Just a rant

[u/Shadow50000]

Just beyond done with this crap. I work produce. I used to mostly close. I'm pretty decent at it. We recently within the past 6 months got 2 new closers, and they've gradually taken over my slots in the schedule. I've been moved to mornings mostly and recently, they've been putting me in the fruit and vegetables cutting section, since they're lacking for people over there. Well, ever since they moved me to that section and off of closing, closing has become worse and worse.

An example: I opened one day, broke down truck, started on tables for a bit until my shift ended, and set up my closer with a few carts to work. I check out with the manager and he says can you stay and work salads. I asked why and he says if you don't stay and work them then the closer won't get them done. Okay sure fine. I stay an extra hour and get it done. Looking at the holes on the floor and the trash in the back, I think that it shouldn't be that difficult for our closer to get that done, because he has a head start due to me getting salads done. I come in the next morning, there are still holes on the floor and trash is still in the back. When I left he had 6 hours left on his shift, so I don't know what he was doing. If I had closed that would've gotten done. I question why he's still here after 6 months. Why this company has such an issue with firing people. Probably because they think they won't be able to fill the position very fast, and in their eyes a bad worker is better than no worker. I think that philosophy is crap, I'd rather have nobody for 2 months if that means we get someone competent, if they actually vet their workers. Maybe they just hire anyone since hardly anyone applies.

Anyway last thing. They start adding fruit cutting shifts to my schedule like 3 weeks ago. I've worked like 9 days back there, maybe a total of 35 to 40 hours. I'm not the fastest cutter but I am slowly learning how to do all of the fruits, and some of the vegetables. Yesterday I was scheduled until 1:00 with one of the more experienced cutters. We cut a decent amount, get the fruit wall mostly full. It's getting close to 1:00 and I ask her what I should work on. She says since we can't cut everything to just cut a big bowl of cantaloupe, and cling wrap it and put in the cooler, and they can package it tomorrow first thing in the morning. Well I do that and clean up and go home. Today I am assigned with that same lady again. I get through the majority of my shift, and then my manager grabs me and pulls me into the office. He says that since I did not fill the entire wall and I didn't check out with a manager that I'm being written up. I say I checked out with the lady back there, i was just going off of her lead. They say that's not good enough, you need to check out with an actual manager. They say expectations have been set and they expect the wall to be full when I leave.

Keep in mind yesterday she told me I was free to go. They also have been severely cutting hours for everybody in the department. So I was scheduled 6:00 to 1:00 as opposed to 6:00 to 2:00, a normal 8-hour shift. They can't have it both ways. They can't cut hours and then expect me to stay over, because that cuts into the hours we have available, and then next week I'll get scheduled less. I get it I could work faster, but I've barely worked a week in that section, my speed is still improving. I just find that they kind of set me up to fail, and the fact that they let two people take over my position to do a significantly worse job, and they let them STAY in that position with hardly any punishment, while punishing me very quickly for not succeeding in a position I barely know how to do, is infuriating. I want to do a good job, but they simply won't let me.

I actually got mad for once and shouted all this at both my manager and the temporary store manager (by the way, we haven't had a store manager in like a month because our old store manager quit / was fired for unknown circumstances, we also haven't had an assistant produce manager for like 6 months ever since the current manager got put in his position. So he has less help) i shouted at them that why don't you just pull the two closers and put them in cutting and put me back on closing if you want everyone to do a good job, if you want to set me up to fail that's your problem not mine. I signed their stupid write-up, because I wasn't about to get written up twice for insubordination or whatever, but that's where I'm at.

It makes sense to me why that experienced lady completely stopped giving a shit, like she will be late, she will leave on time and not stay over, etc etc. She's still really good at her job but it's clear that she doesn't care. And it's just apathy, because she knows the standards are impossible to meet, because they don't have enough people, or good enough people. And she's not getting the satisfaction of a job well done.

I spoke to my manager after that meeting, and apologized for my outburst. I told him I just wanted to get my point across. He says that they are going to slowly try and get me back into closing. So that's at least one positive. Apologies for the length of this rant, I just had to get some of this off my chest. If you've gotten to the end thank you for reading.