Archived I feel like the backroom doesn't get much credit at my store

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But team members in other areas of the store (and a particular ETL). I get the feeling is that we don't do anything. I feel like the backroom (at least at our store) has the heaviest workload of any other work area. It can be pretty ridiculous sometimes.

People want to ask me to pull something from the back for them, and that's fine, but some want to act like I should be there right away because I don't have anything better to do. Uh, when 35 pulls drop, I'm by myself, and there is a shit-ton of backstock, I sometimes want to tell them to f off.
 
I know what you mean. I hate when they ask me to bring it up to the service desk. The thing I hate is that there are no checks and balances for the people that work the pulls. Did they actually work it? Did they check all locations? Did they rotate? Did they make sure the product was pushed all the way to the back and that no wrong products were in that space? We don't have time to check. All they have to do is put a pink clip on it.
 
I know what you mean. I hate when they ask me to bring it up to the service desk. The thing I hate is that there are no checks and balances for the people that work the pulls. Did they actually work it? Did they check all locations? Did they rotate? Did they make sure the product was pushed all the way to the back and that no wrong products were in that space? We don't have time to check. All they have to do is put a pink clip on it.


I know for a fact certain people don't fully push the pulls like they are supposed to. One guy will like half push one and then put a pink clip on it. I've said something about this numerous times to leadership, but it's ignored. I don't name names because that's not my style, but I do point out how team members on the floor have a tendency to not fully push their pulls and like to leave trash/signing everywhere but where it's supposed to go. I'm tired of cleaning up after people. If I say something to them, I catch nothing but attitude.
 
lol, you have people pushing for you. That's funny.

At my store dayside backroom pulls, pushes and backstocks the hourly CAFs. Did I mention this is done by just one team member? The other day our dayside backroom guy left a dozen different vehicles of pulls still left to be worked.
 
Zero credit here too. No news is good news. Meaning, that if no one is saying anything to you, you're doing ok. You only hear from anyone when they think you're screwing up.

We are also the catch-all team in the store, because I guess they think we have nothing better or useful to do. Need help zoning? Backroom will do it! TM in market called off? Backroom will fill in! Market, with their 10 TMs, didn't finish the backstock in the freezer or pfresh coolers? Backroom will do it! Some other workcenter didn't finish their workload? Backroom will do it! Push and/or B-code the candy? Backroom will do it! 8 cages of market truck cardboard, as well as cardboard all over the floor around the baler? Backroom will do it! Dozen people at the front end, two in the backroom? Doesn't matter, backroom will curb-side-service your guest pull all the way to the front!

Apparently, we are sitting around in the backroom on futons all day, listening to music, playing cards, and BSing - just waiting for that call to come in to get up off our asses for something to do!

Because it's not like we're doing:

- craploads of backstock, much of it from plano, unfinished flow/early-backroom workload, and endcaps.
- pulling large CAFs 7 times per day (11, 12, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5).
- pulling 15-30 planos, depending on day
- pulling PTMs everyday
- pulling 4-7 salesplanners for EACH of 3-5 TLs each day
- pulling price change batches with WILDLY variable sizes each day
- pulling dozens of research batches
- pulling orders
- pulling EXFs
- doing the daily audit (section 11 under Work Batches)
- nonstop guest pulls, especially during the 12PM CAF
- doing the weekly Item Merge
- and, on top of that, being the ONE TEAM responsible for pushing CAF

or anything. Nope. We're just standing around waiting for something to happen; I guess new automation systems and robots are doing all that work. Otherwise, I don't know who they think is doing it.

Working everyday in the backroom for one solid month straight should be required for ALL new ETLs. And it should be refreshed periodically. I'm talking about ALL DAY, doing the same tasks as a TM, with no delegation privileges. Because they clearly and obviously have no idea how the backroom actually works. It's all about the floor. Zone those empty shelves! (The product to fill those empty shelves is in the backroom, waiting for that 10-15 minutes we are able to squeeze in some CAF push between all of our other tasks).
 
lol, you have people pushing for you. That's funny.

At my store dayside backroom pulls, pushes and backstocks the hourly CAFs. Did I mention this is done by just one team member? The other day our dayside backroom guy left a dozen different vehicles of pulls still left to be worked.


How do you finish the pulls on time and finish pushing the pulls? You must always have to stay past your scheduled time to get it done.
 
lol, you have people pushing for you. That's funny.

At my store dayside backroom pulls, pushes and backstocks the hourly CAFs. Did I mention this is done by just one team member? The other day our dayside backroom guy left a dozen different vehicles of pulls still left to be worked.


How do you finish the pulls on time and finish pushing the pulls? You must always have to stay past your scheduled time to get it done.

The general answer at our store is that you do what you can, and the closers in the backroom can finish it.....aside from the fact that our store has 7 o'clock cafs, price changes, and about 5 badly timed pull requests (I am usually in the bakery at the front corner when electronics (in the other front corner) needs a TV pulled from the backroom (which is diagonally in the back from the bakery).....we are killing ourselves since the flow team leaves stuff for dayside to handle, and then dayside can't finish because we are starting from behind.....

And how much interaction do we have with the ETL's - next to none, unless they need something done for them.....
 
Wait, we're supposed to finish? lol

Most of the time the CAF pulls sit on the line and get pushed at night because the puller just doesn't have enough time to pull and push everything in the allotted time. On slow weekdays that are not truck days (oh you mean that stuff you just backstocked needs to come back out) I can get everything done, but that's only by moving as fast as possible all day. On weekends or truck days it's just a disaster. I love how on truck days the size of the noon CAFs is basically double what it would normally be with all the backstock coming back out in the pulls.
 
That's ridiculous. I wish they would expect me to push those pulls.
 
What is your store volume like?

My store is a ULV store, so on a slow day it is definitely possible to manage everything if I bust my ass. I could imagine in a higher volume store that pulling alone takes up most of the hour because it does for me when our store gets busy.
 
We use to have to push cafs every night at my store, until I literally started telling the TL's and ETL's to fuck off because we have work to do, our STL got involved and she told them to fuck off too. So now it just depends if we have a good closer or a lazy shit one.
 
I might have to do that. Was told I should have done that when told to work a priority pull.
 
I don't get why this falls on backroom to push anything.

In the morning, it should be flow team doing pulls. We're in all departments anyway, so clearing a pull is a free vehicle. In the afternoon, it should be sales floor. If your leads honestly wanted to clear it quickly, they could tell everyone to grab a bunch of pulls and double up on them. You'd knock out a lot in a short amount of time if the ETL is willing to give up some of their walking around time.

Does it just come down to volume? Our BTS pulls are three vehicles deep, I can see how something that large would be problematic but most departments are one vehicle.
 
My store BR just pushes the 5's. I believe this is pretty common. I was told it is so SF can get started on their zone. My TL has told me to burn them, but I'd rather make room in the back and work them myself. I never come back with backstock, but I overstock neatly.
 
My dayside backroom doesn't push cafs, unless its just an abnormally slow day but I do usually have 2-3 scheduled during caf times anyhow. They have complained to me about the pulls not getting worked. I started to work a later shift to be with them sometimes and noticed that certain sales floor individuals were not pushing pulls fully. So I took them to guest service and instructed them to call them for foreign (this way I knew who would have generally worked that pull) and would let them know to work it and when they were through I would be double checking it, letting them know the importance of why they should work it. I've instructed my dayside team to let the LOD know if they say nothing or do nothing push it to guest service as foreign.

If your TL and ETL don't care ask them what the scans with locations score is? They should care about that if not go to HR voice your concerns privately.
 
My store BR just pushes the 5's. I believe this is pretty common. I was told it is so SF can get started on their zone. My TL has told me to burn them, but I'd rather make room in the back and work them myself. I never come back with backstock, but I overstock neatly.
burn all the 5's? ooof
 
In my store, we have 1 BRTM/1 pusher on weekdays and 2-3 BRTMs/2 pushers on weekends. There's no way 1 TM would be able to pull and push every hour. Right now it takes almost an hour to finish a CAF
 
With hours being cut, burdens are put on all teams. If you are back room, please get all auto pulls out of the gun. Sf team will make every effort to clear the line. It is best to be green in logistics, because product gets to floor better for guests to buy.
 
I feel like backroom and flow are unsung heroes in a lot of stores. I've subbed in for both workcenters in a pinch, and when you have a solid team that makes it look easy, I'm sure a lot of people don't realize how tough of a job that can be. Our br team seldom if ever pushes, but on the rare occasion that they have time, they push quickly, accurately, and are always super pleasant about it.
 
One Sunday there were two of us in the back and we were able to pull and push every hour. Not the 12's, but we worked those later.
 
Wait, your stores have sales floor team members during the day?

We usually have no sales floor team members aside from electronics, operator and team leads until the closing team comes in. If I pull a bunch of product and don't get it pushed it just doesn't get touched.
 
Wait, your stores have sales floor team members during the day?

We usually have no sales floor team members aside from electronics, operator and team leads until the closing team comes in. If I pull a bunch of product and don't get it pushed it just doesn't get touched.

My store has similar sales floor coverage, and we're A+ volume. Backroom only pushes CAFs if it's really slow. During the busy times of year, we have a dedicated CAF pusher scheduled under Zone; otherwise it's whatever TLs and ETLs are in the building. My leadership cares more about the pulls and backstock being completed - if the push isn't finished, then so be it (i.e. overnight has to push the CAFs along with that night's autofills before they can push the truck).
 
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