Archived The Fine Line Between GSA and GSTL

[paidtosmile]

It's a very, very fine line. We should be identifying problems via It sounds to me like that was the approach the OP took, and it backfired on them! As a new GSA also, I am extremely hesitant to say anything at all to the team members for this very reason. Unfortunately our GSTL avoids conflict at all costs, including much-needed coachings and final warnings. This really makes for a frustrating situation for the GSA's! I'm quickly finding out we have all of the accountability and none of the power to make changes.:angry:

I deal with the same issues as a GSA. We have no real power, yet are expected to act like we do. Our GSTL never handles issues and coachings..

Our GSTL just redid the entire front end. new captainships, new expectations, etc etc. In the information she sent out to all of us GSA's, she bolded "You are leaders in the building" and I just chuckled.. I'm keeping that email saved for future use.

 

[Retail Girl]

Leaders when it's convenient and TMs when it's convenient. I swear, I get whiplash some days trying to figure out what in the hell I am at any particular moment.

 

[mrknownothing]

For those who were GSAs before the Vibe rolled out a couple years ago: Did you do Business Walks in the areas you captained?

 

[StaticSun]

For those who were GSAs before the Vibe rolled out a couple years ago: Did you do Business Walks in the areas you captained?

Yup.

 

[ChangeRequest]

Leaders when it's convenient and TMs when it's convenient. I swear, I get whiplash some days trying to figure out what in the hell I am at any particular moment.

Yep! We need to be leaders, but not too much of one...otherwise they'd have to actually compensate us properly for the work we do. Often, I think I may develop a mental illness with all the whiplash that goes on as a GSA.

 

[stephmerrell]

Yeah that was the only thing I didn't like about the Gsa position. I want u it for every thing a gstl does with out the coaching . U can't coach u can have a seek to understand convoy with a tm . If u have an tl or etl with 7 they can write it up as a coaching but the is about it.

 

[Jill of All Trades]

Until I was promoted, I had no idea who in my store was a GSA and who was a GSTL. There's only one scheduled per shift and the responsibilities are all the same except the GSTLs do coaching and more paperwork.

As for coaching, it would be great if they would actually coach on the issues I suggest.

 

[paidtosmile]

From my year and a half of full time GSA'ing:

GSA is just a stripped-back GSTL. We share the workload and responsibility of a GSTL, without the benefits of-

We can't coach or CCA, but are still held responsible for cashier performance issues.
We don't get to take part in team lead meetings or participate in creating store strategies and plans.
We don't get any off-site time.
We we're recognized as leaders up front, but TM's everywhere else, giving the general impression that our other front end team members are below other team members because of our weird quasi-supervisor position.
We're expected to lead the front end team, as team members.
We're supposed to maintain the checklanes and do work that requires us to NOT be on the checklanes, but don't get enough cashier hours to spend any time off of a register..

Honestly, no wonder our store has gone through eleven, yes, ELEVEN, guest service attendants during my employment here..

 

[Cel]

From my year and a half of full time GSA'ing:

GSA is just a stripped-back GSTL. We share the workload and responsibility of a GSTL, without the benefits of-

We can't coach or CCA, but are still held responsible for cashier performance issues.
We don't get to take part in team lead meetings or participate in creating store strategies and plans.
We don't get any off-site time.
We we're recognized as leaders up front, but TM's everywhere else, giving the general impression that our other front end team members are below other team members because of our weird quasi-supervisor position.
We're expected to lead the front end team, as team members.
We're supposed to maintain the checklanes and do work that requires us to NOT be on the checklanes, but don't get enough cashier hours to spend any time off of a register..

Honestly, no wonder our store has gone through eleven, yes, ELEVEN, guest service attendants during my employment here..

So much this. It irks me particularly about how other TMs and such tend to look down on cashiers because "their job is so easy." I've even heard TLs do it. Yeah, you can teach someone how to run a register pretty quickly, but the job itself is ridiculously fast paced at times, high stress, and you have guests in your face the entirety of your shift. You can't scratch your nose or breathe without a guest watching you and tapping their foot. I'm sure it seems easy when you spend a grand total of an hour a month if that on a lane (Flow TL).

Easiest job overall IME is salesfloor, although to be specific salesfloor who aren't the backbone of the store. The kind with limited availability or hours who don't know the more complex things like salesplanners, PTM, flexing the MPG aisles, all that. The ones who just come in for 4 hours, do a 4x4 or zone a block, and leave. You can backstock something in the backroom and get 3 minutes away from guests where you can breathe, you can stretch your back down an empty aisle with nobody to see. I'm not just guessing, I did that job for 3 months before becoming a GSA and taking on a psuedo-PA role in p-fresh for awhile.

 

[Sanzano]

From my year and a half of full time GSA'ing:

GSA is just a stripped-back GSTL. We share the workload and responsibility of a GSTL, without the benefits of-

We can't coach or CCA, but are still held responsible for cashier performance issues.
We don't get to take part in team lead meetings or participate in creating store strategies and plans.
We don't get any off-site time.
We we're recognized as leaders up front, but TM's everywhere else, giving the general impression that our other front end team members are below other team members because of our weird quasi-supervisor position.
We're expected to lead the front end team, as team members.
We're supposed to maintain the checklanes and do work that requires us to NOT be on the checklanes, but don't get enough cashier hours to spend any time off of a register..

Honestly, no wonder our store has gone through eleven, yes, ELEVEN, guest service attendants during my employment here..

The majority of this is accurate for my store, except:

- GSAs coach at my store. We're as responsible for cashier development and performance as a GSTL just minus the writing of reviews and CCA.
- We do get off site time
- We're recognized as leaders in the store at all times, in our STL's eyes any GSA should be the equivalent to the best GSTL we have.
- We're almost never on a lane, and if we are and have double coverage the GSTL and GSA will take turns being on a lane.

So yeah GSA = GSTL pretty much at my store.

 

[paidtosmile]

From my year and a half of full time GSA'ing:

GSA is just a stripped-back GSTL. We share the workload and responsibility of a GSTL, without the benefits of-

We can't coach or CCA, but are still held responsible for cashier performance issues.
We don't get to take part in team lead meetings or participate in creating store strategies and plans.
We don't get any off-site time.
We we're recognized as leaders up front, but TM's everywhere else, giving the general impression that our other front end team members are below other team members because of our weird quasi-supervisor position.
We're expected to lead the front end team, as team members.
We're supposed to maintain the checklanes and do work that requires us to NOT be on the checklanes, but don't get enough cashier hours to spend any time off of a register..

Honestly, no wonder our store has gone through eleven, yes, ELEVEN, guest service attendants during my employment here..

The majority of this is accurate for my store, except:

- GSAs coach at my store. We're as responsible for cashier development and performance as a GSTL just minus the writing of reviews and CCA.
- We do get off site time
- We're recognized as leaders in the store at all times, in our STL's eyes any GSA should be the equivalent to the best GSTL we have.
- We're almost never on a lane, and if we are and have double coverage the GSTL and GSA will take turns being on a lane.

So yeah GSA = GSTL pretty much at my store.

What volume store are you at?

 

[Retail Girl]

My SrGSTL got in trouble last week for telling me I'm a TM. My ETL-GE is adamant I am not a TM, I am a leader in the building, and should be coaching people in my department (and outside my department where it directly affects me). He is also saying we will be having GSAs on rotating weekends, but I don't hold my breath for that one any time soon.

 

[paidtosmile]

My SrGSTL got in trouble last week for telling me I'm a TM. My ETL-GE is adamant I am not a TM, I am a leader in the building, and should be coaching people in my department (and outside my department where it directly affects me). He is also saying we will be having GSAs on rotating weekends, but I don't hold my breath for that one any time soon.

Push for the rotating weekends. Granted, it depends on your GSA turnover. But overall it's really great and incredibly beneficial for setting up and following front end routines. I actually can get quite a bit done on my closing weekends because I know who's going to be there, what leadership is on the floor, and it just overall makes the job easier.

 

[Retail Girl]

My ETL has said it will happen. My SrGSTL said that wasn't part of the deal of being a GSA and to forget about it. My ETL was not happy when I told my ETL that. Right now we have some upheaval going on up front, so I'm not sure what is going to happen...but things need to settle down first. I'm just happy not to be closing five nights a week any more.

 

[redeye58]

During my GSA stint, the sole GSTL would schedule me to close 4 nights (everyone else was 'taking classes') & have a mid on the other day. She always scheduled herself opening shifts but I would wind up getting a call in the early am hrs (after closing) begging me to swap with her after she'd 'had a rough night' (translation: hung over).
She also scheduled herself working only every 3rd weekend & the one she DID work, she opened.
That came to an end when the new ETL arrived & he stripped her of making the GSA/GSTL schedules. He was going over my shifts & asked me if I LIKED closing all the time. He was surprised when I said h*ll no.
Apparently, the GSTL told him we LIKED the way she scheduled us.

 

[IhaveaDream]

Backroom is still a tougher job

 

[paidtosmile]

Backroom is still a tougher job

They're completely different work centers with different weighted metrics, different objectives, different performance issues, and different team-member views. Lets not start something over two jobs that aren't very comparable

 

[BigEyedPhish]

Since they are kind of equivalents to their respective areas, which Position is harder? Perishables Assistant or Guest Service Assistant? I'm a PA and I see both having abnormal stress levels, and both have become looked at as having to be TL worthy without being able to use any of the actual tools a TL can (coachings, having to act with authority, while not having alot of ACTUAL authority).

The thing I find is a PA is probably more responsible for more aspects of their work centers. We have to literally be the Sales Floor/Instocks/Presentation/Backroom/Sometimes Pricing TMs of our area.

While we do have to put up with some of the BS guests pull, We don't have to deal with it at near the same level as GSA's do.\

You could start a thread, The Fine line between PA and CTL

 

[paidtosmile]

I've never worked in a store with a PA, but from what I've heard on here Guest Service Attendant and Perishables Assistant are basically mirrored images of each other. Both positions deal with a lot of GSTL/CTL-level responsibility; just stripped of the perks of being a team leader.

 

[Retail Girl]

The thing with GSA is the fun of managing the team. And the little old ladies can be worse than some of our guests. And God forbid you don't cater to them. Like PTS, I've never worked at a store with a PA. How much of a team do you lead who is working at the same time as you?

 

[paidtosmile]

From what I understand, it s little less about team leadership and a little more about workcenter responsibility? Such as a signing team member. They have an intense, tricky workload that qualifies for that weird N07 position

Like we spend a ton of our day teaching-and-training team members, driving for conversion, etc etc, but lets be honest our task lists are really short and sweet in comparison to other area's. GSA seems to be more service-focused, and PA seems to be more task-focused?

(please Correct me if I'm wrong, though. like i said, i've never had the opportunity to work in a store with a PA directly)

 

[Retail Girl]

This is the sense I am getting as well, hence why I asked my question. Of course we still have tasks, but the chances of getting any of them done (especially with BTS in full swing) is somewhere between slim and none.

For me, it would be easier to focus on tasks rather than keeping guests and TMs happy. But I know not everyone is wired that way.

 

[BigEyedPhish]

The thing with GSA is the fun of managing the team. And the little old ladies can be worse than some of our guests. And God forbid you don't cater to them. Like PTS, I've never worked at a store with a PA. How much of a team do you lead who is working at the same time as you?

As a PA I have more tasks than I could possibly ever complete, the key is to have a good eye at what is most important and go down the pecking order, while most of the time doing 2 other tasks as well. You really have to be otherworldly at Multitasking, and it is just getting worse.

I find myself managing many different teams on different days, from Flow (Food Tuck Days) to Backroom (On Crazy busy days) to my own in consumable (On Holidays), and just recently I had to run the floor to close, while also closing Market (LOL!).

I am however, alone most of the time, and can really ONLY rely on myself, I think this is where the gap mainly is between GSA/PA. I think as a PA you need to be one of, if not the most Self-Efficient person in the store, while as a GSA I think you need to be better at managing a team..

My first 2 hours at 6am look like this..

Clock in
Start/Finish the Cull while printing Labels for any TPCs.
Grab Boxes of Bananas as well as whatever overnight Produce pull their is
Push it
Grab Pfresh Cart with both Sanitizers/Any Empty Cleaning Bottles.
Head up to Food Ave and Pour Sanitizer and let it Rest
Head up to the TL Office and create your TPCs while also shooting signs for them.
Head back to food ave and Renew your Sanitizers after testing them.
Head to the Front Stock Room and complete whatever is in the BR-SDA there.
Grab one of the Sanitizers and head to the Ambient room to Stash it
Head to the back coolers and complete whatever is in the BR-SDA there.
Head to the signing computer and Print your TPCs
(While waiting for the Signing Computer to warm up, Grab Meat Pull)
Grab signs
Push Meat Pull while hanging signs
Coupon Meat
Complete Sales Floor SDA (Alert the LOD so they know its complete).

This should be done Before 8am and almost always something happens where you have to improvise through this.

And lately with MyTime if you have ANY free time at all, and even if you don't you ARE helping Flow Push the C&S truck.

After making sure all PFresh Pulls are complete, shoot Research for Pfresh.

I think Pfresh is even more of a guest loyalty driver than the Front lanes. I think the normal reasonable person may realize that this wait they have at the front is probably because it is busy, but if I send them home with bad potatoes ONCE, they will probably never shop my area ever again.

 

[BigEyedPhish]

That is also the easiest day you will ever have in the life of a Perishables Assistant, and you will probably only ever do JUST that, when you are lucky enough to "Clopen" Market.

 

[Cel]

Having done both jobs at my store (never officially held the title of PA but according to the PA who essentially runs our department on a day to day and week to week basis and stepped up to replace our CTL when he took medical leave, I did everything she did as well as she did), PA in my experience was leaps and bounds easier.

Yeah you had a gigantic task list that someone (The PTL) would love to pile onto (here do these 4 salesplanners today, 3 of the batches aren't pulled and it will take you 20 minutes just to push the product to the home location. The 4th batch was already pulled, it's the 7 tubs in the dairy cooler that you had to grow wings to push milk over this morning). Yeah you have to help some of the screwups on Flow push the FDC truck 3x a week while you're busy trying to do everything else because mytime scheduled 2 people for a 7 pallet truck. Yeah your hours got cut so you only clock in at best 20 minutes before the store opens so you're busy culling and TPCing and everything while the store is open.

Your expectations for the most part are generally doable though, if you have the multitasking ability. Or at least the important ones are, and if you can speak to why you didn't get the less important tasks done, you'll be ok. As a GSA the expectations are usually set for you to fail. You need 24 redcards today, but the cashiers you have are the 16 year old who couldn't sell Air Conditioning in the Sahara, the 90 year old man who checks people out at roughly the same pace as a ramp at a 45 degree angle would pour product over the belt scanner, and the other 16 year old who would rather be texting on her phone. You can't coach them, you can tell them what you want them to do, but rather than check up with them you need to:

get carts/help the brand new GSTM with every slightly complicated return/deal with the guest with the ridiculous complaint, and her 72 friends with a rainbow of other complaints ranging from ridiculous to laughably stupid/ fill 28 endcaps that look like the 90% clearance in seasonal every morning / get carts / the 16 year olds both have alcohol, you're backed up to jewelry and the flow team that comprises everyone on the salesfloor except the PA has suddenly accquired a terrible case of selective deafness, so hop on that lane and keep screaming into the walkie until someone finally takes pity on you / get carts / Clean lane 7 with a dust buster and some perdiem / get carts / Get on a lane / Get carts / get on a lane / Set a battery endcap that looks like it was designed to be set by a team of 4 people with maps and flashlights / the 16 year olds have alcohol so you have to swap lanes in a 3 person round robin / get carts / lanes 2 and 4 need team lift carryouts, you're backed up and the flow team plus the 2 salesfloor have suddenly gone deaf again / get carts / Stock spill stations / clean the coolers, the gift registries, the hiring kiosks, the photo kiosks and the ATM / get carts / clean the men's bathroom that looks like someone missed the stall entirely / get carts / figure out some way to stock 3 boxes onto the entirely full card wall that MUST go up today / get carts / Handoff to the closer and run the hell out of the building before someone asks you to get carts again.

Not exaggerating.

ULV, your mileage may vary.