SW measurements. I didn't have a geometry compass, so I manually traced right-angles to compensate. It's a very accurate map, and all things considered, a damn good one!

The whole map, when it's done, will be color and number-coded, the isles labels (i.e. isle 1A and 1B), and have a Legend at the bottom to interpret the whole thing. It's going to be a massive project, and will include the parking lot, the back areas (break room, various freezers/storage/loading areas, etc.), and will tell me absolutely everything there is to know about the store, down to the exact shelf location of every size of every brand of every type of food, product, etc.

The map will also tell me the locations of everything in the produce department, coded by PLU#; this will help me to learn the PLUs for every produce item, which I will need to know to become a food clerk or manager.

I'm completely in the rhythm of things now, and everyone, from management to my peers, really likes me. Hopefully I can maintain the full support and favor of everyone here, so I can quickly move up in the company-- I'm really looking forward to that!

Now that I've completed a draft of the map of Safeway, I'm going to (once I get a scanner, or ask my dad to use his!) scan it to jpg., and once I complete the whole thing, bundle the whole set of images as a pdf for you for your viewing pleasure here.

Almost Payday!

2011-06-01T04:10:00.000-07:00

Today's the last day of work until Saturday, but more importantly, it's the last of work until I get my first paycheck in 3 years! I get paid tomorrow (Thursday), and I'm very much looking forward to it!!!

Honestly, although my duties and the incessant traffic at Safeway keep me occupied, I spend every spare moment anticipating tomorrow morning, when I can finally collect that check. It's been a surprisingly fast couple of weeks, and it feels like I could have done so much more, but nevertheless I am overall very satisfied with the job I've done thus far.

I've gotten the whole work schedule down now, memorized just about everyone's names, and can bag, push carts, and clean the whole store (well, the parts of the store I'm permitted to) with ease. Particularly with cleaning-- a little while ago I had some difficulty sweeping the whole store in an hour-- now I can do so in 15 minutes if necessary, or in 30 minutes with ease.

I can also now handle transitions between different tasks with grace and composure, with even the most sporadic of transitions being done smoothly.

The past week has been thoroughly productive ;-)

Time Flies

2011-05-31T03:44:00.000-07:00

The days are passing by very quickly now, and it seems like everyone around me knows me by name. It feels good to be so needed by people. I've also been working hard to make sure I know as many of my coworkers by name as possible, and within the next few weeks, I will make it a goal to know all of them.

Everyone's been very supportive in helping me to do my job well, and seem to genuinely care about my well-being. I'm proud to work for a Safeway team that's so socially integrated and positive. The people here really know what teamwork really is; I've never been good at teamwork in the past, but if there's one place that I'll be sure to excel at teamwork, it's Safeway.

I met the other Assistant Manager today, and he's a pretty nice guy too; he's also motivated, organized, and knowledgeable to boot. I'm proud to have the opportunity to work with him.

The days are passing by like nothing, now that I've gotten completely into the rhythm of things. I can honestly say that since I've started working at Safeway, I've loved every minute of it!

The Confident

2011-05-30T02:55:00.000-07:00

I can now smile genuinely, and am confident and graceful in the performance of my duties. There are occasional mishaps, such as when pushing the carts down inclines (or worse, over speedbumps!), or when a customer wants groceries bagged in their own over-sized or lopsided reusable bags...but I'll get used to it all very soon.

My biggest struggle at this point is (you guessed it!) not knowing where the go-backs go, and by unfortunate extension, being able to help customers to find things with the grace they deserve, as part of Safeway's World Class Customer Service™ experience. I know it's only my second week here, so I can't expect to be perfect, but I hope to be as close to as perfect as humanly possible. I'm grateful for this job, and want to make the most of it, and show everyone I work with how much that I deserve it.

I met my store manager today, and she's a very nice person, just as I heard from my friend who used to work with her. I hope I can do whatever I can to please her-- she is after all my ticket to promotion.

Getting Into the Rhythm of Things.

2011-05-28T02:16:00.000-07:00

Things are really starting to settle in now-- I've got the basic job functions down now, and I can start applying all the things I learned yesterday-- especially all the mistakes I made-- to make today even more productive and smooth-sailing. I've already received several compliments from coworkers of all levels, on the quality of my work, which I feel is a good sign-- after all, the more people @ Safeway like me, the more I'll be able to get the support I need to get promoted, and I want to get promoted as soon as possible.

The main thing I needed to work on (other than those damn go-backs!!!) today is BOB (Bottom of Basket), which is still quite easy to forget-- I'll need to instill a habit for it; especially when transitioning between break/lunch and work, I tend to forget about the finer details like that.

That's why I hate taking breaks: they kill my rhythm, make me forget stuff, and throw off my professional equilibrium. I sometimes wish I could skip breaks altogether.

But all in all, it's been a really good day :-)

First Day of (Actual!) Work

2011-05-27T00:08:00.000-07:00

Today was my first day of actual work (as supposed to the computer training, which was pretty boring and consisted mostly of watching long politically-correct presentations about World Class customer service, safety, yadayadayada. Finally, I can actually do my job; I'm both excited and anxious, as I am basically being thrown to the sharks, and expected to learn to swim, survive, and help other people do the same.

As I'm working a store where I know almost nothing about where everything is, I have either two options when a customer asks where to find "X" item: wander aimlessly and hope against hope I will find the item they're looking for in less than a minute, or pray that there is another courtesy clerk / department manager in the area that can help them find it.

Often, unfortunately, I have been unlucky enough to not be able to do either, and I am left to regretfully tell the customer I wish I could help them, but that I'm new at this store, and have no idea where anything is. It's quite embarrassing, and gives me all the more incentive to learn where everything is in this store ASAP, and by any means store policy will allow.

As such, I have formulated a plan to develop a map of where everything (and I mean everything!) in the store is, and goes-- a blueprint of sorts.

My plans for the blueprint go like this:

1. Number code by isle (1A[#1], 1B[#1])
2. Produce locations coded by PLU# (also known as PAUL: "Produce Accuracy Using Label")
3. Include Legend that accounts for every food, product, and item, at the bottom.
4.Add all vital information regarding the back areas, parking lot, offices, etc.
5. Study, Study, Study!
6. Submit map idea to management.

Other than my difficulties with go-backs (putting items back where they belong) and customer assistance looking for items, today was pretty perfect overall. I did make some mistakes-- mostly in regards to properly logging sweep hours:

I had logged sweeps only once for my sweep hour, but apparently you're supposed to log it twice-- once for each half-hour. As it turns out, this is mostly for auditing purposes-- by making sure that everyone logs their sweeps twice per hour, it can help guarantee no hours are missed-- which is what the auditing team checks for.

Update: The information I was given regarding sweep audits is not only wrong, but it's a breach of Safeway contract and sweep policy. This information was given to me by the 2nd Assistant Manager and fellow courtesy clerks, who believe that doing it that way is more efficient, but the store manager, district manager, and health and safety specialists disagree, and for good reason! I'll explain these reasons in a later post, so stay tuned!

I was actually pretty nervous my first day, and although I smiled a great deal, it was a very nervous, strained smile. While bagging the groceries I messed up a little bit, but nevertheless, the day has passed by very smoothly, and amazingly quickly.

My fellow courtesy clerks are fairly supportive of me, but it's the food clerks (colloquially, they're called "Checkers") that are helping me out the most, particularly with finding things, and backing groceries.

They are also incessantly reminding me of important things like "BOB" (Bottom Of Basket), which refers to items that customers (either accidentally or intentionally) put on the bottom of the cart; there is a high possibility that these items might pass through unpurchased ("free"), if both the Checker and I don't work together to make sure that the items on the bottom of the cart of properly accounted for.

As was first introduced in the Tuesday computer training videos, SHRINK, the codename for inventory which leaves the store unpurchased, refers to items that were purchased in bulk by Safeway for sale, but were never sold due to spoilage, breakage, theft, etc. SHRINK takes away considerably from company profits, and is considered one of Safeway's biggest damage control/liability concerns.

Working at Safeway is pretty easy to get used to if you pay attention-- for the most part, everything's pretty automated, and time flows extraordinarily fast. The whole day of work today felt like 15 minutes (no hyperbole!), in fact. The two most difficult things to do (other than go-backs, of course!) were to remember to go on break and lunch. Remember go-backs is going to be a real b*tch though-- that's going to be an ongoing process for sure ;-(

I'm starting to get into the rhythm of things now-- a few more days and I'll have nearly my entire job mastered. Towards the end of the day, I'm no longer feeling nervous, and I can now socialize with customers with ease while still performing my job with a professional grace. Safeway is looking to be a very fulfilling and relatively relaxing job. I think I will love my job more and more as my days here go on ;-)

Computer Training Day

2011-05-24T13:51:00.000-07:00

Today I spent 7 hours watching computer job training presentations, and answering a lot of review questions and quizzes designed to prove that I understood and remembered the material thereof.

*Note: I later found out I only got paid for 5 of those hours, so if you think you'll get paid for all the time you spend doing training, think again: the hours are 5 hours static, and that time frame itself only includes the videos, not the time it takes to answer questions)

I got most of the questions right the first time, but occasionally a question came up that was confusing or badly worded, or a picture showed up that was too ambiguous to interpret what it meant. There were also a couple of questions that had typos, thus aggravating the confusion. But I got through the whole thing relatively efficiently.

Most of the questions addressed concerns and important work-related info, such as Safeway procedures, policies, and rules.

Topics covered included sexual harassment (i.e. brushing against someone, or even making sexual comments/innuendo on your Facebook (overkill right?!) is considered to be sexual harassment, and thus grounds for termination); same thing with picture messages, talking about one's sex/love life, etc.

They also talked about more obvious stuff, like no weapons in stores, and no romantic relationships with another employee in the same store (because of the direct/indirect reporting (chain of command) relationship issue), and about the handling of waste (no bleach in the sanitary drains, and batteries have very specific procedures for recycling).

The theft policies were particularly intriguing: Giving out "personal discounts" to anyone, including friends, family, and other employees or customers, is considered "theft" and will be grounds for termination (yeah, they use that phrase a lot!) Misappropriation (misusing/abusing store equipment) is very similar to theft; the example given was using a store steam cleaner to clean one's own house (lol!) Then there's abuse of checks, the employee club card, yadayadayada...

The first half of the computer training was pretty much just a slideshow/video presentation of the new employee handbook, covering the chain of command/reporting system, cleaning methods and policies, and a bunch of rules.

Yeah....Safeway has a lot of rules, policies, and procedures that need to be followed "to the drop of a quarter." It's a pretty strict and controlled environment, but I have to admit I like it better that way. It's easier not to fuck up if all the ways of fucking up are clearly laid out cleanly and explicitly for you, and it's easier to be successful and advance within the company if you know exactly what's expected of you, what will make you shine. Basically, they provide all the information you need to be the perfect Safeway employee.

They even provide a 10-course retail management college program in which they fully reimburse you for your classes, and upon receiving your certificate, you also will receive a $200 bonus-- that's a whole week's worth of pay! Of course, getting certified in retail management also dramatically increases your chances of getting promoted to a management position, and so I'm going to definitely take this course to ensure I get promoted ASAP.

As I implied above, I'm the type of person who thrives in a controlled environment, where everything is clearly laid out; if a job or activity or even a hobby has a lot of structure and rules, I can be at my best, because my time is managed efficiently, and the rules provide the necessary direction and filtering through which I can channel my energy effectively.

All in all, it took 7 hours to get through the training, including 5 hours of watching video presentations, ~an hour to answer questions, and an hour for break and lunch. I had to re-answer a few questions (half due to badly worded questions, half due to a faulty memory-- I was a bit tired that day!) but once I got through it all, I had learned pretty much everything I needed to know to do my job properly-- and then some!

After successfully completing all the training, and reading over some supplementary PDF documents, I signed and turned in the "Web Training" packet-- a "don't-say-we-didn't-warn (train)-you"-type compilation of contracts to work at Safeway; I signed that I know what sexual harassment, stealing, and misappropriation are, that I'm familiar with my job duties, that I know my rights and what programs are available to me, yadayadayada. I gave it all a quick read just-in-case, but there was really nothing new. Signed it all, received my employee ID and other important information.

I also found out that the Thursday Training day in Mountain view Safeway had been postponed, so my first day of "real" work wouldn't be until the day after-- Friday.

The Situation: (schedule-wise!)

2011-05-19T13:41:00.000-07:00

I went to find out my schedule for next week today; here's what I found out:

* Schedules are not finalized until after 4pm (I found this out from the 2nd Assistant Manager on duty).

* When I came back after 4, I found out the schedules were finalized but wouldn't be posted for another hour (at 5).

* I talked to the Assistant Manager (1st), to get my schedule, and was called into the admin office to discuss the details. He gave me my schedule on a post-it note, and told me about how the courtesy clerk schedule worked:

* The schedule for Safeway courtesy clerks is divided into sweeping (cleaning), carts, and "default" (regular duties such as bagging groceries, helping customers, assisting with getting groceries into the car, and "go-backs" (putting a stray item back where it belongs), represented on the schedule as "S", "C", and "D", respectively. My hours are broken down as these letters dictate.

* There is also an "L" for lunch, but at the Safeway I work at, I'm supposed to ignore that and find out my lunch based on the time given at the beginning of the schedule posted.

Now that I've got that out of the way, I have a few days of until Tuesday, where I do Computer training, and begin my official first day of work (the first day I get paid for).

Filling Out Paperwork

2011-05-18T13:07:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, the 18th of May is Paperwork Day! Of course, there's nothing particularly exciting about paperwork, just so you know here's what I did:

* I filled out W2's, contracts, legal forms, and various Safeway union, charity, and affiliate program forms.

* I received info on the upcoming dates, including the Computer training session on the 24th, and orientation / hands-on training at the district Safeway, on the 26th.

* I was instructed to find out from my Safeway Store (the store I did my interview and paperwork at was not the same as the store I was assigned to) what my hours were for next week.

* I confirmed that I was given all the necessary materials and information, and was given the Safeway rules / new employee packet, which is basically a Safeway S.O.P. (Standard Operating Procedure) for all employees.

* Later than day, I found out from my friend (who used to work at this particular Safeway) some of the people I'd be working with, including the name of the store manager and assistant manager.

You're Hired!

2011-05-17T20:37:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I received a phone call from a Safeway HR Coordinator, asking me to call to schedule an interview if I'm still interested in getting a job at Safeway. As I received the voice mail after 5pm (which was after the hours she asked to call back between), I called her back the next morning, and scheduled an interview in the afternoon. I'm nervous, but tell myself that I will definitely get the job, and prepare to show great enthusiasm and dedication to working at Safeway. I would love to work at Safeway, but even if I didn't, I needed to get a job somewhere no matter what, or I would never be able to move on with my life. This job at Safeway was an absolute necessity!

Details regarding the interview:

* I dressed in slacks, a white shirt, tie, and dress coat.

* The interview consisted mostly of me answering questions about customer service and conflict resolution; I answered the questions with thorough and comprehensive but carefully-worded responses.

* The most important question they asked was "If your previous employers used three words to describe you, what would they be?"

My response: "dedicated, punctual, and a quick learner"

* To ensure I got the job, I emphasized my flexibility of hours, enthusiasm for working at Safeway, and how I would do anything to get the job, and to demonstrate that I deserved it.

* I listed my Job Corps work experience as a vocational internship.

I got hired, Yay!

They hired me on-the-spot, and administered a drug test right there and then. I had problems salivating enough for the test-sponge, because my mouth was too dry, but eventually I passed.

I was told to report back tomorrow to fill out paperwork, legal forms, and W2s. Finally, for the first time in 3 years, I have a real job. This is going to be exciting! ;-)

I found out my store information, which I will not list here to prevent premature breakage of the 4th wall, as well as the name of the department managers and store manager (which I will also not list for the same reason :p

Now begins my journey working at Safeway-- wish me luck!