Every 6 months or so, the assistant managers change job positions in the store. For the past 2 months we've known that assistant manager, Vahid, who does our schedules is going to be coming over nights and be the assistant over the night stockers. Personally, I have been dreading it! I don't think his personality will allow him to stay away from the front end "my turf" and only focus on his new job....
I also didn't know until a couple weeks ago, who was going to take his place on the front end doing our schedules. I found out it's TJ (Tawna Jo)....she came to our store from another and has been with the company for 6 years. After she found out that she was going to the be front end assist mgr she put in for a transfer to another store (YAY) because she has already been on the front end at her old store for a year! She's ready to do something else.
TJ is very "by the book", which doesn't bode well for me, since my schedule is completely opposite of being "by the book". Our Corporate offices (home office), about 5 months ago, started what we call the scorecard. Home office generates a report that says what our sales are every 1/2 hour and how many cashiers, people greeters, customer service, CSS/CSM (my position), etc we should have scheduled to accomodate the need. The front end Asst. mgr has to schedule based on what home office gives as options and then stay with in 2% of a 98% perfect schedule in order to avoid being "coached" for not following instructions.
(Does that make sense? Doesn't really matter, since this is really more of a journal entry for me)
Vahid, after a few rocky weeks in the beginning, has been GREAT to work with...he has basically kept me with in the time frame I am available and will schedule me as much or as little as I want. Currently, I work Thurs 9pm-2am, and Fri and Sat 9pm-230am. 16 hrs/week. 2 weeks ago I asked Vahid to schedule me 1 extra night each upcoming week (wed 9pm-2am) so I could make a little extra money...he schedule me as far out as he could (3 weeks), but said I'd have to talk to TJ about any more than that, because he won't be doing the schedule after that....sigh.
I spoke with TJ...explained that I wanted to come in tonight (wednesday) to work from 9pm-2am. She said she doesn't have any extra time available on the score card to hand out for the front end, but I could come in and help CLEAN the back room! Seriously? Clean the back room? Are you kidding me? I am a front end manager....i have a bad back...that's why I stay on the front end! Uh, no thank you! I declined, but asked to talk to Co-manager Mat...he is just below the store manager.
I talked to him about something different first, but then he brought up that I wanted more hours this week (thanks TJ for tellin him!). I explained my side, told him what TJ had said. He said, TJ was right, but I could come in and help stock in HBA, Back to school, Pharmacy,Softlines, etc.. I explained about my back again....he came back saying that if I do softlines (womens apparel) the boxes don't weigh more than 5 lbs and that wouldn't be too much, would it? Sigh...I caved. I am going in to work...to unload socks all night! :-( The only positive is that I get some more hours which equals more money.
I am meeting my c0-worker, Alma, before work to discuss what we are going to say at our meeting with TJ tonight...Alma has found a new job and is dropping down to Part-time evening CSS (currently she is full-time overnight CSS)...TJ is not happy about the change and wanted to talk to me and Alma about our schedules. Oh, and Heather, who they
just promoted to be full-time overnight CSS quit yesterday!!! When Alma leaves after this week...and if TJ doesn't give me the schedule I want, they will have NO ONE (as far as I know) to run the front end at night!!! and that is a HUGE deal!
Since I started working at this store almost a year ago, we have always had 2 CSS's at night--until just 3 weeks ago, when they fired one of them. Since then, it's only been Alma and me running things ourselves...and with the help of only 3 cashiers!
Ahhh.....frustrations!
One of my big frustrations as well, is, I was promoted from Cashier to CSS after only 3 weeks on the job. I would love to move up in the company, but all the positions above CSS are Full-time! There is NO way for a "part-time" person to go anywhere in that company! I've talked to the store manager about it, but he says there is nothing he can do...it's all controlled by home office. Seems like they control a little too much now a days!!!
So, I have been applying at other companies, and have been talking to the front end manager at the Saratoga store (which is 5 min from my house) to see if I can work there...the stipulation is, they follow the score card too, so in order to keep the hours I want, I would have to drop back down to a cashier! That means losing $0.90/hr.... But, I won't have to drive so much, so that might make the difference. I really just can't imagine going back to only being a cashier!
I've decided that I am going to see what the new schedule looks like that will be posted on Friday and see just how different my schedule will be before determining what I'll do as far as my job is concerned! In September, there could be a big change in store for me! All I can do for now, is wait and see!
