Can you get coached for not getting carts?

[guestserviceguru]

Hey guys, so last night I was doing my weekly food ave shift, and the new GSA came over and asked me to get carts while I was finishing up all the cleaning. First it was 7:30, we close at 8. Second it was pouring rain, and I really hate rain. So I told her that I couldn't, I need to close food ave, and she kept asking and I finally told her that I needed to clean. She left all pissed off, and when I was qmosing the food, she came over and told me I needed to get carts, I told her I was waiting for an LOD to walk off, and I was going home because it was already past my scheduled time and this time she walked away. I have no problem grabbing carts, I do it all the time, but the lanes were dead. We hardly had any guests. She could have easily grabbed them herself. Can I get coached for not getting carts last night?

 

[pfreshdude]

Hey guys, so last night I was doing my weekly food ave shift, and the new GSA came over and asked me to get carts while I was finishing up all the cleaning. First it was 7:30, we close at 8. Second it was pouring rain, and I really hate rain. So I told her that I couldn't, I need to close food ave, and she kept asking and I finally told her that I needed to clean. She left all pissed off, and when I was qmosing the food, she came over and told me I needed to get carts, I told her I was waiting for an LOD to walk off, and I was going home because it was already past my scheduled time and this time she walked away. I have no problem grabbing carts, I do it all the time, but the lanes were dead. We hardly had any guests. She could have easily grabbed them herself. Can I get coached for not getting carts last night?

Possibly...I personally dont think you should even be held responsible since you were closing down food ave but who knows how leadership will approach it. Not sure why they didnt have someone from salesfloor, a cashier, or the GSA/GSTL that was closing grab them.

 

[paidtosmile]

At our store you would have been coached. We are allocated a whopping 24 cart attendant hours per week, almost all of which go towards weekend shifts. Our STL is super into logistics, but not the GE side, so we have to send any able-bodied person outside to grab carts when needed. For us, that's usually food ave or the GSA. I've seen our GSTL coach two front end team members already for not being a team player, AKA not running out to get carts.

edit: I didn't see that you were working past schedule. My bad, ignore my post.

 

[guestserviceguru]

Most of the time, the GSA will get them or guest service, but normally the GSA, unless we have a cart attendant. It's like the new GSA is afraid to get carts or something.

 

[guestserviceguru]

The way my stores seems to be going, I will most likely be talked to tonight my by ETL, but who knows.

 

[Retail Girl]

24 hours for cart attendant per week?! @paidtosmile , I'm jealous of you! I think we have 12, maybe 15 hours...and yes, they are for Friday, Saturday, Sunday only. Thus pretty much everyone under the age of 55 is on cart duty at my store. It's possible the cashiers may have already been out? Or the GSA was thinking they will have to do it later so it was a chance to get someone else's turn in? As an outside observer, none of us know what her plan was. If it was truly pouring rain, it should have been left until it let up...or just a row or two if they were nearly out.

She might not be afraid to get carts...she may not be able to physically do it. I completely ruined my hip this winter when I spent 3 straight hours out in the lot trying to keep us caught up on carts. My hip is finally to the point where I am not in constant pain...but I have not been able to get carts since February. Some LODs are more supportive than others on this....which makes my job a huge headache most days. But physically I look fine. The higher ups know how bad it's been for me...but there were some days I was nearly cross eyed by the end of the day for being in so much pain, but I don't say anything because no one wants to hear that all the time.

Of course if you were already past the time to punch out, they can't make you stay...but people refusing to take their turn getting carts need to be worked into getting them...nobody likes doing it...but unfortunately, it's part of the fun of retail.

 

[Cel]

RG I'm jealous of both of you. We have had 0 cart attendant hours since ~ late April, our one CA only gets scheduled in a cashier spot, either mid on weekends or close on some weekdays. Doesn't help on the days he'll be the only cashier for the last 2 hours. I live in an area where it's in the triple digits anytime during the day and after dark May-October/November. 90% of my cashiers are 60+. Some are 70-80+.

I hurt myself doing carts on Monday (smashed up my foot pretty good, filed an incident report and all that), and the level of support I've gotten the last couple of days have been nil. I actually got bitched at by the LOD this morning because he thinks that having salesfloor or any other team assist the front end with carts in any way is basically tantamount to us failing at our jobs and needing another team to use their hours to "bail us out." Nevermind that our glorious front end hours give us a grand total of 2 cashiers from 10 AM ~ 7 PM any given day. Service desk is out by 7 or 8 PM every night, leaving it at 1 cashier and 1 GSA for lane closing plus carts, ignoring all the special projects and 4x4s and crap they pile on, plus our per shift cleaning duties and restocking duties and whatnot.

Until I hurt myself I'd gone out for at least 1 hour, some days 2-3+ hours in the lot in 100+ degree heat to do carts, every single day this month if not longer than that. I had to go out today, because by the time we ran low on carts after the truck team brought the reserves brought in for the breakout last night back, my two cashiers were 66 and 78 years old respectively. If they went out and tried to help they could quite easily have gotten injured, or gotten overheated/dehydrated quite quickly. So I went out, limping along with the pusher and trying like crazy not to accidentally run over my injured foot. I had to use the turtle speed on the pusher the whole way because I couldn't keep up with rabbit even with a full line on the pusher, and by the end of a single row I was in an enormous amount of pain, but I'm not gonna stand there and let some 30 year old guy with a degree in English send retirees out into the heat to do physical labor.

So pretty much today was the day I moved from "I should really look for a better job" to "I need to actively search for something better because this place is completely f@&ked.

Sorry to jack your thread and rant but it seemed semi-relevant and I got into a tyrade. To put it bluntly I got semi-coached for not wanting to either get carts myself with an (reported, on the job) injury or send a 78 year old with a bad back (thanks to spot btw, he slipped in the men's room after the cleaning crew left in the morning with a wet floor) out into triple digit heat to do it.

 

[guestserviceguru]

I will be coached tomorrow! But at this point, I'm just going to let my team lead know the situation and admit that I was wrong.

 

[neversaynever]

I'd be sure to point out you would have been willing to help - after your safety duties of CLEANING were done. But you were not given that choice/option. You are dealing with health regulations -stopping in the middle of your routine could leave a guest open to getting sick because you forgot where you were.

And then ask for clarification that working past your shift to do carts is acceptable hour wise....

 

[PullMeBackIn]

You can't be coached for not staying past your shift. Your shift is over, you get to go home. They can't hold it directly against you if you refuse to stay later. They might do some other retaliatory stuff but stick to your story that your shift was over and you wanted to go home.

 

[Barcode]

You won't get coached, you could probably tell the GSA to go fuck themselves and get away with it. Most they can do is cry to the LOD and have the LOD tell you to go out.

But like you said, its past your scheduled shift time and you're already waiting to leave, so I think you're ok.

@Retail Girl I hope you got workers comp for your hip since carts caused it...

 

[mrknownothing]

@Cel are you in the desert or something? I'd rather do carts in the snow than in that crap.

 

[Cel]

Yep, I am. Only time the weather is bearable is Halloween -> Easter, outside of that it's at least mid-90s if not triple digits anytime the store is operating. One of the highest rates of skin cancer in the state within the US if not the world, and there's no training about that and no provided "PPE" (big floppy hat, long sleeves, SUNSCREEN) even though it's probably a bigger cancer risk to do carts than be exposed to anything we sell in store. Not having a requisitioned bottle of spray-on sunscreen available seems idiotic to me considering we have like 5 sidecaps and a whole aisle filled with it. I could go on, but yeah, the whole setup is stupid.

 

[Barcode]

Heck I live up North and I made sure cart attendants got sunscreen and insect repellant....

 

[ciNOThyfs]

If you were to be coached I would bring the GSA core roles up and the ethics of having a GSA play the role of the GSTL. A GSA should only be covering breaks and does not have proper authority to take team members out of their workcenter.

 

[Retail Girl]

That depends on the store. I have full latitude to ask other TMs to help cover breaks and get carts as needed as long as I spread it out amongst everyone and honor their work and breaks and coverage. Of course the TM is welcome to say no, but then the LOD will just back me up 99% of the time (as soon as I give my reasoning for asking that person) and the TM will look like a jerk for not being a team player.

 

[paidtosmile]

If you were to be coached I would bring the GSA core roles up and the ethics of having a GSA play the role of the GSTL. A GSA should only be covering breaks and does not have proper authority to take team members out of their workcenter.

I wish the only role of a GSA was covering breaks..

That depends on the store. I have full latitude to ask other TMs to help cover breaks and get carts as needed as long as I spread it out amongst everyone and honor their work and breaks and coverage. Of course the TM is welcome to say no, but then the LOD will just back me up 99% of the time (as soon as I give my reasoning for asking that person) and the TM will look like a jerk for not being a team player.

Retail Girl has this on point. We aren't leaders, but we're still scheduled to be the person overseeing the front lanes and coordinating front end activities. ie: We're asking somebody to get carts because it has to get done, and we'll probably ask the person who is able to it with the least disruption to guest traffic.
Granted, we can't coach, but we can... 1) get the LOD for immediate support if needed, 2) we can do "teach and train's" with team members and act as their team trainer, or 3) we can just document various things like the example above and give them to the GSTL--Who can then follow up with the team members and take actions as needed.

GSA's aren't team leads, but it IS a unique position, and it's usually in a GE-TM's best interest to go along with what they ask of you. Everything we're doing or asking for help with should be related to making sure guests have a great experience and that is, after all, the priority

 

[Bosch]

GSA's aren't team leads, but it IS a unique position, and it's usually in a GE-TM's best interest to go along with what they ask of you. Everything we're doing or asking for help with should be related to making sure guests have a great experience and that is, after all, the priority

So I would bet taking the correct steps to not giving guests food poisoning would rank higher than rounding up shopping carts? Or I did I read it wrong?

Yes this post is full of snark, but its a point I have had to point out.

 

[Retail Girl]

I know FA and SB have their routines to do...especially at closing, so I don't bother them much there. Usually anytime I am asking them to get carts I am either super, super desperate, have seen a lot of talking going on (we have some that do more talking than working) or because the LOD has asked me to ask them to do it.

In fact, the LOD asking me to ask FA/SB is the reason I ask them 99.9% of the time.

 

[paidtosmile]

GSA's aren't team leads, but it IS a unique position, and it's usually in a GE-TM's best interest to go along with what they ask of you. Everything we're doing or asking for help with should be related to making sure guests have a great experience and that is, after all, the priority

So I would bet taking the correct steps to not giving guests food poisoning would rank higher than rounding up shopping carts? Or I did I read it wrong?

Yes this post is full of snark, but its a point I have had to point out.

I was mainly directing this towards the first quote in my post, and others in this thread, suggesting that the only job of a GSA is to cover breaks and that we can't really ask/delegate out tasks. Of course maintaining food safety standards comes before collecting carts, and any competent human being would be able to see that.
Like I said, I was straying away from the original situation that the OP gave. My point was that the scheduled gsa/gstl is there to help coordinate activities at the front end, not just write down everyone's breaks; and that, overall, being a team player and stepping outside being JUST at food ave or the service desk is part of the job. Sorry if that wasn't clear.

 

[Barcode]

Not trying to sound holier than thou, seeing I used to be a Cart Attendant for several years myself, but....

I really don't blame people for saying no to go out and get carts. Depending on weather, you will get sweaty, grungy, and all nasty. Most people didn't accept a job offer as a Cart Attendant, so they really shouldn't be held to having to perform that job. If the GSA asks someone to go do it and that person says no, the GSA should find somebody else or just do it themselves. I pushed my fair share of carts as GSA, and would do so before forcing anyone to go do it if they didn't want. Going behind people's back to the LOD isn't going to get you any points with your team.

 

[paidtosmile]

Not trying to sound holier than thou, seeing I used to be a Cart Attendant for several years myself, but....

I really don't blame people for saying no to go out and get carts. Depending on weather, you will get sweaty, grungy, and all nasty. Most people didn't accept a job offer as a Cart Attendant, so they really shouldn't be held to having to perform that job. If the GSA asks someone to go do it and that person says no, the GSA should find somebody else or just do it themselves. I pushed my fair share of carts as GSA, and would do so before forcing anyone to go do it if they didn't want. Going behind people's back to the LOD isn't going to get you any points with your team.

Don't get me wrong, I definitely spend a good 40% of my gsa shifts in the parking lot getting carts. and when i'm working on the floor, I say no all the time to getting carts. but i also expect that when I spend half of my shifts in the parking lot so service desk food ave and cashiers dont have to (regardless of weather), they'll be willing to run out sometimes as well if needed.

We have every able-bodied person push carts, and take turns doing it, during any given day. So I'll do a row, my food ave will do a row, and then a cashier will do a row, then back to me again, so on and so fourth. A lot of my strong opinions towards other front end team members saying no to pushing carts comes from the fact that it's really not my job to do it either, but I still deal with it because it has to get done.

i wouldn't slave-drive anyone to get carts, but if it's half an hour before close and i'm behind on register shutdown, somebody has to. it usually ends with me saying "LOD, i need to keep shutting down lanes so we can leave on time and we need somebody to get carts" and they'll send whoever (usually the same person the GSA would have chosen)

 

[Barcode]

Honestly, I would feel insulted if I was expected to do carts for the little amount I get paid on top of my regular duties. I expect other TMs feel the same.

The reason you do it is because you're a GSA (like I was), and we "own" the front end. When push comes to shove, the GSA/GSTL is responsible for getting it done.

However, getting on a TMs case for not wanting to go outside and push carts, is insensitive IMHO. Maybe spot should give Cart Attendants some hours instead.

 

[LadyNRed]

What if a TM has a Medical issue?

 

[paidtosmile]

Maybe spot should give Cart Attendants some hours instead.

(Church bells ring and angels sing in the distance as execs hear this whispered to them in their sleep)