Archived LOD Gone haywire

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Work in a fairly small store. On one of the new End to end teams. Each shift I am given a task list to follow - and I follow it to the best of my abilities

After coming off a break, I went back to my area to take care of reshop and saw a TM covering for me in my absence. It was clear that the TM was somewhat distressed and did not fully understand what the guests were asking.

I went over in order to help and figure out what the guests were trying to do exactly - however the LOD cut me off and said go Zone. I politely informed my LOD that my zone was practically done and that all I had left to do for the day was research and reshop.

Behind me my fellow TM was still struggling somewhat, so as I go to turn around to finally assist - the LOD tells me they are assigning two new areas for me to Zone and wants me to do this ASAP and to let my other TM handle the guests. As I begin to walk away to listen to the somewhat odd and seemingly demanding task ( mind you I still had tasks of my own to complete). I was stopped by the guest and asked a question.

Upon turning around to answer, my LOD shouts my name across the floor and begins to tell me that I was asked to zone and I need to get out of the area and let my TM handle it. Also telling me that we will talk later upfront.

The guest behind me gasped in sheer horror with how my LOD re-acted to him asking me a question and informed me they plan on filing a complaint.

Roughly 5 minutes later I was called up front and brought into our APs office with the AP there, and chewed out for "not doing my duties and being disrespectful" she gave me the option to leave and I decided to take it because I simply could not work the rest of the day after what had just happened.

I am going to be talking with my HR Leader about this as soon as possible...

I was just curious what input anyone has into this and what they think I should do.

Guest service and experience has always been something I believe in and I want to stand up for - but being chewed out for trying to help a guest in my department when my other TM had no idea what was going on... totally caught me by surprise.
 
Definitely an overzealous LOD. The focus is to help the guest and clearly that's what you intended to do.

That said there is sometimes more to the story. We had an LOD tell tms not to help our slow flow girl push. You might think we'll what about getting stuff done? He is managing her out by documenting how long it takes her to finish simple task. Someone helping her will make it look like she is faster than she is.

Definitely talk to hr but remember an LOD is the manager on duty and if they give you a command you follow it. I have been asked by lods to push a caf or jump on a lane, I just do it. I may have walked away and just asked the tm over the walkie what the guest is trying to find
 
^Agree with the helping TMs thing. I'm concerned that this was brought into AP territory though. Something fishy is going on. If the LOD took you there in an attempt to intimidate you, I think that's pretty inappropriate.
 
We are now constantly drilled that guest service takes precedence over tasks. If it takes three TMs to help a guest, so be it. Even if they were trying to performance out the struggling TM, helping the guest they were with was the number one priority. Such a priority that the LOD should have jumped in and assisted. Also, yelling at you across the sales floor was definitely not brand. Some type of discussion needs to be had with the ETL-HR.
 
It seems like performancing out a TM at the expense of a guest is a pretty shitty way to go and it's far worse to yell at you across the store.
You only at yell at someone if they are about to hurt someone or themselves.
 
^Agree with the helping TMs thing. I'm concerned that this was brought into AP territory though. Something fishy is going on. If the LOD took you there in an attempt to intimidate you, I think that's pretty inappropriate.

That's exactly what went through my head when I was brought into the AP office. If there was an issue I feel it should have been addressed 1 on 1 somewhere else. Something felt wrong and I did get the impression there was some kind of "power mongering"

We are now constantly drilled that guest service takes precedence over tasks. If it takes three TMs to help a guest, so be it. Even if they were trying to performance out the struggling TM, helping the guest they were with was the number one priority. Such a priority that the LOD should have jumped in and assisted. Also, yelling at you across the sales floor was definitely not brand. Some type of discussion needs to be had with the ETL-HR.

This is exactly why I had tried to help out the struggling TM in the first place. Guest service always comes first no matter what. The TM I went to help was from an entirely different department of the store and clearly needed assistance. The department was my end to end department too - so I knew right away I could answer the questions and help out.

I feel as if this LOD has it out for me in some way simply because of how the whole thing went down. Clearly wanted to make sure I was kept busy and piled tasks onto me without consideration of what I already had to do.

Definitely an overzealous LOD. The focus is to help the guest and clearly that's what you intended to do.

That said there is sometimes more to the story. We had an LOD tell tms not to help our slow flow girl push. You might think we'll what about getting stuff done? He is managing her out by documenting how long it takes her to finish simple task. Someone helping her will make it look like she is faster than she is.

Definitely talk to hr but remember an LOD is the manager on duty and if they give you a command you follow it. I have been asked by lods to push a caf or jump on a lane, I just do it. I may have walked away and just asked the tm over the walkie what the guest is trying to find

I always do stuff without question usually. It just happened that the task I was asked to do was 99% done and there was more important things in my department like the over flowing reshop and the guest in need of help that I had to address. I even told the LOD my zone for the day was practically done. The LOD simply walked back there and appeared to get aggravated that there were two TMs to help a guest, one of them being me??? So the situation blew up for no reason. Especially considering that I remained polite and never once said anything in a raised tone.
 
Years ago, I had a ETL experience like that. I had an ETL who was in training at one of my stores. This ETL pulled myself and another cashier off the lanes to help immediately help with zoning. So we started with that, I get pulled back to the Front by my GSTL to help cover breaks and take my lunch. As soon as I get back to the floor, I get a tongue lashing from the ETL (while on the floor) demanding to know why I wasn't zoning. Then why the other cashier was goofing off. I reported the encounter to the GSTL. They said to jump back on the lanes, and they will talk to the ETL and clear it up.

A couple weeks later this ETL was transferred to another store and eventually let go for being verbally abusive to TMs.
 
I had a SrTL try something like this on me. I was the Receiver and I would constantly be told to go do a task outside of Receiving and I would be helping a vendor and I would be pulled away constantly to do a task that was Backroom and Flow responsibility. I would try to fight, often felt I was bullied around to get tasks done. And at times my area would suffer because I was forced to help elsewhere. Fortunately the ETL-LOG would set him straight from time to time.
 
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