Archived Do you work harder when coworkers call out?

[Kompa]

With all the call out threads lately, I want to know who it affects.

I'm backroom. When someone calls then shit simply doesnt get done. I'm not working faster to complete an impossible workload because someone didn't show up

 

[redeye58]

When I was at Starbucks we still had to get our next day's prep done, stock up, etc.
Breaks were often missed.
The line was just as long when we were down a person.

 

[Kaitii]

As a cashier, yeah I do. Because if we're down a cashier that's just a bit more often we'll have to call for backup. It doesn't quite effect me per se, I don't care if my lines are short or not. I don't have any set tasks I have to complete at a certain time while being shoved more on top of that like hardlines. I go to Denny's often with a single mom of 4 working 2 jobs. Seeing how tired as hell she always is and hearing about how hard she works makes me feed incredibly bad when she gets pulled for backup because when they'll pulled they're up here for a while.

 

[Retail Girl]

As a GSA...if the GSTM doesn't come in...then I will generally have to cover both guest services and GSA. If the cart attendant calls out, it's the GSA who is in the lot all night getting carts. If a cashier calls out, it is the GSA who is on a lane. Work loads can roll over to the next day. Guests can't.

 

[Kaitii]

As a GSA...if the GSTM doesn't come in...then I will generally have to cover both guest services and GSA. If the cart attendant calls out, it's the GSA who is in the lot all night getting carts. If a cashier calls out, it is the GSA who is on a lane. Work loads can roll over to the next day. Guests can't.

GSAs do carts there? Here if the CA is out (or it just isn't time for him to come in yet) they pull us cashiers to do it. Sometimes they'll grab someone from hardlines, but mostly cashiers.

 

[Retail Girl]

Most of our cashiers are too old for carts. And if they aren't, then it simply means we have to have someone from the salesfloor come up and cover for them.

We had one seasonal cashier who only got carts once last year, and then never showed up again. I didn't blame her. I am of the opinion that once you hit 60, you shouldn't be getting carts...the ETL-log who was the LOD that night and pulled that stunt never did that again.

I used to get carts a lot. Then one February Saturday afternoon I spent nearly 3 hours out in the lot getting carts until I got fed up with it and told my ETL to find someone else. For six months after that, I had severe hip pain and left work most days in tears. I refused to get carts after that...and no one ever made me.

But occasionally the aforementioned ETL-logistics will make snide comments about helping "me" out by having the salesfloor get carts.

Umm...it isn't helping me...it's helping the store...because if they don't schedule a cart attendant, someone has to do it...and if I don't have the cashiers to do it, then we'll be out if we don't work together.

 

[tgtguy]

I am in the backroom as well. If someone calls out ...I get frustrated but I just keep my head down and do the best I can. I learned the hard way years ago that walking around pissed off about it doesn't change anything .

 

[tgtfla]

always.

 

[Redzee]

Yes absolutely.

 

[jenna]

Nope. I just have more shit put on my plate. It makes my job more difficult, but I don't work any harder.

 

[crumbdumb]

I work backroom.

I *don't* work harder if someone calls off because if everything doesn't get done, I and everyone else will know it's not my fault. Plus, they usually insource help. In fact, it's a bit of a relief since maybe the usual assholes will be off my back for one day.

 

[Nauzhror]

If a cashier calls out, it is the GSA who is on a lane. Work loads can roll over to the next day. Guests can't.

That seems so foreign to me. I imagine it's difference of ULV and non-ULV, but I never get on a register unless the LOD specifically asks me to, and then it is only if they are coming up to watch the lanes. Typically only happens if I call for more backup than is available on the floor at the moment.

 

[semantics]

As Logistics I don't ask people to work harder, I simply set the day up to get caught up the next day or the day after in the event we are unable to complete our workload. Most days most callouts wont hurt us, certain callsouts can a lot more than others simply because the person is a great worker but for the most part 1-2 people missing wont prevent us from missing our goals.

Although i remember awhile back we had a sunday where I had to jump in and run flow because they got hit with a 2600 piece truck with at 260 repack and 23 hours of autos on a sunday and had 7 callouts so only 14 people to work the whole truck and a hardlines-ETL running the truck(no flow TL at the time and ETL-LOG's weekend off), needless to say we made some sacrifices but were able to catch up the next day, actually did pretty well considering.

Many changes at our store had occurred because of our poor attendance and inability to hold onto workers, change to using the wave, hell i had to go though and train just about new person hitting flow and backroom and made sure to train replacements for key workers, plus trained the new trainers to make sure they put an emphasis the whole job vs just key parts, like you know actually naming everything in the store so people don't get confused when target talk goes on, instead of just teaching people to stock or pull/backstock.

Used to be if a select few people called out a whole section of the store essentially wouldn't get done because no one else was trained on it and the former TL was incompetent at everything except at yelling at people to work faster.

Things like electronics flow used to only have 1 person trained now has 4, backroom has 2 instead of 0 for the lock-up. Our old electronics person did flow electronics, pulled and backstocked it all, even picked up all of daysides CAFs and go-backs simply because he found it annoying they never finished it the day before and ruined his hard-counts, really an unreasonable workload, AP loves him too because theft in electronics dropped as he reported everything in such detail it lead to a string of resolutions, his reviews essentially said "walks on water 5%" needless to say everyone that was on day-side electronics has been let go and we have a new TL for that area.

We now have 4 people in flow who can do breakout for hardlines by heart vs just 1. 3 people for all of baby breakout/hardlines vs just 1. 8 people trained in softlines vs just 3/4, 6 people trained to work in the steel vs just 2, have nearly half of the backroom trained as backroom closer and mid-shifts in case one of them leaves. All the training that should have been going on for years finally had time after change of STL, plus we are actually retaining workers better now don't actually expect a callout everyday from flow/backroom and job abandonment is way down. We might actually retain people longer than a year, probably not as the majority of our logistics hires are college students and the pay is still meh.

 

[jadzia]

As someone on the sales floor, I absolutely have to work harder if another TM calls out. Especially this time of year. When they call out, my workload has doubled, as if it wasn't hard enough to get my work done before that. That call out is the extra body we need to help zone toys, or work on reshop. That call out is the difference between leaving 30 carts of reshop and 60 carts. That call out can mean no coverage on the floor because everyone else is up for backup. Sure our workload can "roll over" to the next day, but who works the next day? I do. So I'm still doing double the amount of work no matter what.

 

[3LetterDevil]

Sometimes....if I'm opening and the other tech was supposed to open, I have to do both of our jobs until the mid comes in. If there are other techs there, someone else usually can pick up some of the slack.

 

[HardlinesGuy]

Last night we had three Seasonal Hardlines NCNS's and two Seasonal Cashier NCNS. The thing is, they all hadn't showed up in over three weeks. We all knew they weren't coming back. But our idiot ETL-HR who insists that she's the only one who can make the schedule keeps putting them on. To make matters worse, last night was one of the busiest nights my store has had in a while. I, personally, take pride in my work (even if it's just zoning at Target) and always try to do things to the best of my ability. That All being said, with these NCNS's last night I was the only person on Hardlines. I'm not too close with anyone from Softlines, but I think they only had one person on the floor as well due to NCNS's. We were busting our butts trying to keep up with phone calls, call boxes, zones, guest assistance, and backup calls. Oh god the backup calls... Things got so bad that the LOD called BR to take lanes. Long story short, when the going gets tough due to attendance issues I do try to kick it in to overdrive and work a bit harder.

TLDR - Lots of attendance issues at my store. I work as hard as I can to make up for it.

 

[dannyy315]

I always give 100%, so no

 

[dannyy315]

I always give 100%, so no

 

[signingminion]

I always work at full steam, but callouts require arranging the workload to be manageable. In pfresh it meant pushing the order over backstocking. Not pushing and backstocking one section at a time.

 

[Bosch]

Unreasonable workloads and when extra gets added it gets done or not. I just reorder what I am going to do.

 

[doxiemama]

Most of our cashiers are too old for carts.

Be careful of comments like that. Unless it specifically states there's an age limit in the employment agreement, that would constitute age discrimination. I don't think anybody above a certain age would want to do carts (I'm not convinced that even the cart attendants want to do carts). But unless there's been some age restriction established, then anybody can be asked to do anything. If I'm wrong and something has been established, I'm sorry for jumping on you - but have never heard of such a thing.

 

[Retail Girl]

Be careful of comments like that. Unless it specifically states there's an age limit in the employment agreement, that would constitute age discrimination. I don't think anybody above a certain age would want to do carts (I'm not convinced that even the cart attendants want to do carts). But unless there's been some age restriction established, then anybody can be asked to do anything. If I'm wrong and something has been established, I'm sorry for jumping on you - but have never heard of such a thing.

If I have a 70 year old cashier come up and tell me they really want to get carts, then fine, I'm not going to stop them. But I don't see any of them upset for being given a pass on that.

 

[sher]

The only callouts that have a major effect on me are cashier callouts. If I'm being called for backup more than usual, less will get done. That's a fact of life. I don't work not hard on days where everyone is there. I just get more into the little details. If I'm supposed to close with someone and they call out that just means, I can't focus on all the detail stuff and I may stop reshop earlier than usual in order to get a good zone. Reshop is easier with a good zone, though so I think that's not too terrible a thing for morning people to come in to.

Good leadership would lend a helping hand instead of standing around hoping 2 people can magnificently get a 4 man job completed.

 

[mrknownothing]

With the way the schedule has been lately, we get hit badly by call-ins in the backroom. The other day, I had to call for help with the CAFs, and two TLs and the LOD had to help pull because the batches were huge. The overnight LOD ended up coming in early to help us get the backroom cleaned up before the truck unload.

 

[mrknownothing]

With the way the schedule has been lately, we get hit badly by call-ins in the backroom. The other day, I had to call for help with the CAFs, and two TLs and the LOD had to help pull because the batches were huge. The overnight LOD ended up coming in early to help us get the backroom cleaned up before the truck unload.

 

[commiecorvus]

As a Signing Ninja being a crew of one, you wouldn't expect that having folks calling out would mean having to work any harder but it often turns out that way.
If members of the Plano team bail then you can't get stuff done and it's either do the stuff or get behind.
If there aren't enough people in Electronics, you can go over to put up a sign and get stuck there for two hours helping out.
Same thing for Hardlines, try doing a vacuum cleaner reset when every customer wants to buy one and you can't get someone to help them.
So no matter what having someone call out makes you work harder or you will fall behind, and being for the Signing Ninja that is death.

 

[HardlinesGuy]

Good leadership would lend a helping hand instead of standing around hoping 2 people can magnificently get a 4 man job completed.

Leadership always does the right thing and helps us!

All jokes aside, I think there's a better chance of aliens coming down from Mars and helping with the zones and re-shop before our leadership does.

 

[SFSFun]

I work ship from store, and if we have a call-out then I simply let the TL/ETL/LOD know when I need assistance, and how it will affect the metrics if they don't send anyone to help.