Archived Curious about GSA schedules?

[SeeSpotVibe]

At my store, we only ever have two GSA/GSTL's scheduled per day to open and close (which I assume is the norm), so I'm just curious where your GSA's get scheduled when they aren't GSA that day? Is it strictly guest services, cashier, photo, or a mixture of those?

 

[IHeartCarts]

cashier, softlines, instocks, food ave, carts

pretty much everywhere

 

[mrknownothing]

Our GSTLs each get 4 GSTL/GSA shifts (including one close and one weekend day) and a service desk shift. The GSAs have more variety, as most of them do cash office. If they get a mid shift, it's generally cashier or service desk rather than GSTL/GSA. We only have an actual mid shift for GSTL/GSA during the holidays when it's insane and we need true double coverage.

 

[monkeyman90]

the only people in mytime who can have a set schedule are defined positions.

gsa's aren't one of them and every store really treats them different. some are cash office, some use them as defacto gstls.

 

[InvisibleGirl]

One of our GSAs will often work cash office and cover GSTL breaks. The other will get scheduled for cashier, but she is never on register -- she'll act as a second GSTL whenever she's there.

 

[Jill of All Trades]

Our ETLs put a huge grid into a chicken coop. The chickens are each named after GSAs. wherever "your" chicken shits on the grid is when you work a GSA shift. I know this for a fact. For some reason my chicken likes to take a dump on weekend closing shifts.

 

[StaticSun]

Hi,

Unfortunately this one of those things that varies store to store, leader to leader.

 

[SeeSpotVibe]

cashier, softlines, instocks, food ave, carts

pretty much everywhere

That's interesting. Our GSA's never get to leave the front end. If they aren't GSA, they're thrown somewhere else up front. I'm the only one trained for the floor, but I just took it upon myself to learn it. I never get scheduled there.

 

[Nauzhror]

One of our GSA's gets the occasional softlines shift, but not with any regularity, more just, she's trained so when someone goes on vacation or such she can fill in.

 

[flowmaster]

In my store, we maintain 4 GSAs and 2 GSTLs. Each GSTL is given 2 GSAs which will rotate schedules with them.

EX:
Our GSTLs work one weekend, have one weekend off. Every other weekend, they have to open or close. The GSAs follow the same schedule, but counteract the GSTLs. So if it is one of the GSTLs opening weekends, it is their assigned GSA's closing weekend. Visa versa with the other GSTL.

I usually am at the SD, FR, SF, Flow, Market, or BR if I don't have any GSA shifts. Usually HR will pull you to different areas as needed, if it doesn't conflict with your primary area.

I know in a few weeks...with the holidays coming up. Everyone will only be scheduled in their primary area. Atleast that's what my store is doing.

 

[eleuthreophile]

We have one sr GSTL who usually works 2-3 LOD shifts and 2-3 GSTL shifts, and then we have 4 GSAs. They all get like one GS shift a week, two of them have been working in SL a bit, and the last one only works two days a week now so all her shifts are GSA. Most of them work 30+ hours a week. They all rotate weekends though.

 

[King of Cards]

Im at a high volume store we have 2 GSTL's & 2 GSA's we all have one SD shift a week and then either open, mid, close with the exception of our off day during the week and rotating weekends. But this varies from store to store

 

[SeeSpotVibe]

It's really interesting to see how differently stores operate! At our store, we have two GSTL's who are almost always scheduled as such, and three GSA's who have one set GSA day a week, and rotating weekends. Friday's alternate between all of them, closing or opening. The ones not being GSA/GSTL are usually placed in photo (which is basically backup GSA), guest service, or cashier. Only two of the GSA's ever have to cashier though, and those two are also the only ones cash office trained. But that's a different story entirely.

 

[monkeyman90]

cashier, softlines, instocks, food ave, carts

pretty much everywhere

That's interesting. Our GSA's never get to leave the front end. If they aren't GSA, they're thrown somewhere else up front. I'm the only one trained for the floor, but I just took it upon myself to learn it. I never get scheduled there.

they're considered leaders, and can be put in any position that can be learned without official training. basically you can gsa, you can fill in anywhere. some stores treat them like gstls, some treat them like a sr salesfloor.

 

[paidtosmile]

They used me as a defacto GSTL, so I had rotating weekends and a set workweek (all GSA/GSTL shifts.) Our other GSA's were basically always scheduled as GSA/GSTL or Service Desk. STL wanted a consistent front end experience for our guests, so there were always 1 or 2 of us seasoned associates up front along with the GSA/TL.

Occasionally I had closing TLOD shifts and a newer GSA would run the checklanes.

 

[Retail Girl]

My store does the same thing Jill's does...they name chickens after us and where they poop, we get our GSA hours...and the rest are filled in with other areas we are trained in. A set schedule has been promised for months and is already a funny joke to all of us.

 

[KhakiPants]

We often schedule GSAs (and even GSTLs) for a "cashier" shift for payroll purposes (more hours in that pot) but they really just do supervisor duties the whole time. GSAs get one shift a week behind the service desk and we are trying to bring them back into the cash office, since that was a best practice we had been ignoring.

 

[PinkZinnia]

Officially gsa as of this week. What's wrong with me, why did I say yes - they must have caught me at a vulnerable moment. First full night - (from gstl) - OK I am going now, you will have to talk to tl to see if they will cover your meal - and breaks, but don't count on them coming up for your breaks. Bye have a good night.
And immediately after she left, all hell broke loose. Registers were freezing, lines were forming, No meal coverage for guest services, and a new cart attendant.. I never wanted to leave so badly in my life. I made it though the night! OH and it was etl/LOD first night closing too. I had to show him how to do things.

We have (or we should have - if they can find qualified applicants) 3 GSTL's and 3 GSA's all scheduled for the front end for all shifts.
I don't mean we have all 6 on at one time.. I mean none of them are ever scheduled in other departments.

 

[StaticSun]

Organized chaos.

Keep a clipboard with the break schedule, daily schedule grid, and a piece of paper to write down notes with.

Place inexperienced cashiers inbetween veteran cashiers.

Tell your guest service TM to zone one spot during quiet times.

Tell your cart attendant to huff some chemicals from the closet if he's tired.

 

[Retail Girl]

Oh, and I forgot to add, if the chicken gets at all predictable in its marking habits, so I start to see patterns, it is immediately killed and replaced with another chicken that will be more random with my schedule again.

 

[SeeSpotVibe]

Our GSA/GSTL schedule is set for the most part. The GSTLs are always that, and the GSAs have one GSA shift and the rest are photo, cash office, or guest service. The only thing that isn't consistent is fridays because we all alternate. We originally had one GSTL and two GSA's on one weekend and one GSTL and one GSA on the other. The weekend that had the extra GSA made one GSA a mid cashier on Saturday and the other a mid cashier on Sunday. We were told that the reason for the mid shift is so the GSA on register could help whoever was running the lanes and cover their breaks, but on a busy Saturday, there's no way in hell that GSA is going to get off the lanes for anything. Photo is usually our backup GSA/covers breaks in GS and foodave. We usually don't have available TLs to cover breaks on weekends either. So it seems kind of silly to have a regular team member scheduled in photo and doing GSA things and a GSA stuck on a lane all day cashiering. I don't mind cashiering at all, but if the person running the lanes isn't at the check lanes (which happens a lot at my store, but that's another story), I get team members screaming at me for help when I'm stuck with guests. It's frustrating and makes me (or whoever) look bad.

 

[BadWolf4531]

I've been a GSA in two stores, and were allotted 2 GSTLs and 2 GSAs. Both of my ETLs have used GSTLs and GSAs interchangeably, to the point where I doubt most cashiers even know there's a difference. First store was a fairly predictable schedule, at least for closing shifts. Each of us had one closing weeknight, with rotating Fridays, and rotating weekends. Dayside shifts for me were either GSTL, SD, CO, or POG.

Current store is basically the same, except I'm part-time nights/weekends and thus nearly all of my shifts are GSTL/GSA, with the occasional close at SD. The other GSA prefers to close, and will usually get 4-5 closing shifts per week, sometimes an 11-7 Photo. We all still rotate weekends; it's me and my counterpart with GSTL on one, and the 2nd GSA and her counter on the other. Since the 2nd GSA volunteers to close, her counterpart GSTL therefore only opens on her weekends (which she prefers).

Right now, our schedule is kind of wacky, because my counter GSTL and I are both in school and have limited availability (i.e. she can only work until 11am and after 7pm on Mondays and Wednesdays, and I can only work after 5pm on weeknights). So, on those days, the schedule often looks like this:

GSTL 1.....7am-11am
GSTL 2.....9am-5:30pm
GSA 2 (me).....5pm-11:30pm

 

[oaktree]

At my store we have 2 GSTL 3GSA. The GSTLs each do 4 shifts running the lanes and 1 SD shift. The GSAs all rotate through with the remaining shifts, but also get a mix of SD, cashier, HL and Rx.

 

[Flabbergasted]

Our store uses GSAs as GSTLs on the cheap. They have the exact same duties as the GSTLs and are only rarely scheduled in other areas.

 

[paidtosmile]

Most of our cashiers didn't know the difference either. Just about all of them thought I was the GSTL for a solid 2 or 3 months and nobody even gave it a second thought